National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences Names New Director
Linda S. Birnbaum, PhD, DABT, ATS, has been appointed as director of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEH), part of the National Institutes of Health. Her appointment began in January of this year. Previously, she was a senior advisor at the Environmental Protection Agency, where she served as the director of the Experimental Toxicology Division. In her role at NIEH, Dr. Birnbuam oversees a budget of $730 million that funds multidisciplinary biomedical research programs, prevention, and intervention efforts encompassing training, education, technology transfer, and community outreach.
Dr. Birnbaum is an alumna of the University of Illinois, Urbana, where she earned her MS and PhD, Microbiology. She is a board-certified toxicologist and has served as a federal scientist for almost 29 years. Her research focuses on the pharmacokinetic behavior of environmental chemicals, mechanisms of actions of toxicants, including endocrine disruption; and linking of real-world exposures to effects. She spent a decade at National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, first as a senior staff fellow at the national Toxicology Program, then as a principal investigator and research microbiologist, and subsequently as a group leader for the Institute's Chemical Disposition Group. She has received numerous awards, including the Society of Toxicology Public Communications Award, Conservation Award from the National Wildlife Fund, the Ambassador Award from the Mid-Atlantic Chapter of the Society of Toxicology, Environmental Protection Agency's Health Science Achievement Award and Diversity Leadership Award, the Women in Toxicology Elsevier Mentoring Award, and a dozen Science and Technology Achievement Awards.
Dr. Birnbaum serves as an Adjunct Professor at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and at Duke University. She is the former Vice President of the American Aging Association, the former Chairperson of the Division of Toxicology of the American Society of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics, and the former President of the Society of Toxicology. She is president-elect of the International Union of Toxicology (IUTOX), the international umbrella organization for toxicology societies.
University of North Dakota Vice President for Health Affairs and Dean of The School of Medicine and Health Sciences to Step Down
H. David Wilson, MD, Vice President for Health Affairs and Dean of the University of North Dakota (UND) School of Medicine and Health Sciences (SMHS) has stepped down from his posts. He served for 13 years at UND and finished his service as a "Dean of Deans" of American medical schools, having served the fifth longest tenure as dean among the nation's medical schools. Dr. Wilson, who became UND's SMHS as dean in 1995, has served as professor of pediatrics since that time. In addition, he served as vice president for Health Affairs since late 2001. He earned his undergraduate degree from Wabash College and his MD from St. Louis University School of Medicine. He completed an internship in pediatrics at St. Louis University, residency in pediatrics at the University of Kentucky and was a Lieutenant Commander in the United States Navy. He completed a National Institutes of Health fellowship in pediatric infectious diseases at the University of Texas.
The SMHS announced that Dr. Joshua Wynne, Associate Vice President for Health Affairs and Vice Dean of the SMHS, has agreed to assume the post of interim to assist with the transition to the next dean's administration. Dr. Wynne will serve as Interim Senior Executive Vice President and Associate Provost for Health Affairs at UND, the position of Interim Executive Dean of SMHS, and will serve on the Presidents Cabinet.
University of Pittsburg Cancer Institute Names New Director
Leading breast cancer researcher, Nancy E. Davidson, MD, has been selected as the new director of the University of Pittsburg Cancer Institute (UPCI). Dr. Davidson will join UPCI from The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, where she serves as Professor of Oncology and Breast Cancer Research Chair in Oncology and heads the breast cancer research program at Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center. Her appointment at UPCI is set to begin in March. She will succeed Ronald Herberman, MD, the center's founding director, who plans to devote more time to his research efforts.
Dr. Davidson has been involved in breast cancer research for nearly 25 years and recently served as president of the American Society of Clinical Oncology. Experienced in guiding national clinical trials of breast cancer treatments, Dr. Davidson will oversee all aspects of cancer research, treatment and care at UPCI and UPMC Cancer Centers, and will provide leadership for the integration of research and therapy development. She is an alumna of Wellesley College and of Harvard Medical School, where she earned her MD in 1979. She conducted her residency in internal medicine at Johns Hopkins and was a medical staff fellow at the National Cancer Institute.
Ohio State University Cancer Program Appoints World Renowned Human Papilloma Virus Expert
Maura Gillison, MD, PhD, a leading human papilloma virus (HPV) expert, joined The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Canter (OSUCCC)-James Cancer Hospital and Solove Research Institute at the beginning of the year. She holds the Jeg Coughlin Chair in Cancer Research, and will serve as professor of medicine in the division of hematology and oncology and as a member of the OSUCCC Cancer Control and Viral Oncology Program. Dr. Gillison joins OSU from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, where she served as associate professor of oncology and member of the Sydney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center. At OSUCCC, Dr. Gillison will lead the focus on identifying associations between infections and cancers toward the goal of discovering effective methods of prevention and treatment.
Dr. Gillison's research has concentrated on characterizing the role of HPV in the pathogenesis of head and neck cancers, and she is renowned for first identifying the HPV infection as the cause of certain oral cancers. She has published and lectured widely on the link between HPV and oral cancer and has received funding from several sources, including the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research, American Cancer Society, National Cancer Institute and the Oral Cancer Foundation, to carry out her work. In 2007, The American Society of Clinical Oncology named Dr. Gillison's research on HPV-associated head and neck cancers as one of the leading major clinical cancer advances.
Dr. Gillison is a graduate of Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and of the Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health, where she earned her PhD in Clinical Investigation.
Renowned Physicist Joins Radiation Oncology Faculty at the University of Colorado Cancer Center
Moyed Miften, PhD, DABR, renowned radiation oncology physicist, has joined the University of Colorado Cancer Center's (UCCC) Radiation Oncology Department as chief physicist and professor of Radiation Oncology at the University of Denver School of Medicine. Before joining UCCC, Dr. Miften served as chief of medical physics at Allegheny General Hospital's Department of Radiation Oncology and West Penn Allegheny Health System Radiation Oncology Network and associate professor of Radiation Oncology at Drexel University College of Medicine.
In his role at UCCC, Dr. Miften leads radiation oncology physics research and development efforts and implementation of a physicist residency program and provides leadership and supervision to 10 members of the physics group. His research focuses on integration of novel imaging and biological methods toward improved targeting and treatment planning in radiation therapy. Dr. Miften is certified in Therapeutic Radiologic Physics by the American Board of Radiology.
Columbia University Medical Center Appoints New Department Head
Renowned immunologist and microbiologist, Sankar Ghosh, PhD, has been appointed as chair of the Department of Microbiology at Columbia University Medical Center. Dr. Ghosh is widely known for his work on the role of the Nuclear Factor-κ B (NF-κ B/NF-κB) transcription factor family in the mammalian immune response, and his research has implications for the treatment of arthritis, asthma, colitis, dermatitis and other inflammatory diseases as well as diseases such as muscular dystrophy and cancer.
Before his arrival at Columbia in December 2008, Dr. Ghosh served as professor in the Department of Immunobiology and the Department of Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry at Yale University School of Medicine, where he served for 17 years. Before his service at Yale, Dr. Ghosh completed postdoctoral research at the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research at MIT. He is a graduate of Calcutta University, where he earned his BS and MS degrees, and from Albert Einstein College of Medicine, where he earned his PhD. He has served as an advisor for the Board of Scientific Counselors of the National Cancer Institute an the Advisory Board of the Center on Immune Receptors at Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden, among others, and is on the editorial board of numerous journals. He is a member of the Board of Management of the National Center for Biological Sciences in Bangalore, India; the Scientific Review Council of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society; and the Scientific Review Board of the Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation. He is an elected fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.