People & Places

As originally printed in The Physiologist, 
June 2001, Volume 44, Number 3 
Page 137

Fishman Receives American Lung Association Medal
Kudos to Vander, Sherman, and Luciano
APS Members Elected to National Academy of Sciences
FASEB Salutes John Edward Porter
Diamond Awarded Prize for Environmental Achievement
John B. West Elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
David Millhorn to Head the University of Cincinnati Genome Research Institute

Fishman Receives American Lung Association Medal

    Alfred P. Fishman, Associate Dean for Program Development at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and the 56th APS President, is the 2001 recipient-designee of the Edward Livingston Trudeau Medal of the American Lung Association. The Trudeau Medal was established in 1926 in honor of the first President of the American Lung Association and is presented annually for major scientific contributions to the prevention or treatment of lung disease. The Trudeau Medal is internationally regarded as the highest honor awarded to a pulmonary physician or scientist.
    For 20 years, Fishman served as Chief of the Cardiovascular-Pulmonary Division at the University of Pennsylvania. As the Principal Investigator of a Specialized Center for Research, a Program Project, an Institutional Training Grant, and several individual research grants, Fishman initiated the modern era of NIH-funded pulmonary and cardiovascular-pulmonary research in the Department of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. He also mentored a remarkable number of future leaders in academic medicine.
Fishman received the award at the International Meeting of the American Lung Association and the American Thoracic Society in San Francisco on May 20. 

Kudos to Vander, Sherman, and Luciano

After 30 years of enlightening undergraduate and graduate physiology students with their text, Human Physiology: The Mechanism of Body Function, Arthur Vander, James Sherman, and Dorothy Luciano are retiring. They have entrusted the book’s continuation to a trio of APS members: Eric Widmaier (Boston University), Hershel Raff (Medical College of Wisconsin), and Kevin Strange (University of Wisconsin-Madison). Best wishes to Drs. Vander, Sherman and Luciano in their future endeavors! 

APS Members Elected to National Academy of Sciences

The National Academy of Sciences announced the election of 72 new members and 15 foreign associates, in recognition of their outstanding achievements in research. Among those elected are two APS members, John H. Exton, and Lynn T. Landmesser.
    Exton is an investigator with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Professor of Molecular Physiology and of Pharmacology, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN.
    Landmesser is Professor and Chair, Department of Neurosciences, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH. 

FASEB Salutes John Edward Porter

    At the convening dinner of the FASEB Funding Consensus Conference, FASEB President Mary Hendrix presented John Edward Porter, the outgoing chairman of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services and Education, with an award of appreciation. Representative Porter was a strong advocate of biomedical research support by the National Institutes of Health. He has said often that he believes that biomedical research holds the promise of cures for deadly diseases and sustains the US biotechnology industry, contributing to a positive balance of trade and creating highly paid, high-tech jobs in the country’s economy. “America is the dominant global force in biomedical research,” he once said. “The advances that are being realized each day in this area are truly incredible.” On December 7, 2000 FASEB named a street on its campus “John Porter Way,” to honor his advocacy. 

Former FASEB President David Kauffman, former congressman John Porter, and APS Past President Gerald DiBona meet at the FASEB Funding Consensus Conference.

Diamond Awarded Prize for Environmental Achievement

    Two high-profile conservation biologists—known for work in the Amazon and New Guinea, respectively—have been awarded this year’s prestigious Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement. Tom Lovejoy of the Smithsonian Institution and the World Bank and APS Member Jared Diamond, a Professor of Physiology at the University of California, Los Angeles, were jointly given the $200,000 prize at a April 20 banquet in Beverly Hills, California.
    Diamond, 63, and Lovejoy, 59, are both scientists and authors, and between them they have largely created the field of conservation biology. Diamond, winner of the 1999 US Medal of Science, has furthered the field of community ecology with bird studies in New Guinea. Lovejoy has put tropical forests on the conservation map with work in the Amazon and inventive initiatives such as “debt-for-nature-swaps” to enable poor countries to convert foreign debt to nature reserves. 

John B. West Elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences

    APS Member John B. West, one of the foremost world authorities on respiratory physiology, has been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. 
    West was born in Adelaide, Australia in 1928. After obtaining his medical degree at Adelaide University he moved to London where he spent 15 years mainly at the Royal Postgraduate Medical School, Hammersmith Hospital. He joined the UCSD Medical School in 1969 and participated in teaching the charter class of medical students.
    West has performed extensive research, particularly on the pulmonary circulation and gas exchange. He led the team that discovered the effects of gravity on the distribution of pulmonary blood flow. A related interest has been the effects of oxygen deprivation on the body at high altitude. He was a member of Sir Edmund Hillary’s Silver Hut expedition to the Himalayas in 1960-1961 when he lived for several months at an altitude of 19,000 feet. In 1981 he led the American Medical Research Expedition to Everest during which the first physiological measurements were made on the summit at 29,028 feet. West’s work on the effects of gravity in the lung led him into a study of weightlessness as it affects astronauts in space. Several experiments have been carried out in Spacelab on the Space Shuttle, and the first measurements will be made on the International Space Station later this year.
    West has a strong commitment to teaching and his book Respiratory Physiology—The Essentials has been translated into 13 languages and is used all over the world. He also has a keen interest in the history of physiology and his book High Life: A History of High—Altitude Medicine and Physiology is a standard text. He has spearheaded the development of an archival collection in high-altitude medicine and physiology in the Mandeville Special Collections Library at UCSD. He is on the editorial boards of several scientific journals, and is the editor-in-chief of the new journal High Altitude Medicine & Biology. He has served on numerous national committees including those of the National Academy of Sciences, National Institutes of Health and NASA. He has published 20 books and almost 400 articles.
    West has received many honors including an honorary doctoral degree from the University of Barcelona, Spain, foreign membership in the Russian Academy of Sciences, a term as president of the American Physiological Society, and the Ernst Jung prize for medicine. A full CV and partial list of publications can be found at http://medicine.ucsd.edu/faculty/jwest/.
    The American Academy of Arts and Sciences is based in Cambridge, MA and has 3,700 US and 600 foreign members. This year it elected 10 new members in the section on Medical Sciences and West was the only Californian.
    West and his wife Penelope have two children. Robert is a resident in pathology at Stanford, and Joanna works with Time Warner in New York City. 

David Millhorn to Head the University of Cincinnati Genome Research Institute

   Internationally distinguished biomedical researcher and APS Member David Millhorn, has been selected to head the new University of Cincinnati (UC) Genome Research Institute at the university’s recently acquired laboratory complex in Reading, Ohio. Millhorn is chairman of the Department of Molecular and Cellular Physiology at the UC College of Medicine, a position he has held since 1994, when he was recruited from the University of North Carolina.
    “We are extremely pleased that David will be the director of the new Genome Research Institute,” said John Hutton, MD, dean of the UC College of Medicine. “David is a world renowned scientist himself, and he has built a highly successful department of basic researchers here at UC. Under his leadership, eminent scientists have been recruited, and the department’s research grant holdings have doubled in just five years. David will continue as chairman of the Department of Molecular and Cellular Physiology at UC, and his faculty will be among the first researchers to move to the new institute.”
    The new genome institute will be located in facilities donated to the university by Aventis Pharmaceuticals. The property consists of 360,000 square feet of laboratories and office space on 23 acres of land. 
“I am very excited about the possibilities surrounding the development of the Genome Research Institute as a world-class research facility,” Millhorn said. “This is an opportunity for the university to bring together groups of highly qualified investigators to research significantly important areas and develop a biomedical presence in Cincinnati and the Tristate that will be competitive nationally.”
    The research facility north of the university’s main campus will provide research space for groups of scientists from UC and Children’s Hospital Medical Center. The initial core of researchers will come from Millhorn’s Department of Molecular and Cell Physiology, which is ranked in the top 15-20 percent among academic medical centers nationwide. The department’s faculty are funded mainly by grants from the NIH, and their basic research is applicable to understanding, preventing and treating a wide range of diseases including cancer, stroke, heart disease, neurological diseases and nervous system injury, hypertension, cystic fibrosis, osteoporosis, kidney disease and diabetes.
    “A major underlying theme of the department’s research is to use genetic and molecular information to understand normal and abnormal cell and organ function,” Millhorn said. “This will be a primary theme for research at the new Genome Research Institute.”
    According to Millhorn, researchers at the genome institute will be using information from the Human Genome Project and applying technology such as genomics and proteomics to study complex physiological traits as well as disease processes. Millhorn envisions the institute having focus areas in cancer biology, neuroscience, endocrinology and development, diabetes and cardiovascular/ pulmonary as well as other areas in which new genomic approaches can be utilized to gain a better understanding of disease processes.
    “The types of research I hope to have at the institute are areas of importance for the health of our community as well as the nation,” Millhorn said.
A    s an extension of the university campus, Millhorn expects all types of biotechnology-related researchers within the university to inhabit the premises of the institute. Recruitment efforts are underway to attract leading investigators to the new institute, and Millhorn expects new researchers to be at UC by next spring.
“For the first five years, our mission is to start with a core of investigators already at UC and then add to that by recruiting world-class researchers to the UC institute,” Millhorn said. “By the end of the first five years, we hope to have a group of 40-50 principle investigators and their staffs at the institute. That translates into about 250 individuals involved in research programs.”
    Millhorn is on numerous national and international panels and advisory committees and his research has led to important discoveries concerning genomic and molecular mechanisms that regulate cell survival and function during hypoxia (reduced oxygen). Hypoxia occurs in a number of life-threatening conditions such as stroke and heart attack and it plays a major role in tumor growth. Millhorn’s research will help develop new treatment strategies to minimize cell injury and death during these conditions and help prevent tumors.
    Millhorn has published over 200 research papers and is currently the principal investigator on six federal research grants which include a MERIT award from the National Heart, Blood and Lung Institute, a Genomics Center grant and a grant from the U.S. Department of Defense.
    Millhorn plans to recruit scientists to the Genome Research Institute who develop basic science laboratories that are highly successful in competing for federal funding for research. The plans also include recruiting individuals who might also be interested in commercial outcomes of their research such as the development of new biotechnology companies. 
    The UC Medical Center is a leader in medical research, education and patient care. The UC College of Medicine, one of the oldest medical schools in the country, is ranked in the top 50 medical schools nationwide by U.S. News and World Report. The college ranks in the top 30 nationally in federal research funding.

Having affiliated with Centocor, Inc., Malvern, PA, as Associate Director of Clinical Development, Sanjay Batra has moved from Bracco Diagnostics, Inc., Department of Clinical Development, Princeton, NJ. 

Recently, Nicholas J. Bernier has affiliated with the Department of Zoology, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, Canada. Previously, Bernier was associated with the Department of Biological Science, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.

Formerly, Loren A. Bertocci was Director of Biochemistry, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX. Currently, Bertocci is Director of Biochemistry, Institute of Exercise and Environmental Medicine, Presbyterian Hospital, Dallas, TX. 

Michael William Brands has moved from the Department of Physiology & Biophysics, University of Mississippi Medical Center, Jackson, MI, to the Department of Physiology, Medical College of Georgia, Augusta, GA.

Joining the Department of Internal Medicine, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, Herbert S. Chase is currently the Deputy Dean of Education and Professor of Medicine. Prior to his new assignment, Chase was with the Department of Medicine, Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, NY.

Mohammed Jasim Uddin Chowdhury has recently joined the Department of Biology, McMaster University, Hamil-ton, Ontario, Canada. Prior to his new assignment, Chowdhury was associated with the Department of Biology, University of Antwerp, Belgium. 

Sidney Cohen has accepted a position with the Division of Gastroenterology, Jefferson Medical College, Philadel-phia, PA. Cohen had previously been with the Department of Medicine, Temple University School of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA. 

Accepting a position with the Department of Neurology, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC, Carol A. Colton has moved from the Department of Physiology and Biophysics, Georgetown University Medical School, Washington, DC.

Karrie Elizabeth Comatas has moved from the Department of Microbiology and Cell Science, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, and has joined the Department of Medicine, Duke University, Durham, NC.

Having joined the Lankenau Institute for Medical Research, Jefferson Health System, Wynnewood, PA, Robert H. Cox has moved from the Department of Physiology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA.

Moving to the Department of Pharmacology, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, Edwin E. Daniel has left the Department of Medicine, McMaster University Health Science Center, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.

Christophe Depre has accepted an assignment with the Cardiovascular Research Institute, Hackensack University Medical Center, Hackensack, NJ. Prior to his new position, Depre was affiliated with the Cardiovascular Research Institute, University of Medicine & Dentistry of New Jersey, Newark, NJ.

Having affiliated with the Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, WI, Michael Barton Dwinell has moved from the Department of Medicine, University of California at San Diego, La Jolla, CA.

Kenneth H. Ely has affiliated with the Trudeau Institute, Saranac Lake, NY. Prior to his new position, Ely was associated with the Department of Physiology, Dartmouth Medical School, Lebanon, NH. 

Jun Feng is now a member of the Daughtry Family Department of Surgery, University of Miami, Miami, FL. Previously, Feng was a member of the Department of Surgery, Children’s Hospital of Buffalo, Buffalo, NY. 

Recently, David Robert Grimm accepted a position with the Department of Medicine, Spinal Cord Research, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, VA Medical Center, Bronx, NY. Grimm was previously affiliated with the Department of Physiopatholo-gy, New York Chiropractic College, Seneca Falls, NY.

Recently, John H. Johnson has joined the Department of Licensing, Pfizer Global Research Development, Ann Arbor, MI. Prior to his new assignment, Johnson was with the Department of Cell Biology, Parke-Davis Pharmaceu-tical Research, Ann Arbor, MI.

Joining the Department of Pediatrics, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, TX, Craig L. Kien has moved from the Section of Nutrition, Children's Hospital, Columbus, OH. 

Accepting a position with the Department of Medicine and Nephrol-ogy, University of Utah Health Science Center, Salt Lake City, UT, Bellamkonda K. Kishore has moved from the Division of Nephrology & Hypertension, University of Cincinnati School of Medicine, Cincinnati, OH. 

Ramon Rogelio Latorre has joined the Department of Molecular Physiology and Biophysics, Center of Scientific Studies of Santiago, Chile. Prior to his new assignment, Latorre was with the Department of Biology, University of Chile Faculty of Science, Santiago, Chile. 

Affiliating with the Department of Pharmacology, Merck Frosst Canada and Co., Pointe-Claire Dorval, Quebec, Canada, Martin G. Latour has moved from the Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics, University of Manitoba Faculty of Medicine, Winnipeg, Canada. 

Zhicheng Li has recently joined the Department of Neurosurgery, Cleveland Clinical Foundation, Cleveland, OH. Prior to his new position, Li was associated with the Dalton Cardiovascular Center, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO.

Joining the Department of Physiology, Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine, Maywood, IL, Lars Siegfried Maier has moved from the Department of Cardiology, Georg August University, Göettingen, Germany.

Kenneth G. Mandel has recently become the President and CEO of KGM Innovation Associates, Inc., Fairfield, OH. Prior to his new appointment, Mandel was with New Products Research, Smith Kline Beecham Consumer Healthcare, Parsippany, NJ.

Joining the Division of Neonatology, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, Jane E. McGowan has recently moved from the Department of Neonatology, Medical College of Pennsylvania, Hahnemann University, Philadelphia, PA. 

Sheba M.J. Mohankumar has joined the Department of Veterinary Pathology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI. Mohankumar was previously associated with the Department of Diagnostic Medicine and Pathobiology, Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS. 

Gregory S. Nelson has joined the Faculty of Medicine, Health Science Center, University of Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Prior to his new affiliation, Nelson was with the Department of Cardiology, Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, MD. 

Joining the Department of Physiology and Cell Biology, Ohio State University College of Medicine and Public Health, Columbus, OH, Muthu Periasamy has moved from the Department of Cardiology, University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, Cincinnati, OH. 

Formerly, Jeppe Praetorius was with the Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, University of Southern Denmark, Odense, Denmark. Recently, Praetorius joined the Laboratory of Kidney & Electrolyte Metabolism, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, NIH, Bethesda, MD. 

Having accepted a position with the MultiCare Medical Group, Tacoma, WA, Harrell Lester Reed, II has moved from the Division of Biochemistry Middlemore Hospital, Auckland, New Zealand.

Recently, William Brian Reeves moved from the Division of Nephrolo-gy, University of Arkansas Medical Science, Little Rock, AR, to join the Division of Nephrology, Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine, Hershey, PA.

M. Audrey Rudd has joined The Bio Med Bio Tech Research Institute, North Carolina Central University, Durham, NC. Previously, Rudd was with the Department of Medicine, Boston Uni-versity School of Medicine, Boston, MA.

Joining the Department of Medicine, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, NY, James Scheuer has moved from the Department of Medicine, Montefiore Medical Center, Bronx, NY.

Olusoga Adekunle Sofola has moved from the Department of Cardiovascular Research, University of Leeds, Leeds, UK, to the Center for Cardiovascular Diseases, Texas Southern University College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, Houston, TX. 

Formerly with the Department of Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, John A. Sweeney has joined the Department of Psychiatry, Neurology, and Psychology, University of Illinois, Chicago, IL.

Moving to the Division of Gastroenterology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, R. Alberto Travagli has moved from Neurogastroenterology Research, Henry Ford Health Science Center, Detroit, MI. 

Gerald van de Werve has joined the Department of Nutrition, University of Montreal, Quebec, Canada. van de Werve was with the Endocrinology Division, Hospital Notre-Dame, Central Hospital University of Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

Accepting a position with the Department of Metabolic Diseases Research, Bayer Corporation, West Haven, CT, Catherine M. Venturini has moved from the Cardiovascular Department, Monsanto Co/Searle, St. Louis, MO.

Accepting a position with the Shonan Kamakura General Hospital Heart Center, Kamakura, Japan, Yoshio Watanabe has moved from the Chiba Tokushu-kai Hospital, Funabashi, Japan.

Joining the Department of Human Physiology, University of California-Davis School of Medicine, Davis, CA, Jonathan H. Widdicombe has moved from the Department of Physiology and Cardiovascular Research Institute, University of California, San Francisco. 

Robert W. Wiseman has joined the Department of Radiology and Physiology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI. Prior to his new appointment, Wiseman was with the Department of Radiology, University of Washington Medical Center, Seattle, WA. 

Accepting the position of Chief Scientific Officer with the BioTechPlex Corporaton, Elk Grove Village, IL, Lid B. Wong has moved from Lidon Technology, CTP Research Center, Chicago, IL.

Formerly with the Department of Physiology and Biophysics, University of Tennessee, Memphis, TN, Momoh Audu Yakubu is presently associated with the Center for Cardiovascular Diseases, College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, Texas Southern University, Houston, TX.

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