The Wayne State University School of Medicine recognized its best and brightest with the annual Honors Recognition Progam.
The Oct. 8 event, conducted at Scott Hall, honored faculty members and students who distinguished themselves in teaching and academic achievement during 2008.
"The Honors Recognition Program recognizes the intellectual vitality and vigor our faculty and students bring to academics and medicine," said Robert M. Mentzer Jr., M.D., dean of the School of Medicine and senior advisor to the President for Medical Affairs. "The people we honor today helped build the School of Medicine's reputation as one of the finest institutions in this nation, and will continue to do so."
Executive Vice Dean Robert Frank, M.D., who served as master of ceremonies for the program, recalled that when he became dean of students in 1986, he wanted to organize an event to celebrate honors students. That first event consisted of a poster containing the names of honors students and a cake.
"We've come a long way since," Dr. Frank noted. "And next year we're going to be able to celebrate in our new building (the Richard J. Mazurek, M.D., Medical Education Commons)."
Dr. Frank also announced that Dean Mentzer has provided a $500 scholarship from the School of Medicine for each honors student.
The presentation of the prestigious Lifetime Achievement Awards to Gary Krause, M.D.; Robert Swanborg, Ph.D.; Vainutis Vaitkevicius, M.D.; Colin Orton, Ph.D.; and Kamran Moghissi, M.D., highlighted the ceremony.
Patricia Dhar, M.D., received the Lamp Award based on her selection by sophomore class students.
"It was such an honor to receive this award, especially coming from the students," said Dr. Dhar, a rheumatologist and principal investigator for the Wayne State University Lupus Database in the Departments of Internal Medicine and Obstetrics & Gynecology Division of Rheumatology. "Teaching medical students has always been so rewarding and the most wonderful part of my job here. I will always treasure it and no award will ever mean more."
Diane Levine, M.D., was selected by senior class students to receive the Staff Award.
"It's a privilege and an honor to be selected by the students," Dr. Levine said. She serves as vice chair for Education and clerkship director, as well as associate professor, in the Department of Internal Medicine. "We're here for the students, and that's what it's all about. I always try to put the students first. When I'm teaching and mentoring, I always try to do it with the perspective of the students in mind."
As a special tribute this year, Charles Whitten, M.D., Pediatrics; and Helene Lycaki, Ph.D., Psychiatry, received posthumus awards. Both Whitten and Lycaki died this year.
"We all remember them and hold them near and dear to our hearts," Dr. Frank said. "We will miss them both greatly."
The honorees include:
2008 Graduate Alumni Laureate Award
Michael R. Emmert-Buck, M.D., Ph.D., Head, Pathogenetics Unit and senior investigator Laboratory of Pathology and Urologic Oncology Branch Center for Cancer Research, National Cancer Institute.
2008 Graduate Students Academic and Research Awards
Nicholas Brown, Immunology/Microbiology; David Craig, Cancer Biology; Michael Frezza, Cancer Biology; Hsueh-Liang Fu, Biochemistry & Molecular Biology; Wei Huang, Pathology; Samar Nasser Physiology; Anna Valina-Toth, Physiology - M.D./Ph.D.; Paula Whittington, Immunology/Microbiology - M.D./Ph.D.; Danielle Worthy, Medical Physics; Jonathon Wojkowiak, Pharmacology; Yi Zhang, Anatomy & Cell Biology; and Qing Zhong, Pharmacology.
2008 Research Excellence Awards
Donal S. O'Leary, Ph.D., Physiology; Shijie Sheng, Ph.D., Pathology; Maik Huttemann, Ph.D., Center for Molecular Medicine and Genetics; Terrance Lynn Albrecht, Ph.D., Cancer Institute; Jeffrey Taub, M.D., Pediatrics; and Vaibhav Diwadkar, Ph.D., Psychiatry.
Academic Achievement Awards
Class of 2009: Angela Liang and Mary Tanski
Class of 2010: Emily McLaren
Class of 2011: Edward Shields
Honors in Year 1 Class of 2011
Bernard Acho, Rounak Bafana, Julian Barbat, Pravir Baxi, Katherine Caretti, Jordan Castle, Myungwon Chang, Erica Chimienti, Cierra Colbert, David Crawford, Patrick Dantzer, Daniel Demos, Scott Denstaedt, Ross Eppelheimer, Ciprian Gradinaru, Chad Green, Adrienne Hoban, Michael Jurewicz, Sarah Kenning, Steffany Kerkstra, Bonita Kozma, Ashlee Krisko, Nicholas Mischel, Jesse Morrison, Laura Most, Andrew Petraszko, Kyle Pfeifer, Christine Poisson, Tim Reynolds, Zain Rizvi, Jamie Segel, Scott Selle, Gurpriya Sethi, Neil Shah, Edward Shields, Wendy Simanton, Gilbert Tang, Jesse Veenstra, Benjamin Workman, Joseph Yang, Daniel Zeldes and Danielle Zwier
Honors in Year 2 Class of 2010
Sayf Al-katib, Grant Bailey, Jane Beimer, Jaida Bourke, Britton Carter, Stephanie Dean, Samantha Dewundara, Iuliana Dit, Justin Dueweki, Joy Dunn, Elizabeth Frayer, Ryan George, Pooja Gupta, Aaron Heindle, Levi Hilton, Levi Hinkelman, Joanna Hooten, Marian Ibrahim, Cerine Jeanty, Kia Jones, Aaron Kang, Christopher Lam, Thomas LaRoche, Allison Long, Emily McLaren, Kristin Moore, Dominic Pelle, Lindsay Petersen, David Prior, Deepti Reddy, Jason Rose, Johanna Scheer, Eirwen Scott, Adam Skrzynski, Matthew Stemer, Shezad Tejani, Erica VanderKooy, Timothy VanderKooy, Amber Warnat, Leah Weitz, Danielle Welch, Andrea Wudyka and Nathan Zwagerman.
Honors in Year 3 Class of 2009
Ukamaka Atueyi, Andrea Barbieri, Amanda Born, William Braaksma, Autumn Broady, Qing-Min Chen, Johanna Coughlin, Jason Domina, Jessica Dornbush, Adrian Gasperut, Nathan Gonik, Bianca Gruber, Katherine Gurchak, Anna Hehl, Zachariah Hicks, Mark Kelly, Ryan Kelly, Michael Kopec, Alla Kwitny, Rachel Laarman, Joshua Leese, Laurel Leithauser, Angela Liang, Victor Mangona, Brian Mott, Patricia Myers-Gurevitch, John Otremba, Mihailo Popovic, Meredith Price, Crystal Ritsema, Richard Schildhouse, Nicole Seleno, Saloni Shah, Kelly Smith, Sakiko Suzuki and Mary Tanski.
2008 College Teaching Awards
Harry Goshgarian, Ph.D., Anatomy & Cell Biology; Alexander Gow, Ph.D., Center for Molecular Medicine and Genetics; Angela Trepanier, M.S., Center for Molecular Medicine and Genetics; Cynthia Aaron, M.D., Emergency Medicine; Melissa Barton, M.D., Emergency Medicine; Thomas Holland, Ph.D., Immunology/Microbiology; Roy Sundick, Ph.D., Immunology/Microbiology; Syed Muneer Abidi, M.D., Internal Medicine; Elizabeth Arnold, M.D., Internal Medicine; Lois Ayash, M.D., Internal Medicine; Lavoisier Cardozo, M.D., Internal Medicine; Diane Levine, M.D., Internal Medicine; Donald Levine, M.D., Internal Medicine; Milton Mutchnick, M.D., Internal Medicine; Renato Roxas, M.D., Internal Medicine; Charles Schiffer, M.D., Internal Medicine; Suneja Anupam, M.D., Internal Medicine; Wilhelmine Wiese-Rometsch, M.D., Internal Medicine; Richard VanderHeide, M.D., Ph.D., Pathology; Eishi Asano, M.D., Ph.D., Pediatrics; Jorge Lua, M.D., Pediatrics; Kathleen Moltz, M.D., Pediatrics; Ann Mortenson, M.D., Pediatrics; Athina Pappas, M.D., Pediatrics; Debbie Toder, M.D., Pediatrics; Mark Zilberman, M.D., Pediatrics; Michael Bannon, Ph.D., Pharmacology; Stanley Terlecky, Ph.D., Pharmacology; Donald DeGracia, Ph.D., Physiology; and Eti Gursel, M.D., Surgery.
2008 Academic Teaching Awards
Patricia Dhar, M.D., the Lamp Award
Diane Levine, M.D., the Staff Award.
2008 WSU Faculty Awards
William Crossland, Ph.D., Department of Anatomy & Cell Biology, the WSU President's Award for Excellence in Teaching; Rodney D. Braun, Ph.D., Department of Anatomy & Cell Biology, the Career Development Award; Jeffrey Loeb, M.D., Ph.D., Center for Molecular Medicine and Genetics, the Outstanding Graduate Mentor Award; Jack D. Sobel, M.D., Departments of Internal Medicine, Immunology & Microbiology, and Obstetrics & Gynecology, the Charles J. Gershenson Distinguished Faculty Fellowship; and Judith Whittum Hudson, Ph.D., Departments of Immunology & Microbiology, Internal Medicine, and Ophthalmology.
2008 Lifetime Achievement Awards
Gary Krause, M.D., Emergency Medicine; Robert Swanborg, Ph.D., Immunology/Microbiology; Vainutis Vaitkevicius, M.D., Internal Medicine; Colin Orton, Ph.D., Radiation Oncology; and Kamran Moghissi, M.D., Obstetrics and Gynecology.