Minority Program
Director Is a 'Professor of Year'
 Dr.
Carlos G. Gutierrez, director of two NIGMS minority programs
at California State University, Los Angeles, was recently honored
as a U.S. Professor of the Year. The award, established by the
Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and the Council
for Advancement and Support of Education, went to four individuals
this year in recognition of their extraordinary dedication to
undergraduate teaching. Gutierrez, a professor of chemistry,
directs the NIGMS-funded Minority Access to Research Careers
and Minority Biomedical Research Support programs. He is also
a former member of the National Advisory General Medical Sciences
Council. "Dr. Gutierrez is well known as an energetic and effective
advocate for student and faculty development, particularly through
his efforts to encourage underrepresented minority students to
enter the sciences. He shows us what is possible and sets a standard
for others to follow," said Dr. Clifton Poodry, director of the
NIGMS Division of Minority Opportunities in Research. Over the
course of his career, Gutierrez is credited with mentoring more
than 200 students.
NIBIB Welcomes New Interdisciplinary Training
Director
 Dr.
Richard Baird recently joined the National Institute of Biomedical
Imaging and Bioengineering as director of the Division of Interdisciplinary
Training. His specialty areas include extramural training and career
development. Prior to joining NIBIB, he was director of research
at the Harold W. Siebens Hearing Research Center at the Central Institute
for the Deaf in St. Louis. Baird received his doctorate in electrical
engineering and computer sciences from the University of California,
Berkeley. Following a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of
Chicago, he became a research scientist at the R.S. Dow Neurological
Sciences Institute and an adjunct faculty member in the department
of physiology and pharmacology at Oregon Health Sciences University
in Portland. In 1998, he became head of the Fay and Carl Simons Center
for Biology and Hearing and Deafness at the Central Institute for
the Deaf, Spencer T. Olin professor in the department of speech and
hearing at Washington University, and an adjunct faculty member of
the department of otolaryngology and the department of anatomy and
neurobiology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.
He also founded and directed the Inner Ear Consortium, a group encouraging
collaboration among researchers working on the development, function
and regeneration of the inner ear and supporting state-of-the-art
core facilities in digital imaging, electron microscopy, molecular
biology and electronic services.
NICHD Council Gains Six
Recently, six new members were appointed to the
National Advisory Child Health and Human Development Council. Shown
are (back row, from l) Dr. Judith G.
Hall, professor, department of pediatrics at British
Columbia's Children's Hospital in Vancouver; Dr.
Ralph Kauffman, chair of the medical research department
at Children's Mercy Hospital in Kansas City; Dr.
Sergio R. Ojeda, senior scientist and division head
at the Oregon National Primate Research Center in Beaverton, Ore.; Dr.
Donald Stein, Asa G.
Candler professor of emergency medicine at Emory
University School of Medicine in Atlanta; and Dr.
William Z. Rymer, director, department of research,
Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago. Not available for the photo
was new council member Tracey Klein, an attorney with Reinhart, Boerner,
Van Deuren, S.C., in Milwaukee. Shown in the front row are NICHD
deputy director Dr. Yvonne Maddox (l)
and institute director Dr. Duane Alexander.
Grantee Jarvis Featured on 'Nova'
 The
public television show NOVA scienceNOW recently featured an NIH grantee
who is also a former participant in two NIGMS minority programs.
A profile of Dr. Erich D. Jarvis,
an associate professor in the department of neurobiology at Duke
University Medical Center, aired on Oct. 18. The profile, available
online at http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/sciencenow/3214/03.html,
provides insight into Jarvis's decision to change his career aspirations
from a dancer to a scientist and describes his research on vocal
communication in songbirds. He participated in the NIGMS Minority
Biomedical Research Support and Minority Access to Research Careers
(MARC) programs as an undergraduate student at the City University
of New York, Hunter College, where he received a bachelor's degree
in biology and mathematics in 1988. He went on to become a MARC predoctoral
fellow at the Rockefeller University, receiving a Ph.D. in molecular
neurobiology and animal behavior in 1995. He is currently an NIMH
and NIDCD grantee and is among the 13 recipients of this year's NIH
Director's Pioneer Awards.
ASHA Honors NINDS's Ludlow
Dr. Christy Ludlow,
chief of the laryngeal and speech section of the NINDS Medical
Neurology Branch, recently received the Honors of the Association
Award from the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA).
The award recognizes individuals who have made outstanding contributions
to the field of speech, language and hearing, and is ASHA's highest
honor.
 Ludlow was chosen because of her research contributions that have
increased understanding of spasmodic dysphonia and other neurologically
based voice disorders and provided new treatment strategies for
people with these disorders. Her research has emphasized neurophysiological,
neuromuscular, behavioral, modeling and brain imaging approaches.
Ludlow first came to NIH in 1974 as a speech pathologist in the
NINDS Communicative Disorders Program. She later became head of
the speech pathology unit in the institute's Intramural Research
Program. In 1989, she joined NIDCD as head of the speech and voice
unit, and in 1999 she returned to NINDS as chief of the laryngeal
and speech section. Her current research is funded in part by NIDCD.
ASHA is a national professional scientific association of more
than 120,000 audiologists, speech-language pathologists and speech,
language and hearing scientists. This year, Ludlow was one of five
professionals to receive the Honors award at ASHA's national convention,
held Nov. 18-20 in San Diego.
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