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faculty news The lates t accompl i shment s of our di s t ingui shed facul ty BECKER CHOSEN AS CLINICAL SENIOR ASSOCIATE DEAN Bryan Neil Becker, MD, MMM, has been appointed senior associate dean for clinical affairs and professor of medicine at the University of Illinois College of Medicine at Chicago. Becker previ- ously taught at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, where he received an appointment in 1997, before joining the College of Medicine. He has published more than 130 articles and book chapters and has a prolific history as a lecturer and abstract presenter, with particular research and clinical interests in kidney transplantation. Becker received his Doctor of Medicine degree in 1988 from the University of Kansas School of Medicine and took his residency in internal medicine at the Duke University Medical Center, followed by a research fellowship at Duke's division of nephrology and a clinical research fellowship on that same topic from Vanderbilt University in Nashville. Becker holds a Master of Medical Management degree from Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine. He remains active in national societies, including the American Society of Nephrology and the American Society of Transplantation, and he is a fellow in the American College of Physicians. WEINER NAMED EDUCATIONAL AFFAIRS SENIOR ASSOCIATE DEAN Saul Jeremy Weiner, MD, has been appointed senior associ- ate dean for educational affairs. He had served as interim senior associate dean since January 2010. An associate professor of medicine and pediatrics, Weiner has served as program direc- tor of the medicine-pediatrics residency, chief of the division of general pediatrics and adolescent medicine, and associate head of clinical affairs for the department of pediatrics on the Chicago campus. He is also a staff physician at the Jesse Brown VA Medical Center and serves as deputy director of the Center for Management of Complex Chronic Care, a Veterans Administration Health Services Research and Development Center of Excel- lence. In 2009 Weiner received an AΩA clinical teaching award selected by the students on the Chicago campus. His pioneering research examining physicians' skills at individualizing care (see "Out of Context," page 9) and developing evidence-based educational methods for improving decision making has received national and international acclaim. A graduate of Harvard University, Weiner received his Doctor of Medicine from Dartmouth Medical School and completed his residency in internal medicine and pediatrics at the University of Chicago. LEWANDOWSKI TO DIRECT CARDIO RESEARCH CENTER E. Douglas Lewandowski, PhD, has been appointed as director of the Center for Cardiovascular Research at the College of Medi- cine. A professor of both physiol- ogy & biophysics, and medicine, Lewandowski began teaching at the University of Illinois at Chicago in 2000 and has served as director of the Integrative Cardiac Metabolism Program. Lewandowski's innova- tive research examines cardiovas- cular physiology and biochemistry through nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy and imaging, along with metabolic regulation by enzyme activity and expression in intact tissues. Lewandowski received his master's in science in physiology from the University of Illinois and his PhD in radiological sciences at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas. He previ- ously served on the Harvard Medical School faculty at Massachusetts General Hospital. He assumes the leadership from former co-directors R. John Solaro, PhD, and Samuel Dudley, MD, PhD, who will continue to vigorously participate in the center's work. KITTLES JOINS FACULTY Rick Kittles, PhD, has joined the College of Medicine at Chicago as an associate professor for hematology/on- cology. Kittles is widely known for his research into the genetics of prostate cancer and health disparities among African-Americans. He also has been at the forefront of the develop- ment of ancestry-informative genetic markers and how genetic ancestry can be used to map genes for common traits and disease. In addi- tion to his research, he is scientific director and co-founder of African Ancestry, Inc., a private company that provides DNA testing services for tracing African genetic lineages. Kittles earned a BS degree in biol- ogy from the Rochester Institute of Technology (1989), an MS degree in biology from the State University of New York at Brockport (1991) and a PhD in biology from George Wash- ington University in Washington, D.C. (1998). He previously was an associate professor of medicine at the University of Chicago's Pritzker School of Medicine. MILLER RECEIVES PRESTIGIOUS HOWE MEDAL Marilyn Miller, MD, professor of ophthalmology at the College of Medicine at Chicago, has received the Howe Medal by the Ameri- can Ophthalmology Society, the specialty's premier professional society. First awarded in 1922, the medal recognizes years of devotion to the science of ophthalmology. Miller's clinical and research work have taken her to Sweden, South America and Nigeria. She also served as the first female president of both the American Society of Ophthalmologists and American Association of Pediatric Ophthalmol- ogy and Strabismus. FOX WINS AWARD FOR PSYCHIATRIC EDUCATORS Geri Fox, MD '83, MHPE '04, professor of clinical psychiatry and adjunct professor of medical education, was selected for this year's Roberts Award for Inspirational Mentorship 12 | WINT ER 2 011