University News

UNT Regents Name Dr. Scott Ransom as Finalist for Presidency of UNT Health Science Center

The University of North Texas System Board of Regents voted last week to name Dr. Scott Ransom, D.O. as the sole finalist for the position of president of the UNT Health Science Center. The selection of Dr. Ransom completes a nationwide search following Dr. Ronald Blank's October 2005 announcement that he would step down once a successor is approved.

Dr. Ransom is currently the director of the program for healthcare improvement and leadership development and professor of obstetrics, gynecology, health management and policy at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan. He also serves as the director of women's health and gynecology at the Ann Arbor VA Medical Center. Ransom's research and consulting include areas related to improving the health care delivery system, women's health, leadership development, health disparities, and performance improvement.

Prior to joining the University of Michigan, Ransom was Vice President for Medical Affairs and then Senior Vice President at a large seven hospital health system. He is past President of the American College of Physician Executives which includes a national membership of over 11,000 physician leaders.

Ransom received a doctorate in osteopathic medicine from the University of Health Sciences in Kansas City; his master of public health from Harvard University; and a master of business administration from the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor.

He completed his residency in obstetrics and gynecology at Oakwood Hospital in Dearborn, Michigan. Ransom is also a graduate of the U.S. Marine Corps Officer Candidate School.

The announcement begins a minimum 21-day interim period required by law before the Board votes to officially appoint Ransom to the position.

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Obituary: Denice D. Denton--UC Santa Cruz Chancellor

Denice D. Denton, a trailblazing engineer who broke through numerous barriers in her academic career to become chancellor of the University of California, Santa Cruz, died June 24 in San Francisco.

Denton took the helm at UC Santa Cruz in February 2005 after serving nine years as the dean of the College of Engineering at the University of Washington in Seattle, the first woman to hold the post at a top research institution. It was one of many "firsts" Denton acquired throughout her career, and she became a powerful role model and mentor for women and minorities in science and higher education.

An accomplished electrical engineer who held three patents, Denton earned a Ph.D. and three other engineering degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. One of four children raised by a single mother in Texas, Denton discovered her passion for science and math during a high school summer program. That life-transforming experience fueled her passion for outreach programs and her commitment to making similar opportunities available to others. As her accomplishments catapulted her to the center stage of higher education nationally, she became an outspoken advocate for diversity in academia.

"Denice was an accomplished and passionate scholar whose life and work demonstrated a deep commitment to public service and to improving opportunity for the disadvantaged and underrepresented," said UC President Robert C. Dynes. "She was a person of enthusiasm, of big ideas, of tremendous energy, and of great promise. In a relatively short time at UC Santa Cruz, she began moving on ambitious plans for the campus and emerged as an important voice in national higher education issues."

As he prepared to bestow the President's Medal during Denton's November 2005 investiture ceremony at UCSC, Dynes called Denton "a trailblazer in pursuit of equity and multiculturalism."

At UCSC, where she served for 16 months, Denton was remembered by Campus Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor David S. Kliger for her dedication "to opening doors for countless young people, particularly for women and minorities who wanted to pursue careers in engineering and science."

"She led this campus with clear statements of the importance of education in transforming lives and in creating opportunities for all," said Kliger. "She, herself, had lived that experience, rising from modest means to achieve with distinction at every stage in her life."

Last month, Denton won the 2006 Maria Mitchell Women in Science Award in recognition of her work advancing opportunities in science for women and girls. In 2004, she was among nine scholars honored by the White House with a Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics, and Engineering Mentoring.

In receiving the Maria Mitchell Women in Science Award, Denton was singled out by one juror for using "the power of her leadership position to raise the visibility of issues related to supporting and advancing women and girls in science-related careers both on and off the campus." Another juror cited Denton's creative strategies to build mentoring networks. "Where they are few in number on a campus, women scientists have followed Denton's cues to find and support each other," she said.

Even before she took office at UCSC, Denton made headlines when she publicly refuted remarks about innate differences between women and men made by Harvard University President Lawrence Summers during an academic conference Denton attended. Calling the ensuing uproar a "teachable moment," Denton spoke of the necessity to "speak truth to power."

Student leaders hailed Denton's openness and advocacy. "She was at the forefront of the UC Sweatshop Free Campaign, and showed her commitment to diversity by providing funding for student-initiated outreach programs," wrote representatives of the UCSC Student Union Assembly, Graduate Student Association, and UC Student Association.

Denton began her teaching career in 1987 at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she was the only woman in the department of electrical and computer engineering and one of very few women in the College of Engineering. She also held academic appointments at the University of Massachusetts and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zürich.

At the University of Washington's College of Engineering, Denton co-founded the Center for Engineering, Learning and Teaching (CELT), a National Science Foundation program designed to improve engineering instruction. Other universities, including Harvard and Stanford, have modeled programs after it.

Denton often described her own experiences of isolation as a woman in a male-dominated field to underscore the need for greater outreach, and her accounts of those experiences resonated with many women in academia.

"It is with great sadness that I learn that a champion and role model for so many of us, Denice Denton, has passed away," said Betty Shanahan, executive director and chief executive officer of the Society of Women Engineers. "Her efforts in creating a more inclusive engineering profession have impacted not only many individuals but have benefited the entire profession."

Denton is survived by her partner Gretchen Kalonji; her mother, Carolyn Mabee; brother Deran Denton; sisters Derri Denton and Michelle Moore; as well as lifelong friend Dianna Beasley.

A campus celebration of Denton's life is set for Thursday, June 29, 2006, at 10 a.m., at the UC Santa Cruz Music Recital Hall.

At UCSC, a fund has been established to honor Chancellor Denton's vision and priorities for the campus. The Denice D. Denton Memorial Fund will pay tribute to her achievements as a leader in science and engineering, her advocacy for diversity, as well as her commitment to community.

The police are calling Denton's death an apparent suicide.

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Knight Foundation Grant Funds Leadership Initiative at Columbia

Journalism schools do a good job of turning out reporters, but creating journalism leaders is a more difficult challenge. To address this problem, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation has awarded the Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia University a US$1.25 million grant to establish the Knight Case Studies Initiative to promote journalism leadership. The initiative will integrate a multimedia method of instruction involving real-world case studies into the school's curriculum. Students will observe the process of making the news from inside working newsrooms to learn about the editorial, ethical and economic aspects of the newsroom decision-making process.

The case studies will show the real-time ethical, management and leadership issues a publisher, executive editor or senior correspondent considers in making decisions at the highest levels of the profession.

Major news organizations will provide raw materials for the case studies, including allowing the journalism educators to capture audio and video footage in their newsrooms. Columbia's Center for New Media Teaching and Learning will help professors shape the cases into interactive modules. These multimedia-based contributions, coupled with classroom discussion, will teach the process of newsroom decision-making in ways that further the creation of fair, accurate, contextual news in the public interest.

Using this model, patterned after the process refined at Harvard Business School, students will be able to see real world situations unfold from inside working newsrooms. As students move through the case studies, teachers will have them make their own decisions before revealing what actually happened.

The grant will provide for the creation and production of a dozen innovative teaching cases over the next four years. The most popular of these will be posted publicly on the school's Web site and at News University, the Poynter Institute's e-learning center for journalists. The long-range goal is to create a new class at the journalism school, and help the school move toward the establishment of a leadership center. By providing powerful new tools for teachers and professionals, the center will seek to change the way decision-making in journalism is taught in this country.

Columbia has already tested three cases. The first follows one day's news cycle at The Washington Post from the point of view of Leonard Downie Jr., the paper's executive editor, who decides what to put on the front page. Another looks at the reporting from Knight Ridder's Washington bureau on Iraq's weapons capabilities during the buildup to and aftermath of the 2003 invasion. Knight Ridder was significantly more skeptical about those capabilities than most American news organizations, and the case illustrates how to question the official version of the news on national security matters. The third case leads students through an analysis of the data available to reporters covering Hurricane Katrina.

The partnership between Columbia and the Knight Foundation is the latest in an ongoing relationship. Knight also supports the Knight-Bagehot Fellowship Program in Economics and Business Journalism; provides funding for the Columbia Journalism Review; trains education reporters through the Hechinger Institute on Education and the Media; supports curriculum reform and advanced investigative reporting through the Carnegie-Knight Initiative for the Future of Journalism Education; and endows a Knight Chair in Business Journalism held by Professor Sylvia Nasar.

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UT Southwestern Biochemist Wins $1 Million Research Prize

Dr. Xiaodong Wang, a professor of biochemistry at UT Southwestern Medical Center who discovered mechanisms responsible for cell death, was awarded the $1 million Shaw Prize in Life Science and Medicine.

Wang will receive the international award from the Hong Kong-based Shaw Prize Foundation "for his discovery of the biochemical basis of programmed cell death, a vital process that balances cell birth and defends against cancer," according to the award citation.

The Shaw Prize currently consists of three annual awards: the Prize in Astronomy, the Prize in Life Science and Medicine, and the Prize in Mathematical Sciences. The 2006 prizes will be presented to recipients in September at a ceremony in Hong Kong.

The prizes, first awarded in 2004 and sometimes referred to as the "Nobel Prize of the East," honor individuals who have achieved significant breakthroughs in academic and scientific research or application, and whose work has resulted in a positive and profound impact on mankind.

Dr. Wang, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator at UT Southwestern and one of the most cited scientists of the last decade, has made groundbreaking discoveries in the biochemistry of programmed cell death, or apoptosis. His ngs have provided new directions for the treatment of cancer, where natural cell death is prevented and cancer cells grow unchecked.

The Shaw Prizes were established under the auspices of Sir Run Run Shaw, a Hong Kong film producer and chairman of Television Broadcasts Limited (TVB), the largest Chinese program producer in the world. The Shaw Prize is accompanied by a medal displaying a portrait of Sir Run Run Shaw and the imprint of a Chinese phrase that translates as "Grasp the law of nature and make use of it."

Wang's research centers on the biochemistry of cell death, a phenomenon in which cells activate a self-destruction program. As the body generates new cells, older cells undergo programmed cell suicide. In the case of cancer cells, they are unable to carry out the self-destruct program, so they grow uncontrollably.

Wang has discovered several proteins that play a key role in apoptosis, including cytochrome c. This protein was long known as an essential component for generating energy in the cell and maintaining life, but Wang showed that it also is active in triggering apoptosis.

His continuing research could lead not only to treatments for cancer but also to therapies targeting the abnormal cells in neurological diseases, such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's.

Originally from China, Wang received his undergraduate degree from Beijing Normal University before moving to the United States to pursue graduate studies at UT Southwestern, where he earned a doctorate in biochemistry in 1991.

In 1995 Wang established his own laboratory as an assistant professor at Emory School of Medicine in Atlanta. In 1996 he returned to UT Southwestern and now holds the George L. MacGregor Distinguished Chair in Biomedical Science.

Wang is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and received that organization's Award in Molecular Biology in 2004. Among his many honors, he has received the Hackerman Award in Chemical Research 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 2006 Shaw Prize in Mathematics will go jointly to David Mumford of Brown University and Wu Wentsun of the Chinese Academy of Sciences at Beijing, while the Prize in Astronomy will be awarded jointly to Saul Perlmutter of the University of California's Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, Adam Riess of the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, and Brian Schmidt of the Mount Stromlo Observatory at the Australian National University in Canberra.

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UT System Associate Vice Chancellor for Facilities Planning and Construction Appointed

Michael O'Donnell, assistant vice chancellor for health sciences projects at The University of California – Los Angeles, has been appointed associate vice chancellor for facilities planning and construction in The University of Texas System, effective August 14.

As associate vice chancellor for facilities planning and construction, O'Donnell will oversee all capital construction projects at the System's nine academic and six health institutions. The Office of Facilities Planning and Construction (OFPC) develops and implements the UT System's Capital Improvement Program as well as maintains a variety of system-wide facility related databases. OFPC is also responsible for managing or providing oversight for all major capital projects for the 15 institutions. The capital budget for 2006 – 2011 is currently $4.66 billion.

O'Donnell joined the UCLA capital projects executive staff in 2001. In that capacity, he oversaw a $2.5 billion capital project program for the UCLA Health Sciences campus.

Previously, he was vice president - health, safety and environmental management at Cleveland-based TRW, Inc., and held several positions with ARCO from 1985 to 1998.

O'Donnell holds a bachelor's degree in civil engineering from Drexel University, a master's degree in geological engineering from the University of Wisconsin, and a master's of business administration degree from the University of Denver.

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HHMI Helps Physicians Launch Careers in Research

The first few years as a junior faculty member at an academic medical center can make or break a physician who wants a career in biomedical research. Two reasons why new faculty physicians abandon plans for research careers are lack of flexible funding to accommodate the needs of new labs and lack of time to actually do research.

In fact, focus groups of young physicians—all of them alumni of training programs run by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI)—have identified the first few years as a junior faculty member as the most critical stage in a physician-scientist's career.

HHMI responded to these challenges by creating the Physician-Scientist Early Career Award program. It will provide US$150,000 over three years to promising physician-scientists in their early years as tenure-track faculty at academic medical centers. The money must be used for direct research expenses, and the recipients' institutions must agree to let the young physician-scientists spend at least 70 percent of their time doing research.

HHMI named the first 13 awardees this week. Many of them have already made impressive, original contributions to research in a variety of fields.

Vamsi Mootha, for example, is a clinician-researcher who uses large data-set, computer-based technologies such as genomics and proteomics to understand human disease. He used these tools to identify the gene and mutation associated with Leigh syndrome, a rare genetic disorder found in French Canada. Mootha, an assistant professor of medicine and systems biology at Harvard Medical School and the Center for Human Genetic Research at Massachusetts General Hospital, has been named a MacArthur Foundation fellow for his pioneering work in mitochondrial biology, identifying the genes underlying mitochondrial function in healthy and diseased cells. Mitochondria are the cellular structures responsible for energy metabolism.

Kimberly Stegmaier, an assistant professor of pediatric oncology at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, has done pioneering work with HHMI investigator Todd Golub, using gene chips to screen large numbers of molecules for potential usefulness as cancer drugs. Earlier this year, she and Golub used a novel screening method they developed to sort through 1,700 chemicals, finding 13 compounds that altered the gene profiles of cancerous cells in acute myeloid leukemia. One of those compounds is already in clinical trials at Dana Farber.

And Atul Butte, an assistant professor of medical informatics and pediatrics at Stanford University School of Medicine, combines a passion for computers with M.D.-Ph.D. training in medical endocrinology and bioinformatics. His research goal is to solve the genomic puzzle of type 2 diabetes. More than 30 types of high-throughput measurement and experimental techniques and more than 75 human diseases that have been studied using microarrays make it difficult to integrate all the data and figure out how it can be used to prevent or treat disease. Butte is developing novel computational techniques for analyzing and comparing large amounts of differing data. He co-authored one of the first books on microarray analysis, titled Microarrays for an Integrative Genomics.

HHMI already supports two programs to recruit future physician-scientists: the HHMI-NIH Research Scholars Program, which enables medical or dental students to spend a year doing research in laboratories at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and the HHMI Research Training Fellowships for Medical Students, which allows medical or dental students to conduct full-time research at any academic institution in the United States except the NIH.

HHMI established the Early Career Awards to encourage alumni of these HHMI programs to continue to pursue their interest in research once they accept academic positions. Only alumni of HHMI's medical and dental student research training programs are eligible to apply.

HHMI received nearly 50 applications for the first awards. A panel of leading physician-scientists reviewed the applications, evaluating the applicant's ability and promise for a research career as a physician-scientist. They considered the quality and quantity of formal research training, the commitment of the applicant's research institution, the quality of the research environment, the applicant's commitment to pursuing a biomedical research career, and the quality of the proposed research plan.

The three-year awards support individuals who have obtained full-time, tenure-track faculty positions at biomedical research institutions. The grants may not be used to replace or supplement salaries, or research expenses that would otherwise be supported by the institution.

HHMI's 2006 Early Career awardees are:

• Atul J. Butte, MD, PhD, Stanford University School of Medicine
• Jayanta Debnath, MD, UCSF School of Medicine
• Emad N. Eskandar, MD, Massachusetts General Hospital
• John L. Hartman, MD, University of Alabama School of Medicine
• Siavash Kurdistani, MD, UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine
• David Martin, MD, University of Washington School of Medicine
• Vamsi K. Mootha, MD, Massachusetts General Hospital
• Scott A. Oakes, MD, UCSF School of Medicine
• Alfredo Quinones-Hinojosa, MD, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
• Stelios M. Smirnakis, MD, PhD, Brigham and Women's Hospital
• Kimberly Stegmaier, MD, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
• Jennifer F. Tseng, MD, University of Massachusetts Medical School
• Catherine J. Wu, MD, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute

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Cambridge Lecturer Receives National Fellowship

Dr. Keith Johnstone, Senior Lecturer in the Department of Plant Sciences has won a national award for his part in improving teaching and learning across the biological sciences at the University of Cambridge.

The National Teaching Fellowship Scheme (NTFS) chose 50 winners from a record 242 nominations from universities and colleges across the country. The scheme recognizes individuals who have made an outstanding contribution to raising standards in higher education.

Through his experience as a lecturer and supervisor, Johnstone realized that students varied in the way they learnt and sometimes had unexpected needs. Working alongside the Centre for Applied Research in Educational Technologies (CARET), Johnstone developed 3-D computer models to help first-year biology students understand complex molecular structures.

In parallel, he introduced the online learning environment called ‘Coursework' for students taking courses in the Natural Sciences Tripos, and set up Cam Communities for their supervisors.

Johnstone is currently leading a ground-breaking project funded by the Cambridge-MIT Institute to devise and implement new teaching practices. The National Fellowship includes a prize of £10,000 (US$18,100) which will be used to support his future work.

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University of Nottingham Appoints UK's Only Female Professor of Brewing Science

The University of Nottingham has appointed the UK's only female Professor of Brewing Science.

Professor Katherine Smart, who has joined the University's School of Biosciences at its Sutton Bonington campus, is one of the country's leading experts in the fermentation of yeast — a process that is a major factor in determining the quality and flavor of the beer that we drink.

But it's not all about creating the perfect pint — the methods and materials used for brewing could hold the key to providing us with green fuels for our cars and power stations.

Professor Smart said: "Brewing science has a massive role to play in the future and the brewing industry has been the driving force behind new technologies that could provide replacements to fossil fuels, most noticeably the development of environmentally-friendly bioethanol."

Professor Smart's appointment, which has been sponsored with a grant of £167,000 (US$303,000) from the international brewer SABMiller, also marks the launch of a new postgraduate program at the University, an MSc in Brewing Science.

The new course, the first of its kind in England, will be delivered to brewers around the world via state-of-the-art e-learning technology. The syllabus will include looking at the effect of climate change on brewing, how best to design breweries and how to harness the natural properties of yeast during fermentation.

Professor Smart will join a number of colleagues at the University in the field of biosciences, chemistry, chemical engineering and environmental science, already working on brewing-related research.

Brewing-related research already taking place at the University includes:

• How the environment affects the raw brewing materials, such as malted barley crop quality, and the partial germination of barley, to improve the quality of crops and the brewing process
• Improving the flavour, colour and clarity of beer to produce a refreshing beverage
• Developing full-flavoured, reduced alcohol alternatives to promote responsible drinking
• Generating renewable energy by using spent grains from the brewing process to produce electricity and using the materials and processes of brewing to produce bioethanol fuel

Her appointment marks a return to the University where she studied for her first degree in biological sciences. She gained her Ph.D. while working in the research and development department at Bass Breweries in Burton-on-Trent and continued her career in academic research at Cambridge and Oxford Brookes universities.

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UTD Professor Elected to Policy Post at American Sociological Association

Dr. Paul A. Jargowsky, associate professor of political economy in the School of Social Sciences at The University of Texas at Dallas (UTD), has been elected to a three-year term as a member of the policy council of the Section on Community and Urban Sociology of the American Sociological Association (ASA). 

The ASA is a 14,000-member, non-profit organization based in Washington, D.C. that is dedicated to advancing sociology as a scientific discipline and a profession serving the public good.  The association's Section on Community and Urban Sociology is made up of more than 600 members who explore new social theory and develop empirical research on groups living, working, and communicating across geographical boundaries, including cities, suburbs, and rural areas, as well as electronic communities and other spaces.  Jargowsky was a member of the section's Robert E. Park Award Committee from 2000 to 2002, and chaired the committee in 2001.  The Park Award recognizes the best newly published book each year in community and urban affairs.

Jargowsky's principal research interests are inequality, the geographical concentration of poverty and residential segregation by race and class.  He is director of UTD's Bruton Center for Development Studies, which conducts basic and applied research about the trends and public policies related to urban and regional development.  He also is the director of the Texas Schools Project, which uses administrative data from Texas public schools and colleges to study issues in education.  Jargowsky is a senior research affiliate of the National Poverty Center, located at the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan.