May-June 2009
Faculty accomplishments
This April, Berislav Zlokovic, M.D., Ph.D., director of the Center for Neurodegenerative and Vascular Brain Disorder, received the 2009 Potamkin Prize for Research in Pick’s, Alzheimer's, and Related Diseases during the American Academy of Neurology’s annual meeting. Zlokovic will split the monetary prize – which will fund the investigators’ Alzheimer’s research – with two other researchers (one at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, and another from the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University). A professor in both the Departments of Neurosurgery and Neurology, Zlokovic is recognized worldwide for his pioneering research on the blood vessels in the brain and the crucial role they play in our health. He is also internationally renowned for his work on stroke.
Glenn Currier, M.D., M.P.H., associate professor of both Psychiatry and Emergency Medicine, received the 2009 American Foundation for Suicide Prevention Research Award Foundation’s 21st annual Lifesavers Dinner at the Museum of Natural History in New York City. Currier shared the award with Barbara Stanley, professor of clinical Psychology at Columbia University, College of Physicians and Surgeons, and Gregory Brown, research associate professor of Clinical Psychology in Psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania. The award recognizes their collaborative work on the Foundation’s suicide attempt registry, part of the National Institutes of Health Developing Centers on Interventions for the Prevention of Suicide. Currier is also associate chief for clinical research at the U.S. Veterans Administration Center of Excellence for Suicide Research in Canandaigua.
Neurologist Robert C. Griggs, M.D., has been elected president of the American Academy of Neurology (AAN), the world’s largest professional organization of neurologists, consisting of more than 21,000 neurologists and neuroscience professionals. Griggs has served as chair of the AAN Education Committee and editor-in-chief of the Academy’s prestigious scientific journal Neurology for 10 years. He is a professor of Neurology, Medicine, Pathology, Laboratory Medicine and Pediatrics, and is recognized as a leading authority on a variety of neuromuscular disorders, including muscular dystrophy and periodic paralysis.
Emergency Department pharmacist Nicole M. Acquisto, Pharm.D., led an innovative project that earned her study team and Strong Memorial Hospital a Best Practices Award from the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists. After reviewing patient charts, the team discovered that when a pharmacist was part of the initial team caring for heart attack patients, both time to get them to treatment and problems with medications (such as errors or delays) were significantly reduced. Acquisto’s study team included pharmacists Curtis E. Haas, Pharm.D. and Daniel P. Hays, Pharm.D., Emergency Department physicians Terry Fairbanks, M.D., Manish N. Shah, M.D., and Flavia Nobay, M.D., and cardiologist Joseph Delehanty, M.D.
Susan H. McDaniel, Ph.D., an internationally known expert on the integration of mental health care and clinical medicine, was formally installed as the first Dr. Laurie Sands Distinguished Professor of Families and Health at the URMC. McDaniel, who joined the faculty in 1980, is director of the Institute for the Family in the Department of Psychiatry at the Medical Center and associate chair of the Department of Family Medicine. Laurie Anne Sands, M.D., an alumna of the School of Medicine and Dentistry and a native of Canandaigua, practiced Internal Medicine in Rochester from 1979 until her death in 1995. The professorship was endowed by a gift of $2 million from the Sands Family Foundation.
The American Academy of Neurology will present Ralph F. Jozefowicz, M.D., professor of Neurology, with the A.B. Baker Award, which recognizes a lifetime of career achievements in the field of neurologic education. With a keen emphasis on national accomplishments, the award is the highest education award that the Academy bestows. Jozefowicz will receive the award at the Academy's annual meeting in Toronto in April 2010.
William Ricke, Ph.D., assistant professor in both the Departments of Urology and Pathology & Laboratory Medicine, recently received the 2009 Young Investigator Award from the Society for Basic Urologic Research. Ricke was one of three researchers to receive the honor, which recognizes significant contributions to urologic research.
