It is the dead of winter. The solstice ushered it in, but only presaged the snow and cold we see in a Cleveland winter. The grey skies close in, and it is the dead of winter.
What brightens the winter days for us? In many instances, glowing awards for our faculty and students. This winter has seen the award of Outstanding Investigator Awards (grants!) to four of our faculty: Mukesh Jain (NHLBI), Sandy Markowitz (NCI), Jarocz Maciejewski (NHLBI), and Bruce Trapp (NINDS). How impressive! Two of our faculty were elected to the National Academy of Medicine – Mukesh Jain and Stan Hazen. Sandy Markowitz also received the Hamdan Award for Medical Research Excellence - Colon Disorders in Dubai … a prize that has foreshadowed the Lasker Award and even the Nobel for prior recipients.
It was a fabulous, bright year for our cardiology and cancer researchers!
But that wasn’t all. Vice Dean for Research Mark Chance was elected as an AAAS fellow. Brian Grimberg received the Patent for Humanity Award. Earlier in the year, Jon Karn had received the Drexel Prize for Translational Medicine. Three more of our shining stars.
Our fabulous HoloAnatomy project is now in Davos at the World Economic Summit, invited by Microsoft. This project has been awarded many prizes this year and last.
MSTP student Gloria Taverna was named to Forbes list of 30 under 30 for her work to assure availability of new medicines to patients in less developed countries. What a gleaming achievement! The next generation is on the rise.
Other achievements also glow. All of our fourth year students who pursued a match in ophthalmology achieved it. And I received an email from one of our alumni, the chair of a top department of surgery, who reported that of the only 30 students who were selected for interviews for his highly competitive cardiothoracic surgery program, three were from CWRU. The students continue to achieve mightily, securing top residencies, prizes, fellowships, and developing their clinical and moral compasses.
It may be the dead of winter, but our faculty and students light up the days. Somehow it’s not so grey anymore, nor so cold. The warmth, caring, and brilliance of our academic community shine through.
Pam