Robert Farese Jr., professor of cell biology at Harvard Medical School and professor of genetics and complex diseases at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, is this year’s recipient of the Avanti Award in Lipids from the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (ASBMB).
The award recognizes outstanding research contributions in the area of lipids and includes a $3,000 cash prize. Farese will give a lecture about his award-winning research, “Cellular energy metabolism: mechanisms of fat synthesis and storage,” at the ASBMB annual meeting, April 2-6, 2016, in San Diego.
Gilad Evrony, a recent graduate of the Harvard/MIT MD-PhD Program, has been named one of the MIT Technology Review Innovators Under 35. Evrony is being recognized as a pioneer in the field of biotechnology and medicine for his work done while at HMS. Evrony is currently at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City for a pediatrics internship and will be returning to HMS and Massachusetts General Hospital for a research and neurology residency after his internship.
“I looked up to the awardees of the TR35 as role models because I’ve always believed in the power of new technologies to drive innovation in science,” Evrony said. “So it’s wonderful to be recognized by an award dedicated to technology innovation.”
Bullard Professor of Pediatrics and Neurology Christopher A. Walsh, described Evrony as “indefatigable, artistic and multi-talented.”
Winners of the Innovators Under 35 will give a brief stage presentation of their work and will be honored at the annual EmTech MIT conference November 2-4 at the MIT Media Lab in Cambridge, Mass. Winners will be profiled in the September/October issue of MIT Technology Review.
Since 1999, MIT has selected young innovators whose work they believe has the greatest potential to transform the world. Each year, award winners are nominated either by the public or by MIT Technology Review’s editors. The awards cover fields such as biotechnology, materials, computer hardware, energy, transportation, communications and the web.
The following HMS faculty members have been named Boston Business Journal 2015 Healthcare Heroes and are being honored for working to improve the health and wellness of people living in Massachusetts and beyond:
Educator: Joel Katz, HMS associate professor of medicine and director of the internal medicine residency program at Brigham and Women’s Hospital
Innovators: Lloyd Paul Aiello, professor of ophthalmology and vice chair for Centers of Excellence in the HMS Department of Ophthalmology, associate chief of Mass Eye and Ear Longwood, and Director of the Beetham Eye Institute at Joslin Diabetes Center; and Adam Landman, HMS assistant professor of emergency medicine and chief medical information officer for health information innovation and integration at Brigham and Women’s Hospital
Lifetime achievement: Edward Benz, the HMS Richard and Susan Smith Professor of Medicine and president and chief executive officer of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
Steven Grinspoon, HMS professor of medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital, has been awarded the Gerald D. Aurbach Award for Outstanding Translational Research from the Endocrine Society. The annual award recognizes research contributions that accelerate the transition of scientific discoveries into clinical applications.
Grinspoon, also director of the Mass General Program in Nutritional Metabolism and co-director of the Nutrition Obesity Research Center at HMS, studies the neuroendocrine regulation of body composition in obesity. He is known for his contributions to understanding abnormal fat distribution, and the associated metabolic and inflammatory changes.
Grinspoon has served as chair to the Department of Health and Human Services Working Group on HIV and Wasting as well as on the World Health Organization’s Technical Advisory Group on Nutrition and HIV/AIDS. His efforts led to the FDA approval of growth-hormone-releasing hormone (GHRH) as the first therapy to reduce visceral fat in HIV lipodystrophy in November 2010.
Grinspoon will receive the award at the Endocrine Society’s annual meeting, to be held in Boston, Mass., April 1-4, 2016.
Ronald Arky, the Daniel D. Federman, M.D. Distinguish Professor of Medicine and Medical Education, and Anne Becker, the Maude and Lillian Presley Professor of Global Health and Social Medicine, have been awarded the 2014-2015 Barbara J. McNeil Faculty Award for Exceptional Service to HMS/HSDM.
Arky, who is also master of the Francis Weld Peabody society, has been a significant advocate of women and minorities in medicine. In 2013, the Massachusetts Medical Society honored him with its Lifetime Achievement Award.
Becker, who is also vice chair of the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine, has served on numerous committees as a means of consolidating and enriching the HMS environment. Some of these activities include the HMS Faculty Council, Task Force on Faculty Recruitment, and Quad Faculty Policy Advisory Group Committee, as well as the Harvard Global Health Institute Faculty Steering Committee.
The Barbara J. McNeil Faculty Award for Exceptional Service to HMS/HSDM was established in 2014 to recognize and celebrate faculty who have set the standard for service at HMS/HSDM through their personal initiative in providing service and engaging others to do the same.
