Dr. Kenrad Nelson, a professor of epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, has been elected a Fellow in the Section on Medical Sciences by the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Hopkins professors Michael Aaron Edidin and Dr. Bert Vogelstein were also elected fellows in the AAAS Medical Sciences Section.
Nelson was honored for his work on the epidemiology of virus-induced disease, particularly hepatitis and AIDS in Thailand.
Edidin, a professor in the Krieger School's biology department and a pathologist in the school of medicine, was honored for his studies leading to understanding of the mobility of membrane proteins, an important factor in immune responses.
Vogelstein, an oncologist and geneticist at the school of medicine, was honored for contributions to the understanding of the genetic bases of carcinogenesis.
Alexander D. MacKerell Jr., a professor in the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy's department of pharmaceutical sciences, has been named the 2006 Maryland Chemist of the Year by the American Chemical Society's Maryland Section.
MacKerell, who is also director of the school's Computer-Aided Drug Design Center, was honored for pioneering research on the aldehyde dehydrogenase enzyme system, his biophysical studies, developing methodology for studying force fields and application of computational methods to drug discovery.
Appointments
Dr. Jeffrey Quartner has been named chief of cardiology at Union Memorial Hospital.
Board-certified in internal medicine and cardiology, Quartner earned a medical degree from the University of Maryland School of Medicine, followed by an internal medicine residency at the University of Maryland Hospital and a cardiovascular diseases fellowship at Johns Hopkins Hospital.
Susan Bowen has been promoted to clinical director of the labor and delivery department at the Greater Baltimore Medical Center.
Bowen - a 20-year veteran, including more than 15 years in GBMC's labor and delivery department - earned an associate of arts degree in nursing from Baltimore County Community College, Essex and a Bachelor of Science degree in nursing from Towson University.
Fitzhugh Alford has been named administrative director of imaging at Maryland General Hospital. A 15-year veteran radiology veteran, he was previously manager of radiology and nuclear medicine for Lifebridge Health System.
Alford earned his undergraduate degree from Howard University and completed a master's degree in public administration at the University of Baltimore.
Suesanne Cameron has been named nursing director of acute care and emergency services at Maryland General Hospital. A veteran with 25 years of nursing experience, Cameron previously was director of critical care at Shady Grove Adventist Hospital.
Cameron, who began her career at Mercy Hospital, earned her nursing degree from the College of Notre Dame of Maryland and her master's in health care administration from Bellevue University.
David Jourdan, president of Nauticos LLC, has been appointed chair of the Johns Hopkins University Engineering Programs for Professionals Advisory Council. Now in its fourth year, the nine-member council brings together leaders from engineering companies, technology organizations, the government and higher education.
A native of Baltimore, Jourdan earned an engineering physics degree from the Naval Academy in 1976 and served on a missile sub before joining the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory. In the mid-1980s, Jourdan and two other APL scientists launched the forerunner of Nauticos, which is involved in deep ocean exploration.
Grants
Kellie L.K. Tamashiro, a neuroscientist who specializes in obesity at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, has been awarded one of 58 National Institutes of Health grants in support of young scientists with promising research. She was chosen from almost 900 applicants.
The new $927,000 Pathway to Independence grants support young scientists' independent research and mentoring by senior scientists. Tamashiro is investigating the effects of fetal stress and nutrition on behavior and brain development.
Anne Spence, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, and Susan Hoban, associate research scientist at UMBC's Goddard Earth Sciences & Technology Center, have received a three-year, $306,000 grant from NASA to develop high school curricula that encourage engineering careers.
The grant will continue the work of a partnership between UMBC, NASA and Project Lead the Way, a national nonprofit aimed at preparing middle and high school students for engineering in college. Hoban and Spence developed curricula based on NASA's forthcoming moon mission that will be added to PLTW's training programs for teachers at more than 1,300 schools.