The Office of the Provost and the
University Research Committee
welcome you to the 2007 Levy Awards
and the inaugural Emory University
Faculty Awards Recognition Ceremony
The Program
Briefly outline the role of the University Research
Committee in promoting faculty development and
scholarship
Acknowledge the faculty who received URC
awards in the past year
Present the 2007 Levy Awards
Recognize Emory faculty who received prestigious
academic awards within the past year
A little bit of URC history
(courtesy of David Pacini)
At its meeting in January, 1939, The Emory Chapter of the American
Association of University Professors agreed unanimously to adopt a report of
the Committee on Faculty Research, and voted to submit it to (then) Dean
Goodrich C. White, vice president of the University. The Committee
“concluded emphatically” that “research is not incompatible with good
teaching” and does not compromise the ideal of the University “to facilitate
mental and spiritual growth of its students…in service to God and man.”
Yet the Committee also concluded that there was “shocking little productive
research among members of the faculty…”
To address this insufficiency, the Committee recommended the creation of a
“University Research Council…that would administer a fund, as large as
possible, annually appropriated by the University for the promotion of faculty
research.”
Apart from archival evidence of some preliminary cooperative efforts with
Agnes Scott College in 1941 (under the name of the “University Center
Research Committee”), the work of the University Research Committee
appears to have begun in its own right in 1943. It approved grants totaling
$1019. In May of 1944, the University Research Committee issued its
invitation to faculty to apply for “grants in aid” for the second year, with a
reported budget of $1500.
By 1947, the Committee expressed concern over the technical level of
applicant submissions, and agreed to “encourage better form in written
applications.”
Fast forward sixty years
The Emory University Research Committee is composed of sub-committees
that review applications in five general academic areas:
• Biological and Health Sciences (Machelle Pardue, Chair)
• Humanities (Walter Reed, Chair)
• Social Sciences (Doug Bowman, Chair)
• Math and Natural Sciences (Laura Finzi, Chair)
• Visual and Performing Arts (Lori Teague, Chair)
Just in the past year (fall of 2006 and spring of 2007) the Emory University
Research Committee awarded sixty academic enrichment and career
development grants to faculty members following a competitive two-tier review
process.
By 1947, the Committee expressed concern over the technical level of applicant
submissions, and agreed to “encourage better form in written applications.”
10/15/07
The Office of the Provost and
the University Research
Committee are proud to honor
those faculty who have received
URC awards within the past year
URC Grant Recipients Fall 2006
Eugene Agichtein
Assistant Professor, Mathematics and Computer Science
Emory College
Adaptive Extraction of Medical Information from Text Data
Deepika Bahri
Associate Professor, English; Director of Asian Studies
Emory College
Race and Hybridity in Postcolonial Literature & Film
Keith Berland
Associate Professor, Physics
Emory College
Investigating Amyloid Fiber Nucleation Using Fluorescence Lifetime
Microscopy
URC Grant Recipients Fall 2006
Simon Blakey
Assistant Professor, Organic Chemistry
Emory College
New Catalysts for Asymmetric C-H Bond Animation
Julia C. Bullock
Assistant Professor of Japanese Language and Literature
Russian and East Asian Languages and Cultures (REALC), Emory College
Women on Women: Negotiating Femininity in Postwar Japan, 1960-1980
Guangping Chen
Assistant Professor, Medicine
School of Medicine
MDM2 mediated degradation of the UT-A1 urea transporter
URC Grant Recipients Fall 2006
Inyeong Choi
Assistant Professor, Physiology
School of Medicine
Study of the interaction between pH-regulating NBCn1 and pH-sensitive NMDA
receptors
Timothy Q. Duong
Associate Professor, Neurology / Biomedical Engineering; Director,
Magnetic Resonance Research, School of Medicine
Imaging Technologies to Characterize Salvageable Tissues in a Monkey
Stroke Model
Michael Alfred Ensslin
Assistant Professor, Cell Biology
School of Medicine
Functional Studies of SED1 in Immortalized and Primary Mammary
Epithelial Cells
URC Grant Recipients Fall 2006
Hernan Feldman
Assistant Professor, Spanish
Emory College
Sketching the Nation: Comics and the Infamous Decade in Argentina (1930-1943)
Thomas E. Frank
Professor, Religious Leadership and Administration; Director, Methodist
Studies
Candler School of Theology
America’s Historic Religious Buildings: A Cultural Heritage in Peril
Andrew Francis
Assistant Professor, Economics
Emory College
Evaluating Affirmative Action in Brazil
URC Grant Recipients Fall 2006
Monique M. Hennink and Deborah A. McFarland
Associate Professors, Hubert Department of Global Health
Rollins School of Public Health
Pathways to Improve Health Conditions through Microfinance Schemes
Lennart Logberg
Associate Professor, Pathology and Laboratory Medicine
School of Medicine
Lipocalins: Tools for Probing Mechanisms of Allergy
Edward Lin
Assistant Professor, Surgery; Director, Emory Endosurgery Unit
School of Medicine
Visceral Adiposity and Lipoprotein Oxidative Stress
URC Grant Recipients Fall 2006
Amy Lee
Assistant Professor, Pharmacology
School of Medicine
Regulation of Calcium Channels in the Heart
Adam I. Marcus
Assistant Professor, Hematology and Oncology; Director, Cell Imaging and
Microscopy Core, Winship Cancer Institute, School of Medicine
Investigating the tumor suppressor LKB1 in lung cancer invasion
David C. Neujahr
Assistant Professor, Surgery / Division of Transplantation; Scientific
Director, Cell and Tissue Processing Laboratory
School of Medicine
A Pilot Study of Bronchoalveolar Lavage Regulatory T-Cells in Lung
Transplant Recipients
URC Grant Recipients Fall 2006
Elizabeth Carson Pastan (in collaboration with Stephen D. White)
Associate Professor, Art History
Emory College
The Bayeux Tapestry: An Early Twelfth-Century Anglo-Norman Pictorial Narrative
Andres Pelaez
Assistant Professor, Pulmonary, Allergy and Critical Care Medicine
School of Medicine
The Effect of Donor Alcohol Use on Incidence of PGF after Lung
Transplantation
Sally A. Radell
Associate Professor and Director of Dance
Emory College
People Like Us: A Choreographic Reflection on Rituals, Popular
Culture and Everyday Living
URC Grant Recipients Fall 2006
Ivan Rasnik
Assistant Professor, Physics
Emory College
Molecular Mechanisms of HCV helicase: effects of membrane anchoring on protein
dynamics
Subhabrata Sanyal
Assistant Professor, Cell Biology
School of Medicine
p38 Kinase regulation of learning and neural plasticity in Drosophila
Dipali Sharma
Assistant Professor, Hematology/Oncology
School of Medicine
Adiponectin: Novel negative regulator of mammary tumorigenesis
URC Grant Recipients Fall 2006
Chanley Small
Assistant Research Professor, Epidemiology
Rollins School of Public Health
Polymorphisms in the Inhibin Beta Subunit and Reproductive Function
Ashish Sood
Assistant Professor, Marketing
Goizueta Business School
Technological Evolution in the Pharmaceutical Market
Debra Spitulnik
Associate Professor, Anthropology
Emory College
Media, Citizenship, and Political Engagement in the Lives of Young
American Adults
URC Grant Recipients Fall 2006
Brent Strawn
Associate Professor, Old Testament
Candler School of Theology
Reasonable Doubt? Rethinking Intention in Ancient Near Eastern and
Israelite Law and Literature
Roy L. Sutliff
Assistant Professor, Pulmonary, Allergy and Critical Care Medicine
School of Medicine
Mechanisms of HIV-1 mediated Pulmonary Hypertension
Vinod Thourani
Assistant Professor, Surgery
School of Medicine
Novel Radio Frequency Pressure Transducer for Evaluating Mitral Valve
Repair
URC Grant Recipients Fall 2006
Jeannie Visootsak
Assistant Professor, Genetics
School of Medicine
Neurodevelopmental Outcome in Children with Down Syndrome and Congenital
Heart Defects
Li Xiong
Assistant Professor, Computer Science
Emory College
HIDE: An Integrated and Adaptive Health Information DE-identification
Framework
URC Grant Recipients Spring 2007
Linda Armstrong
Senior Lecturer, Visual Arts Program/Art History
Emory College
Collecting
Kristen Buras
Assistant Professor, Division of Educational Studies
Emory College
Can a City School the Nation? Reconstruction, Race, and Resistance in
Post-Katrina New Orleans
Heather Bloom
Assistant Professor, Internal Medicine/Cardiovascular Medicine
School of Medicine
The impact of age and co-morbidity on mortality benefit from internal
cardioverter-defibrillators
URC Grant Recipients Spring 2007
John Carew
Assistant Professor, Rollins School of Public Health/Biostatistics:
School of Medicine/Radiology
Neuroimaging Biomarkers in ALS: A Longitudinal Study of Diffusion Tensor
Imaging
Shoshana Felman
Woodruff Professor, Department of Comparative Literature
Emory College
Literature on Trial, Trial as Literature: Oscar Wilde Revisited
Thomas Flynn
Professor, Department of Philosophy
Emory College
Sartre Resartus: An Intellectual Biography of Jean-Paul Sartre
URC Grant Recipients Spring 2007
Dean Jones
Professor, Division of Pulmonary, Allergy and Critical Care
School of Medicine
Methionine oxidation in oxidative stress
John Lucchesi
Professor, Department of Biology
Emory College
Chromatin modifications and DNA replication
James Melton
Professor, Department of History
Emory College
From the Alps to the Low country: Transatlantic Lives of Thomas
Geschwandel, 1693-1761
URC Grant Recipients Spring 2007
Rudolf Makkreel
Charles Howard Candler Professor, Department of Philosophy
Emory College
Hermeneutics and History
Carlos Moreno
Assistant Professor, Division of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine
School of Medicine
The Role of Rap1 signaling in Prostate Cancer Metastasis
Michael Owens
Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science
Emory College
Ex-Prisoners as Citizens and Neighbors: Public Attitudes towards ExPrisoner Reentry in Atlanta
URC Grant Recipients Spring 2007
Vladimir Oliker
Professor, Department of Mathematics and Computer Science
Emory College
A variational approach to problems of optic design of freeform surfaces with
prescribed irradiance
Limin Peng
Assistant Professor, Department of Biostatistics
Rollins School of Public Health
Flexible regression methods for censored survival data
Dan Reiter
Professor, Department of Political Science
Emory College
Determinants of Peace Duration Following Interstate Wars
URC Grant Recipients Spring 2007
John Roback
Associate Professor, Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine
School of Medicine
Vaccination-enhanced donor lymphocyte infusion after BMT
Laura Salazar and Delia Lang
Assistant Professors, Department of Behavioral Sciences and Health
Education
Rollins School of Public Health
A Qualitative and Quantitative Assessment of Gender Based Violence and
HIV Risk
Byeongwoon Song
Assistant Professor, Department of Pediatrics
School of Medicine
Mechanisms of the Antiviral Activity of TRIM5alpha
URC Grant Recipients Spring 2007
Qiang Shen
Assistant Professor, Neuroscience
Yerkes National Primate Research Center
Novel Speckle and Optical Imaging Technologies for Early Detection of Diabetic
Retinopathy
Vin Tangpricha
Assistant Professor, Department of Medicine
School of Medicine
Optimizing Bone Health and Vitamin D Status in Cystic Fibrosis Patients
Sriaman Venkataraman
Assistant Professor, Marketing Department
Goizueta Business School
Exhibitor Level Model of Movie Demand
URC Grant Recipients Spring 2007
Irwin Waldman
Professor, Department of Psychology
Emory College
Gene-based associations of candidate genes with ADHD-relevant phenotypes
Eric Weeks
Associate Professor, Department of Physics
Emory College
Characterizing surface viscosities at “difficult” interfaces
Lary Walker
Research Professor, Neuroscience
Yerkes National Primate Research Center
Exogenour induction of Alzheimer Ab-pathology in Transgenic mice
URC/A-CTSI Translational Research Award
Recipients Fall 2007
Fernando Holguin
Assistant Professor, Division of Pulmonary, Allergy and Critical Care
School of Medicine
Airway adipokines and alveolar macrophage: a mechanistic link for obesity and
asthma severity
Debra Houry
Assistant Professor, Department of Emergency Medicine
School of Medicine
Early Intervention Following Human Trauma
URC/A-CTSI Translational Research Award
Recipients Fall 2007
Claudia Testa
Assistant Professor, Department of Neurology
School of Medicine
Essential Tremor Disease Mechanisms
Limin Peng
Assistant Professor, Department of Biostatistics
Rollins School of Public Health
Flexible regression methods for censored survival data
* Supplement to URC award in the spring
The Levy Awards
The Levy Awards were established to recognize
outstanding scientific research contributions of Emory
faculty members. Albert E. Levy, now deceased, had a
daughter and a grandson, both of who became
scientists. Mr. Levy’s grandson pursued a career in
biomedical research at Emory.
The Levy Awards
Although he was a businessman, Mr. Levy admired
and supported the scientific efforts of his family
members and always encouraged the performance of
high quality scientific research. In his honor, his
daughter has provided resources designated for
recognition of faculty at Emory who have contributed
effectively to the advancement of scientific knowledge.
The Levy Awards
Thus, the Levy Awards for Excellence in Scientific
Research were established. Each year, awards for
junior and senior faculty are selected by the University
Research Committee to recognize outstanding research
publications within the past year.
2002 Levy Award Recipients
Dr. Krishnna M. Bhat
“Slit signaling promotes the terminal asymmetric division of neural precursor
cells in the Drosophila CNS” Development 128:3161;2001.
Dr. Harriet L. Robinson
“Control of a mucosal challenge and prevention of AIDS by a multiprotein
DNA/MVA vaccine” Science 292:69;2001.
2003 Levy Award Recipients
Dr. Andreas Fritz
“Concerted action of two dlx paralogs in sensory placode formation”
Development 129: 3127; 2002.
Dr. Rafi Ahmed
“Memory CD8+ T cell differentiation: initial antigen encounter triggers a
developmental program in naïve cells” Nature Immunology 2: 415; 2001.
2004 Levy Award Recipients
Dr. Paul Wade
“MTA3, an Mi-2/NuRD Comples Subunit, Regulates an Invasive Growth
Pathway in Breast Cancer” Cell 113: 207-219; 2003. Dr.
Dr. Barry Shur
“Identification of Mouse Sperm SED1, a Bimotif EGF Repeat and DiscoidinDomain Protein Involved in Sperm-Egg Binding” Cell 114: 405-417; 2003.
2005 Levy Award Recipients
Dr. Shoichiro Ono
“Tropomyosin Inhibits ADF/Cofilin-dependent Actin Filament Dynamics ”
Cell 156: 1065-1076; 2002.
Dr. Barbara J. Stoll
“Neurodevelopmental and Growth Impairment Among Extremely Low-BirthWeight Infants with Neonatal Infection ” JAMA 292: 2357-2368; 2004.
2006 Levy Award Recipients
Dr. William Kelly
“Meiotic pairing and imprinted X chromatin assembly in Caenorhabditis
elegans” Nature Genetics 36: 100-105: 2004 and “A conserved chromatin
architecture marks and maintains the restricted germ cell lineage in worms and
flies” Devel. Cell 5: 747-757; 2003
Dr. Marc Chimowitz
“Comparison of Warfarin and Aspirin for Symptomatic Intracranial Arterial
Stenosis” New England Journal of Medicine 352: 1305-1316; 2005
The University Research
Committee is proud to honor
this year’s Levy Award recipients
2007 Levy Award Recipients
Dr. Gilbert Kersh (Junior faculty recipient)
“Interplay between RORt, Egr3, and E proteins controls
proliferation in response to pre-TCR signals” Immunity 24: 813826; 2006
Dr. Jack Arbiser (Senior faculty co-recipient)
“Overexpression of Akt converts radial growth melanoma to
vertical growth melanoma” Journal of Clinical Investigation
117:3:719-729; 2007
Dr. Diana Robertson (Senior faculty co-recipient)
“The neural processing of moral sensitivity to issues of justice
and care” Neuropsychologia 45: 755-766; 2007
2007 Levy Award
Junior Faculty Recipient
Dr. Gilbert Kersh
“Interplay between RORt, Egr3, and E proteins
controls proliferation in response to pre-TCR
signals” Immunity 24: 813-826; 2006
2007 Levy Award
Senior Faculty Co-Recipient
Dr. Jack Arbiser
“Overexpression of Akt converts radial growth
melanoma to vertical growth melanoma” Journal of
Clinical Investigation 117:3:719-729; 2007
Overexpression of Akt converts radial growth melanoma to
vertical growth melanoma
J. Clin. Invest. 117:719-729 (2007).
Mutant p53
Loss of p16ink4a
Nonmelanoma skin cancer
Phospholipase D
Protein kinase C
Melanoma
Akt
NFkB activation
Honokiol
Resistance to chemotherapy
Resistance to radiation
Evasion of the immune system
Superoxide
NFkB activation
NADPH oxidase
inhibitors
Why is “alphabet soup” important
• The ability to determine which tumor
suppressor is lost in cancer can already be
performed by pathologists
• Loss of a tumor suppressor gene predicts
signaling pathways
• Drugs can be designed to block signaling
pathways in both kind of tumors
• These drugs are being developed in our
lab
2007 Levy Award
Senior Faculty Co-Recipient
Dr. Diana Robertson
“The neural processing of moral sensitivity to
issues of justice and care” Neuropsychologia 45:
755-766; 2007
Clint Kilts accepting the award on behalf of Diana Robertson
The Office of the Provost and
the University Research
Committee also wish to
acknowledge Emory faculty
members who have earned major
academic awards or honors
within the past year
Emory faculty who have received academic awards
and honors in the past year
Susan Allen
Rollins School of Public Health
Atlanta Business Chronicle’s 2007 Community Outreach Hero
Larry Barsalou
Professor of Psychology
Fellow of the Cognitive Science Society
Jay Berkelhamer
Department of Pediatrics
President of the American Academy of Pediatrics
Kenneth Bernstein
Distinguished Service Professor, Pathology
2007 Basic Research Prize from the American Heart Association
Emory faculty who have received academic awards
and honors in the past year
William Branch
Division Director, Internal Medicine
President of the American Academy on Communication in Healthcare
Otis Brawley
GA Cancer Center for Excellence, Grady
Atlanta Business Chronicle’s 2007 Military Hero Distinction
Jeanne Charles
Rehabilitation Medicine
Gayle G. Arnold Award for Best Scientific Paper, from the American
Academy for Cerebral Palsy and Developmental Medicine
Jo Ann Dalton
Edith F. Honeycutt Chair of Adult and Elder Care
Distinguished Alumna for Duke University School of Nursing 2007
Emory faculty who have received academic awards
and honors in the past year
Carlos del Rio
Professor, Infectious Diseases
Marion V. Creekmore Award for Internationalization
Frans de Waal
Professor of Psychology
100 World’s Most Influential People by Time Magazine 2007
Sandra Dunbar
Charles Howard Candler Professor of Cardiovascular Nursing
Appointed to the American Heart Association Flu Task Force, Emory Heart and
Vascular Center Board, and as a faculty counselor of the Woodruff Health Sciences
Center Board
Christopher Flowers
Hematology/Oncology
American Society of Hematology first Amos Faculty Development Award
Emory faculty who have received academic awards
and honors in the past year
William Foege
Rollins School of Public Health
The Lautenberg Award from the University of New Jersey Medical and Dental School
for outstanding contributions in public health and the Stephen Smith Award for
Lifetime Achievement in Public Health from the New York Academy of Medicine
Richard D. Freer
Robert Howell Hall Professor of Law
Appointed to the Advisory Board for LexisNexis Law School Publishing
Jim Grimsley
Director of Creative Writing
Mid-Career Author Award from Saints and Sinners Literary Festival
Sam Gandy
Director of Emory Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases
Chair of the National Medical and Scientific Advisory Council of the Alzheimer’s
Association
Emory faculty who have received academic awards
and honors in the past year
Jennifer L. Gooch
Nephrology/VA Medical Center Atlanta
Presidential Early Career Award in Science and Engineering
Robert Hatcher
Professor of Gynecology/Obstetrics
2007 Kenneth J. Ryan Physician Leadership Award from Physicians for
Reproductive Choice and Health
Craig Hill
Professor of Chemistry
Distinguished Fellow of the Victoria Institute of Chemical Sciences (Australia)
James M. Hughes
Professor, Infectious Diseases
Gen-Probe Joseph Award, by the American Society for Microbiology
Emory faculty who have received academic awards
and honors in the past year
Arthur Kellerman
School of Medicine/Rollins School of Public Health
2007 Wiegenstein Leadership Award from the American College of Emergency
Physicians
Fadlo Khuri
Hematology/Oncology
Elected to the American Society of Clinical Investigation
Athena Kourtis
School of Medicine, Pediatrics
2007 Outstanding Scientific Achievement Award from the Federal Executive Board
Chris Larsen
Carlos and Marguerite Mason Professor of Surgery
2007 Thomas E. Starzl Prize in Surgery and Immunology by the University of
Pittsburgh School of Medicine
Emory faculty who have received academic awards
and honors in the past year
Deborah Lipstadt
Dorot Professor of Modern Jewish and Holocaust Studies
Appointed a member of the United States delegation to a conference Combating
Discrimination and Promoting Mutual Respect and Understanding, Bucharest,
Romania
Steve Nowicki
Professor of Psychology
2007 Outstanding Mentor Award from the Southeastern Psychological Association
Ruth Parker
General Internal Medicine
Leadership Atlanta 2007
Walter Orenstein
Professor, Infectious Diseases
2007 Dr. Charles Merieux Award for Achievement in Vaccinology and Immunology,
from The National Foundation for Infectious Diseases
Emory faculty who have received academic awards
and honors in the past year
Susmita Parashar
General Internal Medicine
Trudy Bush Fellowship for Cardiovascular Research in Women’s Health/ and
Travel grant to attend American Society of Clinical Investigation and American
Physicians Joint meeting
Larry Pickering
Professor of Pediatrics
2007 Pediatric Infectious Disease Society’s Distinguished Physician Award
John D. Puskas
Chief of Cardiac Surgery, Emory Crawford Long
J. Maxwell Chamberlain Memorial Award from Society of Thoracic Surgeons for
top-ranked paper in Adult Cardiac Surgery
Jeffrey Salomone
Chief of General Surgery and Surgical Infectious Disease, Grady
Atlanta Business Chronicle’s 2007 Physician Hero Award
Emory faculty who have received academic awards
and honors in the past year
Dipali Sharma
Department of Hematology and Oncology
Mary K. Ash Foundation for Breast Cancer Research
Lynn Sibly
Director, Center for Research on Maternal and Newborn Survival, School of Nursing
2007 Atlanta Business Chronicle Allied Health Professional Hero
Brent A. Strawn
Candler School of Theology
Catholic Biblical Association 20,000 Award for Research
Lisa Tedesco
Vice Provost for Academic Affairs/Graduate Studies and Dean, Graduate School of
Arts and Sciences
2007 Distinguished Service Award from the American Dental Education Association
Emory faculty who have received academic awards
and honors in the past year
Steven Traynelis
Professor, Department of Pharmacology
Jacob Javits Neuroscience Award from NINDS 2007
Natasha Trethewey
Emory College, Creative Writing Program
Pulitzer Prize for Native Guard
Stephen T. Warren
William P. Timmie Professor and Chair of Human Genetics, Professor of
Pediatrics and Biochemistry
2007 Outstanding Alumni Award from Michigan State, Spring 2007
Arthur Yancey
School of Medicine, Emergency Medicine
2007 Jeff Clawson Leadership Award from the National Academies of Emergency
Dispatch
Let’s celebrate!