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the 2012 UIC Inventor of the Year and Craig Niederberger, MD, the 2012 UIC Innovator of the Year. The Inventor of the Year Mahnaz Shahidi award honors contributions to the development of intellectual property that has the potential to make a significant impact. Shahidi's invention, an Craig Niederberger optical imaging device (EyeFlow) that measures blood flow in the conjunctiva of the eye, has the potential to provide a cost-effective means to diagnose and screen for the risk of stroke. The Innovator of the Year Award honors an innovator or team of innovators who have significantly advanced their invention toward commercialization, either by participating in the licensing process or through entrepreneurial efforts. Niederberger is co-inventor of a medical device that accurately measures the amount of force applied to the urethra as well as the co-founder and chief technology officer of the company NexHand, which is developing the invention for use in the surgical treatment of stress urinary incontinence in women. RAO Gets CAMPUS DIVERSITY POST, NATIONAL FELLOWSHIP Mrinalini (Meena) Rao, PhD, a professor in the department of physiology and biophysics, has been named as the interim special assistant to the provost for diversity. The Office of Diversity initiates programs to support successful diversity within all groups in academic affairs and provides leadership and guidance for campuswide units. Separately, Rao has been named a fellow of the Mrinalini (Meena) Rao American Association for the Advancement of Science for what the association described as her "distinguished contributions to the gastroenterological field, particularly to intestinal epithelial transport, and VOZENILEK NAMED CMO OF SIMULATION John Vozenilek, MD, has been hired as the chief medical officer of simulation at the Jump Trading Simulation and Education Center in Peoria, a collaboration between OSF HealthCare and Illinois Medicine used for education, credentialing, research and performance improvement. Vozenilek comes to Peoria from Chicago, where he was director of the Northwestern McGaw Simulation Network at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine, John Vozenilek and an attending physician in the emergency department at Northwestern Memorial Hospital. Vozenilek has substantial experience in medical education with both standardized patients and high-fidelity human patient simulation. He is a leader in the Society of Academic Emergency Medicine's Simulation Academy and the designer and editor of that society's case library for simulation, and he is the medical advisor for the Chicago testing center for Part 2 CS of the United States Medical Licensure Exam. Vozenilek has been the principal investigator on the AHRQ (Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality) funded project "Simulation-Based Training Program to Augment Electronic Medical Record-Based Hand-off Tool." HICKNER APPOINTED FAMILY MEDICINE HEAD John Hickner, MD, MPH, has been appointed head of family medicine on the Chicago campus. Hickner arrives from the Cleveland Clinic, where he practiced in family medicine and established the Medicine Institute Center for Research and Innovation. Hickner was the founding director of the American Academy of Family Physicians and founded four national, state and regional primary care research networks. He has participated John Hickner in more than 80 research projects as investigator or co-investigator and written more than 100 publications; his recent work has dealt with primary care, safety culture and improving the safety of testing and medication management. Hickner is also a founding member of The Journal of Patient Safety's editorial board and the editor-in-chief of the Journal of Family Practice. for leadership in academic affairs and diversity." As vice provost for faculty affairs from 2002-2007, Rao led the campus in successfully garnering the NSF-funded Women in Science and Engineering System Transformation grant. As vice president for academic affairs for the University of Illinois from 2007-11, Rao was the chief academic officer of the university, helping to shape academic and budgetary policies and priorities. SZEWCZYK HONORED BY ILLINOIS SOCIETY OF ANESTHESIOLOGISTS John E. Szewczyk, MD '72, has received the Illinois Society of Anesthesiologists Distinguished Service Award presented to physicians or scientists who have made outstanding John E. Szewczyk contributions to the society and/or the field of anesthesiology in the state of Illinois. Szewczyk has practiced at Rockford Anesthesiologists Associated LLC in Loves Park, Ill., since 1976 and also serves as a clinical assistant professor at the college. He is a member of the American Society of Anesthesiologists, Illinois Society of Anesthesiologists, American Medical Association, Illinois State Medical Society and Winnebago County Medical Society. ZAKHARIAN NAMED ASSISTANT PROFESSOR AT CANCER RESEARCH CENTER Eleonora Zakharian, PhD, has joined the College of Medicine at Peoria as its first recruit for the new Eleonora Zakharian Cancer Research Center. The former assistant professor at New Jersey Medical School in Newark has been named assistant professor of cancer biology, and she and her two research assistants are focusing on the fields of biophysics, biochemistry and molecular biology. Zakharian received a grant of about $1 million from the National Institutes of Health last year, which she will use here to continue her research in studying how cells, particularly cancer cells, communicate with one another and how to regulate or inhibit their growth. She and her research assistants are setting up laboratory equipment on the first floor of the $13 million research center. illinois medicine | 11