Four Fellows Four faculty members at the University of Pennsylvania have been named Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, three of them from the Perelman School of Medicine. This year 539 members have been awarded this honor because of their scientifically or socially distinguished efforts to advance science or its applications. The Perelman School’s newest Fellows are: David Boettiger, Ph.D., emeritus professor of microbiology, for distinguished Veterinary Medicine, Dental Medicine, Engineering and Applied Sciences, and Arts and Sciences will participate as well.
Honors & Awards Aaron T. Beck, M.D., emeritus professor of psychiatry, was named a recipient of the Prince Mahidol Award in Medicine, presented by the Royal Thai Government. The other recipient was David T. Wong, from Indiana University. Beck was recognized for his outstanding contributions in the development of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). He was the first person to successfully develop CBT and use it on patients suffering from depression. The therapy is now widely used by psychiatrists and psychotherapists. Beck also received the 2011-2012 Edward J. Sachar Award from the Department of Psychiatry at Columbia University. Beck was honored for facing the challenge of treating low-functioning patients with schizophrenia. At the award ceremony, Beck was introduced by Nobelist Eric R. Kandel, Ph.D., who described Beck as “the most original and important contributor to psychotherapy and psychiatry of the last 50 years and the most important psychoanalyst since Freud.” James Eberwine, Ph.D., professor of pharmacology, has received a Senior
contributions to tumor virology and to integrin-mediated cell adhesion, particularly for the identification of adhesion signaling and its regulation by mechanical forces. Nigel Fraser, Ph.D., professor of microbiology, for outstanding discoveries about the mechanisms of herpes virus biology, particularly in the area of herpes simplex virus latency and reactivation. David Weiner, Ph.D., professor of pathology and laboratory medicine, for pioneering and enabling discoveries in the area
of DNA vaccines and promoting that field of research. The fourth Fellow is Nancy Bonini, Ph.D., professor of biology in the School of Arts and Sciences, who often works with researchers in the Perelman School of Medicine. An investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, she was recognized for distinguished contributions in the fields of basic and translational neuroscience, particularly as applied to understanding neurodegenerative disorders.
Scholar Award from the Ellison Medical Foundation. The $600,000 award, disbursed over the next four years, supports basic biological research in aging. Eberwine is one of 20 investigators to receive this award. According to Eberwine, the grant will enable his research team to use cutting-edge technologies to assess how protein synthesis contributes to modulating the aging cell phenotype. This line of work will try to answer whether the decrease in neural connections seen in aging can be modulated by regulating dendritic protein synthesis.
terest, she has said, has been the disposition of membranes and macromolecular complexes that are responsible for excitation-contraction coupling in skeletal and cardiac muscles. Prabodh Gupta, M.B.,B.S, M.D., professor of pathology and laboratory medicine, received the 2012 L. C. Tao Educator of the Year Award from the Papanicolaou Society of Cytopathology. The award recognizes meritorious service and contributions to
Harold I. Feldman, M.D., M.S.C.E., a professor of epidemiology and a professor of medicine in the Renal Electrolyte and Hypertension Division, was elected to the board of the American College of Epidemiology. He is also a senior scholar in the Center for Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics His term will run through 2014. Prabodh Gupta
Clara Franzini-Armstrong, Ph.D., emeritus professor of cell and developmental biology, was named a foreign member of the Accademia dei Lincei. Founded in 1603, this Italian academy of science has a rich history, including counting Galileo Galilei as a member. Franzini-Armstrong graduated from the University of Pisa. Her main field of in-
the field of cytopathology education. Gupta’s clinical expertise is in cytopathology with a particular interest in the development of cervical and lung cancer. Director of cytopathology and the cytometry laboratory at Penn, he is the author of nearly 250 scientific articles and chapters as well as a book, The Fundamentals and
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