Academic Honors & Events

Professional Recognition — The board of regents of the American College of Physicians (ACP) has elected Dr. T.S. Dharmarajan to mastership. This honor is bestowed upon individuals based on “personal character, positions of honor, contributions towards furthering the purposes of the ACP, eminence in practice or in medical research or other attainments in science or in the art of medicine.”  Dr. Dharmarajan is professor of medicine at Einstein, as well as vice chair of medicine at Montefiore’s Wakefield campus, clinical director of the division of geriatrics, director of the geriatric medicine fellowship program sponsored by Einstein and associate dean of the New York Medical College. He also is a fellow of the ACP and of the American Geriatrics Society.

Honorary Distinction — Dr. Richard Kitsis has been selected to receive the 2013 President's Distinguished Lecture Award by the Council of the International Society for Heart Research (ISHR). In connection with this honor, which recognizes leading investigators in fields related to cardiovascular health, he delivered the keynote plenary lecture. The Kitsis lab has substantially furthered our understanding of heart attacks, heart failure and heart transplants. More recently, Dr. Kitsis and colleagues have focused on developing small-molecule drugs that reduce damage caused by acute myocardial infarction. Dr. Kitsis is professor of medicine (cardiology) and of cell biology, as well as director of the Wilf Family Cardiovascular Research Institute. He also holds the Dr. Gerald and Myra Dorros Chair in Cardiovascular Disease.

Honorable Service — Dr. Adam Friedman is serving as president of the dermatology section of the New York Academy of Medicine, and Dr. Karthik Krishnamurthy is serving as secretary. Dr. Friedman is assistant professor of medicine (dermatology) and of physiology & biophysics; Dr. Krishnamurthy is assistant professor of medicine (dermatology) and director of the division of dermatology.

PREP-ing for the Future ­­— Dr. Myles Akabas has been awarded a $1.4 million grant over four years from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences. The grant will support the establishment of a Post-Baccalaureate Research Education Program (PREP) at Einstein. The racial and ethnic diversity of the American population is not reflected in the biomedical workforce or faculty at research universities and medical schools; PREP provides underrepresented minority college graduates with a year-long intensive research experience that will allow them to be competitive applicants to rigorous Ph.D. and M.D.-Ph.D. programs. PREP will combine didactic and experiential learning components, community outreach through visits to local Bronx high schools and mentorship at all levels. Dr. Akabas is director of the Medical Scientist Training Program (MSTP) at Einstein, as well as professor in the departments of physiology and biophysics, neuroscience and medicine. PREP is co-directed by Drs. Victoria Freedman, associate dean of graduate studies, and Genevieve Neal-Perry, associate dean for diversity mentoring.

Highlighting the Functional Connectome — Dr. Scott Emmons has been selected as a presenter for the Neuroscience 2013 Presidential Special Lecture Series, to be held in San Diego this fall. This prestigious series, hosted by the Society for Neuroscience, features a variety of presentations that advance research related to the connectome, a comprehensive map of neural connections in the brain. Dr. Emmons’ presentation will center on how the connectome of the roundworm C. elegans reveals the neural pathways that underlie its voluntary behavior. He is professor of genetics and in the Dominick P. Purpura Department of Neuroscience, and he holds the Siegfried Ullmann Chair in Molecular Genetics.

Eradicating Implicit Bias — Dr. Cristina Gonzalez has received the Harold Amos Medical Faculty Development Program (AMFDP) Award from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation for her proposed project on educational research.  The AMFDP provides four-year postdoctoral research awards to historically disadvantaged physicians committed to developing careers in academic medicine, improving the health of underserved populations and furthering the understanding and elimination of health disparities. Dr. Gonzalez is the first physician since 1996 to receive this highly prestigious award for work in educational research. Her project involves the development and evaluation of a medical school curriculum in order to address implicit bias and its negative health consequences for patients, as well as its contribution to healthcare disparities. Dr. Gonzalez is assistant professor of medicine.

Honorable Mention — Dr. Evripidis Gavathiotis has been selected as a Kimmel Scholar Program grant recipient by the Sidney Kimmel Foundation for Cancer Research. The honor recognizes Dr. Gavathiotis’ work concerning direct targeting of pro-apoptotic BAX as a therapeutic strategy to restore cancer cell death. The Kimmel Scholar Program offers a two-year grant totaling $200,000 to 15 research scientists and medical doctors from across the United States, to advance the careers of gifted, young cancer research scientists who have demonstrated great promise and innovation in the early stages of their work. Dr. Gavathiotis is assistant professor of biochemistry and of medicine.

Honorable Distinction — Dr. Allan Wolkoff has received the 2012 Distinguished Scientific Achievement Award from the American Liver Foundation, which is among the Foundation’s most prestigious honors. The award recognizes a scientist who has made a major contribution to the study of liver pathobiology and the prevention, treatment or cure of liver disease. Dr. Wolkoff is professor of medicine and of anatomy and structural biology, as well as chief of the division of gastroenterology and liver disease.