Appointments to Full and Named Professorships

Below are faculty who were appointed to full and endowed professorships
in December.

Emery Brown
Massachusetts General Hospital Professor of Anesthesia
Massachusetts General Hospital
In his statistical research, Brown develops signal processing algorithms and statistical methods to study how the brain and nervous system represent and transmit information. His experimental research uses combined functional magnetic resonance imaging and electroencephalogram recordings to study how anesthetic drugs induce the state of general anesthesia in the brain.

Tal Geva
Professor of Pediatrics
Children’s Hospital Boston
Geva’s major clinical interest is diagnostic imaging of congenital heart disease, including anatomic and functional assessment of complex malformations using echocardiography and magnetic resonance imaging. He established and developed the cardiac MRI program and is currently chief of the Noninvasive Cardiac Imaging Division at Children’s. His research focuses on the use of echocardiography and cardiac MRI to define quantitative functional and morphometric predictors of course and outcome in either native or postoperative congenital cardiac lesions.

Andrew Herzog
Professor of Neurology
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
Herzog’s academic activities have focused on the clinical practice and scientific investigation of brain–hormone relationships as they interface within the specialties of neurology, psychiatry, endocrinology, and gynecology–andrology. In 1980, he formed a multidisciplinary neuroendocrine unit that provides clinical care and has NIH and pharmaceutical support to investigate the effects of epilepsy on reproductive endocrine function and the resulting consequences on seizures and emotional state, the role of hormones in the pathophysiology of epilepsy and hormonally related patterns of seizure occurrence, and the development of hormonally derived treatments for neurological and neuropsychiatric disorders. Clinical findings are complemented by the development of experimental animal models that have demonstrated lateralized asymmetries in the reproductive
neuroendocrine system.

Harald Jüppner
Professor of Pediatrics
Massachusetts General Hospital
Jüppner’s research focuses on the regulation of mineral ion homeostasis and bone metabolism. His primary interest is the PTH/PTHrP receptor and understanding its role in bone, kidney, and cartilage biology. He is also interested in parathyroid hormone (PTH) and fibroblast growth factor 23 (FGF23), particularly their role in patients with phosphate-wasting disorders and chronic kidney disease. In recent years, molecular genetic studies have been the main focus of his research. His laboratory identified the molecular defect of several inherited disorders, including pseudohypoparathyroidism type Ib, infantile cortical hyperostosis, and some hypophosphatemic disorders.

Faust Named Harvard’s Next President

Drew Gilpin Faust has been named the 28th president of Harvard University. Dean of the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study and the Lincoln professor of history at Harvard, Faust takes over the position from interim president Derek Bok on July 1. She will be Harvard’s first female president.

“I love universities, and I love this one in particular,” Faust said to the press after the announcement. “I can imagine no higher calling, no more exciting adventure than to serve as the president of Harvard.” For more information, visit www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/2007/02.15/99-president.html.

HMS Joins Effort on Addictions

HMS will be a part of one of four Centers of Excellence for Physician Information being established by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) at academic medical institutions around the country. The centers will serve as national models for the advancement of addiction awareness, treatment, and prevention and will focus on a variety of addiction specialties, including prescription drug abuse, methamphetamine abuse, and substance abuse with mental illness. HMS and Cambridge Health Alliance will join the NIDA center called the Massachusetts Consortium of Medical Schools, which will also include the University of Massachusetts, Tufts University, and Boston University. Elizabeth Gaufberg, HMS assistant professor of psychiatry at Cambridge Hospital, will lead HMS’s participation in the center.

Rosalind Franklin Society Seeks Advancement of Women Scientists

Five scientists from HMS and HSPH will be among the founding board members of the Rosalind Franklin Society, an organization that seeks to advance women in science. Rosalind Franklin, the group’s namesake, played a key role in the discovery of the structure of DNA, but has historically not been credited for her achievement. Board members from the HMS and HSPH community are Nancy Andrews, HMS dean for basic sciences and graduate studies; Joan Brugge, HMS professor of cell biology and chair of the Department of Cell Biology; Laurie Glimcher, the Irene Heinz Given professor of immunology at HSPH; Carla Shatz, the Nathan Marsh Pusey professor of neurobiology and head of the Department of Neurobiology at HMS; and Junying Yuan, HMS professor of cell biology. The board will have its first meeting in April.

Invitational Awards Announced

Each year, several foundations invite a limited number of HMS junior faculty and postdocs to apply to their fellowship programs. Potential candidates must first apply through the HMS Faculty Fellowship Program. The Fellowship Committee then chooses the HMS applicants to apply to the foundations. Updated information on the fellowships is available online at http://medapps.med.harvard.edu/fellowships. The internal application deadline is April 9 in the Office of the Dean for Academic and Clinical Programs, Gordon Hall, Rm. 101. An informational town meeting will be held on March 5, 12–1:30 p.m. in the Waterhouse Room on the first floor of Gordon Hall.

Honors and Advances

Alfred Goldberg, HMS professor of cell biology, will give the Ernst Knobil Distinguished Lecture at the University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston in October. The lecture series is the university’s premier scientific presentation and attracts an audience with diverse research interests. The honor is given each year to an internationally recognized researcher and includes a $10,000 award.

News Brief

The HMS Center for Evaluation has received a grant from the Harvard University President’s Office for a project titled “Assessing the Extent to which Medical School Adds Value to the Critical Thinking Skills of Medical Students.” Ron Arky, the Charles S. Davidson distinguished professor of medicine and master of the Peabody Society, and Ed Krupat, associate professor of psychology in the Department of Psychiatry at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and director of the center, are the lead investigators. The study is expected to clarify the manner in which the medical curriculum fosters critical thinking and to inform future innovations.