Grantees Win Award for Inventions
Two long-time NIH grantees, Dr. Barry M. Trost and Dr. Thomas E. Starzl, recently received the 2004 John Scott Award. Trost, an organic chemist at Stanford University, was honored for discovering new methods of chemical synthesis that create environmentally friendly molecules useful for drug development. Starzl, a professor of surgery at the University of Pittsburgh, was recognized for his outstanding contributions to organ transplantation, including establishing the principles of immunosuppression.
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Since the 1960s, Trost has received grants from NIGMS, NCRR and NCI, and Starzl has been funded by NIDDK (and its predecessor), NCRR and NCI.
The 170-year-old John Scott Award honors individuals whose inventions have contributed in some outstanding way to the "comfort, welfare and happiness" of humanity. Previous winners include Jonas Salk, Marie Curie and Thomas Edison. The $15,000 prizes were presented to Trost and Starzl at a ceremony held in Philadelphia.
Wilcox Gets High Marks for Mentoring
NIEHS's Dr. Allen Wilcox got top ratings for characteristics postdoctoral trainees rated as very important or extremely important to their success: mentoring, direction and visions, funding and grants, assistance in finding employment and networking. Science magazine, which conducted an online survey of postdocs last spring, listed Wilcox among the top principal investigators who mentored postdocs. Respondents rated 12 characteristics of their principal investigator, and five characteristics of institutes hosting postdocs. Science recently listed NIEHS as the third best place in the U.S. for postdocs.
NIEHS's Cao Honored
Heping Cao, a research fellow on the Environmental Biology Program at NIEHS, received the Acres of Diamonds Award at the recent Minority Trainee Research Forum meeting in Miami. The award was recognition for Cao's oral presentation and poster: "The Anti-Inflammatory Tristetraprolin Is a Low Abundance, Inducible, Stable, Cytosolic, and Hyper-Phosphorylated mRNA-Binding Protein" (by Cao and Perry J. Blackshear) and "Immunological Characterization of Tristetraprolin as a Low Abundance, Inducible, Stable Cytosolic Protein" (by Cao, Blackshear and Jane Tuttle).
Sandler Named 'Eco-Superstar'
NIEHS's Dr. Dale Sandler has been selected for Organic Style magazine's Environmental Power List of 50 "heroes" who are doing their part to make the planet a better place. Sandler is the NIEHS chief of epidemiology and principal investigator of the Sister Study on breast cancer. The magazine editors identified people they consider "eco-superstars" from a variety of fields, and looked for specific achievements by each. The list was published in the November 2004 issue of Organic Style. Sandler is ranked 18 for her work with the Sister Study, which recently began nationwide recruiting for 50,000 sisters of breast cancer victims. The study will work to identify environmental causes of breast cancer.
'SeniorHealth' Web Site Honored
NIHSeniorHealth.gov, a web site with formats and topics specially tailored to the needs of older people, has won a 2004 Industry Innovators Award from the International Council on Active Aging (ICAA), the world's largest trade association for the senior fitness and wellness industry. NIA educational research specialist Stephanie Dailey (l) and head of NLM's reference section Joyce Backus (r) join ICAA Chief Executive Officer Colin Milner to accept the award. The ICAA presented six such awards at its recent "Active Aging 2004" conference in Orlando. The award-winning site at http://www.nihseniorhealth.gov is a joint project of NLM and NIA.
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