NEWS

Sancar elected to membership in
American Academy of Arts and Sciences

Dr. Aziz Sancar, Sarah Graham Kenan professor of biochemistry and biophysics in UNC’s School of Medicine, has been elected a fellow of the prestigious American Academy of Arts and Sciences in honor of his "extraordinary contributions" to his field.

Among the 178 new fellows and 24 new foreign honorary members named to the academy this year are also Philippe De Montebello, director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art; Richard C. Holbrooke, vice chairman of Perseus LLC and former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations; and Dr. Guillermo Jaim-Etcheverry, president of the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina.

"I am honored to welcome these outstanding and influential individuals to the nation’s oldest and most illustrious learned society," said Patricia Meyer Spacks, academy president. "These new members have made extraordinary contributions to their fields and disciplines through their commitment to the advancement of scholarly and creative work in every field and profession."

Sancar’s research interests include DNA repair and how this process is important in cancer treatment and prevention; and the regulation of the daily, or circadian, clock in mammals. He is a member of the UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center.

He received his medical degree from Istanbul University Medical School and his doctorate from the University of Texas at Dallas and was a postdoctoral fellow at Yale University.

Twenty-four UNC faculty members are members of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. The academy was founded in 1780 by John Adams, James Bowdoin, John Hancock and others to cultivate the arts and sciences. Fellows have included George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Daniel Webster, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Albert Einstein and Winston Churchill.

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Whitehead receives 2004 Janssen Award
in gastroenterology for research

Dr. William E. Whitehead, professor of medicine at UNC, recently received the 2004 Janssen Award in Gastroenterology for basic or clinical research in digestive sciences.

The honor was awarded on behalf of Janssen Pharmaceutica Inc., in cooperation with the American Gastroenterological Association.

Whitehead also co-directs the UNC Center for Functional GI and Motility Disorders, within the School of Medicine’s Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology. He provides research training to postdoctoral fellows, as well as clinical training. His research interests include the causes of visceral pain in patients with irritable bowel syndrome.

Prior to coming to UNC in 1993, Whitehead was at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine for 15 years, where he was chief of the gastrointestinal physiology laboratory at the Bayview Medical Center.

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Classics scholar wins Rome Prize

Dr. Maura Lafferty, assistant professor of classics at UNC, has won the Rome Prize from the American Academy in Rome.

The prize supports an 11-month research residency at the Rome academy, where Lafferty plans to continue her study of the culture of Latin in Western Europe during the early Middle Ages. Beginning in September, she will be part of a community of 30 Rome Prize recipients, including architects, visual artists, writers, composers, historic preservationists and scholars in classical and modern Italian studies.

Lafferty earned her master's degree in classics from UNC.

Established in 1894, the American Academy in Rome is a leading overseas center for independent study and advanced research in the arts and humanities.

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