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DIMITRI AZAR APPOINTED INTERIM DEAN OF COLLEGE Uretz Oliphant named interim regional dean in Urbana-Champaign T 20 | SUMMER 2 011 PHOTO: ROBERTA DUPUIS-DEVLIN WO INTERIM DEANS ARE NEWLY IN PLACE at the College of Medicine: Dimitri T. Azar, MD, MBA, head of the department of ophthalmology and visual sciences, has taken the helm of the college as a whole, while Uretz Oliphant, MD, head of surgery in Urbana-Champaign, temporarily will be leading that campus. Since coming to the college from Harvard Medical School in 2006, Azar, who is also B.A. Field Endowed Chair of Ophthalmologic Research, has recruited a dozen full-time clini- cal and research faculty members and secured three endowed professorships. He updated the department's facilities on campus and estab- lished a new satellite clinic adjacent to downtown Chicago's Millennium Park. Azar has championed translational research in ophthalmology and has actively promoted multidisciplinary interactions between basic and clinical research. Under his direction, the departmental core grant from the National Eye Institute was successfully renewed and a mentored clinical development award is currently pending. Azar also has expanded the department's educational programs, establishing an international resident exchange program and directing an annual intensive educational course that is attended by more than 250 ophthalmology trainees. An internationally Uretz Oliphant, MD renowned ophthalmic surgeon, Azar has been included in The Best Doctors in America and/or Top Doctors in America listings annually since 1994. His research on corneal wound healing has been funded continuously by the National Eye Institute since 1993. At Harvard, Azar was a professor of ophthalmology and senior scientist at the university's Schepens Eye Research Institute. He previously was on the faculty of the Wilmer Eye Institute at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. Azar completed an ophthalmology residency and research and clinical fellow- ships at Harvard and received his undergraduate and medical degrees from the University of Beirut, Lebanon. Oliphant, who replaces Brad Schwartz '74, MD, also serves as head of trauma at Carle Foundation Hospital in Urbana; vice president of the U.S. sec- tion of the International College of Surgeons; chair of the College of Medicine's education policy committee in Urbana-Champaign and member of the col- lege's clinical affairs committee; and member of the Illinois state committee on trauma of the American College of Surgeons. Oliphant is the recipient of numerous teaching awards and has dem- onstrated significant scholarly work through peer-reviewed publications and presentations. He received a bachelor of arts from Boston College in 1976, and his medical degree from the University of Minnesota Medical School in 1983. Oliphant completed a residency in general surgery at the University of Illinois Metropolitan Group Hospitals and a fellowship in trauma/critical care at Illinois Masonic Hospital in Chicago. Schwartz stepped down as regional dean of the University of Illinois Col- lege of Medicine at Urbana-Champaign on March 1 to assume a leadership role at the Institute of Clinical and Translational Research at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health, where he previ- ously was director of the medical scientist training program. "Through his work as dean, Brad has provided valued leadership for our campus in translational research and many other areas," says Richard Wheeler, PhD, interim vice chancellor for academic affairs and provost in Urba- na-Champaign. "As Brad returns to Madison, please join me in wishing him all the best in his new position." PHOTO: ROBERTA DUPUIS-DEVLIN