Brains and Potential? Apply Within

When Scott Zeger, PhD, searches for new Biostatistics faculty members, brains and potential outweigh experience in the field. "One of the secrets of success has been a tradition that the Department of Biostatistics has followed for several generations, which is to search for the best and brightest young faculty without regard to prior public health research experience," says the department chair.

Recent results seem to have validated the strategy. Five young assistant professors in the department, several of whom came to the School with little prior public health experience, have won awards in the last year:

• Karl Broman, PhD - Best paper in Genetic Epidemiology in 1999, International Genetic Epidemiology Society (awarded in 2000)
  
  
• Francesca Dominici, PhD - Young Investigator Award from the Section of Statistics in Epidemiology of the American Statistical Association
  
  
• Constantine Frangakis, PhD - Ho Ching Yang Memorial Faculty Award for Cancer Prevention
  
  
• Rafael Irizarry, PhD - Noether Young Scholar Award from the American Statistical Association for achievements in the field of nonparametric statistics (see page 10 for an article on Irizarry)
  
  
• Dan Scharfstein, ScD - Snedecor Award from the American Statistical Association for best paper in biometry; and Ho Ching Yang Memorial Faculty Award for Cancer Prevention.

Zeger has found that promising young faculty need three to four years to immerse themselves in their new discipline. "It's hard to expect them to be active participants in research grants right off the bat," he says. "We have been fortunate to have a grant from Merck to develop young faculty. It allows us to attract people in whom we want to invest."

The Centre for Health and Population Research, a Bangladesh-based institution which has had a close connection with the School over much of its 40-year history, was awarded on May 31 the first $1 million Gates Award for Global Health.

Formerly known as the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, the Centre was recognized for its contribution to global health. Oral rehydration solution (ORS), which saves the lives of 2.5 million children annually, was developed at the Centre. Past directors of the Centre include professors W. Henry Mosley, MD, MPH '65, and William Greenough III, MD. David Sack, MD, current director of the Centre and a professor in International Health at the School, accepted the award from Melinda Gates at the Washington D.C. ceremony.

Adnan A. Hyder, MD, PhD '98, MPH '93, is recipient of the 2001 American Public Health Association's International Health Section Mid-Career Award. Hyder, an assistant research professor in the Division of Community Health and director of the Doctor of Public Health Program in International Health, will collect the award this month at the APHA annual meeting in Atlanta.

Pamela J. Lein, PhD, assistant professor, Environmental Health Sciences, was named the first recipient of the Thomas and Carol McCann Innovative Research Fund for Asthma and Respiratory Disease.

Alan M. Goldberg, PhD, professor, Environmental Health Sciences, and director of the Center for Alternatives to Animal Testing, received the Society of Toxicology's Animal Welfare Enhancement award at the Society's 2001 meeting.

Janet DiPietro, PhD, associate professor, Population and Family Health Sciences, has been appointed chairperson of a National Institutes of Health study section, "Biobehavioral and Behavioral Processes."

Karen Bandeen-Roche, PhD, associate professor, Biostatistics, has been named a Fellow of the American Statistical Association.

Robert E. Black, MD, MPH, Edgar Berman Professor and chair, International Health, delivered the seventeenth E.V. McCollum International Lecture in Nutrition at the XVII International Congress of Nutrition in Vienna, August 27.