Medical Campus Faculty Promoted to Full Professor
Awarded to 14 recipients with different medical, research disciplines
Elizabeth Hatch’s research looks at prenatal exposures to the synthetic hormone diethylstilbestrol (DES), and its long-term health effects. Christopher Hughes studies the microbiology and microbial ecology of dental diseases, with a focus on early childhood tooth decay. And as director of the School of Medicine’s New England Centenarian Study, Thomas Perls wants to know why centenarians (people 100 years and older) and supercentenarians (people 110 years and older) live so long.
They are 3 of 14 faculty members on Boston University’s Medical Campus who have recently been promoted to full professor. Hatch is now a School of Public Health professor of epidemiology, Hughes, who is chair of pediatric dentistry at the Henry M. Goldman School of Dental Medicine, has been promoted to professor, and Perls has become a professor of geriatrics at MED. Faculty are selected for promotion based on the quality of the research and scholarship conducted in their classrooms and laboratories.
“We would like to congratulate our professors from the three Medical Campus schools who have earned this recognition,” says Karen Antman, provost of the Medical Campus and dean of MED. “Two serve at our VA Boston Healthcare System affiliate. They represent an array of disciplines from pediatric dentistry to epidemiology, clinical faculty, and basic scientists.”
Hatch says she is thrilled to be promoted to full professor. “Going up for promotion can be a rather arduous process and it’s nice to be recognized,” Hatch says. “I plan to continue my research (as funding allows), teaching and mentoring students and younger colleagues.” Hatch received a 2012 Merit Award
Hughes was also elated when he heard the news, largely because it allows him to continue to work with students. “I love working with the residents because pediatric dentistry attracts bright, diligent, dedicated, and conscientious young people,” says Hughes, who has been at BU since 1993. “They are my favorite thing about my job at BU.”
In addition to Hatch, Hughes, and Perls, the following are becoming full professors:
Linda Barnes, MED professor of family medicine
Barnes is a medical anthropologist, a religion scholar, and a historian who directs the master’s program in medical anthropology and cross-cultural practice through MED’s Division of Graduate Medical Sciences. She also directs the Boston Healing Landscape Project, which integrates the study of cultural, therapeutic, and religious pluralism in the United States, with a focus on culturally and religiously grounded practices among minority and immigrant patient communities in Boston. She is writing a cultural history of Chinese medicine and healing traditions in the United States from 1849 to the present.
Gerard Doherty, MED professor of surgery
Doherty is the James Utley Professor of Surgery, chair of MED’s department of surgery, and surgeon-in-chief at Boston Medical Center. He researches endocrine oncology and diseases of the thyroid, parathyroid, endocrine, pancreas, and adrenal glands.
Louis Fiore, MED professor of general internal medicine
A leader in clinical epidemiology research at the VA, Fiore is the author of 45 peer-reviewed publications and 10 book chapters and reviews. In 2011, he was named executive director of the Massachusetts Veterans Epidemiology Research and Information Center (MAVERIC), where he oversees all four MAVERIC components.
Elaine Hylek, MED professor of medicine
Hylek is an internationally regarded expert in the treatment and prevention of thromboembolic disease. She has authored numerous editorials, participated in several internationally convened guideline-writing groups, including the American College of Chest Physicians and the European Heart Rhythm Association, and lectured at numerous international scientific meetings.
Douglas Katz, MED professor of neurology
Katz has been the medical director of the Brain Injury Program at the Braintree Rehabilitation Hospital for more than 25 years. His research includes predictors of recovery after traumatic brain injury. He is involved in neurorehabilitation education and training and is chair of the Braintree Rehabilitation Hospital Annual Neurorehabilitation Conference and director of BU’s neurorehabilitation fellowship.
Darrell Kotton, MED professor of medicine
Specializing in stem cell biology and gene therapy related to lung injury and repair, Kotton is a founding member and senior director of the BU Center for Regenerative Medicine (CReM). The Kotton Lab uses several stem cell populations, including embryonic stem cells and induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells, to develop novel stem cell-based therapies for lung disease.
Amy Rosen, MED professor of surgery
As a national expert in risk adjustment and quality-of-care measures, Rosen (CAS’70, SSW’73) developed a psychiatric risk-adjustment measure specifically for veterans with mental health and substance abuse disorders that is used to evaluate resources and veterans with these problems. She is a senior research scientist at the Center for Organization, Leadership, and Management Research (COLMR), a Center of Excellence of the VA Health Services Research and Development Service.
Andrew Taylor, MED professor of ophthalmology
Taylor discovered the neuropeptide regulation of ocular immunobiology, which has implications for the suppression of inflammation in the eye and other tissues and may help eliminate pathologic immune responses. He has collaborated with vision researchers in the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and Japan.
Irina Zhdanova, MED professor of anatomy and neurobiology
Zhdanova studies the role of the circadian system in development and aging and the impact of circadian factors on the effects of abused drugs. As well as having a heavy research commitment, she has directed one of the semester-long medical neuroscience laboratories as well taught other classes.
Howard Cabral, SPH professor of biostatistics
Cabral (SPH’86, GRS’98) is an expert on longitudinal data analysis. He is codirector of the school’s biostatistics graduate program and has won the SPH Excellence in Teaching Award four times. He has more than 130 published articles and book chapters, the majority on health research in economically disadvantaged families.
Joseph Massaro, SPH professor of biostatistics
Massaro (GRS’89,’94) has won seven SPH teaching awards. He has over 15 years of experience in the design and statistical analysis of clinical trials and has coauthored several articles. He performs longitudinal statistical analysis for the Framingham Heart Study, assessing risk factors for cardiovascular disease and dementia. He also is a member of the biostatistics curriculum committee.
This BU Today story was written by Amy Laskowski