Awards & Recognition: October 2015

David Crandell (left) with Steve R. Geiringer, American Association of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation AcademyDavid Crandell, HMS instructor in physical medicine and rehabilitation at Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital, has been honored with the 2015 Distinguished Public Service Award from the American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation in recognition of his work with survivors of the 2013 Boston Marathon bombings.

Crandell, who is also medical director of the Amputee Rehabilitation Program at Spaulding, has provided ongoing care for those who suffered limb loss from their initial inpatient care after the bombing. Many of these patients have continued on an outpatient basis in his prosthetic clinic. Crandell helped ensure that his patients had opportunities to connect with peers and organizations that could support them and help them thrive long-term.

The American Association of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Academy established the Distinguished Public Service Award to honor individuals who, in the course of public service activities, have significantly contributed to the growth and development of services that directly impact the specialty of physical medicine and rehabilitation.


Four HMS faculty members were among 80 individuals elected to the National Academy of Medicine, formerly the Institute of Medicine. The election was announced at the organization’s inaugural annual meeting as the National Academy of Medicine.

Election to the Academy is a recognition of individuals who have made major contributions to the advancement of the medical sciences, health care and public health and who have demonstrated a commitment to service.

The new members from HMS are listed below.

​Friedhelm Hildebrandt, the HMS Warren E. Grupe Professor of Pediatrics in the Field of Nephrology at Boston Children’s Hospital, and chief of the division of nephrology at Boston Children’s

Frank Hu, HMS professor of medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and professor of nutrition and epidemiology at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health

Joan Miller, the HMS Henry Willard Williams Professor of Ophthalmology and chair of the HMS Department of Ophthalmology at Mass. Eye and Ear; chief of ophthalmology at Mass. Eye and Ear and chief of ophthalmology at Massachusetts General Hospital

Kevin Struhl, the HMS David Wesley Gaiser Professor of Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology


Hanni StoklosaHanni Stoklosa, HMS instructor in emergency medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital, has been selected as one of five health professionals for the 2015 class of the National Academy of Medicine Anniversary Fellows. Stoklosa was named as an American Board of Emergency Medicine Fellow.

The fellows were chosen based on their professional accomplishments and relevance of current field expertise to the work of the National Academy of Medicine, the health and medicine division of the National Academies.

Each fellow will continue in his or her primary academic post while engaging part-time over a two-year period in the Academies' health and science policy work. Each will work with an expert study committee or roundtable related to his or her professional interests. A flexible research stipend of $25,000 will be awarded to each fellow.

The overall purpose of the National Academy of Medicine Anniversary Fellows program is to enable talented, early career health and science scholars to participate actively in the work of the Academies and to further their career as future leaders in their field.


Keren Haroush, HMS instructor in neurosurgery at Massachusetts General Hospital, has been named a co-recipient of the 2015 Peter and Patricia Gruber International Research Award in Neuroscience by the Society for Neuroscience. The annual award recognizes two promising young neuroscientists for outstanding research and educational pursuit in an international setting.

The award, supported by the Gruber Foundation, includes $25,000 for each recipient and will be presented during the 2015 annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience in Chicago.

Haroush, a native of Israel, is making great strides in advancing understanding of the neural mechanisms behind cooperative social interaction. Using single-neuron recordings in non-human primates, Haroush discovered a new class of cells in the cingulate cortex that are predictive of another animal’s intended actions. These findings are the first to dissect the representation of one’s own decisions from the predicted action of an opponent. As a PhD student at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Haroush studied the neural correlates of attention in humans.


Evan MacoskoEvan Macosko, an HMS instructor in psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital, has been selected as one of the six 2015 Next Generation Leaders at the Allen Institute for Brain Science.

In 2014, Macosko became the first recipient of the Stanley Center Psychiatric Genetics and Neuroscience Fellowship, a new fellowship conceived by the Broad Institute’s Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research.

Next Generation Leaders are distinguished early-career scientists and researchers who are selected each year from a competitive pool of international applicants.

This year’s six leaders will provide feedback to young scientists at the Allen Institute while also serving on the Institute’s advisory council. During their three-year term, Next Generation Leaders will also have opportunities to learn more about becoming scientific advisors in their respective fields.


Wilfred Ngwa, HMS assistant professor of radiation oncology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, has been awarded the 2015 BRIght Futures Prize for his project “Tiny Drones to Target Cancer.”

Ngwa and his team have developed a new technology that combines microscopic nanoparticles and medicine into a drone device the size of a grain of rice. Once implanted in the patient, the drone will release the particles containing medication to expedite local tumor cell death during radiotherapy. The release will also attract white blood cells to patrol the body and kill any spreading cancerous cells.

The BRIght Futures Prize, a $100,000 grant, supports researchers across the Brigham Research Institute (BRI) as they seek to solve pressing issues in medicine. Over 14,500 medical professionals from all 50 states and 96 countries voted Ngwa’s project the most innovative out of the field of entries.


Bohdan Pomahac, HMS associate professor of surgery and director of plastic surgery transplantation at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, has been recognized with the Stepping Strong Innovator Award for his research project “From Battlefield to Bedside: A portable device for rescuing limbs.”

Pomahac and his research team have developed a portable machine that may keep severed limbs alive for up to 12 hours, which will increase the quantity of transplant limbs for qualified recipients.

The Stepping Strong Innovator Award is supported by the Gillian Reny Stepping Strong Fund, founded in February 2014 by Gillian Reny, a survivor of the bombings at the 2013 Boston Marathon. The fund was established to inspire innovative research regarding limb regeneration and transplant.


Hao Wu, the Asa and Patricia Springer Professor of Structural Biology and Professor of Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology at HMS,

Hao Wu. Image: Purdue Sciencehas been given a Pioneer Award from the National Institutes of Health for her work “SMOCS: Novel Signal Transduction Complexes as New Targets for Drug Discovery.”

Wu’s Pioneer application focused on investigating the subsets of supramolecular organizing centers (SMOCs), or key players in generating innate immunity, which offers the first line of defense against infections. The project uses new methodologies and fresh ideas to develop attractive new models for targeted drug discovery. Wu is also senior investigator in the Program in Cellular and Molecular Medicine at Boston Children’s Hospital.

The NIH Pioneer Award was given to 13 exceptionally creative scientists in 2015 who have conducted innovative medical research that has the potential to significantly impact the future of biomedical and behavioral research. Recipients of the Pioneer Award are considered to be promising and highly inventive researchers in their field.


Tenley AlbrightTenley Albright, HMS Class of 1961, and a lecturer on surgery at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, was elected to the National Women’s Hall of Fame. She will be inducted on Oct. 3 in Seneca Falls, N.Y.

Albright was the first female American figure skater to win a world championship and the first to win an Olympic gold medal when she competed at the 1956 Olympic Winter Games in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy. Her victory was stunning, as she had contracted polio when she was 11 years old; Albright used skating to regain her strength after the illness.

After the Olympics, Albright retired from skating to pursue her childhood ambition to practice medicine. She became a successful surgeon and a leader in blood plasma research.

Founded in Seneca Falls, the birthplace of the American Women’s Rights Movement, the National Women’s Hall of Fame celebrates the achievements of distinguished American women and provides educational programs, exhibits and events.


Justin Sparks, a research fellow in the Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology department at HMS, has been named one of 16 new Damon Runyon Fellows by the Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation.

Justin Sparks. Image: The Damon Runyon Cancer Research FoundationSparks studies genome instability, and what prevents and enhances it, which has many implications for cancer biology and research. His research focuses on how the protein complex eukaryotic replisome, which replicates cellular DNA when the cell divides, interacts with persistent bulky DNA lesions that block the progression of the replicative helicase enzyme. His research also seeks to explain how cells repair covalent DNA proteincross-links (DCPS), which are important in cancer etiology research.

Sparks’ project, “Replicative helicase bypass of bulky DNA adducts?” caught the attention of the Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation. He was named a Damon Runyon Fellow at the foundation’s spring Fellowship Award Committee review.

Postdoctoral recipients of this competitive, four-year award are given independent funding of up to $248,000 to continue their work in leading cancer research laboratories across the country.