DukeMed Alumni News

Election to NAM is considered one of the highest honors in the fields of health and medicine and recognizes individuals who have demonstrated outstanding professional achievement and commitment to service.

Kafui Dzirasa, MD, PhD, and Cagla Eroglu, PhD, have been named Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) investigators. HHMI provides its researchers with long-term flexible funding that gives them the freedom to explore and, if necessary, change direction. Becoming a HHMI investigator is a tremendous scientific achievement.

A surgical team at Duke University Hospital, led by Drs. Jacob Schroder and Carmelo Milano, successfully implanted a new-generation artificial heart in a 39-year-old man with heart failure, becoming the first center in North America to perform the procedure. 

This spring, nine faculty members in the Duke University School of Medicine have been awarded distinguished professorships. In total, Duke University awarded distinguished professors to 22 faculty members from eight Duke colleges and schools this year. Distinguished professorships are awarded to faculty who have demonstrated extraordinary scholarship in advancing science and improving human health. 

The 2021 recipients from the School of Medicine are:

A family foundation established by the late Dudley Rauch, has pledged $30 million to establish an endowment for need-based financial aid for medical students.

Philip Gold is arguably the world’s foremost expert on the neuroendocrine underpinnings of psychiatry and a pioneering investigator of the pathophysiology of major depression. Among many major contributions, he developed the prevailing hypothesis that depression represents a systematic dysregulation of the central nervous system stress system.

L. Ebony Boulware, MD'95, MPH, is a nationally known researcher, educator, and academic leader who has made fundamental contributions to improving the quality and equity of health care and outcomes for individuals and populations affected by chronic health conditions including kidney disease and hypertension.

Debara L. Tucci is a national expert on the causes, impact, and treatment of hearing impairment and loss. She is director of the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Prior to going to NIH in 2019, she was on faculty in the Department of Head and Neck Surgery & Communication Sciences at Duke University School of Medicine for 26 years.

Lejla Vajzovic has established an international reputation as a rising star in vitreoretinal surgery, research, and teaching. She is an ophthalmologist and vitreoretinal surgeon with expertise in pediatric and adult retinal diseases and surgery. She is interested in cutting edge technologies and recovery of vision in hereditary retinal diseases with retinal implants and stem cell technology.

Debara Tucci is a national expert on the causes, impact, and treatment of hearing impairment and loss. She is director of the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Prior to going to NIH in 2019, she was on faculty in the Department of Head and Neck Surgery & Communication Sciences at Duke University School of Medicine for 26 years.