FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
January 25, 2002
#02-02

NIEHS CONTACT:
Tom Hawkins
(919) 541-1402

25 Jan 2002: NIEHS' Dr. Paul Nettesheim Recipient of International Award

Paul Nettesheim, M.D., D.M.S., Senior Science Advisor to the Director of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (http://www.niehs.nih.gov), has been named recipient of a Humboldt Research Award for Senior U.S. Scientists (http://www.avh.de/en/programme/preise/pt.htm) . This prestigious award recognizes lifetime career achievements and provides for extended stays to conduct research collaborations in Germany with German colleagues.

Dr. Nettesheim recently completed 18 months as Acting Scientific Director and head of the Division of Intramural Research at NIEHS, and before that served as chief of the Laboratory of Pulmonary Pathobiology (http://www.niehs.nih.gov/research/atniehs/labs/lrb/index.cfm) at NIEHS since 1977. He joined NIEHS from a supervisory research position at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (http://www.ornl.gov/) in Tennessee.

Dr. Nettesheim has published widely in scientific journals, served on editorial boards, and given numbers of invited lectures, and he has received international recognition for his work in cellular and molecular pathobiology of the respiratory tract. He will use his stays in Germany to study early molecular alterations in human bronchial cells exposed to air pollutants, working primarily with colleagues at the Fraunhofer Institute, which is affiliated with the University of Hannover, in Hannover, Germany. Dr. Nettesheim plans two stays in Hannover, from May to July 2002, and again in 2003.

NIEHS Director Dr. Kenneth Olden (http://www.niehs.nih.gov/about/od/pastdirectors/kennetholden.cfm) said, "This award recognizes Dr. Nettesheim's highly distinguished research career and at the same time builds on his research contributions through collaborations at one of Europe's finest research institutes. This is truly an honor to both Dr. Nettesheim and NIEHS."

The Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, which confers the award, is a non-profit foundation established by the Federal Republic of Germany for the promotion of international research cooperation.

The NIEHS is a component of the National Institutes of Health. Located in Research Triangle Park, N.C., NIEHS is the only one of the National Institutes of Health (http://www.nih.gov) not headquartered in Bethesda, MD.