Awards Honor Emerging Leaders
Azad Bonni and David Reich are the winners of the 2006–07 Outstanding Achievement in Biomedical Research Awards, sponsored by the Genzyme Corporation. For the past six years, the prizes have recognized two junior HMS faculty members in preclinical departments, an assistant professor and an associate professor, who are conducting innovative research and emerging as leaders in their fields.
Bonni, an HMS associate professor of pathology, studies cell-intrinsic mechanisms that govern neuronal connectivity in the brain and how abnormalities of these mechanisms contribute to neurological disease. His lab has discovered a set of novel cell-intrinsic mechanisms that orchestrate the development of axons, dendrites, and synapses. The work is at the forefront of research on the mechanisms that control nerve cell survival.
Reich, an HMS assistant professor of genetics, focuses on mapping genetic variation in minority populations, which has led to the identification of seven risk factors for prostate cancer in a small region of the genome. These factors occur more frequently in African Americans than in European Americans and are responsible for doubling the incidence of prostate cancer in this population. He also uses genomic data in the study of evolutionary biology.
The $45,000 awards were given at the HMS Board of Fellows meeting in September.
News Briefs- Two faculty members in the Department of Ambulatory Care and Prevention were honored by the editors of Pharmacoepidemiology and Drug Safety for authoring the journal’s best articles in 2006. Anita Wagner, HMS assistant professor of ambulatory care and prevention, was the lead author on a paper titled “FDA Drug Prescribing Warnings: Is the Black Box Half Empty or Half Full?” Priscilla Velentgas, HMS lecturer on ambulatory care and prevention, was first author on “Cardiovascular Risk of Selective Cyclooxgenase-2 Inhibitors and Other Non-aspirin Non-steroidal Anti-inflammatory Medications.” The awards were presented at the International Society for Pharmacoepidemiology meeting in Quebec in August.
- Two HMS faculty members have received awards from the Heinz Family Foundation. Donald Berwick, HMS clinical professor of pediatrics at Children's Hospital Boston and HMS clinical professor of health care policy, was awarded the Heinz Award for Public Policy for his campaign to reform the health care system. Berwick, cofounder and CEO of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, has been a leader in the movement to change the way hospitals and medical practices care for patients to decrease the rate of errors and preventable deaths. Hugh Herr, HMS lecturer on physical medicine and rehabilitation at Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital, received the Heinz Award for Technology, Economy, and Employment. Herr, himself a double amputee, is using the principles of muscle mechanics, neural control, and human biomechanics to design prostheses that more closely mimic biological movements and actions than conventional devices. Each Heinz Award includes a prize of $250,000, which will be presented to the winners in a ceremony in October.
The Edmond J. Safra Graduate Fellowships in Ethics program is accepting applications from Harvard graduate students who are writing dissertations or are engaged in major research on topics in practical ethics, especially ethical issues in architecture, business, education, government, law, medicine, public health, and public policy. Students in fields that do not require a doctoral dissertation, advanced students taking leaves of absence, recent graduates, and postgraduate trainees at Harvard affiliates are also eligible. The deadline is Nov. 15.
In MemoriamAnne Alonso, HMS clinical professor of psychology in the Department of Psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital, died on August 26 at the age of 73.
Alonso re-ceived her AB from Emmanuel College in 1956 and her MEd from the Harvard School of Education in 1969. After two internships in outpatient individual and group therapy at the Boston University Counseling Center and the MGH Department of Psychiatry, she became a fellow in outpatient individual and group therapy at MGH from 1969 to 1975, receiving her PhD in Clinical Psychology from Fielding Institute in 1980. She remained a member of the HMS community at MGH for the next 27 years.
Alonso served as the coordinator of group therapy training in the Department of Psychiatry at MGH from 1976 to 1985. In 1982, she was appointed instructor in psychology in the Department of Psychiatry at MGH and HMS. She was promoted to assistant clinical professor in 1983, associate clinical professor in 1989, and clinical professor of psychology in 1997. Since 1979, she had served as the director of the Postdoctoral Fellowship in Psychodynamic Psychotherapy. She founded and led the Center for Psychoanalytic Studies at MGH, where she worked until becoming ill a few months prior to her death.
She was internationally recognized as both a clinician and teacher in psychotherapy. Her major emphases were in group psychotherapy for outpatients with severe personality disorders and in the application of psychodynamic theory to the group psychotherapy context.
Alonso is survived by her husband, Roman; her two daughters, Marjie and Sarah; two grandsons; and a granddaughter.
Roger Jeanloz, HMS professor emeritus of biological chemistry, died of pneumonia on Sept. 12 while vacationing in France. He was 89 years old.
Born in Berne, Switzerland, Jeanloz received his undergraduate and doctorate degrees at the University of Geneva, remaining in the city as a biochemist and professor until 1946, when he was invited to work on a project to develop new laboratories at the University of Montreal. From there, he conducted research in Bethesda and Worcester before he was recruited to HMS in 1950. He eventually became chief of the Laboratory for Carbohydrate Research at Massachusetts General Hospital.
Jeanloz was an editor for the journal Carbohydrate Research, co-authored several books, and published more than 500 papers. He won numerous awards, including a Medal of the Société de Biochimie of France, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and the Hudson Prize of the American Chemical Society.
Jeanloz leaves his wife Dorothea; two sons, Claude of Montague, Mass., and Raymond of San Francisco; a daughter, Sylvie of Paris; four granddaughters; two grandsons; and two great-grandsons. A memorial service in his honor is planned for early November at the Harvard University Chapel. Donations in his memory may be made to Doctors Without Borders.
Donald Dressler, retired associate clinical professor of surgery and a nationally recognized expert in burn physiology and acute care medicine at Mount Auburn Hospital, died on Sept. 5. He was 77.
Dressler was a native of Cambridge. He received his BS in 1949 from Tufts University and his MD in 1953 from the Tufts School of Medicine. After serving on the faculty of Tufts, he joined the HMS community as an instructor in surgery in 1967. He served as clinical instructor in surgery in 1969 and was promoted to assistant clinical professor of surgery in 1970. He was an associate clinical professor of surgery from 1977 until he retired in 2002.
A second-generation physician, Dressler practiced in Cambridge for many years. Inspired as a youth to specialize in the treatment of burns after reading about the Cocoanut Grove fire, Dressler helped to pioneer the treatment of burns through the development of synthetic skin and the use of silver sulfadiazine and sulfamylon. Dressler was also a retired brigadier general in the U.S. Air Force Reserve.
Dressler is survived by his wife, Lucinda; his son, Frederick of Madison, Miss.; his daughters, Elizabeth Santaus of Orange, Conn., and Amy Meredith Thompson of Newmarket, N.H.; his brother, Edward of Belmont; and two grandchildren.
