Health Talk

It’s been a big month in honors and awards for AHC researchers, professors, students and alumni. Read on to see the ways they are being recognized in their respective fields:

The NIH has given Susan Marino, Ph.D., assistant professor in the School of Pharmacy, a 5-year, $2.76 million grant to investigate ways to characterize and predict drug effects on cognition. Marino will serve as the PI for this project, looking at Topiramate, an antiepileptic drug.

The Minnesota Public Health Association (MPHA) Awards were given at the end of September, and we extend congratulations to the following exceptional Academic Health Center community members:

• John Finnegan, Jr., Ph.D., dean of the School of Public Health, was honored with the Albert Justus Chesley Award. This award recognizes distinguished MPHA members who have made a definite contribution to the MPHA.
• Linda Olson Keller, D.N.P, R.N., APHN-BC, FAAN, clinical professor in the School of Nursing, was given the Paul and Sheila Wellstone Public Health Achievement Award.
• Samantha Mills, graduate student in the School of Public Health, took home the MPHA Student Achievement Award.

Tina Huang, M.D., received the American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery Honors Award at this year’s annual meeting in Washington, D.C.

Masonic Cancer Center researcher Dan Harki, Ph.D., an assistant professor in the Department of Medicinal Chemistry, has been awarded two grants for his research. Hyundai Hope On Wheels awarded Harki and collaborator John Ohlfest, Ph.D., associate professor in the Department of Pediatrics, $250,000 to develop new drug therapies for pediatric brain tumors.

Harki was also named a 2012 V Foundation “V Scholar,” which comes with a $200,000 research grant to support collaborative research with David Largaespada, Ph.D., professor in the Department of Genetics, Cell Biology and Development, to develop new small molecules targeting acute myeloid leukemia.

Linda Krach, M.D., associate professor of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, is a recipient of the 2012 American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Distinguished Clinician Award.  She will receive her award on November 17^th.

The Spinal Research Foundation will recognize David Polly, M.D., U of M Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, as an outstanding clinician and researcher in the field of spine research. He will be profiled as a Spinal Hero in Fall 2012′s Journal of the Spinal Research Foundation.

Joe Westermeyer, M.D., professor in the Department of Psychiatry, was honored with the 2012 Charles Bolles’ Bolles-Rogers Award from the West Metro Medical Foundation. The award is given for professional contributions on the basis of medical research, achievement or leadership. This is the first time in the award’s 35 year history it has gone to a psychiatrist.

College of Pharmacy alumnus Ahmad Fuad Afdhal, Ph.D.  is a 2012 recipient of the University of Minnesota’s Distinguished Leadership Award for Internationals. The annual award is conferred on alumni who have distinguished themselves as leaders in their professional careers.