Commendations & Commencements

Dr. Marius Clore, NIH distinguished investigator in the intramural NIDDK Laboratory of Chemical Physics, was elected a Foreign Member of the Academia Europaea (Academy of Europe). Clore studies the structure and dynamics of proteins, protein-protein complexes and protein-nucleic acid complexes using multidimensional nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy.

Dr. Judith Fradkin, director of the NIDDK Division of Diabetes, Endocrinology, and Metabolic Diseases, received the 2015 JDRF David Rumbough Award for Scientific Excellence for her work to prevent, treat and ultimately cure type 1 diabetes, including through improving understanding of the disease’s progression.

Dr. Marc Ghany was recruited as a clinical tenure-track investigator in the intramural NIDDK Liver Diseases Branch. Ghany’s research focuses on improving the care and treatment outcomes of people with chronic viral hepatitis.

NIDDK Advisory Council member Ellen Leake was awarded JDRF’s 2015 national volunteer award, the Jim Tyree Chairman’s Choice Award, for her contributions to JDRF on behalf of people with type 1 diabetes. Leake is a member of the JDRF research and executive committees and of the Canadian Clinical Trial Network lay review committee. She also co-founded Mississippi Cures, an advocacy and public policy group in support of stem cell research.

Dr. Kristina Rother, section chief in the intramural NIDDK Diabetes, Endocrinology, and Obesity Branch, has been named a recipient of the 2015 Mayo Clinic Distinguished Alumni Award for her accomplishments as a translational investigator and clinical pediatric endocrinologist. The award honors exceptional contributions by Mayo alumni in the field of medicine.

NIDDK Advisory Council member Dr. Bruce Spiegelman received the InBev-Baillet Latour Health Prize 2015 for his fundamental contributions to the research of metabolic disorders. The prize is recognized as the most important international scientific prize granted in Belgium. Spiegelman is the Stanley J. Korsmeyer Professor of Cell Biology and Medicine at Harvard Medical School.

Dr. Bonnie Burgess-Beusse joined the NIDDK Division of Digestive Diseases and Nutrition as a program director for the Translational and Basic Liver Disease Research program and administers a portfolio of research grants on bile, bilirubin, and cholestasis; cell and molecular biology of the liver; cell injury, repair, fibrosis, and inflammation; and developmental biology and regeneration. Before joining NIDDK, she served for 10 years as a scientific review officer within the Digestive, Kidney, and Urological Systems Integrated Review Group at NIH’s Center for Scientific Review. Her research background is in the areas of vertebrate chromatin insulator elements, the regulation of transcription factors in the liver, and the hepatic acute phase response to inflammation.

Dr. Rob Rivers joined NIDDK’s Office of Minority Health Research Coordination as director of the Short-Term Research Experience Program for Underrepresented Persons and the NIH National Medical Association Travel Award Program. Previously, he served as AAAS Science and Technology Policy Fellow in the Office of Cancer Clinical Research at the NIH’s National Cancer Institute.

Dr. David Saslowsky joined NIDDK’s Division of Digestive Diseases and Nutrition as director of the Career Development and Training Program. His research focused on how microbial toxins interact with enterocyte membranes to elicit host cell signaling and immunomodulatory responses. Previously, he was director of the Harvard Digestive Diseases Center confocal microscopy core at Boston Children’s Hospital and was an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School. He is also a former NIDDK K01 awardee.

Dr. Van Hubbard, director of the NIH Division of Nutrition Research Coordination located within the NIDDK – now known as the NIH Office of Nutrition Research – has retired. Hubbard had a distinguished career at the NIH starting in the intramural program in 1976, leading NIDDK extramural nutrition and obesity research programs since 1983, and serving as a senior advisor on obesity to the HHS Secretary. He is also a retired assistant surgeon general and rear admiral in the U.S. Public Health Service.

Dr. Kenneth Kaushansky served on the Kidney, Urologic, and Hematologic Diseases Subcouncil. He is dean of Stony Brook University School of Medicine and senior vice president of Health Sciences at Stony Brook University.

Dr. Alan Shuldiner served on the Diabetes, Endocrinology, and Metabolic Diseases Subcouncil. He is professor of medicine at the University of Maryland School of Medicine and head of its Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Nutrition, among other roles.

John Walsh served on the Digestive Diseases and Nutrition Subcouncil. He is president and co-founder of the not-for-profit Alpha-1 Foundation, dedicated to advancing education and research on the genetic condition known as alpha-1-antitrypsin deficiency.

Dr. Jerry Palmer served on the Diabetes, Endocrinology, and Metabolic Diseases Subcouncil as an ex officio member representing the Veterans Administration for 10 years.

Dr. Robert Vigersky served on the Diabetes, Endocrinology, and Metabolic Diseases Subcouncil as an ex officio member representing the Department of Defense since 2012, before retiring from service in February.

Longtime NIH grantee Dr. Jules Hirsch, a former NIDDK Advisory Council member, died on July 23. He had a long career at the Rockefeller University in New York as a physician scientist. Dr. Hirsch’s investigations into body weight regulation helped uncover the biological processes underpinning obesity, including that fat cells change with variations in weight and that people tend toward a set weight.