The Wayne State University School of Medicine administration and faculty celebrated the granting of tenure to three of its members and the promotion of others during the annual Promotion and Tenure Reception.

The event, produced by Associate Dean of Faculty Affairs Virginia Delaney-Black, M.D., M.P.H., and the Office of Faculty Affairs and Professional Development, took place June 8 in the Margherio Family Conference Center.

"Nothing tops this opportunity of congratulating this year's individuals who have been promoted," Dean Jack D. Sobel, M.D., told the faculty. "You are our future. You are what distinguish us from the other universities and the other medical schools. You excel and make us better known throughout the state and throughout the country by your accomplishments, by your grants and by your publications.

"Our medical students leave having the opportunity to be exposed to superb teachers," he added. "Many of these teachers are sitting in this room. We want to reward you for your teaching excellence. Our students leave with a clinical competence that is unique. That is a function of your contribution, and I would like to congratulate you for that contribution."

Faculty awarded tenure during the ceremony include Yuchuan Ding, M.D., Ph.D., professor of Neurosurgery; Samiran Ghosh, Ph.D., associate professor of Family Medicine and Public Health Sciences and of the Center for Molecular Medicine and Genetics; and Chunying Li, Ph.D., associate professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.

"Being granted tenure for me means that now I have the freedom to pursue my academic research in the way I want," Dr. Li said. "Since part of the tenuring process is due to recommendations from my peers, being tenured also means I am now an established and recognized researcher among my peers."

Faculty promoted to the rank of professor include:

Nahed Abdel-Haq, M.D., Department of Pediatrics

Ibrahim Abdulhamid, M.D., Department of Pediatrics

Marwan Abouljoud, M.D., Department of Surgery

Karthikeyan Ananthasubramaniam, M.D., Department of Internal Medicine

Awoniyi Awonuga, M.D., Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology

Jay Berman, M.D., Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology

Meera Chitlur, M.D., Department of Pediatrics

Yuchuan Ding, M.D., Ph.D., Department of Neurosurgery

Vaibhav Diwadkar, Ph.D., Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neurosciences

David Gorski, M.D., Ph.D., Department of Surgery

Jiani Hu, Ph.D., Department of Radiology

Suzanne Jacques, M.D., Department of Pathology

Sandeep Mittal, M.D., Department of Neurosurgery

Faisal Qureshi, M.D., Department of Pathology

Madhvi Rajpurkar, M.D., Department of Pediatrics

Hossein Salimnia, Ph.D., Department of Pathology

Michael Simoff, M.D., Department of Internal Medicine

James Sondheimer, M.D., Department of Internal Medicine

Beena Sood, M.D., Department of Pediatrics

L. Keoki Williams, M.D., Department of Internal Medicine

Edward Zoratti, M.D., Department of Internal Medicine

Faculty promoted to the rank of associate professor include:

Monika Bajaj, M.D., Department of Pediatrics

Maysaa Basha, M.D., Department of Neurology

Zeenat Bhat, M.D., Department of Internal Medicine

Juliann Binienda, Ph.D., Department of Family Medicine and Public Health Sciences

Julie Boerner, Ph.D., Department of Oncology

Sanjay Chawla, M.D., Department of Pediatrics

Elie Chidiac, M.D., Department of Anesthesiology

Teena Chopra, M.D., Department of Internal Medicine

Nitin Chouthai, M.D., Department of Pediatrics

Abhinav Deol, M.D., Department of Oncology

Sorabh Dhar, M.D., Department of Internal Medicine

Sascha Drewlo, Ph.D., Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology

Samiran Ghosh, Ph.D., Department of Family Medicine and Public Health Sciences and of the Center for Molecular Medicine and Genetics

Rachel Elizabeth Kast, Ph.D., Department of Surgery and of Biomedical Engineering

Chunying Li, Ph.D., Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology

Eric McGrath, M.D., Department of Pediatrics

Lalit Pukhrambam, Ph.D., Department of Anatomy and of Ophthalmology

Joseph Rakowski, Ph.D., Department of Oncology

Ghulam Saydain, M.D., Department of Internal Medicine

Mahdi Shkoukani, M.D., Department of Otolaryngology

Aamir Siddiqui, M.D., Department of Surgery

Michael Snyder, Ph.D., Department of Oncology

Faculty promoted to the rank of clinical/adjunct professor include:

Joseph Craig, M.D., Department of Radiology

Shiva Rau, M.D., Department of Internal Medicine

Craig Rogers, M.D., Department of Urology

Eric Scher, M.D., Department of Internal Medicine

Faculty promoted to the rank of clinical/adjunct associate professor include:

Anne Chen, M.D., Department of Internal Medicine

Zachary DelProsposto, M.D., Department of Radiology

Jason Dilly, M.D., Department of Ophthalmology

Delair Gardi, M.D., Department of Internal Medicine

Tamam Mohamad, M.D., Department of Internal Medicine

Hassan Nemeh, M.D., Department of Surgery

Nancie Petrucelli, M.S., Department of Oncology

Jerry Stassinopoulos, M.D., Department of Surgery

Cheryl Wesen, M.D., Department of Surgery

Celeste Williams, M.D., Department of Internal Medicine