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The ASCB Minorities Affairs Committee has selected Erich D. Jarvis to receive the 2015 E.E. Just Award. Jarvis is a neurobiologist who investigates vocal learning in birds as a model with which to study how the brain generates, perceives, and learns complex behavior such as spoken language. He is currently an associate professor in the Department of Neurobiology at Duke University Medical Center and is also an investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI), a position he has held since 2008.

Julie Ann Sosa, MD, professor in the Department of Surgery at Duke University Medical School, is a member of the 2015-2016 Class of fellows for The Hedwig van Ameringen Executive Leadership in Academic Medicine® (ELAM) Program at Drexel University College of Medicine. This year’s class is the 21st incoming class for ELAM®, the only program in North America dedicated to preparing women for senior leadership roles in academic health science institutions.

Murali Doraiswamy, MBBS, professor of psychiatry and director of the Neurocognitive Disorders Program, has been appointed to serve as the chair of the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on Brain Research. Neuroscience is increasingly prominent on the global agenda. Currently, two of the world’s largest multidisciplinary science projects are the BRAIN Initiative in the United States and the Human Brain Project in the European Union.

Two members of the Duke community have been inducted as members of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, one of the nation’s oldest learned societies and independent policy research centers. This year’s class of 147 new inductees included A. Eugene Washington, M.D., chancellor for health affairs at Duke University, and Marc G. Caron, Ph.D., James B. Duke Professor in the Department of Cell Biology.

 

Healthcare facilities continue to battle drug-resistant organisms such as methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) that loiter on surfaces even after patient rooms have been cleaned and can cause new, sometimes-deadly infections.

MMCi is a one-year program that began in 2009 within Duke’s Fuqua School of Business. Three years ago, the program moved to the School of Medicine, and is partially supported with Duke CTSA funds. The program combines the business knowledge of an MBA with the technical knowledge of an informatics degree, with an intense focus on how both affect the world of medicine.

Eda Yildirim, PhD, a new faculty member in the medical school’s department of cell biology, is among a growing movement of Duke scientists trying to understand how genes are silenced or activated in both health and disease. DNA still gets the most press, but what Yildirim finds more interesting is the RNA molecules that interact with DNA in myriad ways to control its operations.

Students from the Durham Nativity School recently participated in a unique, hands-on surgical skills workshop as part of a new educational outreach program from the Duke University Department of Surgery in the School of Medicine.

Students, faculty, staff and alumni of the Duke Physician Assistant Program celebrated the program’s 50th anniversary in October, marking the milestone of being the first physician assistant (PA) program in the nation and the birthplace of the PA profession.