Dr. Val Sheffield, UI professor of pediatrics and Martin and Ruth Carver Chair in Genetics, has been renewed through August 2013 as an investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI).

Sheffield, also holds an appointment in ophthalmology and visual sciences and is a pediatrician with UI Children’s Hospital. He was first appointed as an associate HHMI investigator in 1997 and promoted to full HHMI investigator in 2003.

Sheffield’s research focuses on identifying and understanding genes that cause human diseases. In the past year alone, he has contributed to genetic findings on scoliosis, autism and glaucoma. His research also includes congenital heart defects and hereditary eye diseases, including macular dystrophies and retinitis pigmentosa. He has advanced understanding of a rare genetic disorder called Bardet-Biedl syndrome, which can cause obesity, diabetes and hypertension. The advancement in the understanding of this rare disorder has provided insight into the cause of common obesity and hypertension. He also has been involved in the Human Genome Project and the Rat Genome Project.

Full news release.

Dr. Kristi Ferguson, director of the CCOM’s Office of Consultation and Research in Medical Education, received the Association of American Medical Colleges’ Medical Education Laureate award at the annual meeting of the Central Group on Educational Affairs in April. The award recognizes an individual who has made significant contributions to medical education and been actively involved in the organization.

Ferguson has been a staff member at OCRME since 1983 and was named its director in August 1996.

Dr. Joel Gordon, UI professor of internal medicine and Sahai Professor of Medical Education, was among four UI faculty members to win the University’s 2008 President and Provost Award For Teaching Excellence in recognition of their years of outstanding teaching. The other recipients were Drs. William Buss, professor in the College of Law; Mary Lou Emery, associate professor of English in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences; and Craig Just, adjunct assistant professor and research engineer in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering in the College of Engineering.

The award, which carries a $3,000 prize, is administered by the UI Council on Teaching. It was created in 2004 as a University-wide recognition for faculty members who have demonstrated a sustained, high level of teaching excellence.

Gordon has taught at the CCOM since 1985. Medical student classes have elected him “Teacher of the Year” on multiple occasions, and he received the Collegiate Teaching Award in 1993 and again in 1996. He leads the College’s Clinical Experiences Committee, which oversees the third- and fourth-year medical student curricula, and has been instrumental in developing a new computer-based tool to assess clinical reasoning, as well as other new assessment techniques designed to measure students’ master of key concepts and skills. He has presented his work in medical education at many national and international conferences.

Gordon also serves as the College’s Learning Community Director, and in that role advances peer mentoring, leadership, and service learning activities. Students were impressed with Gordon’s use of innovative teaching tools and methods to make dry and difficult material exciting to learn. They also appreciated his example as a “lifelong learner” who constantly seeks to add to his own knowledge, and as a compassionate and caring clinician. Said one student, “Dr. Gordon epitomizes the ideal physician-professor … I learned more from him than from any other physician I’ve encountered.”

Read about the other recipients.

Dr. Robert G. Robinson, the Paul W. Penningroth professor and head of psychiatry at the CCOM, has been named the 2008 American Association of Geriatric Psychiatry Distinguished Scientist.

The award recognizes original scientific contributions in geriatric psychiatry and mentorship of junior researchers. Robinson’s research includes post-stroke depression, the mechanism of mood regulation, mood disorders following traumatic brain injury, and the use of transcranial magnetic stimulation to treat depression in the elderly. Robinson received the award during the association’s annual meeting in March, where he also presented the 2008 Distinguished Scientist Award Lecture, “30 Years of Investigating Post-Stroke Depression.”

Dr. Mark Chapleau, UI professor of cardiology, was elected to a three-year term as president of the American Autonomic Society (AAS) in October 2007. Members of the AAS share interests in the structure and function of the autonomic nervous system, and in pathology, treatment, and prevention of its disorders. While the membership includes basic scientists, the majority of members are clinicians and researchers who study humans. Chapleau is the first basic scientist to serve as president of the society since its formal establishment in 1992.

Chapleau, who came to the CCOM in 1985 as a postdoctoral research fellow, is interested in neural mechanisms of cardiovascular regulation in health and disease, including hypertension, heart failure, and aging. The work involves studies of basic mechanisms of blood pressure regulation in genetically modified mice, using both in vivo and in vitro approaches.

The UI Staff Council is now accepting nominations for staff excellence awards. Any member of the University– faculty, staff or student–may submit nominations. The Council suggests thinking about colleagues, co-workers, those you serve on a committee with, or any staff member who has made a contribution that should be recognized.

Instructions and forms are available on the Staff Council’s website. Completed nominations, which must include a nominating letter, two supporting letters, and the nominee’s resume or curriculum vitae, can be returned via campus mail to the Staff Council Office at 606 JB. For more information, contact Martha Greer, chair, Staff Council Awards Committee, at 335-1436.

Nominations for the following awards will be accepted until April 15:

•The UI Outstanding Staff Award, which recognizes staff members who have made outstanding contributions to The University of Iowa.
•The Board of Regents Staff Excellence Award, which recognizes those staff members who have made outstanding contributions to The University of Iowa and to the State of Iowa.
•The David J. Skorton Award for Staff Excellence in Service recognizes individuals who perform exceptional service to the university community.

Nominees will be recognized at a reception in July prior to the announcement of award recipients.

The Staff Council Awards Committee is also asking for self-nominations from faculty and staff who would be interested in serving on an award selection committee. There will be three selection committees, one for each award. If you are interested in serving on one of these committees, please contact Martha Greer, 335-1436, or the Staff Council office, 335-3600.

Dr. James Young, adjunct assistant professor of family medicine, was named Educator of the Year by the Iowa Academy of Family Physicians (IAFP). He was given the award at the 2007 IAFP Annual CME Forum and Installation Banquet in October.

The award recognized Young’s work with medical students as a preceptor, as an adjunct clinical assistant professor and as a volunteer locally and internationally. Young practices with Iowa Health System in Cedar Falls.

Dr. Thomas Griffith, associate professor of urology, has been appointed the Andersen-Hebbeln Associate Professor of Prostate Cancer Research. The five-year appointment was effective Jan. 1.

Griffith is the second UI faculty member to hold the endowed Andersen-Hebbeln Professorship, which was created by gifts to the UI Foundation from the late Wilbur R. Hebbeln and his wife, Elsa (Andersen) Hebbeln, of Waterloo, Iowa.

Griffith is director of research for the UI Department of Urology and a member of Holden Comprehensive Cancer Center at the UI. He developed a gene therapy approach for prostate cancer and now co-leads a Phase I gene therapy clinical trial to test the dosage at which the therapeutic agent can safely be given to patients. The method is a promising alternative to the current therapy that many prostate cancer patients receive. For more on Griffith, please click here.

Dr. Donald Heistad, professor of cardiology, was named the inaugural recipient of the Paul Vanhoutte Distinguished Lectureship Award from the American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics’ Division for Cardiovascular Pharmacology.

The award recognizes Heistad’s scientific contributions to vascular biology as well as his mentoring of the next generation of vascular biologists. He will give the lecture on April 8 as part of the Experimental Biology 2008 meeting in San Diego.

Dr. Hisakazu Hoshi, assistant professor of surgery, recently was appointed Cancer Liaison Physician by the American College of Surgeons’ Commission on Cancer (CoC). Hoshi is a surgical oncologist with the Holden Comprehensive Cancer Center at UI Hospitals and Clinics.

As Cancer Liaison, Hoshi is responsible for spearheading CoC initiatives within the Holden Comprehensive Cancer Center, collaborating with local agencies such as the American Cancer Society, and facilitating quality improvement initiatives.