2016-17 Awards and Honors

Daniel P. Alford, MD, MPH, FACP, professor of medicine, and assistant dean of continuing medical education, received the American College of Physicians (ACP) Award for Distinguished Contributions to Behavioral Medicine.

Richard K. Babayan, MD, professor and chair of urology, served as the 2016-2017 President of the American Urological Association (AUA).

Tracy Battaglia, MD, associate professor of medicine, was appointed to a one-year term as 2017 Board Chair of the New England Division by the American Cancer Society.

Emelia Benjamin, MD, ScM, FAHA, professor of medicine and assistant provost for faculty development, received the American Heart Association Population Research Prize for 2016 She was honored “for highly relevant research findings contributing to a fuller understanding of the epidemiology, genetic basis, risk factors and prognosis of cardiovascular diseases, particularly inflammation, vascular function and atrial fibrillation.”

Michael E. Charness, MD, professor of neurology and associate dean of veteran’s affairs, was awarded the 2016 Mark Keller Honorary Award from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA).

David M. Center, MD, associate provost of translational research, professor of medicine, was awarded the 2017 Breathing for Life Award by the American Thoracic Society (ATS) Foundation.

Catherine E. Costello, PhD, William Fairfield Warren Distinguished Professor of biochemistry, was named a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). She was selected for her distinguished contributions to mass spectrometry, particularly developing and applying new technologies to advance medicine and increase understanding of biology, and for service to the global community.

Sondra Crosby, MD, associate professor of medicine, was honored by her physician peers of the Suffolk District Medical Society as the district’s 2017 Community Clinician of the Year.

Shuaiying Cui, PhD, assistant professor of medicine, received a 2017 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Junior Faculty Scholar Award in Basic/Translational Research. He studies the potential of inhibitors of negative transcriptional regulators of fetal hemoglobin expression as a novel therapeutic approach for sickle cell anemia.

David T. Felson, MD, PhD, professor of medicine, received the Carol Nachman Prize for Rheumatology, the most prestigious international award for research in that field.

Gabrielle Jacquet, MD, MPH, received the 2017 American Association of Women Emergency Physicians (AAWEP) Mentorship Award and the 2017 Society of Academic Emergency Medicine (SAEM) Global Emergency Medicine Education Award.

Terence M. Keane, PhD, professor of psychiatry and assistant dean for research, was the recipient of the Outstanding Contributions to Science of Trauma Psychology award from the American Psychological Association (APA).  He also was elected 2017 president of the American Psychological Foundation (APF).

Raphael Ortega, MD, associate dean for diversity and multicultural affairs and professor of anesthesiology, was a recipient of the 2017 INSIGHT Into Diversity Giving Back Award for administrators.

Thomas T. Perls, MD, MPH, FACP, professor of Medicine specializing in the study of centenarians, was the recipient of the 2016 of the Joseph T. Freeman Award from the Gerontological Society of America

Vasan Ramachadran, MD, professor of medicine and principal investigator of the Framingham Heart Study, is part of the research team that received the One Brave Idea Research Award from the American Heart Association, Verily Life Sciences and AstraZeneca.

Jean E. Ramsey, MD, MPH, associate professor of pediatrics and assistant dean for alumni affairs, received the 2016 EnergEYES Award from the American Academy of Ophthalmology.

Joshua D. Safer, MD, associate professor of medicine, was honored by the Massachusetts Medical Society as the 2017 recipient of the society’s Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Health Award.

Jeffrey Samet, MD, professor of medicine, and his Russian collaborators received a special distinction for their work on prevalence of HIV among vulnerable populations in Russia from the Prix Galien Russia Committee. He also received the 2017 SGIM Quality and Practice Innovation Award.

Megan Sandel, MD, associate professor of pediatrics, received the Public Health Leadership in Medicine Award from the Massachusetts Public Health.

Denise Sloan, PhD, professor of psychiatry, was named the 2017 recipient of the Toy Caldwell-Colbert Award for Distinguished Educator in Clinical Psychology from the Society of Clinical Psychology of the American Psychological Association.

Avrum Spira, MD, MSc, professor of medicine, pathology and bioinformatics, is the inaugural recipient of the Research Innovation and Translation Achievement Award from the American Thoracic Society.

Philip A. Wolf, MD, professor of neurology and research professor of medicine delivered the American Heart Association (AHA) 2016 Distinguished Scientist Lecture. He also  was honored with the AHA’s most distinguished awards, the Paul Dudley White Award. Wolf is the first neurologist to receive this honor.

Benjamin Wolozin, MD, PhD, professor of pharmacology & experimental therapeutics was named a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). He was selected for his distinguished contributions to molecular and translational neuroscience, particularly discovery of the role of cholesterol in Alzheimer’s disease.

A team of second-year medical students took second place in the NEJM SPRINT Data Analysis Challenge. The students Rahul Agarwal, Nicholas Chiu, Benjamin Petrie, Jackson Steinkamp, Jason Park, Sang Myung Han and Haares Mirzan competed against a field of 142 entries from around the world.