Kudos to our award-winning graduate students!
∗ Our recent graduate, Dr. Lucy McNamara, received an honorable mention in the Rackham/Proquest 2012 Distinguished Dissertation Award competition. Of 750 doctoral dissertations campus-wide last year, 21 were recognized with Rackham/Proquest awards. We are proud of Lucy's accomplishments. Her dissertation research, "HIV-1 Infection of Hematopoietic Progenitor Cells," was conducted in the laboratory of Dr. Kathy Collins.
∗ Elizabeth Cameron was awarded a Rackham Predoctoral Fellowship for 2013-2014. These fellowships support outstanding candidates who are doing exceptional research and who are in the final year of their studies. Elizabeth is in the laboratory of Dr. Eric Martens, and she investigates the mechanisms by which commensal bacteria utilize carbohydrate-based nutrients in the mammalian gut. Congratulations, Elizabeth!
∗ William DePas is an alternate for a Rackham Predoctoral Fellowship for 2013-2014. Will is doing his doctoral research in the laboratory of Dr. Matthew Chapman, where he is investigating the role of iron and oxidative stress in curli-mediated biofilm formation in uropathogenicEscherichia coli. Congratulations on the recognition of your outstanding research, Will!
∗ Alyxandria Schubert was awarded a Susan Lipschutz, Margaret Ayers Host and Anna Olcott Smith Award from Rackham. These fellowships are awarded to doctoral candidates who have demonstrated exceptional scholarly achievement, a sense of social responsibility, and an interest in the success of women in the academic community. Alyx is in the laboratory of Dr. Patrick Schloss, and her research is aimed at understanding the mechanisms involved in colonization resistance against Clostridium difficile. Kudos, Alyx, for being our first Microbiology & Immunology student to win this award!
Congratulations. Recently the Medical School Dean's office created the "League of Educational Excellence" to acknowledge accomplishments in the school's educational missions. During an award dinner on January 23, ninety members of the school were inducted into the inaugural year. Michael J. Imperiale, Mary O'Riordan and Katherine Spindler were selected as members to represent the our department. During this first year they, with other members, will organize the Academy for Educational Excellence and Scholarship at the Medical School. The new academy is intended to recognize and augment the educational rigor and innovation of its faculty, to promote faculty development in education/mentoring, foster the visibility of UMMS educational leadership nationally and internationally, and to mobilize these talents to improve educational outcomes.
Colleagues, Congratulations to our esteemed leader Harry Mobley on his election as a Fellow of the AAAS
Congratulations to Denise Kirschner (Microbiology & Immunology), Jennifer Linderman (Engineering), and JoAnn Flynn (Pittsburgh) who have been awarded a unique grant from the NIH, combining mathematical modeling and primate immune responses to predict disease progression. Have a look at this engaging article: http://www.engin.umich.edu/newscenter/dme/TB/
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