New deputy director at Yale Cancer Center

Pediatrician named to research society

Professor honored with prestigious award

NOTES

Notes

Edward Chu

Michael Cappello

Gerhard Giebisch

New deputy director at Yale Cancer Center

Edward Chu, M.D., was named deputy director of Yale Cancer Center (YCC), effective January 1. He succeeds José Costa, M.D., who has filled the post for the past 10 years. Costa will remain on the faculty as a professor of pathology and of medicine, vice chair of the Department of Pathology and director of anatomic pathology in the department. Costa will also remain an active member of YCC.

Chu, who is currently professor of medicine and pharmacology and chief of medical oncology, has held positions of increasing responsibility at the center since 1996. In his new role, Chu will continue to lead the Section of Medical Oncology and will also direct the clinical research initiatives for YCC.

Chu is a graduate of Brown University, where he also received his medical degree and completed his residency training. He completed a fellowship in medical oncology at the National Cancer Institute and served as a tenured senior clinical investigator. He came to Yale in 1996 as chief of medical oncology and director of the VA Connecticut Cancer Center at the VA Connecticut Healthcare System in West Haven and as co-director of the Developmental Therapeutics Research Program at YCC.

Chu is the author of Physicians’ Cancer Chemotherapy Drug Manual, a comprehensive review of all major cancer drugs and treatment regimens used in daily clinical practice. The manual, which is now in its seventh edition and is updated annually, is recognized as a leading publication in the field of cancer therapy. Chu is also editor in chief of the journal Clinical Colorectal Cancer and chair of the International Colorectal Congress, an annual meeting that brings together leaders in oncology from the United States, Europe and Asia to present and discuss the latest developments in the management and treatment of colorectal cancer.

Pediatrician named to research society

A Yale pediatrician is among 27 of the nation’s foremost experts in global health who will band together to advocate for greater U.S. investment in global health research. Michael Cappello, M.D., FW ’95, professor of pediatrics, microbial pathogenesis, and epidemiology and public health, joined the inaugural class of ambassadors in the Paul G. Rogers Society for Global Health Research in November. The Rogers Society, funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, is named for the former congressman from Florida, a champion of health research. Rogers is the current chair emeritus of Research!America, a nonprofit public education and advocacy alliance founded in 1989. Members of the Rogers Society team are leaders in medical and global public health research. The inaugural class of ambassadors will meet with opinion leaders and decision makers at the national level to convey the importance of global health research. Among the ambassadors are two former Yale faculty members, Peter J. Hotez, Ph.D., M.D., chair of microbiology and tropical medicine at The George Washington University Medical Center, and Leon E. Rosenberg, M.D., HS ’63, professor of molecular biology at Princeton University and a former dean of the School of Medicine.

Professor honored with prestigious award

Gerhard H. Giebisch, M.D., professor emeritus and senior research scientist in cellular and molecular physiology, received the John P. Peters Award from the American Society of Nephrology at its annual meeting in November. Giebisch, a pioneer in the use of cellular and molecular approaches to elucidate mechanisms of electrolyte pathophysiology, is the first Yale faculty member to receive the Peters Award.

Established in 1983, this annual award is named for one of the fathers of the discipline of nephrology. Peters spent his entire faculty career at Yale, and was chief of the metabolic division in the Department of Medicine from 1922 to 1955.

Giebisch studied kidney functions at the micro level. He considers the kidney one of the body’s most complex control organs.

Notes

Robert Udelsman

The Yale Corporation made the following appointments in the Department of Surgery at its December meeting: the chair of the department, Robert Udelsman, M.D., M.B.A., was named the William H. Carmalt Professor of Surgery; John A. Elefteriades, M.D. ’76,HS ’81, FW ’83, chief of cardiothoracic surgery, was named the William W.L. Glenn Professor of Cardiothoracic Surgery; and Ronald R. Salem, M.D., was named the Lampman Professor of Surgery.

Sidney J. Blatt, Ph.D., professor of psychiatry and psychology and chief of the psychology section in the Department of Psychiatry, has received the Mary S. Sigourney Award from the Mary S. Sigourney Award Trust, for distinguished contributions to psychoanalytic theory and research. The Sigourney Award, considered the most distinguished international award for contributions to psychoanalysis, includes a prize of $50,000. Blatt’s research has focused on disruptions of normal psychological development as the core of many psychiatric disorders.

James P. Comer, M.D., the Maurice Falk Professor of Child Psychiatry, is the winner of the 2007 Grawemeyer Award for Education, the University of Louisville announced in November. The award carries a $200,000 cash prize, the highest in the field of education. Comer established the School Development Program in 1968, a whole-child development program that encourages collaboration among teachers and between schools and their communities.

David C. Cone, M.D., associate professor of surgery (emergency medicine) and epidemiology, was installed as president of the National Association of EMS Physicians (NAEMSP) in January. The NAEMSP promotes excellence in emergency medical services in out-of-hospital settings.

Linda Degutis

Michael Green

Linda Degutis, M.S.N. ’82, Dr.Ph. ’94, associate professor of surgery (emergency medicine) and public health (environmental health sciences), has been named president-elect of the American Public Health Association (APHA). She will begin her term in the fall of 2007. The APHA represents more than 50,000 members in more than 50 occupations within the field of public health. Degutis is the director of the Yale Center for Public Health Preparedness, whose work ensures that front-line workers are prepared to respond to public health emergencies.

Michael Green, M.D., associate professor of medicine, has been selected as a Kimball Scholar by the American Board of Internal Medicine. Green will develop an Internet-based portfolio that allows the board’s diplomates to document the characteristics, pursuit and application of their clinical questions, in order to facilitate reflective evidence-based practice.

Alan Kazdin

Alan E. Kazdin, Ph.D., the John M. Musser Professor of Psychology, has been named president of the American Psychological Association, the largest association of psychologists worldwide. Kazdin, who also directs the Yale Parenting Center and Child Conduct Clinic, began his leadership of the 150,000-member organization in January 2007 as president-elect. He will take office as president in 2008.

Anthony Koleske

Anthony Koleske, Ph.D., associate professor of molecular biophysics and biochemistry and of neurobiology at the School of Medicine, received the $500,000 Established Investigator Award from the American Heart Association in January. The award will fund Koleske’s research on the mechanisms that allow cells to sense differences in their adhesive environment and respond by redirecting migration.

Richard P. Lifton, Ph.D., M.D., Sterling Professor of Genetics, chair of genetics and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator, received the 2006 Robert Tigerstedt Award at the 21st Biennial Scientific Meeting of the International Society of Hypertension in Fukuoka, Japan, in October. Lifton was cited for his “pioneering work on the identification of mutations that cause human hypertension, which has identified the key role of renal salt handling in blood pressure regulation in humans.” Lifton was also selected to deliver the first Donald Seldin Lecture at the annual meeting of the American Heart Association in Chicago in November.

Joel Rosenbaum

Joel Rosenbaum, Ph.D., professor of molecular, cellular and developmental biology, and a faculty member since 1967, received the 2006 E.B. Wilson Medal, the American Society for Cell Biology’s highest honor for scientific research in November. The honor recognizes significant advances over a lifetime in the understanding of the assembly, maintenance and function of cilia and flagella, which are fine hair-like cell organelles that extend outward from the cell surface.

Craig R. Roy, Ph.D., associate professor of microbial pathogenesis, has received the 2007 Eli Lilly and Company Research Award from the American Society for Microbiology. This award recognizes fundamental research of unusual merit in microbiology or immunology by an individual on the threshold of his or her career.

Thomas Steitz

Thomas A. Steitz, Ph.D., Sterling Professor of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry, received the 11th Keio Medical Science Prize on November 1 at Keio University in Tokyo, Japan. Steitz was honored for research that produced the first X-ray crystallographic imaging of the large 50S ribosomal subunit in 2000.

Robert I. White Jr., M.D., professor of diagnostic radiology, received the Leaders in Innovation Award from the Society of Interventional Radiology at the group’s annual meeting in Seattle in March. The award recognizes society members who have originated and implemented an idea that has had an advantageous impact on the practice of interventional radiology.