Campus Connection Professors recognized with
Outstanding Teacher Susan DeMesquita, Ph.D.
H. Maurice Goodman, Ph.D.
wo of the University’s most revered professors were honored in the December 2005 issue of Advances in Physiology Education. Susan DeMesquita, Ph.D., and H. Maurice Goodman, Ph.D., were both recognized as Outstanding Teachers. Dr. DeMesquita, recognized for her work at AUC, has been a full-time faculty member since January 2004. In May 2005, she was awarded the AUC American Medical Student Association Professor of the Year Award, voted on by the students and AMSA. As professor and chair of the department of neuroscience, DeMesquita teaches approximately 70 third-semester students three times each year. She also advises students and serves on the selection committee for visiting faculty members. Dr. H. Maurice Goodman has been a visiting professor at AUC for the past two semesters. Advances in Physiology Education recognized him as an Outstanding Teacher at the University of Massachusetts, where he is the chair and a professor in the physiology department. He also received the Lamar Soutter Award for Excellence in Medical Education, an award recognizing outstanding overall career contributions to medical education as a departmental member in basic sciences. We are honored to have Drs. DeMesquita and Goodman recognized as outstanding professors.
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Dr. Gaffin helps AUC dive into
research
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dents to ensure that they not only learn appropriate individual techniques, but also learn laboratory safety and how to behave in a laboratory.” One of Gaffin’s goals is to contribute to research topics directly related to St. Maarten and the Caribbean. The list of proposed projects is extensive, including epidemiology of diabetes and hypertension in various Caribbean populations, how kidneys operate in certain primitive fish, and searching for new antibiotics or anticancer agents in coral reef species. Now with its state-of-the-art laboratory and a group of professors with strong research backgrounds, Gaffin is optimistic about having the studies published in international scientific journals and governmental publications relating to Caribbean health. He also anticipates the lab results playing a strong role in obtaining grants from agencies to further support future experiments.
AUC Connections
he latest addition to AUC’s campus is a world-class applied research laboratory, thanks to the dedication of Dr. Steve Gaffin, a professor of physiology at the University. Pursued in part by Gaffin’s eagerness to continue research projects while in the Caribbean, the laboratory gives AUC professors a chance to dive back into a research environment. With a $200,000 contribution from the Tien Family and donations of laboratory equipment from the St. Maarten government, the facility is equipped for biochemical, immunological and cell culture experiments. It is stocked with standard research equipment including a CO2 incubator, inverted microscope, laminar flow hood, refrigerated centrifuge, ELISA plate reader, spectrophotometer and lab balances. As director of the laboratory, Gaffin plans to involve both students and faculty in projects. An assigned principal investigator for a project “will be responsible for each of his or her stu-
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