Honors & Other Things |
|
March 25, 2014, Volume 60, No. 27 |
Art History Honors: Dr. Davis
Dr. Julie Davis, associate professor in the SAS department of the history of art, has been elected president of the Japan Art History Forum, an international organization for professionals engaged in the study of Japanese arts and cultures. She will assume this role at the Association for Asian Studies meetings on March 28 and will serve a three-year term. Dr. Davis has been a member since its founding in 1996, when she was part of its steering committee and served as the graduate student representative.
Dr. Davis has also been nominated to serve on the board of directors for the International Ukiyo-e Society, headquartered in Tokyo, which signifies her important contribution to the field.
Her primary research concerns Ukiyo-e, the “images of the floating world,” and the arts of the Tokugawa period (1615-1868).
|
Lehigh’s Business Dean: Professor Phillips
Georgette Chapman Phillips, David B. Ford Professor of Real Estate; professor of legal studies and law in Wharton and the Law School, was named dean of Lehigh University’s College of Business and Economics. She will begin her tenure on July 1. Professor Phillips is also vice dean, technology enhanced learning in Wharton.
|
Biological Research Award: Dr. Hajishengallis
The research of Penn Dental Medicine’s Dr. George Hajishengallis, professor in the department of microbiology, has been recognized by the International and American Associations for Dental Research (IADR/AADR) through their annual IADR/AADR William J. Gies Awards for Biological Research.
Dr. Hajishengallis along with collaborators Drs. Richard P. Darveau and Michael A. Curtis from University of Washington and Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry, respectively, have been selected to receive the 2014 IADR/AADR William J. Gies Award in the category of biological research for the paper, “Porphyromonas gingivalis as a Potential Community Activist for Disease.” The award for biological research was presented last week.
|
ACM Fellows
Two professors in the SEAS department of computer and information science were named Fellows of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM).
Dr. Sampath K. Kannan, Henry Salvatori Professor and chair of the department, was honored for his contributions to algorithmic approaches to program reliability, bioinformatics and for his service to the computer science research community. In his work on massive data set algorithms, Dr. Kannan explores what can be computed efficiently and what is not computable.
Dr. Val Tannen, professor of computer and information science, was honored for his contributions to query languages, query optimization and data provenance. His work is centered around data management technologies and their applications in life sciences.
Ivy Champs: Women’s Basketball
The Quaker women’s basketball team defeated Princeton University, 80-64, winning the Ivy League title and earning the program’s first trip to the NCAA Tournament since 2003-2004.
This is their third Ivy League title and their first in 10 years. The Quakers (22-6, 12-2 Ivy) tied a school record for wins in a season and their 12 league wins are second-most in program history.
2014 Power Down Challenge Winners
After four weeks of turning off unneeded lights, unplugging unused devices, layering up to warm up and other creative means to conserve electricity, the champions have been named in Penn’s 2014 Power Down Challenge.
This friendly competition, which ran from February 3 through March 2, motivated all of Penn’s College Houses and seven of its Non-residential Campus Buildings to find effective and creative ways to save electricity. In addition to raising awareness among students, staff and faculty, the Power Down Challenge aims to get participants to adopt energy-conserving practices that will last year round.
The College House Competition is based on two different measurements: (1) percent reduction in average daily kWh use and (2) gross electricity reduction (most kWh).
Among College Houses, Du Bois ran strong for the entire competition and came out the winner with a total percent reduction of 4.5%. The College House with the largest gross electricity reduction was Sansom Place (both East and West), with a reduction of 10,446 kWh.
Non-residential Campus Buildings competed in two different measurements of reduction: (1) % reduction in average daily kWh usage and (2) reduction in average daily kWh use per square foot.
Throughout the Campus Building Competition, Meyerson Hall, led the race and won in both categories with a 7.57% reduction in electricity usage and reduction in electricity usage per square foot, at -5 kWh/1000 sq.ft.
All reductions compare to a unique baseline for each building. Champions in this competition also received a prize to be used for a building-wide celebration.
Pennsylvania Hospital, Penn Presbyterian Medical Center and Chester County Hospital Receive Get With The Guidelines-Stroke Silver Plus Quality Achievement Awards
Pennsylvania Hospital, Penn Presbyterian Medical Center and Chester County Hospital received the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association’s Get With The Guidelines®-Stroke Silver Plus Quality Achievement Award. The award recognizes these Penn Medicine hospitals’ commitment and success in implementing a higher standard of stroke care by ensuring that stroke patients receive treatment according to nationally accepted standards and recommendations.
“This award is a testament to all the hard work that our staff at Penn Presbyterian Medical Center has done toward caring for our patients with cerebrovascular disease,” said Dr. Claude Nguyen, assistant professor of neurology and director of stroke services at Penn Presbyterian Medical Center. “Along with our telemedicine program and upcoming involvement with clinical trials, Penn Presbyterian continues our commitment to provide the best care possible for our community.”
To receive the Get With The Guidelines-Stroke Silver Plus Quality Achievement Award, these three Penn Medicine hospitals achieved at least 12 consecutive months of 85 percent or higher adherence to all Get With The Guidelines-Stroke Quality Achievement indicators and achieved at least 75 percent or higher compliance with six of 10 Get With The Guidelines-Stroke Quality Measures during that same period of time, which are reporting initiatives to measure quality of care. The Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania received the Guidelines-Stroke Gold Plus Quality Achievement Award in October 2013, for achieving 85 percent or higher adherence to all Get With The Guidelines-Stroke Quality Achievement indicators for two or more consecutive 12-month intervals and 75 percent or higher compliance with six of 10 Get With The Guidelines-Stroke Quality Measures.
These measures include aggressive use of medications, such as antithrombotics, anticoagulation therapy, DVT prophylaxis, cholesterol reducing drugs and smoking cessation, all aimed at reducing death and disability and improving the lives of stroke patients.
“Management of stroke at Pennsylvania Hospital has improved tremendously since we were designated a primary stroke center in 2012,” said Dr. Howard Hurtig, Elliott Professor of Neurology and chair of the neurology department at Pennsylvania Hospital. “Every member of the team of nurses, residents, physicians and other staff of the hospital plays a vital role in making the program so well-coordinated and successful.”
“With a stroke, time lost is brain lost, and the Get With The Guidelines-Stroke Silver Plus Quality Achievement Award demonstrates that our staff is committed to providing care that has been shown in the scientific literature to quickly and efficiently treat stroke patients with evidence-based protocols,” said Sandra Garrison, director of cardiovascular disease management at Chester County Hospital.
Last year, the four Penn Medicine hospitals saw a combined total of 1,372 stroke patients.
In addition to the Get With The Guidelines-Stroke awards, both the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and Chester County Hospital have been recognized as recipients of the association’s Target: Stroke Honor Roll, for improving stroke care. Over the past quarter, at least 50 percent of the hospitals’ eligible ischemic stroke patients have received tissue plasminogen activator, or tPA, within 60 minutes of arriving at the hospital (known as ‘door-to-needle’ time). A thrombolytic, or clot-busting agent, tPA is the only drug approved by the US Food and Drug Administration for the urgent treatment of ischemic stroke. If given intravenously in the first three hours after the start of stroke symptoms, tPA has been shown to significantly reverse the effects of stroke and reduce permanent disability.
“Penn Medicine is to be commended for its commitment to implementing standards of care and protocols for treating stroke patients across all hospitals,” said Dr. Lee H. Schwamm, chair of the Get With The Guidelines National Steering Committee and director of the TeleStroke and Acute Stroke Services at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. “The full implementation of acute care and secondary prevention recommendations and guidelines is a critical step in saving the lives and improving outcomes of stroke patients.”
|