Welcome to UNC Health Care's Awards and Honors page for September 2009. If you or your colleagues at UNC Health Care have won an award or received an honor, send your information to Tom Hughes at tahughes@unch.unc.edu .

September 28

Lisa Carey, M.D., associate professor of medicine and UNC Breast Center medical director, will deliver the December commencement address at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Terry R. Magnuson, Ph.D., has been named by the National Institutes of Health to a panel that will review the acceptability for federal research funds of human embryonic stem cell lines.

Three scientists from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine and the UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center have received prestigious awards from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) aimed at encouraging “high risk” and innovative research. Klaus Hahn, Ph.D., and Mark Zylka, Ph.D., have received “Transformative” RO1 awards, while Joseph DeSimone, Ph.D., who is also in the UNC College of Arts and Sciences, has been granted a Pioneer Award.

Beth Day, who works in the main OR on the second floor, passed the CNOR (Certified Nurse, Operating Room) exam in September.

Travis A. Meredith, M.D., Sterling A. Barrett Distinguished Professor and Chairman of the Department of Ophthalmology at UNC-Chapel Hill, was elected as the new president of the Association of University Professors of Ophthalmology (AUPO).  The association is composed of department chairmen, residency directors, and research directors of ophthalmology departments in the United States and Canada. 

The UNC Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery has received approval to begin a six-year, integrated cardiothoracic surgery residency program - new residents will match into this program directly from medical school, and then will go through six years of training. (Currently at UNC, residents begin three years of cardiothoracic surgery training after completing a five-year general surgery residency.) The new residency program is one of just a few such programs in the United States.

Dr. Arthur Baker was the recipient of The Lewis Sumner Thorp, MD '50 Medical Alumni Research Grant in Obstetrics and Gynecology (or the Thorp Award) by the UNC Medical Alumni for his research on "Association of paraoxanases 1 activity and preterm birth".  In May of this year Dr. Baker received the Medical Alumni Endowment Fund for this research.

Dr. Champa Chaudhury has been asked to participate in the "Stump the Professors: Residents vs Fellows" session at the 2009 District IV Annual Meeting in Asheville, N.C. on Sunday, Oct. 18, 2009.

Dr. Nicole Fanarjian received a $10,000 NC TraC$2K award for her research entitled "Effect of provision of free levonorgestrel (LNG) intrauterine devices (IUDs) on pregnancy rates among uninsured women in central and eastern North Carolina."

Two UNC faculty participated in the National Institutes of Health’s consensus conference on breast cancer. Clara Lee, M.D., assistant professor of surgery in the division of plastic and reconstructive surgery, served as one of 14 panelists, and Etta Pisano, M.D., Kenan Professor of Radiology and Biomedical Engineering and vice dean for academic affairs of the UNC School of Medicine, was one of the experts speaking to the panel. Pisano is a member of UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center. The panel concluded that further research needs to be conducted to determine which Ductal Carcinoma In Situ patients may be candidates for less-invasive therapy and urged the scientific community to identify appropriate biomarkers and other prognostic factors to better predict the risk of developing breast cancer.



September 21

Rick Hobbs, M.D., recently received the Anne E. Dyson Child Advocacy Award. The award is given based by the American Academy of Pediatrics to medical students, residents and fellowship trainees for advocacy work.  Rick received the award for his project "Healing for Homeless Children."  He will attend the AAP National Conference and Exhibition next month to be honored for this work, receive the award and present his project.

Alex Troster, Ph.D., has been named president elect for the National Academy of Neuropsychology.

A company founded by Thomas Egan, M.D., MSc, was recently granted a $30,000 loan by the North Carolina Biotechnology Center. Egan founded the company, X-in8, based on his discoveries trying to develop therapies that might thwart inflammation and related damage as blood flow is restored to tissues after an interval of restricted blood supply, technically known as ischemia. The damage is known as ischemia-reperfusion injury, or IRI.

Oscar Alzate, Ph.D., is the editor of a book due to be released on Oct. 6, 2009. The book is titled Neuroprotemoics and is a part of the Series "Frontiers of Neuroscience."

Beat D. Steiner, M.D., M.P.H., was recently honored by the Whitehead Society with the 2009 George T. Wolff Award. This award was established in 1999 to honor the dedication to quality community-based medical education demonstrated by George T. Wolff, MD, former director of the Family Practice Residency Program at Moses Cone Memorial Hospital in Greensboro, NC. Faculty are nominated by third year medical students and selected by the Whitehead Medical Society and the Department of Family Medicine.

September 14

UNC Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation recently was recognized as one of the top five clinics among all UNC Health Care's outpatient clinics for the fourth quarter of the 2009 fiscal year, based on Press Ganey patient satisfaction scores. Click here for full details.

Matthew Mauro, M.D., FSIR, FACR, FAHA, and Joseph K.T. Lee, M.D., FACR, were named among the 25 Most Influential in Radiology in the Sept. 7, 2009 issue of RT Image magazine. This article recognizes "the movers and the shakers in the radiology industry." The list includes people, procedures, organizations, trends, etc.

Richard J. Samulski, Ph.D., has been elected vice president of the American Society of Gene & Cell Therapy (ASGCT). Dr. Samulski's full term is a three year cycle - one year as vice president (2009-2010), one year as president-elect (2010-2011), and a third year as president (2011-2012). He will be president during the 15th Annual Meeting of ASGCT taking place in Philadelphia, PA on May 16 - 20, 2012.

August 2009 Honors and Awards

July 2009 Honors and Awards

June 2009 Honors and Awards

May 2009 Honors and Awards

April 2009 Honors and Awards