YEAR IN REVIEW
2007-2008
FUNDING: Despite the very difficult funding environment at NIH, NSF and other agencies, 2007-2008, overall, was another excellent year in which the department continued to excel in education, research and service. Research funding in the department was $6,559,026 (total costs) in NIH support. Our department is ranked 10th nationally in research funding among all public University Physiology Departments. Also noteworthy is the fact that during the year, our faculty held more NIH grants than any other department at the Medical Center. Nearly every faculty member’s research program was supported by major external funding.
EDUCATION: This year completed the transition to the new curriculum focusing on integration across disciplines. Dr. Merrill Tarr, Director of Medical Education for the department, continues to play a major role in running the new integrated modules for which our department has primary responsibility - Cardiopulmonary and Renal-Endocrine. The wrinkles continue to be smoothed out in the new curriculum and the students seem to have a favorable view of it compared to the old curriculum. To the credit of all the individual faculty instructors and particularly to Merrill, the Cardiopulmonary and Renal-Endocrine modules were both rated highly by the students. This was also another successful year in terms of teaching awards. At the “Grande Affair” celebration on April 5th, Dr. John Wood and Dr. Gustavo Blanco again were recognized for excellence in teaching. They each won the Student Voice Award for “Outstanding Lecturer” in the first year of the medical curriculum. We congratulate both John and Gustavo on their continuing success. This year we were especially pleased that our department was also recipient of the “Outstanding Module in the First Year” award which went to the Cardio-pulmonary module. Dr. Tarr serves as director of this module and he deserves a lot of credit for its success. There was still another winner at the Grand Affair this year. A couple of really big “big screens” made it possible for all of us to delight in watching the KU Jayhawks demolish the North Carolina Tar Heals (boo!) in the semifinals of the NCAA basketball tournament. The Jayhawks went on to become national champions by beating Memphis in the final game. Finally, congratulations goes to Dr. Peter Smith who won the 2006-2007 Chancellor’s Club Award for outstanding classroom teaching. He was honored at the 135th commencement in Lawrence.
Marion M. Osborn Professorship: Congratulations to Dr. Leslie Heckert on being named the first Marion M. Osborn Professor. The investiture ceremony was held Thursday October 9th just before the opening reception of the Greenwald Symposium. Leslie has excelled in every respect. Her research is concerned with the molecular mechanisms that regulate cellular differentiation and organ development in the reproductive system. We are all deeply indebted to Marion and Jim Osborn for their enormous generosity in supporting our department.
TENURE TRACK APPOINTMENTS: This year there were no new appointments to the tenure track in our department.
RESEARCH TRACK APPOINTMENTS: Two appointments to the research track were made during the year. Dora Krizsan-Agbas, Ph.D. was appointed at the assistant professor level. Dora has been an important member of Peter Smith’s research team for the past 10 years. Susan Smittkamp, Ph.D., was also appointed at the assistant professor level. Susan currently works with Dr. John Stanford. She is pursuing independent funding opportunities in the ALS field.
ADJUNCT APPOINTMENTS: There were several new joint appointments at the assistant professor level. Issac Onyango Ph.D. is an assistant professor in the Department of Neurology. His work focuses on the pathophysiology of Alzheimer’s disease. Mukta Kumar, MD, MPH was given a joint appointment. She is currently Assistant Professor in Pediatrics, Division of Hematology Oncology. Her research interest is vascular aspects of sickle cell disease. Two faculty members at Stowers Institute for Medical Research were also given joint appointments. Peter Baumann, PhD is currently assistant investigator at Stowers. His work focuses on how defects in telomere maintenance contribute to cancerogenesis and aging. Sue Jaspersen, PhD is also assistant investigator at Stowers. Her work focuses on mechanisms responsible for accurate transmission of genetic and epigenetic information during cell division. The final joint appointment of the year was for Mark Chertoff, PhD at the associate professor level. Mark’s primary appointment is in Hearing & Speech. He works on the peripheral auditory system. Important synergies with our department exist for each of these individuals and we look forward to their participation in the research and teaching programs of the department.
FACULTY PROMOTIONS: Congratulations to Leslie Heckert and Joe Tash who were both promoted to full professor.
FACULTY DEPARTURES: There were no faculty departures during the year.
GRADUATE PROGRAM AND PHYSIOLOGY SOCIETY: The graduate students in the department had another active year. The “Physiology Society” leadership included Emily McDonald as President, Sara Turk as Vice President, Argenia Doss as Social Event Coordinator. We are very pleased with the growth of the graduate program in Physiology. In August of 2007, seven new students were recruited to the department. We now have 27 doctoral students in the department. Three students completed their degrees during the year. Gregory Onyszchuk received his Ph.D. with Dr. Bill Brooks, Director of the Hoglund Brain Imaging Center. Greg has plans to continue at Hoglund as a postdoctoral fellow working on a project with Dr. Jules Nazzaro in Neurosurgery. Darcy Griffin received her Ph.D. with Dr. Paul Cheney. She will continue in Paul’s lab as postdoctoral fellow before be going on to a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Pittsburgh Center for Neuroscience. Anh Nguyet Nguyen completed her Ph.D. with Dr. Gustavo Blanco. Anh will continue in Gustavo’s lab as a postdoctoral fellow.
Prepared by:
Dr. Paul D. Cheney
Professor and Chair
December 16, 2008
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The University of Kansas Medical Center