Honors & Other Things - Almanac, Vol. 47, No. 22, 2/13/2001

Honors & Other Things

Dr. Beck: Heinz Award

Dr. Aaron Beck, University Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry in the Department of Psychiatry, has received the Heinz Award in the Human Condition for "his pioneering breakthrough in developing cognitive therapy as an effective treatment of psychological disorders in millions of individuals suffering mental and behavioral health challenges." Dr. Beck is the founder of the fastest growing, most extensively studied form of psychotherapy in America, which he calls "simple and effective."

Dr. Beck is world renowned as the "father of cognitive therapy." He was trained as a psychiatrist in the 1940s and 50s when the prevailing treatments for mental disorders were either medication or psychoanalytic therapy. He felt that neither of these approaches was conducive to helping people learn to help themselves, to develop confidence, hope and enduring positive change.

Dr. Beck's early research into the psychology of depression prompted him to develop a treatment that would help patients to understand and deal with their psychological problems and led to significant advances in the treatment not only of depression, but also of anxiety, panic and eating disorders, phobias and suicidal problems as well. More recently, this treatment has been applied successfully to substance abuse and schizophrenia.

Dr. Beck's cognitive therapy has brought relief to millions of patients and sparked a revolution in psychotherapy. His research, practice, teaching and mentorship have resulted in the training of thousands of mental health professionals who are making significant advances toward helping people who suffer the ill effects of stress and emotional disorders.

Dr. Doms: Warner-Lambert Award

Dr. Robert W. Doms, director of pathogenesis at the Center for AIDS Research, associate professor of pathology and laboratory medicine and chair of the Department of Microbiology, has been named the Warner-Lambert/Parke-Davis Award winner for "meritorious research in experimental pathology" by a scientist who is less than 44 years old, by the American Society for Investigative Pathology.

He and his team have made discoveries in the field of AIDS research. They have established that AIDS can develop beyond the earliest stages of HIV infection only in the presence of a second set of cell receptor molecules known as cofactors.

Dr. Doms is a member of the American Society for Clinical Research, holds the Burroughs Wellcome Award for Translational Research and the Stanley N. Cohen Biomedical Research Award. In 1999 he was one of four scientists to win the Elizabeth Glaser Scientist Award, the only award devoted exclusively to research in pediatric medicine.

Dr. Naylor: Advisory Council

Dr. Mary Naylor, the Ralston House Professor in Gerontologic Nursing, associate director of the Center for Gerontologic Nursing Science and faculty co-director of Living Independently for Elders, has been appointed to the National Advisory Council for Nursing Research. The appointment was effective February 1.

Mr. McAdams: Best PA Announcer

John McAdams, public address announcer for Penn basketball, had been named Best PA Announcer by The Sporting News. Mr. McAdams began his career at the Palestra in 1981 and over the course of twenty years has become part of the history of the Palestra when his picture was placed in the east concourse. One of the few full- -time PA announcers in the country, Mr. McAdams also works at Drexel, St. Joe's, LaSalle and Philadelphia University games.

$1 Million NASA-Related Genomics Grant to IME

The National Space Biomedical Research Institute (NSBRI), a NASA-related research agency established to address medical challenges associated with prolonged space missions, has awarded a $1.02 million three-year grant in cardiovascular genomics to pathology professor and IME Director Dr. Peter F. Davies. The research will use microarrays to address, at the level of gene expression, the structural and regulatory changes in vascular tissues associated with microgravity and hypergravity. The studies will address orthostatic intolerance (inappropriate distribution of blood), an undesirable consequence of cardiovascular adaptations to microgravity, which frequently occurs upon the return of astronauts from prolonged space flight. The new grant complements research supported by $1.75 million in vascular genomics grants awarded to Dr. Davies in 1999 by the National Institutes of Health and by AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals to investigate the effects of mechanical forces upon cardiovascular gene expression. Dr. Chris Stoeckert of Penn's Center for Bioinformatics is co-investigator in these initiatives, which represent an important link between the IME and Penn's newly established Genomics Institute.

$18 Million for Policy Research in Education

The Consortium for Policy Research in Education at GSE has been awarded five years of continuation funding from the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Educational Research and Improvement. The $18 million award will permit CPRE researchers to continue their investigations into educational practice and policy.

"Through its research, CPRE provides evidence of which practices and policies actually lead to increased student learning," said Dean Susan H. Fuhrman, chair of CPRE's management committee.

Created in 1985, CPRE includes researchers from five universities: Penn, Stanford, Harvard, Michigan, and Wisconsin-Madison. It works to improve elementary and secondary education through research on policy, finance, school reform and school governance.

CPRE researchers are analyzing the effectiveness of current education reform efforts. The results are used by local, state and federal policymakers and by practitioners who are interested in which reform practices lead to improved instruction and increased student learning.

Among the Consortium's major research efforts are:

Study of Instructional Improvement examines three major education reform agendas: Success for All, Accelerated Schools and America's Choice. The study will determine which aspects of these reform agendas are more likely to produce powerful effects on student learning.

Knowledge- and Skill-Based Teacher Evaluation and Pay will build on past CPRE work to examine whether and how these teacher-performance systems contribute to improved instruction and student achievement.

Improving Performance in Schools and Districts seeks to understand how schools and districts respond to high performance expectations. The project will study the roles and interactions of schools, districts, education assistance agencies and states in building instructional capacity and how these contribute to performance.

Costs of School Reform and Effective Resource Use Patterns will identify the costs of effective instructional improvement strategies that are identified in other major CPRE projects and address the costs and resource use patterns of school-wide strategies that are successful in teaching students to high standards.

Almanac, Vol. 47, No. 22, February 13, 2001

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