Notable People 2016

Steven Chu, PhD

Chu, the William R. Kenan Jr. Professor of Humanities and Sciences and professor of physics and of molecular and cellular physiology, received his 30th honorary doctorate in November from the University of Massachusetts-Lowell, where he delivered the Tripathy Memorial Lecture, titled “Climate Change and a Path to Clean Energy.” Chu is a Nobel laureate and former U.S. energy secretary. His current research interests include the development of imaging techniques, the synthesis and characterization of rare-earth nanoparticles for molecular optical and electromagnetic imaging, and battery research. 

Wendy DeMartini, MD

DeMartini was appointed professor of radiology, effective Sept. 1. She is the chief of breast imaging. Her research examines the appropriate use of imaging to detect and evaluate breast cancer, with a particular focus on breast magnetic resonance imaging. In 2017, she will serve as the president of the Society of Breast Imaging. 

Neir Eshel, MD, PhD

Eshel, a resident in psychiatry, has won the Science & SciLifeLab Prize for Young Scientists, which includes a $30,000 prize and a trip to Stockholm, Sweden, for the Nobel Prize lectures. His winning paper, “Trial and error: Optogenetic techniques offer insight into the dopamine circuit underlying learning,” appeared in Science. His research focuses on the brain mechanisms of learning and decision-making, and how they break down in neuropsychiatric disease.

James Ford, MD

Ford was promoted to professor of medicine and of genetics, effective Oct. 1. He is director of the Stanford Clinical Cancer Genetics Program and of clinical cancer genomics. His research focuses on the role of genetic changes that affect the risk of and development of cancer.

Andrew Gentles, PhD

Gentles was appointed assistant professor (research) of medicine, effective Nov. 1. His research focuses on computational systems biology, particularly cancer.

Jason Gotlib, MD

Gotlib was promoted to professor of medicine, effective Oct. 1. He directs the hematology fellowship training program. His research focuses on the clinical development of therapies for myeloproliferative neoplasms, including systemic mastocytosis, myelofibrosis and eosinophilic leukemias.

May Han, MD

Han was appointed associate professor of neurology and neurological sciences, effective Oct. 1. Her clinical focus is on multiple sclerosis, neuromyelitis optica and central nervous system autoimmune conditions, and her research aims to understand central nervous system autoimmunity.

Robert Harrington, MD

Harrington, the Arthur L. Bloomfield Professor, professor and chair of medicine and director of clinical investigation in the Stanford Cardiovascular Institute, delivered the Laennec Clinician/Educator Lecture at the American Heart Association Council on Clinical Cardiology Scientific Sessions in November. His address was titled “Rethinking Randomized Clinical Trials.” He is an interventional cardiologist who specializes in improving the design and execution of clinical trials and in incorporating research findings into clinical care.

Yang Hu, MD, PhD

Hu was appointed assistant professor of ophthalmology, effective Dec. 1. His research focuses on neuroprotection and axon regeneration in the central nervous system after neural injury.

Scott Lambert, MD

Lambert was appointed professor of ophthalmology, effective Oct. 1. His clinical focus is on treating children and adults with strabismus, and his research interests include improving care for children with congenital cataracts.

Henry Lee, MD

Lee was promoted to associate professor of pediatrics, effective Oct. 1. He is the director of research for the California Perinatal Quality Care Collaborative. His research focuses on perinatal and neonatal epidemiology, including the assessment of quality of care for mothers and newborns.

Bruce Ling, PhD

Ling was appointed assistant professor (research) of surgery, effective Sept. 1. His research uses big-data techniques to translate work in genomics, proteomics and metabolomics into clinically useful forms and to explore the biological mechanisms of disease.

Amanda Miguel

Miguel, a graduate student in bioengineering, was named a 2016-17 scholar by the Achievement Rewards for College Scientists Foundation Northern California Chapter. She will receive an award of more than $30,000. Her research focuses on the control of changes in bacterial cell morphology.

Robert Negrin, MD

Negrin, professor of medicine and chief of the blood and marrow transplant program, has been named editor-in-chief of a new digital, open-access journal, Blood Advances, published by the American Society of Hematology. The new journal will feature multimedia and discussion forums. Negrin’s research focuses on understanding graft-versus-host disease and the graft-versus-tumor reaction.

Eric Olcott, MD

Olcott was promoted to professor of radiology, effective Oct. 1. His research and clinical interests include body imaging using computed tomography, ultrasound and magnetic resonance imaging, as well as imaging of appendicitis and of pancreatic and biliary tumors.

William Patrick

Patrick, a fourth-year medical student, received the Southern Thoracic Surgical Association’s George Daicoff President’s Award, which includes a $500 prize, for his paper “Major aortopulmonary collateral arteries in patients with anatomy other than pulmonary atresia with ventricular septal defect,” which he also presented at the association's November meeting in Florida.

Manuel Rivas, DPhil

Rivas was appointed assistant professor of biomedical data science, effective Sept. 1. He is a biostatistician whose research interests include linking genetic variants with clinical outcomes.

Nirao Shah, MD, PhD

Shah was appointed professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences and of neurobiology, effective Sept. 1. His research focuses on understanding the molecular and neural network mechanisms underlying complex social behaviors that differ between the sexes.

Christina Smolke, PhD

Smolke was promoted to professor of bioengineering, effective Sept. 1. Her research interests include engineering RNA-based control systems, developing technologies to measure biochemical processes and creating microbial biosynthesis platforms for plant-derived compounds.

José Vilches-Moure, DVM, PhD

Vilches-Moure was appointed assistant professor of comparative medicine, effective Oct. 1. He directs the Comparative Medicine Animal Histology Service Center. He specializes in experimental pathology, comparative pathology and pathology of laboratory animal species.

Taia Wang, MD, PhD

Wang was appointed assistant professor of medicine, effective Nov. 1. Her research interests include human susceptibility to viral pathogens, vaccine responses and immunoglobulin-G-mediated disease.

Christopher Almond, MD

Almond was promoted to associate professor of pediatrics, effective Aug. 1.

Ben Barres, MD, PhD

Barres, professor of neurobiology, of developmental biology and of neurology and neurological sciences, has received the Society for Neuroscience’s Ralph W. Gerard Prize in Neuroscience, the society’s highest award. He will share the $25,000 prize with fellow recipient Thomas Jessell, PhD, of Columbia University. The prize honors outstanding scientists who have made significant contributions to neuroscience. Barres’ research focuses on the role of glial cells in development and synapse function and in diseases such as Alzheimer’s.

Christopher Contag, PhD

Contag, professor of pediatrics and of microbiology and immunology, will receive the 2017 Britton Chance Biomedical Optics Award from SPIE, the international society for optics and photonics. The award recognizes outstanding lifetime contributions to biomedical optics. Contag develops and uses optics-based imaging tools to study biology in living animal models of human disease, and for early detection of cancer in patients.

Christina Curtis, PhD

Curtis, assistant professor of medicine and of genetics, was named a 2016 Kavli Frontiers of Science Fellow by the National Academy of Sciences. The program selects outstanding young scientists to attend symposia, thereby promoting communication and collaboration. In her research, Curtis uses experimental and analytical approaches to improve the diagnosis and treatment of cancer.

James Dunn, MD, PhD

Dunn was appointed professor of surgery, as well as surgeon-in-chief at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford and chief of pediatric surgery at the School of Medicine, effective Oct. 1. He specializes in using surgical and bioengineering techniques to help children with short bowel syndrome, which can occur in preterm infants and infants with congenital anomalies.

Brice Gaudilliere, MD, PhD

Gaudilliere was appointed assistant professor of anesthesiology, perioperative and pain medicine, effective Sept. 1. His research combines high-dimensional mass cytometry analysis with machine-learning-based biocomputation to study the human immune system’s response to perturbations, such as pregnancy. His clinical interests include surgical trauma, ischemic stroke, pregnancy and preterm labor.

James Jacobs, MD, PhD

Jacobs was appointed associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, effective Sept. 1. He is the executive director of Vaden Health Center and associate vice provost for student affairs.

David Maahs, MD, PhD

Maahs was appointed professor of pediatrics, effective Sept. 1. He is chief of the Division of Pediatric Endocrinology. His research and clinical focus is on improving care for children with Type 1 diabetes.

Robert Malenka, MD, PhD

Malenka, professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences and the Nancy Friend Pritzker Professor in Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, has been awarded the Julius Axelrod Prize by the Society for Neuroscience. The $25,000 prize recognizes exceptional achievements in neuropharmacology and an exemplary commitment to mentoring young researchers. Malenka’s interests include translating research on synaptic transmission into clinically useful therapies.

Arash Momeni, MD

Momeni was appointed assistant professor of surgery, effective Sept. 1. He is the co-director of the hand transplant program. He specializes in microsurgical reconstruction of the breast, head and neck, trunk and extremities.

Prithvi Mruthyunjaya, MD

Mruthyunjaya was appointed associate professor of ophthalmology, effective Sept. 1. He is the director of ocular oncology. He specializes in the treatment of pediatric and adult ocular cancers and conditions affecting the retina. His research interests include ocular cancer imaging, genetics and tumor biopsy.

Lidia Schapira, MD

Schapira was appointed associate professor of medicine, effective Sept. 1. Her research focuses on cancer survivorship and on improving communication between caregivers and patients.

Alex Sox-Harris, PhD

Sox-Harris was appointed associate professor (research) of surgery, effective Sept. 1. He is the director of clinical research for the Department of Surgery, and his research focuses on the evaluation of health-care quality and efficacy.

Eric Sun, MD, PhD

Sun was appointed assistant professor of anesthesia, perioperative and pain medicine, effective Sept. 1. His research interests include health economics and policy, with a focus on economics and policy in the perioperative setting.

James Lock, MD, PhD

Lock, professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, was awarded a grant of $100,000 from the National Eating Disorders Association to study avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder. His research focuses on the treatment of eating disorders in children and adolescents.

Julia Palacios, PhD

Palacios was appointed assistant professor of biomedical data science and of statistics, effective Sept. 1. Her research uses statistical methods to infer evolutionary parameters from whole genomes.

Laura Simons, PhD

Simons was appointed associate professor of anesthesiology, perioperative and pain medicine, effective Sept. 1. She is a pediatric psychologist whose research and clinical work focuses on the influence of pain-related fear in children and adolescents with chronic pain.

Seda Tierney, MD

Tierney, assistant professor of pediatrics, has received a two-year, $100,000 grant from the Marfan Foundation to study the effects of exercise on children and adolescents with Marfan syndrome, a connective-tissue disorder. She will share the grant with a researcher from Midwestern University. Tierney is director of the Pediatric Vascular Research Laboratory and director of research at the Non-Invasive Imaging Laboratory, both at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford.

James Zou, PhD

Zou was appointed assistant professor of biomedical data science, effective Sept. 1. His research uses machine-learning techniques to examine questions in human genomics.

Tandy Aye, MD

Aye was promoted to associate professor of pediatrics, effective Aug. 1. She is a pediatric endocrinologist whose research and clinical work focuses on how blood glucose values and sex hormones affect children’s brains.

Alistair Boettiger, PhD

Boettiger was appointed assistant professor of developmental biology, effective Sept. 1. His research uses single-molecule microscopy to understand how noncoding sequences in the genome interact physically to shape genome structure and regulate gene expression.

Joachim Hallmayer, MD

Hallmayer was promoted to professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, effective July 1. His research focuses on the genetics of autism and narcolepsy, as well as on the genetics of disorders such as 22q11 deletion syndrome and Turner syndrome that can cause neuropsychiatric problems.

Ramasamy Paulmurugan, PhD

Paulmurugan was promoted to associate professor (research) of radiology, effective Aug. 1. His research focuses on developing new therapies for triple-negative breast cancer, a form of cancer that lacks three types of receptors and has no targeted therapies available for treatment.

Natalie Rasgon, MD, PhD

Rasgon, professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, has received a Sex and Gender in Alzheimer’s Disease grant from the Alzheimer’s Association. The grant provides $250,000 over three years. She will investigate whether there are sex differences in the way risk factors interact to affect the development of Alzheimer’s disease.

Josef Ruzek, PhD

Ruzek was appointed professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, effective June 1. He directs the Dissemination and Training Division of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs National Center for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.

Chiara Sabatti, PhD

Sabatti was promoted to professor of biomedical data science and of statistics, effective Aug. 1. She develops statistical methods to uncover the molecular basis of disease, using large heterogeneous data sets. 

David K. Stevenson, MD

Stevenson, the Harold K. Faber Professor of Pediatrics and senior associate dean for maternal and child health, will receive the 2017 Frank H. Morriss Jr. Leadership Award from the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine. The honor, given to two researchers in 2017, recognizes academic leadership that has improved the well-being of children. Stevenson will travel to Iowa to accept the award in April. He is a neonatologist who specializes in neonatal jaundice and the prevention of preterm birth.

Chi-Ho Ban Tsui, MD

Tsui was appointed professor of anesthesiology, perioperative and pain medicine, effective Aug. 1.

Lawrence Chu, MD

Chu was promoted to professor of anesthesiology, perioperative and pain medicine, effective Aug. 1. He is the founder and executive director of the health-innovation conference Medicine X. His research focuses on educational informatics and on opiate-induced hyperalgesia in patients with chronic pain.

Michael Fredericson, MD

Fredericson, professor of orthopaedic surgery, was awarded a Pac-12 Conference Student-Athlete Health & Well-Being Grant. Fredericson directs Stanford’s sports medicine fellowship and is the head team physician for the university’s track and field team. He plans to use the $482,000 award to investigate methods to improve bone health and reduce the incidence of stress fractures in female distance runners.

Carla Shatz, PhD

Shatz, the Sapp Family Provostial Professor, the David Starr Jordan Director of Bio-X and a professor of biology and of neurobiology, was awarded the 2016 António Champalimaud Vision Award, which recognizes groundbreaking research on how eyes send signals to the brain. Shatz shared the prize of 1 million euros (about $1.12 million) with three other researchers. Her research has clarified mechanisms of brain development, including an unexpected role for certain immune-related proteins.

Rodrigo Valderrabano, MD

Valderrabano, a postdoctoral scholar, received a Young Investigator Award from the American Society for Bone and Mineral Research. The award recognizes junior researchers who submit outstanding abstracts. His research focuses on describing evidence of bone and hematopoietic cell interactions in humans and their connection with clinically relevant outcomes, such as fractures.

Leah Backhus, MD

Backhus, associate professor of cardiothoracic surgery, was selected to serve a three-year term as a member of the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute Advisory Panel on Improving Healthcare Systems. The panel advises the institute on research-funding decisions. Backhus is the chief of thoracic surgery at the Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Health Care System. Her research focuses on imaging following treatment for lung cancer and on cancer survivorship.

Leonore Herzenberg, D.Sc-equivalent

Herzenberg, professor of genetics and the Department of Genetics Flow Cytometry Professor, was named an honorary fellow of the Royal Microscopical Society. She was recognized for her contributions to the development of the fluorescence-activated cell sorter, which is used to diagnose leukemia and in stem cell transplantation.

William Hiesinger, MD

Hiesinger was appointed assistant professor of cardiothoracic surgery, effective Aug. 1. His clinical interests include thoracic transplantation, medical circulatory support and endovascular aortic surgery.

Laurence Katznelson, MD

Katznelson, professor of neurosurgery and of medicine and associate dean of graduate medical education, has received the 2017 Outstanding Educator Laureate Award from the Endocrine Society. The honor, which includes a $3,000 prize, recognizes exceptional achievement as an educator in endocrinology and metabolism. Katznelson is also the medical director of the Stanford Pituitary Center.

Richard Lafayette, MD

Lafayette was promoted to professor of medicine, effective July 1. He directs the Stanford Glomerular Disease Center. He investigates new therapies for renal disease and performs collaborative studies of the immunological basis of glomerular injury. 

David Lee, MD

Lee, associate professor of medicine, was elected president of the Western States Affiliate of the American Heart Association. As president, he plans to advocate for healthy habits, particularly in children; enhanced regulation of tobacco and e-cigarette sales; expanded access to CPR training; and mandating healthy foods in schools.

Paul Kwo, MD

Kwo was appointed professor of medicine, effective Aug. 1. His research focuses on therapy for hepatitis B and C and on liver transplant outcomes.

Sarah Madison, MD

Madison was appointed assistant professor of anesthesiology, perioperative and pain medicine, effective Feb. 1. Her research focuses on regional anesthesia and on treating acute pain during surgery.

Lei Stanley Qi, PhD

Qi, assistant professor of bioengineering and of chemical and systems biology, was named to the 2016 class of Pew biomedical scholars, a program that supports exceptional early-career scientists. He will receive $60,000 a year for four years. His research focuses on CRISPR development for transcription and epigenetic regulation and on genomic reprogramming of immune cells to identify and kill cancer cells.

Holly Tabor, PhD

Tabor was appointed associate professor of medicine, effective June 1. She is the associate director for clinical ethics and education at the Stanford Center for Biomedical Ethics. Her research focuses on ethical issues related to genetics and genomics.

PJ Utz, MD

Utz, professor of medicine, has joined the scientific advisory board of the Arthritis National Research Foundation, which provides grants for research on arthritis and other autoimmune disorders. He directs Stanford’s Medical Scientist Training Program and is the founder and director of the Stanford Institutes of Medicine Summer Research Program for high school students. His research focuses on improving the understanding and treatment of autoimmune disorders. 

Cornelia Weyand, MD

Weyand, professor of medicine and chief of immunology and rheumatology, was named a Notable Woman in Science and Medicine by the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine in the Helmholtz Association in Berlin, Germany. She delivered a lecture in July on protective and pathogenic immune responses and provided mentoring sessions for students, fellows and junior faculty.

Sean Wu, MD, PhD

Wu was promoted to associate professor of medicine, effective April 1. He treats patients with cardiac diseases, and his research uses stem cells to try to develop treatments for heart failure and cardiac-rhythm disorders.

Jiangbin Ye, PhD

Ye was appointed assistant professor of radiation oncology, effective Aug. 1. His research focuses on tumor cell metabolism, with the goal of targeting metabolic pathways to improve cancer treatments.

James K. Chen, PhD

Chen was promoted to professor of chemical and systems biology and of developmental biology, effective June 1. In his research, he examines the genetic and chemical regulators of the Hedgehog signaling pathway, develops optochemical tools to study organismal biology and uses zebrafish models to understand vertebrate development and tissue regeneration.

Michael Fischbein, MD, PhD

Fischbein was promoted to associate professor of cardiothoracic surgery, effective March 1. He is the director of thoracic aortic surgery. His research focuses on the molecular and genetic mechanisms that lead to aortic aneurysms and on aneurysm formation in Marfan syndrome.

Jeffrey Goldberg, MD, PhD, and Andrew Huberman, PhD

Goldberg, Huberman and researchers from several other institutions have received a three-year, $2.5 million grant as part of the National Institutes of Health’s National Eye Institute Audacious Goals Initiative. The grants are intended to support projects that work to restore vision by regenerating neurons and their linkages within the eye and the brain. Goldberg is professor and chair of ophthalmology, and Huberman is associate professor of neurobiology. Their research project aims to identify genes and proteins that affect the ability of retinal ganglion cell axons to regenerate and function in mice.

Mickey Hu, PhD

Hu, associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology, received a $300,000 grant from AVON 39 The Walk to End Breast Cancer to investigate the effects of new drugs on cancer-related genes in metastatic breast cancer cells.

Corey Keller, MD, PhD

Keller, a resident and a postdoctoral scholar in psychiatry and behavioral sciences, has received a 2016 Alpha Omega Alpha Postgraduate Research Award. The $2,000 prize will help support his work on the induction and quantification of long-term plasticity in the brain.

Matthew Lungren, MD

Lungren, assistant professor of radiology, was named a 2016 GE Radiology Research Academic Fellow by the Association of University Radiologists. The program was created to foster original clinical and health-services radiology research. During his two-year fellowship, Lungren will investigate machine-learning techniques to support clinical decision-making in pediatric imaging.

Paul Maggio, MD

Maggio was promoted to associate professor of surgery, effective March 1. He is associate chief medical officer, associate trauma medical director, co-director of critical care medicine and a medical director of informatics at Stanford Health Care.

Denise Monack, PhD

Monack was promoted to professor of microbiology and immunology, effective June 1. Her research focuses on immune detection of intracellular bacterial pathogens and on chronic Salmonella infections, with an emphasis on the interactions between the bacteria and the immune system and between the bacteria and gut microbiota.

Jennifer Raymond, PhD

Raymond was promoted to professor of neurobiology, effective Jan. 1.

Sandhya Srinivas, MD

Srinivas was promoted to professor of medicine, effective July 1. She specializes in urologic oncology, and her research focuses on investigating new therapies for renal, prostate and other types of cancer.

Creed Stary, MD, PhD

Stary was appointed assistant professor of anesthesiology, perioperative and pain medicine, effective July 1. His research focuses on the role of microRNAs and glia in promoting neuronal survival and improving mitochondrial function following ischemic brain injury.

PJ Utz, MD

Utz, professor of medicine, has joined the scientific advisory board of the Arthritis National Research Foundation, which provides grants for research on arthritis and other autoimmune disorders. He directs Stanford’s Medical Scientist Training Program and is the founder and director of the Stanford Institutes of Medicine Summer Research Program for high school students. His research focuses on improving the understanding and treatment of autoimmune disorders.

Anand Veeravagu, MD

Veeravagu was appointed assistant professor of neurosurgery, effective July 1. He is the director of minimally invasive neurospine surgery at Stanford Health Care. His research focuses on using large national databases to assess the cost, quality and effectiveness of various treatment algorithms and on predictive analytics.

Eddy Albarran

Albarran, a graduate student in neurosciences, has received a Gilliam Fellowship for Advanced Study from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. The fellowships were created to increase diversity in the scientific workforce. Albarran will receive $46,000 a year for up to three years.

Jonathan Berek, MD

Berek, the Laurie Kraus Lacob Professor and professor and chair of obstetrics and gynecology, was appointed as one of two U.S. representatives to the International Federation of Obstetrics and Gynecology Gynecologic Oncology Committee, which is responsible for the staging of gynecologic cancers. He is the director of the Stanford Women’s Cancer Center, of communication and special programs at the Stanford Cancer Institute and of the Stanford Health Care Communication Program.

Bernard Dannenberg, MD

Dannenberg, the Davies Family Director of Pediatric Emergency Medicine and clinical professor of emergency medicine, has received the 2016 Martha Bushore-Fallis Advanced Pediatric Life Support Award from the American Academy of Pediatrics. Dannenberg was honored for championing pediatric emergency medicine among pediatric and emergency physicians in Northern California.

Elizabeth Egan, MD, PhD, and Joshua Knowles, MD, PhD

Egan and Knowles have received 2016 Clinical Scientist Development Awards from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation. Awardees receive $495,000 over three years to launch their research programs and to help balance their clinical and research roles. Egan, an assistant professor of pediatrics, is studying host genetic susceptibility to malaria. Knowles, an assistant professor of medicine, is examining the risk factors and mechanisms of statin-associated diabetes.

Miriam Goodman, PhD

Goodman was promoted to professor of molecular and cellular physiology, effective June 1. Her research focuses on the molecular and genetic bases of the sensation of touch and on the ability of peripheral neurons to withstand mechanical stress using C. elegans nematodes as a model system.

Jill Helms, DDS, PhD

Helms, professor of surgery, received the 2016 Distinguished Scientist Isaac Schour Memorial Award from the International Association for Dental Research. The honor recognizes her outstanding contributions in tissue regeneration and stem cell biology.

Ann Hsing, PhD

Hsing was appointed professor (research) of medicine, effective Dec. 1, 2015. She is the co-leader of the Stanford Cancer Institute Population Science Program. Her research focuses on clarifying the etiology of prostate and hepatobiliary cancers and on international studies on the etiology of cancer. She is developing a cancer prevention and control model for the San Francisco Bay Area that reflects its diverse population.

Eric Knudsen, PhD

Knudsen, the Edward C. and Amy H. Sewall Professor and professor emeritus of neurobiology, has been elected to the American Philosophical Society. Founded in 1743, the society promotes useful knowledge in the sciences and humanities. Knudsen’s research examines the mechanisms of attention, information processing and learning in the brain.

Raag Airan, MD, PhD

Airan was appointed assistant professor of radiology, effective July 1. Airan, who earned his graduate degrees at Stanford, is a neuroradiologist, a bioengineer and member of the Stanford Neurosciences Institute and Bio-X. His research centers on developing translational techniques for targeted drug delivery to the central nervous system and for noninvasive neuromodulation.

Philip Beachy, PhD

Beachy, the Ernest and Amelia Gallo Professor, professor of biochemistry and of developmental biology, received the 2016 Katharine Berkan Judd Award Lectureship from the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. The award recognizes a researcher who has made significant contributions to understanding cancer. Beachy delivered a lecture at the center titled “Stem cells and signaling pathways in regeneration and malignancy.” 

Jonathan Bernstein, MD, PhD

Bernstein was promoted to associate professor of pediatrics, effective April 1. His research focuses on the genetics of autism and other developmental disorders.

Paul Bollyky, MD, PhD

Bollyky, assistant professor of medicine and of microbiology and immunology, received a Grand Challenges Explorations grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. He will receive $100,000 for one year and have the opportunity to compete for a $1 million grant. In collaboration with K.C. Huang, PhD, associate professor of bioengineering and of microbiology and immunology, and Eric Nelson, MD, PhD, instructor of pediatrics, Bollyky will investigate whether bacteriophages lead to structural changes in the lining of the intestines, which could promote the growth of healthy bacteria. 

Alexander Butwick, MD

Butwick was promoted to associate professor of anesthesiology, perioperative and pain medicine, effective March 1. His research focuses on preventing and treating postpartum hemorrhage. He is investigating risk factors for postpartum hemorrhage and postpartum anemia following cesarean deliveries.

Lisa Chamberlain, MD

Chamberlain, associate professor of pediatrics and medical director of Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford’s Pediatric Advocacy Program, received an Excellence in Healthcare Award from the Silicon Valley Business Journal for her work helping low-income children. Her research focuses on child health policy and on nonclinical factors that affect care for children with chronic illnesses.

Anne Lynn S. Chang, MD

Chang was promoted to associate professor of dermatology, effective Feb 1. She is the director of the Advanced Basal Cell Carcinoma Clinic and of adult dermatologic clinical trials. Her research and clinical work focuses on aggressive basal cell carcinomas and on the mechanisms of healthy skin aging.

Lu Chen, PhD

Chen was promoted to professor of neurosurgery and of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, effective Jan. 1. Her research focuses on the molecular mechanisms of synaptic plasticity and memory formation. She is particularly interested in investigating synaptic and cognitive dysfunction in autism spectrum disorders.

Benjamin Chung, MD

Chung was promoted to associate professor of urology, effective May 1. He is the director of robotic surgery, and his clinical focus is the surgical treatment of prostate and kidney cancer using minimally invasive robotic techniques. His research focuses on urologic cancer outcomes and on the epidemiology of urologic cancers.

Dimitrios Colevas, MD

Colevas was promoted to professor of medicine, effective April 1. His interests include head and neck cancer treatment and developmental therapeutics.

Anna Cunningham

Cunningham, a graduate student in chemical and systems biology, was a thematic best poster winner in the bioinorganic catalysts category at the 2016 American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology meeting. Her poster was on co-evolution and disease-causing mutations in glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase. 

Amit Etkin, MD, PhD

Etkin was promoted to associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, effective July 1. His research focuses on understanding the neural basis of emotional disorders and their treatment, then using that knowledge to create improved therapies.

Summer Han, PhD

Han was appointed assistant professor (research) of neurosurgery and of medicine, effective Dec. 1, 2015. Her research interests include statistical genetics, health-policy modeling and risk-prediction modeling.

Brian Hargreaves, PhD

Hargreaves was appointed associate professor of radiology, effective Feb. 1. He directs the Body MRI research group, which develops and implements new magnetic-resonance imaging techniques, particularly in cardiovascular, abdominal, breast and musculoskeletal imaging.

Andrew Huberman, PhD

Huberman was appointed associate professor of neurobiology, effective April 1. He studies the function of the neural circuits underlying sight and how to repair them after damage from conditions such as glaucoma and traumatic brain injury. His work has implications for treating disorders of brain development, including autism and Williams syndrome. 

Erik Ingelsson, MD, PhD

Ingelsson was appointed professor of medicine, effective May 1. In his research, he combines analyses of large-scale studies in genomics, transcriptomics, epigenomics, proteomics and metabolomics with functional model systems to develop new insights into the pathophysiology of cardiovascular disease and related conditions, identify novel biomarkers and discover targets for drug development.

Vinicio de Jesus Perez, MD

De Jesus Perez assistant professor of medicine, received a Young Physician-Scientist Award from the American Society for Clinical Investigation. The award recognizes junior researchers whose work is notable for its insight into the mechanisms of disease and the potential for new therapies. His research and clinical focus is pulmonary hypertension and lung fibrosis. 

Ioannis Karakikes, PhD

Karakikes was appointed assistant professor (research) of cardiothoracic surgery, effective May 1. His research focuses on delineating the molecular mechanisms underlying the pathogenesis of familial cardiomyopathies using patient-specific cardiomyocytes derived from human induced pluripotent stem cells, as well as the development of biological therapies for heart failure.

Abby King, PhD

King, professor of health research and policy and of medicine, will serve as one of two co-chairs of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services 2018 Physical Activity Guidelines Advisory Committee. The guidelines serve as the authoritative federal document providing guidance on physical activity, fitness and health. King’s work focuses on chronic disease prevention and health promotion using behavioral and social ecological approaches. 

Christin Kuo, MD

Kuo was appointed assistant professor of pediatrics, effective May 1. She specializes in pediatric pulmonary medicine, and her research focuses on the development and function of lung neuroendocrine cells in order to improve diagnostic and therapeutic approaches for pediatric neuroendocrine-related respiratory disorders and adult neuroendocrine tumors. 

Carolyn Lee, MD, PhD

Lee was appointed assistant professor of dermatology, effective Feb. 15. Her research focuses on discovering and functionally characterizing new oncogenes and tumor-suppressor genes in skin cancer.

Ross McDougall, PhD, MB, ChB

McDougall, professor emeritus of radiology and of medicine, received the Georg Charles de Hevesy Nuclear Pioneer Award from the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging. The award recognizes outstanding contributions in the field of nuclear medicine. McDougall’s clinical and research focus is the diagnosis and treatment of thyroid disease. 

David Miklos, MD, PhD

Miklos was promoted to associate professor of medicine, effective May 1. His research and clinical work focuses on allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation and on the use of immunotherapy to treat blood cancers.

Thomas Montine, MD, PhD

Montine was appointed professor of pathology, effective May 1. He chairs the department, having succeeded professor of pathology Stephen Galli, MD. Montine’s research focuses on the structural and molecular bases of cognitive impairment in the elderly and how they give rise to Alzheimer’s disease and nonmotor features of Parkinson’s disease. 

Mark Nicolls, MD

Nicolls was promoted to professor of medicine, effective March 1. His research focuses on the relationship between inflammation and the development of pulmonary hypertension. He also studies how microvascular health affects lung transplants.

Manali Patel, MD, MPH, MS

Patel was appointed assistant professor of medicine, effective Aug. 1. Patel is an oncologist and health services researcher. Her research focuses on improving the delivery of equitable, high-value cancer care. Patel is also a staff oncologist and researcher at the VA Palo Alto Health Care System and a faculty affiliate at Stanford’s Center on Health Policy/Center on Primary Care and Outcomes Research.

George Poultsides, MD

Poultsides was promoted to associate professor of surgery, effective April 1. His research and clinical work focuses on the treatment of hepatic, pancreatic and gastrointestinal cancer, and on clinical trials of new diagnostic and therapeutic approaches. 

Rajat Rohatgi, MD, PhD

Rohatgi was promoted to associate professor of biochemistry and of medicine, effective Jan. 1. His research focuses on the mechanisms of cell-to-cell communication in developmental biology and cancer.

Julien Sage, PhD

Sage was promoted to professor of pediatrics and of genetics, effective Jan. 1. His research focuses on the mechanisms that control the proliferation of mammalian cells, with an emphasis on stem cells and cancer. 

Kelley Skeff, MD, PhD

Skeff, the George DeForest Barnett Professor and professor of medicine, delivered the 2016 commencement address at the Georgetown University School of Medicine, which gave him an honorary degree. He is co-director and co-founder of the Stanford Faculty Development Center for Medical Teachers. 

Anne Villeneuve, PhD

Villeneuve, professor of developmental biology and of genetics, has been selected to join the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. AAAS is one of the nation’s oldest and most prestigious academic societies and policy research centers. Villeneuve will be inducted in October in Cambridge, Massachusetts. 

Sanjay Basu, MD, PhD

Basu, assistant professor of medicine, received a Junior Investigator Recognition Award from the American College of Physicians at a May meeting in Washington, D.C. The award recognizes outstanding papers by residents or researchers who have completed their training within the past three years. Basu is being honored for “Medicare Chronic Care Management Payments and Financial Returns to Primary Care Practices: A Modeling Study,” published Oct. 20, 2015, in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

Bernard Dannenberg, MD

Dannenberg, the Davies Family Director of Pediatric Emergency Medicine, received the 2016 Martha Bushore-Fallis Advanced Pediatric Life Support Award from the American Academy of Pediatrics. The award recognizes an individual who has helped to further the goal of early recognition and stabilization of life-threatened children through the auspices of the Advanced Pediatric Life Support program.

Rhiju Das, PhD

Das was promoted to associate professor of biochemistry, effective Jan. 1. His research focuses on the modeling and design of noncoding RNA and RNA-protein complexes through computer algorithms, rapid biochemical approaches and internet-scale collaboration.    

Wendy Fantl, PhD

Fantl, assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology, received the Ellen Weaver Award from the Northern California Chapter of the Association for Women in Science at a May ceremony. The award recognizes women with distinguished scientific achievements who have excelled at helping other female scientists. Her research focuses on characterizing ovarian cancer at the single-cell level. 

Paul George, MD, PhD

George was appointed assistant professor of neurology and neurological sciences, effective Jan. 1. He is a vascular neurologist and bioengineer whose research focuses on the application of biomaterials and stem cells for stroke recovery and on developing new techniques to improve stroke diagnosis. 

Gordon Li, MD

Li was promoted to associate professor of neurosurgery, effective Jan. 1. His research focuses on developing treatments for brain tumors and improving techniques for brain tumor surgery. 

Mary Lough, PhD, RN

Lough received the Clinical Nurse Specialist of the Year Award from the National Association of Clinical Nurse Specialists. Lough is a clinical nurse specialist in critical care at Stanford Health Care and a clinical assistant professor of medicine at the School of Medicine. The award is presented each year to a nurse who demonstrates CNS competencies and exemplary practice in patient care, nursing and health-care delivery systems.

Uchechukwu Megwalu, MD

Megwalu was appointed assistant professor of otolaryngology-head and neck surgery, effective Jan. 1. He treats thyroid and parathyroid disorders, head and neck tumors, sinusitis and chronic ear disorders. His research focuses on outcomes and health services, particularly health literacy and health disparities. 

Garry Nolan, PhD

Nolan, the Rachford and Carlota A. Harris Professor and professor of microbiology and immunology, received a $3.66 million grant to examine the chronic effects of Ebola infection from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Medical Countermeasures Initiative. The project, a partnership with several other institutions, will use immunopathology to study differences among Ebola survivors experiencing a variety of symptoms.

Lawrence Steinman, MD

Steinman, the George A. Zimmermann Professor and professor of neurology and neurological sciences and of pediatrics, has been awarded the Anthony Cerami Award in Translational Medicine by the Feinstein Institute for Medical Research. The award honors researchers who have made discoveries that improved human health and who have advanced therapeutic treatments and understanding. Steinman was recognized for his research in neurology, particularly on multiple sclerosis. Honorees receive $20,000 and have the opportunity to discuss their research career in a monograph; Steinman’s essay, “A Journey in Science: The Privilege of Exploring the Brain and the Immune System,” was published June 2 on the website of the journal Molecular Medicine.

Ranak Trivedi, PhD

Trivedi was appointed assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, effective Jan. 1. She is also an investigator at the Center for Innovation to Implementation at the Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Health Care System. Her research and clinical focus is on improving the psychosocial well-being of chronically ill patients, with an emphasis on developing self-management programs that engage both patients and their family caregivers. She is also examining the treatment and assessment of mental illness in primary-care settings and is evaluating the effects of the VA patient-centered medical home, which uses primary-care settings to provide coordinated care, on veterans with mental illness.

Tej Azad and Maximilian Diehn, MD, PhD

Azad and Diehn have been awarded a $70,400 clinical research mentorship grant from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation. The program was created to foster one-on-one mentorship between established scientists and medical students. Azad, an MD-MS student, and Diehn, an assistant professor of radiation oncology, plan to create a new method to detect circulating tumor DNA, using cancer personalized profiling by deep sequencing, to develop a liquid biopsy for pediatric sarcomas.

Michael Gardner, MD

Gardner was appointed professor of orthopaedic surgery, effective Jan. 1. He is chief of the orthopaedic trauma service and vice chair of clinical operations for the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery. He treats all aspects of fractures of the shoulder, elbow, lower extremity and pelvis. His research focuses on several molecular pathways involved in fracture healing, as well as the clinical outcomes of fracture treatment.

Allison Kurian, MD

Kurian was promoted to associate professor of medicine and of health research and policy, effective Dec. 1, 2015. She directs the Stanford Women’s Cancer Genetics Clinic. Her research focuses on identifying women at high risk of developing breast or gynecologic cancers, and on developing strategies for early cancer detection and prevention.

Y. Joyce Liao, MD, PhD

Liao was promoted to associate professor of ophthalmology, effective Dec. 1, 2015. She directs the Stanford Neuro-Ophthalmology Program and the Human Ocular Motor Center. Her research focuses on vision loss and visual dysfunction related to optic neuropathies and eye movement disorders. She is also investigating key biomarkers of vision loss and studying treatments using neuroprotection, immune-based therapies and stem cell transplantation.

Jessica Pullen and Mackensie Yore

Pullen and Yore, both medical students, have been named 2016-17 San Francisco Bay Area Schweitzer Fellows by the Albert Schweitzer Fellowship. The fellowship supports graduate students working to address unmet health needs in underserved communities while learning skills to become future leaders in health care. Pullen, a first-year student, will work with the Second Harvest Food Bank to increase access to healthy food and nutrition education for elementary school students in Santa Clara County. Yore, an MD-MS student, will work with the Ravenswood Family Health Center on a community fitness initiative in East Palo Alto.

Judith Shizuru, MD, PhD

Shizuru was promoted to professor of medicine, effective Dec. 1, 2015. Her research focuses on understanding the cellular and molecular basis of resistance to bone marrow stem cell engraftment, and the translation of this basic biology to the development of clinical protocols that will improve the safety and broaden the use of this cellular therapy. 

Shannon Stirman, PhD

Stirman was appointed assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, effective Jan. 1. She is working to integrate evidence-based psychosocial interventions into public mental health-care systems.

Alice Ting, PhD

Ting was appointed professor of genetics and of biology, effective Nov. 1, 2015. She develops technologies and molecular tools to study protein and RNA functions in living cells, with a focus on mitochondria and synapses.

William Kennedy, MD

Kennedy was promoted to professor of urology, effective Nov. 1. He specializes in pediatric urology and in digital health. His telemedicine clinics have allowed more than 600 families in the Stanford Children’s Health network to meet with him remotely before their child’s surgery.

Ronald Levy, MD

Levy, the Robert K. and Helen K. Summy Professor and professor of oncology, has been awarded the American Association for Cancer Research-Cancer Research Institute Lloyd J. Old Award in Cancer Immunology. The award recognizes a scientist whose outstanding and innovative research in cancer immunology has had a significant effect on the field. Levy received a $10,000 honorarium and gave a lecture in Washington, D.C., in April. His research focuses on lymphocytes and lymphoma.

José Maldonado, MD

Maldonado was promoted to professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, effective Dec. 1. He is the chair-elect of the School of Medicine’s Faculty Senate and president-elect of the American Delirium Society. His research focuses on the assessment and management of delirium; prediction and management of alcohol withdrawal in the ill; psychosocial aspects of solid organ transplantation; the neuropsychiatric effects of traumatic brain injury; and post-traumatic stress disorder and suicide.

Laura Roberts, MD

Roberts, professor and chair of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, has been named the editor-in-chief of books for the American Psychiatric Association’s publishing unit. She has served as the deputy editor of books for American Psychiatric Publishing Inc. since 2007. The association publishes the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, among other publications. Roberts is the Katharine Dexter McCormick and Stanley McCormick Memorial Professor.

Michael Angelo, MD, PhD

Angelo was appointed assistant professor of pathology, effective Nov. 1. His research applies multiplexed ion-beam imaging, which visualizes proteins, to a variety of fields including the evaluation of cancer lesions and the status of immune-cell populations in solid tissues.

Ben Barres, MD, PhD

Barres, professor and chair of neurobiology and professor of developmental biology and of neurology and neurological sciences, will receive the $25,000 Gill Distinguished Scientist Award from the Linda and Jack Gill Center for Biomolecular Science at Indiana University. He will present a lecture on reactive astrocytes at a ceremony in September. His research focuses on glial cells.

Rebecca Bernert, PhD

Bernert was appointed assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, effective Oct. 1. She specializes in suicidology and directs the Stanford Suicide Prevention Research Laboratory. Her work investigates therapeutic targets for suicide prevention at all ages and the relationship between sleep and mental health. 

Brendan Carvalho, MD

Carvalho was promoted to professor of anesthesiology, perioperative and pain medicine, effective Dec. 1. He is the chief of obstetric anesthesia. His research focuses on improving the management of post-cesarean and labor pain and on developing pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic models of drugs used in pregnancy.

Mark Davis, PhD

Davis, the Burt and Marion Avery Family Professor and a professor of microbiology and immunology, was elected a foreign member of the Royal Society of London, the oldest extant scientific society, which was established in 1660. He directs the Stanford Institute for Immunity, Transplantation and Infection and is a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator. His research focuses on how immune cells recognize antigens.

Sarah Donaldson, MD

Donaldson, the Catharine and Howard Avery Professor and a professor of radiation oncology, will receive the first annual Women Who Conquer Cancer Mentorship Award, from the Conquer Cancer Foundation of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, in June. She is being honored for her commitment to mentoring young female oncologists. Her research focuses on improving the quality of treatment for children with cancer. 

Tina Hernandez-Boussard, PhD

Hernandez-Boussard was appointed associate professor (research) of surgery and of medicine, effective Nov. 1. She directs the Surgical Health Services Research Unit at Stanford. Her research uses clinical data sets to evaluate the quality of health-care delivery and for comparative effectiveness research.

Seung Kim, MD, PhD

Kim, professor of developmental biology, has been awarded a $500,000 grant through the Type 1 Diabetes Program of the Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust. Working with other investigators at Stanford and at Vanderbilt University, he will test a new method that aims to use immune cells to enhance the survival of beta cells, which produce insulin.

Jonathan Maltzman, MD, PhD

Maltzman was appointed associate professor of medicine, effective Nov. 1. He was also appointed staff physician at the Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Health Care System. His research focuses on immunological memory and regulation and their role in organ transplantation.

Ravindra Majeti, MD, PhD

Majeti has been promoted to associate professor of medicine, effective Nov. 1. His work focuses on the characterization and therapeutic targeting of leukemia stem cells in human hematologic malignancies, particularly acute myeloid leukemia.

Edward Mariano, MD

Mariano was promoted to professor of anesthesiology, perioperative and pain medicine, effective Dec. 1. He is the chief of the anesthesiology and perioperative care service and associate chief of staff for inpatient surgical services at the VA Palo Alto Health Care System. His research focuses on the development of techniques and strategies to improve postoperative pain control and other surgical outcomes.

Robert Negrin, MD

Negrin, professor of medicine, was named the editor-in-chief of a new online journal, Blood Advances. It will supplement Blood, the American Society of Hematology’s existing hematology journal. Negrin’s research focuses on immune cells that are involved in responses to cancer or transplants.

Kim Roberts, MHA

Roberts, chief strategy officer and chief administrative officer of physician practices for Stanford Children’s Health and chief executive officer of the Packard Children’s Health Alliance, was named a Silicon Valley Business Journal Power Executive for 2016. The executives were selected by the paper’s editorial staff based on reader nominations.

Nigam Shah, MBBS, PhD

Shah was promoted to associate professor of medicine, effective Nov. 1. His research uses longitudinal electronic health record data to answer clinical questions, generate insights and build predictive models.

Barbara Sourkes, PhD

Sourkes, professor of pediatrics and the John A. Kriewell and Elizabeth A. Haehl Director of Pediatric Palliative Care at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford, received the Compassion in Action 2016 Award from Hospice of the Valley, a San Jose-based organization, in March. She was honored for her service and pioneering leadership in the field of pediatric palliative care.

Joanna Wysocka, PhD

Wysocka was promoted to professor of chemical and systems biology and of developmental biology, effective Oct. 1. Her research focuses on the genetic regulatory mechanisms underlying cellular plasticity, differentiation, human development and evolution.

Daniel Palanker, PhD

Palanker, professor of ophthalmology, has been awarded the Bressler Prize in Vision Science by the Lighthouse Guild, a nonprofit organization that serves the blind and visually impaired. The award recognizes a scientist whose leadership, research and service have led to advances in the understanding and treatment of eye diseases. Palanker has developed several optical and electronic devices to treat ocular diseases, including a wireless implant for restoration of sight lost because of retinal degenerative diseases.

Stephen Quake, PhD

Quake was awarded the 2016 Raymond and Beverly Sackler Prize in Convergence Research by the National Academy of Sciences. The honor, which includes a $350,000 cash prize, recognizes advances in convergence research, the integration of two or more of the disciplines of mathematics, physics, chemistry, biomedicine, biology, astronomy, earth sciences, engineering and computational science. Quake was recognized for his contributions to human health, including the development of noninvasive diagnostic procedures and biological devices analogous to electronic circuits. He is the Lee Otterson Professor in the School of Engineering and professor of bioengineering and of applied physics.

Eila Skinner, MD

Skinner, professor and chair of urology and the Thomas A. Stamey Research Professor in Urology, was elected a trustee of the American Board of Urology. The board establishes and maintains standards of certification for urologists. Skinner’s six-year term began in February. A specialist in urologic oncology, she focuses on the medical and surgical treatment of bladder cancer and on urinary tract reconstruction.

Linda Yip, PhD

Yip, a senior research scientist, was given the young investigator award by the Network of Pancreatic Donors with Diabetes. The award recognizes an early-career researcher who has contributed outstanding work on Type 1 diabetes. Yip’s research focuses on the role of gene splicing in the pathogenesis of Type 1 diabetes and on identifying gene-expression biomarkers of disease risk and progression.

Charlotte Jacobs, MD

Jacobs, the Drs. Ben and A. Jess Shenson Professor of Medicine, Emerita, received the Hewlett Award in March. The award recognizes an exceptional physician with ties to Stanford and is named for Albert Walter Hewlett, professor and executive head of the Department of Medicine from 1916 to 1925. Jacobs is an oncologist whose work has had international impact on head and neck cancer treatment. She served as senior associate dean of the School of Medicine and helped establish the Stanford Cancer Center. She has also written several biographies, including Jonas Salk: A Life.

Diego Jaramillo, MD

Jaramillo was appointed professor of radiology, effective Dec. 1. He was also appointed associate chair of the Department of Radiology and chief of radiology at the VA Palo Alto Health Care System. He specializes in pediatric radiology and is working to improve the strength and effectiveness of MRI.

Katrina Karkazis, PhD

Karkazis, a senior research scholar with the Stanford Center for Biomedical Ethics, was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship. A “midcareer” award, the fellowship recognizes exceptional capacity for scholarship and provides funding for one year of work, beginning in 2017. Karkazis also received a collaborative research fellowship from the American Council of Learned Societies, which will support her writing and research in 2016-17. Her work focuses on scientific and medical beliefs about gender, sexuality and the body.

Kiran Khush, MD

Khush was promoted to associate professor of medicine, effective Oct. 1. Her research focuses on the evaluation and selection of donors for heart transplantation and the diagnosis and treatment of post-transplant complications.

Nicholas Leeper, MD

Leeper was promoted to associate professor of surgery and of medicine, effective Nov. 1. He is a vascular medicine specialist whose research focuses on the genetics of atherosclerosis.

Marlene Rabinovitch, MD

Rabinovitch, the Dwight and Vera Dunlevie Professor of Pediatric Cardiology, will give the J. Burns Amberson Lecture at the American Thoracic Society’s annual meeting in San Francisco on May 15. The annual lectureship honors a scientist who has made major contributions to pulmonary research. Rabinovitch is being recognized for her research on pulmonary arterial hypertension.

Fátima Rodriguez, MD

Rodriguez, a second-year cardiology fellow, has received an American College of Cardiology/Merck Research Fellowship in Cardiovascular Disease and Cardiometabolic Disorders. The one-year, $70,000 award will finance her research on inequities in cardiovascular care for Latinos.

Oscar Salvatierra, MD

Salvatierra, professor emeritus of surgery and of pediatrics, will receive the 2016 Pioneer Award from the American Society of Transplant Surgeons, the society’s highest honor. The award recognizes significant contributions to the field of transplantation. The only other Stanford surgeon to receive the award was the late Norman Shumway, MD, PhD, who performed the first successful human heart transplant in the United States.

David K. Stevenson, MD

Stevenson, the Harold K. Faber Professor of Pediatrics and senior associate dean for maternal and child health, will receive the Joseph W. St. Geme Jr. Leadership Award from the Federation of Pediatric Organizations. The award, which will be given April 30 at the Pediatric Academic Societies’ annual meeting in Baltimore, honors a pediatrician who has made broad and sustained contributions to the field of child health. Stevenson’s accomplishments include his research on neonatal jaundice, which has changed how the condition is managed around the world.

Megan Troxell, MD, PhD

Troxell was appointed professor of pathology, effective Dec. 1. Her research focuses on breast pathology, renal pathology and immunohistochemistry.

Aida Habtezion, MD

Hatbtezion, assistant professor of medicine, has been appointed the Ballinger-Swindells Faculty Scholar. The endowed position supports a junior faculty member in the field of inflammatory bowel disease and related research. Habtezion investigates immune responses associated with gastrointestinal diseases.

Steven Howard, MD

Howard was promoted to professor of anesthesiology, perioperative and pain medicine, effective Sept. 1. His research focuses on the effects of fatigue in health-care personnel and on medical education, including crisis-management training and performance assessment.

Deirdre Lyell, MD

Lyell was promoted to professor of obstetrics and gynecology, effective Sept. 1. She specializes in preterm labor prevention, high-risk pregnancy management and the diagnoses and management of placenta accreta. Her research focuses on identifying the causes of spontaneous preterm birth and of placenta accreta. She is the founding director of the Program in Placental Disorders at Stanford.

Kari Nadeau, MD, PhD

Nadeau was promoted to professor of medicine and of pediatrics, effective Oct. 1. She directs the Sean N. Parker Center for Allergy and Asthma Research. Her research focuses on the mechanisms of immune dysfunction in primary immune disease, allergy and asthma.

Jonathan Pollack, MD, PhD

Pollack was promoted to professor of pathology, effective Aug. 1. His research focuses on translational genomics, using genomics to better understand, diagnose and treat human diseases, with an emphasis on cancer.

Judith Prochaska, PhD

Prochaska, associate professor of medicine, was named president-elect 2016-17 of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco, an international scientific organization that supports the generation and dissemination of new information about nicotine. She will become president at the 2017 meeting in Florence, Italy. She is a faculty member at the Stanford Prevention Research Center and a member of Stanford Research Into the Impact of Advertising. Her research focuses on the use of technology innovations to reach diverse and underserved populations of smokers. 

Carolyn Rodriguez, MD, PhD

Rodriguez, assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, has been named a scholar in the Harold Amos Medical Faculty Development Program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The program was created to increase the number of medical and dental faculty from historically disadvantaged backgrounds. The four-year award includes a $75,000 annual stipend plus a $30,000 annual research grant and provides scholars with mentors. She is working to discover new treatments for obsessive-compulsive and hoarding disorders by understanding these behaviors at multiple levels of analysis, from molecule to behavior.

Jessica Rose, PhD

Rose was promoted to professor of orthopaedic surgery, effective Oct. 1. She directs the Motion and Gait Analysis Lab at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford. Her research focuses on brain and motor development in children born preterm and the neuromuscular mechanisms that cause motor defects in children with cerebral palsy.

Irving Weissman, MD

Weissman received the Pioneer Award at the Personalized Medicine World Conference in January. He is the Virginia and D.K. Ludwig Professor in Clinical Investigation in Cancer Research, professor of pathology and of developmental biology, and director of the Institute of Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine and of the Ludwig Center for Cancer Stem Cell Research at Stanford. The award honors individuals who made early, major advances in the personalized medicine field.

Alice Whittemore, PhD

Whittemore, professor of health research and policy and of biomedical data science, will present the R.A. Fisher Lecture at the American Statistical Association meeting on Aug. 3 in Chicago. The lectureship was established by the Committee of Presidents of Statistical Societies to honor Sir Ronald Aylmer Fisher, an English statistician and biologist, and to recognize meritorious achievement and scholarship in statistical science. Whittemore uses mathematical techniques to study the genetics and epidemiology of cancer.

Kirkham Wood, MD

Wood was appointed professor of orthopaedic surgery, effective Nov. 1. He specializes in surgery of the spine, with a focus on adults with spinal deformity such as scoliosis and kyphosis.

Lei Xing, PhD

Xing, the Jacob Haimson Professor and professor of radiation oncology, received a Google Faculty Research Award. He plans to apply deep learning algorithms to improve medical-image processing and segmentation.

Paul Bollyky, MD, DPhil

Bollyky, assistant professor of medicine, received a Catalyst Award from the Dr. Ralph and Marian Falk Medical Research Trust. The $485,000 award will fund his effort to develop a new therapy for Pseudomonas aeruginosa antibiotic-resistant infections, which can cause pneumonia, wound infections or hospital-acquired infections.

David Fiorentino, MD, PhD

Fiorentino was promoted to professor of dermatology and of medicine, effective Oct. 1. He is the associate program director for the dermatology residency and specializes in autoimmunity-related skin disease. He is co-director of a multidisciplinary dermatology-rheumatology clinic that treats patients with scleroderma, myositis, psoriasis and lupus. His research focuses on the role of auto-antigens and cancer in the pathogenesis of dermatomyositis.

Jeremy Goldhaber-Fiebert, PhD

Goldhaber-Fiebert was promoted to associate professor of medicine, effective Sept. 1. He uses computer simulation modeling, cost-effectiveness analyses and econometric techniques to examine policies related to the prevention and management of chronic diseases, including hepatitis C, tuberculosis and Type 2 diabetes.

Steven Howard, MD

Howard was promoted to professor of anesthesiology, perioperative and pain medicine, effective Sept. 1. His research focuses on the effects of fatigue in health-care personnel and on medical education, including crisis-management training and performance assessment.

Hanlee Ji, MD

Ji was promoted to associate professor of medicine, effective Dec. 1. His research focuses on using new genomic sequencing technologies to understand cancer metastasis and on developing genetic-based markers for precision cancer medicine.

Aya Kamaya, MD

Kamaya was promoted to associate professor of radiology, effective Sept. 1. Her research focuses on abdominal and pelvic imaging, including hepatobiliary cancer and hepatocellular carcinoma imaging, perfusion CT of abdominal tumors, gynecologic and urologic imaging, ultrasound innovations and thyroid cancer ultrasound imaging. She serves as the associate program director for the Body Imaging Fellowship at Stanford.

John Oghalai, MD

Oghalai was promoted to professor of otolaryngology-head and neck surgery, effective Aug. 1. He directs the Stanford Children’s Hearing Center and its pediatric cochlear implant team. He specializes in managing adult skull base tumors and in the evaluation and management of children with hearing loss.

Timothy Durazzo, PhD 

Durazzo was appointed associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, effective Nov. 1. His clinical work emphasizes the neuropsychological assessment of traumatic brain injury, Gulf War illness and neurodegenerative diseases. His research focuses on the neurological consequences of traumatic brain injury, cigarette smoking and alcohol and substance-use disorders. 

Michael Khodadoust, MD, PhD    

Khodadoust, an instructor in medicine, received a 2015 Young Investigator Award from the Conquer Cancer Foundation of the American Society of Clinical Oncology. The one-year grant provides $50,000. Khodadoust’s research focuses on the identification of tumor antigens, with an emphasis on mantle-cell lymphoma. 

Kim Rhoads, MD    

Rhoads was promoted to associate professor of surgery, effective Sept. 1. She specializes in colon and rectal surgery, and her research focuses on the connection between hospital quality and racial or ethnic disparities in cancer survival. She is the founding director of the Stanford Cancer Institute’s Community Partnerships Program. 

Brendan Visser, MD    

Visser was promoted to associate professor of surgery, effective Sept. 1. He specializes in hepatobiliary and pancreatic surgery. He is the medical director of the Gastrointestinal Cancers Clinical Care Program in the Stanford Cancer Center and director of the Hepatobiliary and Pancreatic Surgery Clinical Fellowship. His research focuses on treating hepatocellular carcinoma, improving technical aspects of pancreatic and liver surgery and on socioeconomic and institutional barriers to the management of hepatobiliary cancers. 

Tara Chang, MD

Chang was appointed assistant professor of medicine, effective Oct. 1. Her research focuses on the treatment of cardiovascular disease in patients with chronic kidney disease. 

Mary Chen, MS, MBA

Chen was appointed assistant dean of maternal and child health research. She helped launch the Child Health Research Program to support clinical and translational research, now known as Spectrum Child Health. In her new role, she will develop and administer programs to support maternal and child health researchers at Stanford.

Stanley Cohen, MD, and Peter Marinkovich, MD

Cohen, professor of medicine and of genetics, and Marinkovich, associate professor of dermatology, have received 2016 Harrington Scholar-Innovator Awards from the Harrington Discovery Institute at University Hospitals in Ohio. Each award includes up to $700,000 in financial support and mentoring from pharmaceutical industry leaders to facilitate drug development. Cohen, who is the Kwoh-Ting Li Professor, aims to develop a treatment for Huntington’s disease and mechanistically related inherited neurodegenerative or neuromuscular disorders. Marinkovich studies the extracellular matrix, composed of molecules outside a cell that support surrounding cells, in epithelial tissues for applications in the treatment of blistering diseases such as epidermolysis bullosa. He also examines the pathogenesis and therapy of human psoriasis.

Robert Ohgami, MD, PhD

Ohgami was appointed assistant professor of pathology, effective Oct. 1. His clinical work focuses on the diagnosis of hematopoietic diseases. His research uses sequencing technologies to understand the molecular pathogenesis of leukemias and lymphomas.

Jochen Profit, MD

Profit, assistant professor of pediatrics, has received two R01 grants from the National Institutes of Health. He received $2.2 million to test a program at six hospitals that is intended to reduce burnout among health workers in the high-stress environment of the neonatal intensive care unit. He also received $3.1 million to track racial and ethnic disparities in care provided to very-low-birth-weight infants at 700 NICUs across the country, with the goal of providing feedback that could be used to eliminate such disparities.

Derrick Wan, MD

Wan was promoted to associate professor of surgery, effective Sept. 1. He focuses on pediatric craniofacial and adult reconstructive surgery. His research interests include using adipose-derived stromal cells for soft-tissue reconstruction.

Gerlinde Wernig, MD

Wernig was appointed assistant professor of pathology, effective Oct. 1. Her research focuses on discovering drivers of fibrotic diseases, including primary myelofibrosis and preleukemia, in patients and mouse models. 

Fan Yang, PhD

Yang, assistant professor of orthopaedic surgery and of bioengineering, has received the 2016 Young Investigator Award from the Society for Biomaterials. The award will be presented at the World Biomaterials Conference in Montreal. Yang’s research focuses on developing biomaterials to enhance tissue regeneration and on deciphering how extracellular cues regulate cell fate during normal development or disease progression. 

Michele Berk, PhD

Berk was appointed assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, effective Sept. 1. She specializes in researching and preventing adolescent suicide. Her most recent project investigates the effectiveness of dialectical behavior therapy on decreasing repeat suicide attempts among at-risk adolescents.

Helen Blau, PhD

Blau was elected to the council of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences for a four-year term. The council oversees the academy’s membership selection process and provides oversight of its academic efforts. She is the Donald E. and Delia B. Baxter Foundation Professor, director of the Baxter Laboratory for Stem Cell Biology and professor of microbiology and immunology.

Sanjiv Sam Gambhir, MD, PhD, and Brian Kobilka, MD

Gambhir and Kobilka were named 2015 fellows of the National Academy of Inventors. Gambhir, the Virginia and D.K. Ludwig Professor for Clinical Investigation in Cancer Research and professor and chair of radiology, develops strategies for integrated diagnostics and molecular imaging of living subjects. Kobilka, a professor of molecular and cellular physiology who holds the Hélène Irwin Fagan Chair in Cardiology and who won the 2012 Nobel Prize in chemistry, investigates G-protein-coupled receptors.

Sigurdis Haraldsdottir, MD

Haraldsdottir was appointed assistant professor of medicine, effective Oct. 1. She specializes in gastrointestinal cancers with a clinical focus on colorectal cancer. Her research focuses on mismatch repair deficiency and the inherited cancer disorder Lynch syndrome. She is characterizing drivers of colorectal cancer by analyzing population-based cohorts, with the goal of identifying new drug targets.

Anne Muehe, MD

Muehe, a postdoctoral fellow in radiology, received a $1,000 research trainee prize for her studies on the safety of ferumoxytol nanoparticles as an MRI contrast agent in children at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America in December. She studies clinical imaging technologies for cancer staging in children and young adults.

Zara Patel, MD

Patel was appointed assistant professor of otolaryngology-head and neck surgery, effective Sept. 1. She specializes in endoscopic sinus and skull-base surgery. Her research interests include treatment of refractory sinusitis, racial disparities in sinonasal cancer survival and curing olfactory loss.

Dolores Gallagher Thompson, PhD

Thompson, professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, was awarded an honorary doctorate in education by the Hong Kong Institute of Education in November. She directs the Stanford Geriatric Education Center and outreach, recruitment and education for the School of Medicine’s new Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center.

Joseph Wu, MD, PhD

Wu, director of the Stanford Cardiovascular Institute, received the inaugural Joseph A. Vita Award at the 2015 American Heart Association meeting in Orlando, Florida. This award is given to an investigator whose published work in the past five years has had a transformative impact on cardiovascular research. Wu is the Simon H. Stertzer Professor and professor of medicine and of radiology.

William Kennedy, MD

Kennedy was promoted to professor of urology, effective Nov. 1. He specializes in pediatric urology and in digital health. His telemedicine clinics have allowed more than 600 families in the Stanford Children’s Health network to meet with him remotely before their child’s surgery.

Ronald Levy, MD

Levy, the Robert K. and Helen K. Summy Professor and professor of oncology, has been awarded the American Association for Cancer Research-Cancer Research Institute Lloyd J. Old Award in Cancer Immunology. The award recognizes a scientist whose outstanding and innovative research in cancer immunology has had a significant effect on the field. Levy received a $10,000 honorarium and gave a lecture in Washington, D.C., in April. His research focuses on lymphocytes and lymphoma.

José Maldonado, MD

Maldonado was promoted to professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, effective Dec. 1. He is the chair-elect of the School of Medicine’s Faculty Senate and president-elect of the American Delirium Society. His research focuses on the assessment and management of delirium; prediction and management of alcohol withdrawal in the ill; psychosocial aspects of solid organ transplantation; the neuropsychiatric effects of traumatic brain injury; and post-traumatic stress disorder and suicide.

Laura Roberts, MD

Roberts, professor and chair of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, has been named the editor-in-chief of books for the American Psychiatric Association’s publishing unit. She has served as the deputy editor of books for American Psychiatric Publishing Inc. since 2007. The association publishes the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, among other publications. Roberts is the Katharine Dexter McCormick and Stanley McCormick Memorial Professor.