University News

Institute of Medicine Elects 64 New Members, Five Foreign Associates

Representatives of The Institute of Medicine of the National Academies announced the names of 64 new members, raising its total active membership to 1,461. In addition, the Institute honored five individuals by election to foreign associate membership, bringing the total members in that category to 79. With another 62 members holding emeritus status, the total IOM membership is now 1,602.

This year marks the 35th anniversary of the Institute of Medicine, which was established in 1970 by the National Academy of Sciences to honor professional achievement in the health sciences and to serve as a national resource for independent analysis and recommendations on issues related to medicine, biomedical sciences, and health.

Current active members elect new members from a slate of candidates nominated for their professional achievement. A diversity of talent among members is assured by the Institute's charter, which requires that at least one-quarter be selected from fields outside the health professions – such as the social and behavioral sciences, law, engineering, and the humanities.

With their election, members make a commitment to involve themselves in the work of the Institute, which conducts studies and other activities addressing a wide range of issues in medical science, health services, public health, and health policy. Some current studies are a project to recommend appropriate nutritional standards for foods sold in schools, an evaluation of the nation's system for ensuring the safety of prescription drugs after they have reached the market, and an assessment of emergency health care in the United States and recommendations for improving it.

Newly elected members are:

• Peter C. Agre, M.D., vice chancellor, science and technology, and professor of cell biology, Duke University, Durham, N.C.
• Allan I. Basbaum, Ph.D., professor and chair, department of anatomy, University of California, San Francisco
• David W. Bates, M.D., chief, general medicine division, Brigham and Women's Hospital, and professor of medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston
• Emilio Bizzi, M.D., Ph.D., Institute Professor, brain and cognitive sciences, McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge
• Troyen A. Brennan, M.D., J.D., president and chief executive officer, Brigham and Women's Physicians Organization, Boston
• David A. Brent, M.D., academic chief, division of child and adolescent psychiatry, Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic; and Endowed Chair in Suicide Studies and professor of psychiatry, pediatrics, and epidemiology, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh
• Kelly D. Brownell, Ph.D., professor and chair, department of psychology, Yale University, New Haven, Conn.
• Dennis A. Carson, M.D., professor and director, Rebecca and John Moores Cancer Center, University of California, San Diego
• Denis A. Cortese, M.D., president and chief executive officer, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn.
• Pietro V. De Camilli, M.D., investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and professor, department of cell biology, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Conn.
• Jared M. Diamond, Ph.D., professor of geography, department of geography, University of California, Los Angeles
• Mary K. Estes, Ph.D., professor, molecular virology and microbiology and medicine, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston
• Alex S. Evers, M.D., Mallinckrodt Professor and chair, department of anesthesiology, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis
• Donna M. Ferriero, M.D., professor and vice dean, Neonatal Brain Disorders Center, University of California, San Francisco
• Mark C. Fishman, M.D., president and chief executive officer, Novartis Institute for BioMedical Research, Cambridge, Mass.
• Michael F. Fleming, M.D., professor and director, NIH research fellowship, department of family medicine, University of Wisconsin, Madison
• Stephen P. Fortmann, M.D., C.F. Rehnborg Professor of Disease Prevention and director, Stanford Prevention Research Center, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, Calif.
• Jeffrey M. Friedman, M.D., Ph.D., investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and director, Starr Center for Human Genetics, Rockefeller University, New York City
• Vanessa N. Gamble, M.D., Ph.D., director, National Center for Bioethics in Research and Health Care, Tuskegee University, Tuskegee, Ala.
• Michael S. Gazzaniga, Ph.D., McLaughlin Distinguished University Professor and director, Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, Dartmouth College, Hanover, N.H.
• Stanton A. Glantz, Ph.D., professor of medicine, department of medicine, School of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco
• Jesse L. Goodman, M.D., director, Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Rockville, Md.
• Richard H. Goodman, M.D., Ph.D., director and senior scientist, Vollum Institute, Oregon Health & Science University, Portland
• Warner C. Greene, M.D., Ph.D., director and senior investigator, Gladstone Institute of Virology and Immunology, University of California, San Francisco
• Margaret Grey, Dr.P.H., Independence Foundation Professor of Nursing and associate dean for research affairs, Yale University School of Nursing, New Haven, Conn.
• Harold W. Jaffe, M.D., fellow, St. Cross College, and professor and head, department of public health, University of Oxford, Headington, Oxford, United Kingdom
• J. Larry Jameson, M.D., Ph.D., Cutter Professor of Medicine and chair, department of medicine, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, Chicago
• Marjorie K. Jeffcoat, D.M.D., Amsterdam Dean of Dental Medicine, University of Pennsylvania School of Dental Medicine, Philadelphia
• Barbara B. Kahn, M.D., chief, division of endocrinology, diabetes, and metabolism, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, and professor of medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston
• Larry R. Kaiser, M.D., professor and chair, department of surgery, University of Pennsylvania Health System, Philadelphia
• Robert M. Kaplan, Ph.D., professor, department of health services, School of Public Health, University of California, Los Angeles
• Francine R. Kaufman, M.D., professor of pediatrics, division of endocrinology and metabolism, Childrens Hospital Los Angeles, Los Angeles
• Gabor D. Kelen, M.D., professor and chair, department of emergency medicine, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore
• Richard D. Krugman, M.D., dean, University of Colorado School of Medicine, Denver
• Steven M. Larson, M.D., professor and director of radiology, Nuclear Medicine Service, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York City
• Virginia M.-Y. Lee, Ph.D., professor of pathology and laboratory medicine, Center for Neurodegenerative Disease Research, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Philadelphia
• Floyd J. Malveaux, M.D., Ph.D., professor of microbiology and medicine and dean, Howard University College of Medicine, Washington, D.C.
• Frank McCormick, Ph.D., director, Comprehensive Cancer Center and Research Institute, University of California, San Francisco
• Elizabeth A. McGlynn, Ph.D., associate director, RAND Health, and director, Center for Research on Quality in Health Care, Santa Monica, Calif.
• Steven L. McKnight, Ph.D., chair, biochemistry department, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas
• James O. McNamara, M.D., Carl R. Deane Professor and chair, department of neurobiology, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, N.C.
• Emmanuel M. Mignot, M.D., Ph.D., investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and professor, psychiatry and behavior sciences, Sleep Center, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, Calif.
• M. Jeanne Miranda, Ph.D., professor in residence, behavioral sciences and psychiatry, UCLA Neuropsychiatric Institute, Los Angeles
• Marilyn Moon, Ph.D., vice president and director, Health Program, American Institutes for Research, Silver Spring, Md.
• Jonathan D. Moreno, Ph.D., Kornfeld Professor of Biomedical Ethics and director, Center for Biomedical Ethics, University of Virginia, Charlottesville
• Jeffrey C. Murray, M.D., professor of pediatrics, biological sciences, pediatric dentistry, and epidemiology, department of neonatology, University of Iowa, Iowa City
• Mary D. Naylor, Ph.D., Marian S. Ware Professor in Gerontology, University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing, Philadelphia
• Eric K. Noji, M.D., medical officer, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Washington, D.C.
• Stanley A. Plotkin, M.D., emeritus professor of pediatrics, University of Pennsylvania, and executive advisor to the chief executive officer, Sanofi Pasteur, Doylestown, Pa.
• Carol L. Prives, Ph.D., professor, department of biological sciences, Columbia University, New York City
• Frederick P. Rivara, M.D., George Adkins Professor of Pediatrics, University of Washington School of Medicine, Seattle
• Emanuel P. Rivers, M.D., director of research, emergency medicine and surgical critical care, Henry Ford Hospital, Detroit
• Alan R. Saltiel, Ph.D., John Jacob Abel Collegiate Professor in the Life Sciences, professor of internal medicine and physiology, and director, Life Sciences Institute, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
• Paul Schimmel, Ph.D., Hahn Professor, Skaggs Institute for Chemical Biology, Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, Calif.
• Joseph Schlessinger, Ph.D., professor and chair, department of pharmacology, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Conn.
• Dennis J. Selkoe, M.D., co-director, Center for Neurologic Diseases, Brigham and Women's Hospital, and Coates Professor of Neurologic Diseases, department of neurology, Harvard Medical School, Boston
• Val C. Sheffield, M.D., Ph.D., investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and director, division of medical genetics, Carver College of Medicine, University of Iowa, Iowa City
• Gerald I. Shulman, M.D., Ph.D., investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and professor, medicine and cellular and molecular physiology, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Conn.
• Burton H. Singer, Ph.D., Robertson Professor of Public and International Affairs, office of population research, Princeton University, Princeton, N.J.
• Virginia A. Stallings, M.D., professor of pediatrics, division of gastroenterology and nutrition, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia
• Joan A. Steitz, Ph.D., investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and Sterling Professor, department of molecular biophysics and biochemistry, Yale University, New Haven, Conn.
• Peter Szolovits, Ph.D., professor of computer science and engineering, department of electrical engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge
• Raymond L. White, Ph.D., director, Ernest Gallo Clinic and Research Center, Emeryville, Calif.
• Leonard I. Zon, M.D., investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and professor of pediatrics, Harvard Medical School, Boston

Elected to foreign associate membership:

• John I. Bell, B.M., BCh., D.M., Regius Professor of Medicine, Oxford University, John Radcliffe Hospital, Headington, Oxford, United Kingdom
• George W. Brown, Ph.D., senior honorary fellow, department of social psychiatry, St. Thomas' Hospital, London, United Kingdom
• Ann C. Macaulay, M.D., professor, department of family medicine, McGill University, Montreal
• Pascoal M. Mocumbi, M.D., high representative, European and Developing Country Clinical Trials Partnerships, The Hague, Netherlands
• D. David Naylor, M.D., D.Phil., dean of medicine, University of Toronto, Toronto
  

[ FYI Index ]

NCI Awards $25 Million for Patient Navigator Research Program for Minority and Underserved Cancer Patients

Representatives of The National Cancer Institute (NCI) announced a total of US$25 million in grants to eight research institutions to develop an innovative Patient Navigator Research Program (PNRP). Navigators help patients and their families manage cancer diagnoses and overcome common barriers to obtaining timely and appropriate cancer care and treatment. The five-year grants will be administered by NCI’s Center to Reduce Cancer Health Disparities (CRCHD).

Patient navigators help coordinate services among medical personnel, schedule appointments with caregivers, arrange translation or interpretation services and various forms of financial support, facilitate transportation to and from medical visits, and arrange childcare services during diagnosis and treatment appointments. Navigators from primary care or community health settings provide support and guidance, linking patients to existing health care services.

The PNRP will test and evaluate interventions designed to improve access to timely and appropriate cancer care and treatment following a cancer diagnosis. The new program will focus on four cancers for which screening tests are available: breast, cervical, prostate and colorectal.

These grants will focus on cancer patients from racial/ethnic minority groups, patients with low socioeconomic status, and patients from medically underserved areas. There will be significant community input through Community Advisory Panels (CAP). Composed of community leaders, community-based participatory researchers, and clinicians, CAPS will help plan partnerships to ensure support from diverse underserved communities.

The following eight institutions were awarded PNRP grants:

• Boston University Medical Center, Boston, Mass.
  Principle Investigator: Karen M. Freund, M.D.
  The Patient Navigation in the SafetyNet: CONNECTeDD TM Project will partner with community health centers to provide either breast or cervical cancer navigation services to women in socially and economically challenged urban neighborhoods.
• Denver Health and Hospital Authority, Denver, Colo.
  Principle Investigator: Peter C. Raich, M.D.
  The Improving Patient Outcomes through System Navigation Project will work with community partners in the Rocky Mountain region, AMC Cancer Research Center, and the University of Colorado Comprehensive Cancer Center to provide breast, colorectal, and prostate cancer navigation services for minority and underserved patients, many of whom do not have health insurance.
• George Washington University, Washington, D.C.
  Principle Investigator: Steven Patierno, Ph.D.
  The D.C. City-wide Patient Navigation Research Project will develop a consortium comprised of major medical institutions, community partners, and the local health department to create a city-wide initiative to test and evaluate breast cancer navigation services among African American and Hispanic/Latina women.
• H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center & Research Institute, Tampa, Fla.
  Principle Investigator: Richard G. Roetzheim, M.D.
  The Moffitt Cancer Center Patient Navigator Project will collaborate with the Health Choice Network and its member community health centers, and the American Cancer Society to conduct culturally appropriate patient navigation focused on breast and colorectal cancers in culturally diverse populations.
• Northwest Portland Area Indian Health Board, Portland, Ore.
  Principle Investigator: Joshua D. Jones, M.D.
  The Northwest Tribal Cancer Navigator Project, in conjunction with tribal health centers, will expand an existing navigation project in five diverse tribal communities and provide breast, cervical, prostate and colorectal cancer navigation services.
• Northwestern University, Evanston, Ill.
  Principle Investigator: Charles L. Bennett, M.D.
  The Chicago Cancer Navigation Project will develop and conduct a patient navigation intervention to provide follow-up care to low-income patients with positive cancer screening tests of the prostate, colorectum, breast or cervix, in collaboration with the Veterans Affairs and federally qualified health center clinics.
• University of Rochester, Rochester, N.Y.
  Principle Investigator: Kevin Fiscella, M.D.
  The Randomized Controlled Trial of Primary Care-Based Patient Navigation-Activation Project, focusing on breast and colorectal cancers, will recruit patients from large, inner-city practices, serving primarily minority and low-income populations, to assess whether underserved populations benefit from navigation services.
• University of Texas Health Sciences Center, San Antonio, Texas
  Principle Investigator: Donald J. Dudley, M.D.
  The Texas Health Science Center’s Patient Navigation Research Project, focusing on breast and cervical cancers, will develop and conduct a navigator program primarily for Hispanic/Latina and African American women, in collaboration with district health and university health clinics, community-based agencies, and the university hospital.

In addition to the newly announced grants, NCI continues to fund patient navigator pilot projects that reach American Indian, Hispanic/Latino, African American and rural underserved populations.

[ FYI Index ]

Tsakopoulos Family Endows Professorship

The Tsakopoulos family of Sacramento has donated $2 million in honor of former Greek Prime Minister Constantine Mitsotakis to create a professorship to support the study of Greek ideas in contemporary society at Stanford University. Matching funds from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation's gift to the School of Humanities and Sciences helped establish the chair, which will be known as the Tsakopoulos-Kounalakis Professorship in honor of Constantine Mitsotakis.

Josiah Ober, professor of classics at Princeton University, has been named the inaugural chairholder, with joint appointments in Stanford's departments of Classics and Political Science. The author of a number of books and articles on ancient Greek history, Ober's recent research has centered on Athenian democracy and Greek political thought, including projects on ancient and modern self-governing organizations, on the circulation of social and technical knowledge in democratic societies, and on the interplay between political philosophy and culture.

Mitsotakis served in the Greek Parliament and held other key positions in the government over a 50-year period. He was prime minister from 1990 to 1993 and is credited with helping to advance the creation of the European Union and reinvigorating the Greek economy. Tsakopoulos-Kounalakis said she looks forward to seeing a growth in coursework supported by the new Mitsotakis chair to expand students' knowledge of the broad array of fields in which ancient Greek thought has had an impact on the modern world.

Ober, who has been at Princeton since 1990, will join Stanford in his new position next year. Ober earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Minnesota in 1975 and his doctorate in ancient history at the University of Michigan in 1980.

Mitsotakis is in California this month in connection with the chair, accompanied by his daughter, Dora Bakoyannis, the mayor of Athens, and his son, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, a member of the Greek Parliament and a Stanford alumnus.

[ FYI Index ]

2 Million Gift to School of the Arts Funds Visual Arts Fellowships

The School of the Arts at Columbia University has announced a US$2 million gift to endow the Andrew Fisher Fellowship Fund to support distinction in the visual arts. The Fund will provide fellowships to graduate students enrolled in the school's master of fine arts program who display excellence in their discipline. The gift from Emily Fisher Landau and Richard L. Fisher, Law'60, commemorates Andrew Fisher, their grandson and son respectively, who died at the age of 22 in a car accident in 2003.

The donation, one of the largest ever to the School, will help build momentum toward the launch of a university-wide fundraising campaign in support of scholarships, professorships and other key areas. Once the endowment reaches maturity, it will support approximately $100,000 worth of scholarships each year.

Each spring, a committee of faculty members appointed by the dean of the School of the Arts will select the awardees. The annual grant will be awarded to students beginning in 2006.

[ FYI Index ]

Wang Receives Prestigious National Academy of Sciences Award in Molecular Biology

Dr. Xiaodong Wang, professor of biochemistry at UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, has been awarded the prestigious National Academy of Sciences Award in Molecular Biology.

The honor, which includes a medal and $25,000 prize, is given annually for a recent notable discovery in molecular biology by a young scientist. It will be presented April 19 in Washington, D.C., at the National Academy of Sciences' 141st annual meeting.

Dr. Wang was selected for the award on the basis of his biochemical studies of apoptosis, or cell death, a phenomenon in which cells activate a self-destruction program. As the body generates new cells, older cells must activate their self-destruction program. In the case of cancer cells, they are unable to maintain a balance and grow uncontrollably.

Wang joins Dr. Steven McKnight, chairman of biochemistry, and Dr. Thomas Südhof, director of the Center for Basic Neuroscience, as NAS molecular biology award recipients at UT Southwestern. Dr. McKnight was honored in 1991 with the award and was elected to membership in the NAS in 1992. Dr. Südhof was a 1997 co-recipient of the honor and in 2002 joined the NAS - membership in which is one of the highest honors attainable by an American scientist.

Wang has discovered that several new proteins play a role in apoptosis, including cytochrome c. This protein is important for generating energy and maintaining life, and also is active in triggering apoptosis.

His continuing research could lead to treatments not only for cancer but also to therapies that include the biochemical manipulation of abnormal cells in neurological diseases, such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's, and ultimately, the prevention of these diseases.

Originally from China, Wang obtained a bachelor of science degree in chemistry from Beijing Normal University before moving to the United States to attend graduate school at UT Southwestern. Following postdoctoral work here, he established his own laboratory as an assistant professor at Emory University School of Medicine in 1995. He was recruited back to UT Southwestern in 1996.

Wang's early research focused on messenger RNA splicing and later encompassed how human cells respond to cholesterol. He found that cells have a natural ability to balance out the levels of cholesterol production based upon the body's needs.

Among his other honors, Wang has received the Hackerman Award from the Welch Foundation, the Paul Marks Prize from the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, the Eli Lilly Award from the American Chemical Society, the Schering-Plough Award from the American Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and the Young Investigator Award from the Society of Chinese Biomedical Scientists in America.

The NAS is part of The National Academies, along with the National Academy of Engineering, the Institute of Medicine and the National Research Council. It is a private organization of scientists dedicated to furthering science and its use for the general welfare.

The NAS Award in Molecular Biology is supported by Pfizer Inc. and has been presented since 1962.

[ FYI Index ]

UK Universities Join Forces for Center of Excellence

The University of Cambridge is joining forces with Nottingham and London Metropolitan Universities to create a Center for Excellence in Teaching & Learning (CETL) in Reusable Learning Objects.

 

CETLs are a Higher Education Funding Council for England initiative aimed at promoting excellence and innovation in university teaching and learning across a wide range of subjects.

The Cambridge, Nottingham and LMU CETL will focus on producing and evaluating small chunks of web-based teaching material, known as Reusable Learning Objects (RLOs), in different academic disciplines.

It will be officially launched in London on November 7 by Brian Roper, the Vice-Chancellor of London Metropolitan University. The keynote speech will be delivered by Professor Diana Laurillard, Chair of Learning with Digital Technologies at the Institute of Education. Dr Kate Pretty, Pro-Vice-Chancellor with Special Responsibilities, will speak on behalf of the University of Cambridge.

There will also be a demonstration of some of the preliminary RLOs developed as part of the Wolfson Reward Programme, where subject experts and developers spent a week at Wolfson College, Cambridge and at the University's Centre for Applied Research in Educational Technologies (CARET).

[ FYI Index ]

MIT and Nokia Establish Joint Laboratory

Representatives of MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) and Nokia Research Center announced a research collaboration to advance the state of the art in mobile computing and communications technologies.

CSAIL and Nokia will establish a new research facility - the Nokia Research Center Cambridge - near the MIT campus, where researchers from MIT and Nokia will work closely together on a new vision for mobile computing.

The collaborative work of the Nokia Research Center Cambridge will center on a view of the future where small handheld devices such as mobile phones will become parts of an "ecosystem" of information, services, peripherals, sensors and other devices. Research will address new user interfaces that incorporate speech and other modalities, new mobile computing platforms - including low power hardware platforms and wireless communication, as well as new software architectures. Researchers will also address new ways of managing information: The use of Semantic Web technologies - an extension of the current Web developed in part at CSAIL and at the Nokia Research Center - will enable devices to more intuitively and automatically understand interconnected terms, information and services.

Approximately twenty researchers from MIT and twenty researchers from Nokia will participate in joint projects under the direction of a joint steering committee. Dr. James Hicks from Nokia Research Center has been named director of the Nokia Research Center Cambridge. Professor Arvind, Johnson Professor of Computer Science and Engineering, will be the program manager.

This new collaboration builds on the foundation of a strong relationship formed during past collaborations between MIT and Nokia. Most recently, Nokia was a founding partner in the MIT Oxygen Alliance, a major research project involving more than 150 researchers at CSAIL with the goal of creating a new breed computers devoted to serving people's needs.

The Nokia Research Center Cambridge will be located in the Kendall Square area of Cambridge, Massachusetts, a five-minute walk from CSAIL's main headquarters. It will begin operations on January 1, 2006. Five initial research projects have already been planned.

[ FYI Index ]

Financial Times Ranks UTD’s EMBA Program Among the Top 25 in U.S., Top 46 in World

In a survey released last week, the Financial Times ranks The University of Texas at Dallas (UTD) Executive MBA Program among the top 25 such degree programs in the United States and among the top 46 in the world.

UTD is the survey’s top ranked school in the North Texas region and its third ranked school statewide.

The survey also ranks the research productivity of the UTD School of Management’s faculty among the top 32 at business schools worldwide.

To arrive at the rankings, Financial Times analyzed the responses of 3,000 alumni from 85 business schools around the world. It then based the rankings of each school on career progress of alumni, the school’s diversity and the international experience it offers and research published in leading journals by its faculty members.

The 2005 survey is the fifth in a series of annual business school surveys conducted by Financial Times, which is based in London.

[ FYI Index ]

New Chair Announced for Civil & Environmental Engineering

University of Texas at Arlington Dean of Engineering Dr. Bill Carroll has announced the appointment of Nur Yazdani, Ph.D., P.E., as the new chair of the Civil & Environmental Engineering Department. Dr. Yazdani began his duties November 1.

Dr. Yazdani replaces Dr. Sia Ardekani, chair of the department since September 1999, who is eager to devote more time to research and teaching.

Yazdani was formerly with Florida A&M University - Florida State University, where he was a professor, the graduate coordinator and the director of the Infrastructure Research Laboratory. His research interests include structural engineering; concrete/timber bridge design, evaluation and rehabilitation; concrete properties; and infrastructure disaster mitigation, preparedness, response and recovery. He is well known in Florida for his development of in-home hurricane shelters and his strengthening of coastal construction and building codes.

Yazdani received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Engineering and Technology, Dhaka, Bangladesh; his master’s from the University of Oklahoma; and his doctorate from the University of Maryland - College Park. During his career, Yazdani has received numerous awards for his teaching and research abilities and has secured more than $5 million for externally-funded research projects, on most of which he was the principal investigator.

A Fellow of the American Society of Civil Engineers and registered professional engineer, Yazdani is the author or co-author of numerous articles published in several professional journals, the co-author of a book chapter, and an invited speaker at conferences and seminars on structural engineering. A leader in engineering education, he has chaired several committees dealing with graduate, curriculum and fundraising activities.