NEWS

Briefs

Dr. Bill Roper, dean of the UNC School of Public Health, has been chosen to serve on the President’s Commission on White House Fellowships, the group of advisers that selects participants for the prestigious White House Fellows Program.

The fellowship program selects participants with strengths in leadership ability and an interest in public service, providing participants with connections to successful leadership role models from private and public sectors.

A former White House Fellow who later served in the presidential administrations of Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, Roper is one of 14 new commission members nationwide. He recently participated in "Selection Weekend," interviewing and interacting with this year’s fellowship candidates.

In addition, Quintiles Transnational Corp., a Research Triangle Park-based firm, recently tapped Roper to serve on its board of directors.

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Dr. Mark D. Sobsey, a professor of environmental sciences and engineering at the UNC School of Public Health, has received the 2002 Bernard G. Greenberg Alumni Endowment Award.

Established to honor Dr. Bernard G. Greenberg, founder and chairman of the school’s department of biostatistics and a former dean of the school, the award is given annually to a full-time School of Public Health faculty member for excellence in teaching, research and service.

The Greenberg award carries a monetary prize of $18,000 over three years to support Sobsey’s research.

Sobsey’s area of expertise is public health microbiology. He is a world-renowned expert on water and food supply pathogens and has made major contributions to the science of removal of infectious agents from drinking water. He joined the School of Public Health faculty in 1974.

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Gary John White recently received the 2002 Harriet Hylton Barr Distinguished Alumnus Award, the highest honor bestowed by the UNC School of Public Health Alumni Association.

The award, established in 1975, recognizes the achievements of alumni and their contributions to public health, particularly their leadership, experimentation, collaboration and innovation within the profession; impact within the practice arena; and outstanding service beyond the requirements of the recipient’s employment.

A 1995 graduate of the department of environmental sciences and engineering, White has dedicated his career to providing safe water in developing countries. As a graduate student, he co-founded WaterPartners International to address this problem. Since 1990, WaterPartners has funded projects in more than 50 communities, bringing safe water to more than 20,000 people.

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A researcher at the UNC School of Medicine will soon receive an award from the American Society for Clinical Laboratory Science for an article published in the society’s research journal.

Dr. Rebecca Laudicina, an associate professor in the department of allied health sciences’ division of clinical laboratory science, will receive the Joseph J. Kleiner Memorial Award on July 31.

She is being honored as senior author of an article titled "Hereditary Hemochromatosis: A Case Study and Review." Dr. Vicky LeGrys, a professor in the clinical laboratory science division, was second author.

Hereditary hemochromatosis is a disorder of iron regulation that leads to excessive iron absorption. The iron overload and deposition in tissue leads to various chronic diseases and premature death. The genetic disorder is often undetected or unrecognized by health-care providers and is most common among the United States white population.

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Dr. Nancy DeMore, assistant professor of surgery in the UNC School of Medicine, has been awarded one of 11 Career Development Awards by the American Society of Clinical Oncology.

The awards are presented to physicians in their first, second or third year as full-time faculty members in a university setting. DeMore, a member of the UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, received a three-year grant totaling $170,100 to test a hypothesis or accomplish intended research.

Her research project is titled "Molecular Characterization of Human Breast Cancer Micrometastases."

DeMore came to UNC after completing a surgical oncology fellowship at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and had previously been a surgical research fellow in the laboratory of Dr. Judah Folkman at Harvard Medical School. Her clinical specialty is in breast cancer.

This year’s award recipients were chosen for their unique approaches to clinically oriented research and exceptional accomplishments in independent, self-initiated clinical investigation. Additional selection criteria included the subject matter, research methods, expected results and overall research goals.

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News Services contact: Deb Saine, (919) 962-8415