Panel: New Opportunities and Options for Research in
Environmental Medicine and Health
BIOGRAPHIES
Dr. Mark Polhemus is a physician-researcher who has been at Upstate Medical University for
approximately five years. He graduated from Brown University School of Medicine and completed his
residency and fellowship at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. After 23 years in the Army he retired and
joined Upstate. He is board certified in Infectious Diseases and holds appointments in Medicine and
Microbiology and Immunology. He is a Fellow in the American College of Physicians and American
Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene and continues to be clinically active in inpatient and outpatient
medicine. He is Director, Upstate Center for Global Health and Translational Science and remains a
funded clinical researcher. His research interests include development of vaccines, drugs and
diagnostics for malaria, dengue, rabies and other diseases with global impact.
Dr. David Amberg received his B.A. in Biology/Chemistry from Whitman College in 1983 graduating cum
laude and Phi Beta Kappa. After a brief stint in Biotech at Immunex Corporation in Seattle, Washington
he pursued his Ph.D. at Dartmouth Medical School in Biochemistry graduating in 1992. The title of his
Ph.D. thesis was “Isolation and characterization of essential genes of Saccharomyces cerevisiae required
for the efficient nucleocytoplasmic trafficking of mRNA.” Dr. Amberg then moved to Stanford School of
Medicine. His post-doctoral work focused on structure/function studies of novel actin binding proteins. His
work on the cytoskeleton continued in his own lab when he moved to SUNY Upstate Medical University in
1996 where he has been promoted through the ranks to professor in 2008. In 2004 he received the
President’s Award for Excellence in Teaching, in 2009 he was named Jacobsen Scholar, in 2011 he
received the President’s Award for Excellence and Leadership in Research, and, in 2012 the Chancellor’s
Award for Excellence in Scholarship and Creative Activities. His administrative service at SUNY Upstate
has included serving as the Associate Vice President of Research Integrity, the Research Integrity
Officer, Research Conflict of Interest Officer. He has served as Vice President for Research at SUNY
Upstate Medical University and as the SUNY Research Foundation Operations Manager since July of
2014.
Dr. Peter Vanable was named Interim Dean of the Graduate School on September 30, 2015 and
assumed the role of Interim Vice President of Research on January 1, 2016. Vanable is a professor of
psychology and adjunct professor of medicine at SUNY Upstate Medical University. Vanable served as
chair of psychology for six years, an appointment that began in August of 2009.
Vanable has published more than 100 peer reviewed papers and book chapters on topics related to HIV
risk reduction, coping with chronic illness, and substance abuse. He has been principal investigator or coinvestigator on more than $8 million in research grants from the NIH, including funding for Project
iMPPACS, a four city health promotion intervention for at-risk adolescents. Vanable is a regular reviewer
for the NIH and is currently an Associate Editor at the journal AIDS and Behavior.
Vanable is the past recipient of an excellence in Graduate Education Faculty Recognition Award (2013)
and was elected to Fellow status by the Society of Behavioral Medicine in 2012.
Dr. Patrick Parimi is a Director of ADWISR Center at SUNY Oswego. Prior to joining SUNY, he worked
as a Director, Lambda4D; Senior Director at Newlans; Manager Advanced Technology at SI2
Technologies; and Senior Antenna Engineer at Cobham Defense Electronic Systems. He served
Northeastern University as a Research Associate Professor and Senior Research Scientist (2000-2005).
He has developed multiple biomedical wireless sensors, next gen GPS, Satcom, EW, and ISR
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8 Annual NYS Biotechnology Symposium
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communication and radar systems. His current research interests include biomedical, healthcare delivery
and patient monitoring systems, biometric authentication, wearable wireless sensors and devices,
mHealth and medical wireless ecosystems, commercial and military wireless systems. Dr. Parimi
published more than 50 research papers in peer reviewed journals, obtained 2 patents, and has given
numerous invited talks at various industry, universities, DoD agencies, and conferences. He won as a
Principal Investigator more than 20 DARPA, NSF, SBIR, STTR and BAA R&D Awards of $11M+.
Dr. Douglas Walsh, Associate Chief of Staff for Research and Development (ACOS/R) at Syracuse VA
Medical Center, is responsible for development and oversight of the research program supporting
Veterans and their families. Walsh came to the Syracuse VAMC in 2013 as chief of dermatology. He is a
23-year veteran of the US Army, where he held the positions of director of the Army’s malaria clinical
research units in Bangkok, Thailand for 12 years, and in Kisumu, Kenya for 3 years. He brings an
abundance of bench, pre-clinical and clinical research experience to the VA. As ACOS/R, Walsh will
continue to oversee dermatology and treat dermatology patients.
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8 Annual NYS Biotechnology Symposium
- May 19 & 20, 2016 -