Professional News: May 16, 2003
Dr. Ralph Snyderman | John Staddon | Christina Hull
Ralph Snyderman, M.D., chancellor for health affairs at Duke University and president and CEO of Duke University Health System, will be honored May 17 with an Ellis Island Medal of Honor.
The Ellis Island Medals of Honor are awarded annually by the National Ethnic Coalition of Organizations (NECO) to recognize distinguished Americans of various ethnic origins for their outstanding contributions to the United States. NECO is dedicated to issues of ethnic heritage, culture and religion. Previous award winners include all U.S. presidents from Nixon through Clinton, Elie Wiesel, Rosa Parks and Rudy Giuliani. Snyderman's selection was based on his achievements in biomedical research and leadership in academic medicine and health care.
Snyderman was born in Brooklyn, N.Y., the son of Russian immigrants Morris and Ida Snyderman. He graduated from Washington College in Chestertown, Md., and received his M.D., magna cum laude, from the Downstate Medical Center of the State University of New York. He completed his internship and residency in medicine at Duke.
Snyderman, who is also James B. Duke professor of medicine, is internationally recognized for his seminal contributions to inflammation research. He will receive his award May 17 during a ceremony on Ellis Island.
John Staddon, James B. Duke Professor of Neurobiology and Biology, will be honored with a festshrift, a special collection of essays written in honor of a distinguished scholar. The event will take place Saturday, May 17, in the Doris Duke Center in Duke Gardens.
The Festschrift is an opportunity for Staddon's former students and research associates to meet and give talks in his honor.
Christina M. Hull, Ph.D., a postdoctoral fellow in molecular genetics and microbiology, was one of 13 biomedical scientists to receive a Burroughs Wellcome Fund Career Award in the Biomedical Sciences. Career awards provide $500,000 over five years to bridge advanced postdoctoral training and the early years of faculty service.
The awards honor Nobel laureates Gertrude Elion and George Hitchings, former researchers at Burroughs Wellcome. Hull will use her award for a project on "Cell identity, sexual development, and virulence in the human fungal pathogen Cryptococcus neoformans."