Awards & Honors
Appointments/Elections/Promotions
Dr. Christopher A. Hunter, professor and chair of the Department of Pathobiology, was elected as Fellow to the Royal Society of Edinburgh (RSE). Dr. Hunter was also elected a member of the American Academy of Microbiology and appointed to the Editorial Board of the Journal of Experimental Medicine.
At the American Veterinary Medical Association meeting in July 2008, Ms. Eleanor M. Boyd, RHIT, senior associate for medical records, was elected to a two-year term as secretary of the American Veterinary Health Information Management Association.
Dean Joan Hendricks appointed Dr. Tracy Bale, assistant professor of neuroscience in the Department of Animal Biology, as the first director of Penn Vet’s neuroscience program. Along with infectious disease, comparative oncology and regenerative medicine, neuroscience is one of Penn Vet’s four translational research focus areas.
Dr. Margret L. Casal has been promoted to associate professor of medical genetics. The promotion is effective July 1, 2009.
In September 2008, Dr. Richard O. Davies, professor emeritus of physiology, was appointed by the university’s provost to a two-year term as chair of the Department of Clinical Studies, Philadelphia.
Dr. Kenneth Drobatz, professor and section chief of Critical Care and director of Emergency Services at the Ryan Veterinary Hospital, was named associate chair of the Department of Clinical Studies, Philadelphia. Dr. Drobatz also serves as associate chair for education of the Department of Clinical Studies, Philadelphia.
Ms. Karen Gries, CVT, director of nurse recruitment, accepted the position of wards nursing supervisor at the Ryan Veterinary Hospital.
In December 2008, Dr. Colin Harvey, professor of surgery and dentistry at Ryan Veterinary Hospital, was appointed to the new Canine Health Board, charged with making key decisions on standards for flooring, lighting and ventilation for commercial breeding kennels in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
Dr. Kathryn E. Michel, associate professor of nutrition and president of the Board of Regents of the American College of Veterinary Nutrition, will become chair of the board in June 2009.
Dr. Ariel Mosenco, staff veterinarian, was appointed medical director for the Ryan Veterinary Hospital wards. He will assist in developing new policies and procedures as well as fostering relationships between staff, clinicians and students.
In September 2008, Dr. Karen Rosenthal was appointed medical director of the Ryan Veterinary Hospital.The appointment is for a four-year period with annual reviews. Dr. Rosenthal has served as director and section chief of Special Species Medicine and Surgery.
In October 2008, Dr. Corinne Sweeney, professor of medicine and associate dean for the New Bolton Center, was named chair of the Commonwealth’s Horse Racing Commission.
In June 2008, Dr. Denys V. Volgin, research assistant professor of physiology, was awarded the Childhood Sleep Disorders and Development Section Investigator Award from the American Academy of Sleep Medicine. His submitted abstract was “Perinatal Alcohol Exposure Leads to Long-Lasting Overexpression of GABA(A) Receptors in the Rat Posterior Hypothalamus and Increases Behavioral Sensitivity to Gaboxadol.”
Awards
Dr. Michael Moyer earns prestigious Student AVMA Community Outreach Award. This annual award recognizes excellence, innovation and enthusiasm in the field of clinical veterinary science and education. Dr. Moyer is the Rosenthal Director of Shelter Animal Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine and the owner of Bridgewater Veterinary Hospital, Inc. in Bensalem, Pa. He currently represents the school in a variety of local, state and national collaborative efforts in animal welfare and sheltering. Dr. Moyer has also held various elected and appointed positions within these organizations, notably having served as the PVMA's President for the year 2004 and was awarded the PVMA Veterinarian of the Year award for 2005. He is currently the President-Elect and Board Member of the American Animal Hospital Association.
An “International Collaborations in Infectious Disease Research (ICIDR)” grant entitled “Myeloid-lineage cells and immunopathology in Leishmania braziliensis” from NIH will be awarded to Penn. This award is focused on obtaining fundamental information about the role of myeloid-lineage cells (such as monocytes and dendritic cells) in leishmaniasis, and to determine if the relative frequency of certain subsets of proinflammatory monocytes and/or their secreted products in patients with leishmaniasis can serve as predictive biomarkers of treatment success. The project involves a collaboration between the Universities of Pennsylvania (Dr. Phillip Scott) and Maryland (David Mosser), and the Federal University of Bahia in Brazil (Edgar Carvalho). This is a 5 year UO1 grant commencing in 2010 with a budget of approximately $500,000 direct costs per year. This is the first ICIDR awarded to the University of Pennsylvania since the funding mechanism was first developed, more than 20 years ago, and is one of 12 that were awarded in 2010.
Dr. Kenneth Drobatz, director of Emergency Service at Matthew J. Ryan Veterinary Hospital, has been honored by his alma mater, University of California-Davis School of Veterinary Medicine. The Alumni Achievement Award honors outstanding personal and professional contributions to veterinary science or one of its branches, contributions to veterinary practice in any of its forms, or service to mankind and the advancement of human welfare.
Angela Fusello and Alexandra O’Keefe received research awards at the 2010 Morris Animal Foundation meeting in Denver.
Last year Angela Fusello V’12 and Alexandra O’Keefe V’11 were the Penn Vet’s recipients of summer student fellowships from the Morris Animal Foundation. Angela assessed PARP1 inhibition as a chemotherapeutic strategy for canine lymphoma (Mentor Dr. Craig Bassing) and Alexandra studied immune-mediated hemolytic anemia in Cocker spaniels and other breeds by flow cytometry (Mentor Dr. Urs Giger). During the Morris Animal Foundation’s annual conference held this past June in Denver, they both received an award for their outstanding research presentations.
The Phi Zeta Student Research Day was held March 25, 2010. Three vet (VMD) students and three combined degree (VMD-PhD) students gave oral presentations. A panel of judges selected the winners:
Dual Degree
First place: Gregory Rak - Granule secretion through the actin network at the lytic NK cell synapse
Second place: M. Noelle Knight - Testing models of Sup35 prion structure (mentor: Dr. James Shorter)
Third place: Catrina King - Constitutive Lin28B expression promotes yumorigenesis in the colon
Vet
First place: Sarah Ward - 2-hydroxypropyl-b-cyclodextrin raises hearing threshold in normal cats and cats with Neimann-Pick type C disease (mentor: Dr. Charles Vite)
Second place: Kristina Simone - Characterization of acute retinal alterations in the T4R RHO dog following light exposure (mentor: Dr. Wm. Beltran)
Third place: Breanna Caltagarone - Indentifying in vivo molecular targets of the flourescent anesthetic 1-aminoanthracene via confocal microscopy and spectral deconvolution techniques (mentor: Dr. Roderic Eckenhoff)
Best poster prizes were awarded to:
First place: Abigail Shearin
Second place: LaTasha Crawford
Third place: Sarah Cannizzo
Dr. F. Claire Hankenson, Assistant Professor in Pathobiology, and Senior Associate Director in University Laboratory Animal Resources, was the recipient of the 2009 Pravin N. Bhatt Young Investigator Award presented by the American Association for Laboratory Animal Science. This award recognizes an outstanding young scientist who has made significant contributions to the fields of laboratory animal science or comparative medicine.
Dr. Gustavo D. Aguirre received a 2009 Gold Fellow Award from The Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO). The ARVO Annual Awards honor individuals for their exceptional contributions to ophthalmology and visual science.
In 2008 Dr. Michael Atchison received the university's Lindback Award for Distinguished Teaching. Dr. Atchison is professor of biochemistry and director of Penn Vet's VMD-PhD Program. The Lindback Awards were established in 1961 with the help of the Christian R. and Mary F. Lindback Foundation. Christian Lindback was president and principal of Abbotts Dairies, Inc. and a trustee of Bucknell University. The Foundation established Lindback Awards for Distinguished Teaching at colleges and universities throughout the Abbotts Dairies, Inc.’s service area in N.J., Pa., Md., De. and Va.
Dr. David Artis was selected as a 2008 Investigator in the Pathogeneisis of Infectious Disease Award by the Burroughs Wellcome Fund. He was one of only 14 awardees from a pool of 152. The selection was based on his proposal's scientific excellence and innovation, the strength of the scholarly environment at Penn Vet, and his accomplishments as an independent researcher.
Dr. Zhengxia Dou, associate professor of agricultural systems, received a Penn Hewlett Award (one of four awards university-wide), which he is using to take 12 Penn Vet students to China this summer. The students will learn about Chinese dairy industry (nutrition, management, environmental issues, and so forth). Also involved in the project are Drs. James D. Ferguson, section chief of Nutrition and Animal Health Economics and professor of clinical nutrition; David T. Galligan, professor of animal health economics and director of Center for Animal Health and Productivity; Alan M. Kelly, Gilbert S. Kahn Dean of Veterinary Medicine Emeritus; and Charles F. Ramberg.
Dr. Kurt D. Hankenson was awarded the Fuller Albright Award by the American Society of Bone and Mineral Research (ASBMR). Dr. Hankenson, assistant professor of cell biology, is the first veterinarian to receive this highly prestigious award, given in recognition of meritorious scientific accomplishment in the bone and mineral field to an ASBMR member who has not turned 41 by July of the award year. The ASBMR is an organization with more than 4,000 members and is considered one of the the world's premier organizations devoted to musculoskeletal research.
Dr. Laura Javsicas is the recipient of the 2008 American Association of Veterinary Clinicians Resident Award.
In August 2008 the Pennsylvania Veterinary Medicine Association presented the Distinguished Veterinary Service Award to Dr. James A. Orsini, associate professor of surgery and director of Penn Vet’s Laminitis Institute.The PVMA named Dr. Joan C. Hendricks recipient of the Veterinarian of the Year Award, given annually to a PVMA member for outstanding achievement in veterinary medicine. Dr. Lisa Murphy, V’97, assistant professor of toxicology, was installed as president of the PVMA.
In June 2008, Dr. Cindy Otto, associate professor of critical care, received the Distinguished Alumni Award from The Ohio State University College of Veterinary Medicine. A 1986 graduate of the college, “Dr. Otto is a distinguished scientist and researcher, an active and skilled clinician, and a giving humanitarian who has volunteered her skills and energy to many worthy causes,” the college’s Web site states.
Charles W. Raker, V'42, diplomate ACVS, was selected by the ACVS Foundation Board of Trustees to receive the esteemed ACVS Foundation Legends Award. The ACVS Foundation Legends Award recognizes ACVS diplomates who have developed a surgical or diagnostic procedure of significant value, proven by becoming the treatment or test of choice for a given condition. ACVS established the Outstanding Surgical Resident Awards competition to encourage the development of clinically important research and the dissemination of the results of these investigations, particularly those conducted by surgical residents.
Dr. Evita Busschers, third-year surgery resident at New Bolton Center, won first place for a poster presentation and received the Resident Poster Presentation Award presented by the ACVS. The title of her poster was “The Effect of Glucocorticoids and Interleukin 1-ß on the Expression and Activity of ADAMTS4 and ADAMTS5 in Equine Chondrocytes” by Drs. Busschers, Jeff Holt and Dean Richardson.
Dr. Liberty Getman, lecturer in large animal surgery at New Bolton Center, received second place in the research category of the ACVS Resident’s Forum for the presentation of a scientific abstract. The title of her abstract was “A Descriptive Comparison of the Arthroscopic Anatomy and MRI Contrast Arthrography of the Equine Palmar Lateral Out-Pouching of the Middle Carpal Joint.”
Dr. Louise Southwood Parente received the Pfizer Animal Health Award for Research Excellence at the annual faculty research retreat on June 13, 2008.
Drs. Sarah L. Teegarden and Tracy L. Bale were awarded the 2008 Ziskind-Somerfeld Research Award given for the top science paper of the year. The paper, "Decreases in Dietary Preference Produce Increased Emotionality and Risk for Dietary Relapse," demonstrated that stress contributes to increased consumption of food high in fat and carbohydrates and could possibly increase the risk of obesity.
Dr. Carrie Tupper Hume, third-year oncology resident, received the Robert S. Brodey Memorial Award for Clinical Science. At the annual conference of the Veterinary Cancer Society, Dr.Tupper Hume delivered a presentation describing results of a collaborative study between the Oncology and Radiology sections at the Ryan Veterinary Hospital.
The 2008 Penn Vet Teaching Awards recipients can be viewed on-line at the University of Pennsylvania Almanac Web site.
The recipients of the 2008 Penn Vet World Awards, a new award program to recognize innovation, creativity and leadership in the veterinary profession, can be viewed on-line here.
Penn Vet's Office of Public Relations just received two high accolades from Awards for Publication Excellence, an annual competition for writers, editors, publications staff and business and nonprofit communicators. The first is their highest award—a Grand Award, in Design & Illustration—for the school's Admission Brochure 2007–09. Of the almost 4,500 international entries in various categories, only 120 received Grand Awards. The second is an Award of Excellence for Most Improved Magazine or Journal, for Bellwether, the school's newsmagazine, which recently underwent a design and content overhaul.
Certifications
Dr. Evita Busschers, lecturer in large animal surgery, and Steven T. Zedler, V’04, were certified as veterinary surgery specialists by the American College of Veterinary Surgeons (ACVS). There are 1,403 ACVS board-certified veterinary surgeons.
Grants
Dr. Samuel K. Chacko, professor of pathology in the Department of Pathobiology and director of basic urology research in the Department of Surgery, Penn Medicine, received a George O’Brien Urology Research Center grant for $6.1 million spread over five years from The National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases.
Dr. Zhengxia Dou, associate professor of agricultural systems, was awarded a grant from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation for working with dairy farms in the Chesapeake Bay watershed to enhance productivity and reduce environmental footprint. Also involved in the project are Drs. James D. Ferguson, section chief of Nutrition and Animal Health Economics and professor of clinical nutrition; David T. Galligan, professor of animal health economics and director of Center for Animal Health and Productivity; Charles F. Ramberg, Robert J. Munson, staff veterinarian, Center of Animal Health and Productivity; L. Baker; and Zhiguo Wu.
Dr. James Serpell, director, Center for the Interaction of Animals and Society, will be conducting a new study made possible by the Morris Animal Foundation through the generosity of Maddie's Fund, the Pet Rescue Foundation. >>More
For the first time, veterinary students—two of whom are from Penn Vet—have been award grants to conduct biomedical research full time for a year as part of a $4-million initiative by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI). Traditionally, only medical and dental students were eligible for the award. Michelle Samuel, V’09, and Abigail Shearin, V’10, were among 110 students from across the country selected to participate in the HHMI-NIH Research Scholars Program, which brings top student-scientists to the National Institutes of Health campus to participate in hands-on biomedical research. Students in this program are also known as Cloister Scholars because they live in apartments and dormitory-style rooms at a refurbished cloister on the National Institutes of Health (NIH) campus in Bethesda, Md., during their training. They visit several NIH labs before choosing the research project they will pursue with an NIH mentor.
Presentations
Dr. Peter Dodson, professor of anatomy, was invited by the College of Charleston, South Carolina to be a “Darwin Week” speaker in February 2009. In February he also spoke at “Dinopaloosa” at the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia and at the “Darwin Evolution Teach-In” at the University of Pennsylvania Museum for Archaeology and Anthropology.