Nov. 6
Cancer researcher Rachel M.A. Linger, PhD, a UC Denver postdoctoral fellow, received the inaugural Lung Cancer Research Foundation Merit Award for her novel work on two receptor tyrosine kinases in lung cancer which play important roles in tumor development and progression. She also will also receive a $50,000, one-year grant from the foundation to support her work. The New York-based private foundation gave her the award at its annual luncheon on Nov. 3.
“The award is tremendous for me,” Linger said. “This is the first time I feel like the subject matter and the mentor have really come together to form the whole package. I really feel like I have found my calling."
In a recently published study that used citations to explore the field identity of instructional design technology, two publications by Brent Wilson, professor of information and learning technology in the School of Education and Human Development, were featured among the most cited works:
- A 1999 article that he wrote with Dave Jonassen, a former UCD professor, was the 3rd most cited
- An edited book published in 1996 was the 11th most cited
Nov. 5
The UC Denver Radiation Oncology Department has a new chief physicist. Moyed Miften, PhD, joined the faculty as professor on Oct. 15.
He was previously chief of medical physics at Allegheny General Hospital Department of Radiation Oncology and West Penn Allegheny Health System Radiation Oncology Network and as associate professor of Radiation Oncology at Drexel University College of Medicine.
Miften will lead UCCC's radiation oncology physics R&D efforts and implement a physicist residency program. He is also supervising 10 members of the physics group and plans to add two post-docs to the research staff. His research focuses on improved targeting and treatment planning in radiation therapy by integrating novel imaging and biological methods.
Jennifer Richer, PhD, associate professor of Pathology at UC Denver and member of the Hormone Related Malignancies Program, received a Department of Defense Breast Cancer Research Idea award for her project, “MicroRNA-200c: A Novel Way to Attack Breast Cancer Metastases by Restoring the Epithelial Phenotype.” Richer will receive $572,130 over three years.
Nov. 3
Civil Engineering Assistant Professor David Mays and three of his graduate students attended the 63rd annual meeting of the Rocky Mountain Hydrologic Research Center in Fort Collins on Friday, Oct. 17. His graduate student Shawn Dankenbring gave a talk on “Effects of Watershed Subdivision, Resolution of Digital Elevation Model, and Resolution of Watershed Properties in the Colorado Urban Hydrograph Procedure.” The other graduate students attending were Orion Cannon and Jennifer Chipman.
Oct. 24
Architects Institute of America (AIA) Colorado North recognized its 2008 architectural design, honor and president’s awards recipients during a ceremony on Oct. 17 at The Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colo. These annual awards recognize firms and individuals within a nine-county area of northeastern Colorado for excellence in the field of architecture. Honor awards were presented to two members of our CAP community.
Allen Harlow, RA, senior instructor in Architecture, was named Mentor of the Year, which recognizes a firm or licensed architect for exceptional efforts to promote the professional growth and development of an emerging design professional, or group of emerging professionals, who is/are in the process of acquiring a license.
Heather Ludwig, Assoc. AIA (ENVD’06 and current M.Arch student), was named Associate of the Year. Heather is an architectural intern at The Neenan Company in Fort Collins. This award recognizes an unlicensed architectural intern or associate member of AIA Colorado North whose contribution to the profession of architecture in AIA Colorado North has been outstanding.
Assistant Professor of History Thomas G. Andrews, PhD, has just had his first book released. Killing for Coal: America's Deadliest Labor War was published by Harvard University Press. The book focuses on the history of fossil fuels, environmental change and labor violence in the southern Colorado coalfields from the 1870s through the great Colorado coalfield war of 1913-14.
Bill Becker, executive director of the Presidential Climate Action Project for UC Denver's Wirth Chair in the School of Public Affairs has just published The 100 Day Action Plan to Save the Planet. The e-book was released Oct. 21 by St. Martins Press. Becker describes the book as a brief, more accessible version of the final Presidential Climate Action Plan, which will be released in November. The plan is an exhaustive collection of policy recommendations for the next president on climate action.
Becker's book is available online for $9.95 through Amazon, Sony, dReader, Mobipocket and Powell’s. Information is available at http://us.macmillan.com/the100dayactionplantosavetheplanet. Any proceeds from the sale of the book will go to the project.
Gretchen Guiton, PhD, associate professor and director of evaluation for the School of Medicine, recently co-authored an article “Student Body Racial and Ethnic Composition and Diversity-Related Outcomes in U.S. Medical Schools.” Her article appeared in the September 10, 2008 edition of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).
Effective Oct. 1, Randal Ross, MD, assumed the role of director of Medical Student Research. A professor in psychiatry, he specializes in research training. Ross has generated more than $5.8 million in funding since 1993 and has published more than 61 papers, reviews and book chapters. According to SOM Dean Richard Krugman, Ross will help in the further development of our medical student research program, research infrastructure and funding for student projects. He will work closely with the Mentored Scholarly Activity Program and our existing research program.
Oct. 17
Terri Carrothers, Division of Endocrinology administrator in the Department of Medicine for the last 18 years, will become the chief of staff and an assistant dean in the School of Medicine (SOM) effective Nov. 17. She will use the next month to transition from her position in endocrinology, assisting them in finding a replacement, and transitioning into the SOM Dean's Office.
Senior Instructor of Architecture Joe Colistra won an Honor Award from the American Institute of Architects (AIA) Colorado for the Merchants Row Brownstones at 26th and Champa Streets in Denver. His project was one of 16 winning projects from among 170 submissions. This follows Colistra’s selection in April as Young Architect of the Year as part of the AIA Colorado Young Architects Awards program.
Kimberly McKillip Laudenslager, RDH, MPA, clinical associate professor at the School of Dental Medicine, received the 2008 Johnson & Johnson/ADHA Excellence in Dental Hygiene Award. The award recognizes outstanding achievement and dedication to the profession. With this award, ADHA and Johnson & Johnson recognize individual dental hygienists who have made “outstanding accomplishments that have a significant impact on the practice and future of the dental hygiene profession.”
Laudenslager, a member of the ADHA for 28 years, has taught pre-clinic and clinical courses for first-year students. In 2004, she was made an honorary alumna for the University of Colorado School of Dentistry for her outstanding teaching and her contributions on the Colorado Board of Dental Examiners. She also manages a dental hygiene practice on a part-time basis and presents continuing education courses throughout Colorado.
Ken Tagawa, retired director of UC Denver Human Resources and currently the content director for the College and University Professional Association for Human Resources (CUPA-HR) Knowledge Center, received the CUPA-HR Donald E. Dickason Award. Established in 1970 and named for the association’s founder, this award is the organization's highest honor and recognizes an individual for distinguished and continuing service to CUPA-HR.
Tagawa’s involvement with CUPA-HR began in the Southwest Region, where he served on the board first as a member and then as chair in 1992-93. From there, he went on to serve in positions on the national board, including six years as the association’s treasurer. While serving in these leadership roles, Tagawa helped establish the CUPA-HR listserv and in doing so launched the association into the world of technology-driven information sharing. In 2004, Tagawa was tapped to serve on a board-appointed Knowledge Center Task Force, where he played a prominent role in the development of the association’s Knowledge Center website. After a brief stint as a consultant Tagawa joined the association staff as content director for the Knowledge Center. Tagawa’s career in higher education HR began in 1987 as director of HR for UC Denver. He retired from here in 2002. CUPA-HR is a nonprofit, member-supported organization that serves more than 10,000 human resource professionals at 1,600+ colleges and universities as well as others interested in the advancement of human resources in higher education.
Oct. 15
Stephen Malkoski, PhD, received a Mentored Clinical Scientists Development (K08) grant to study "TCFbeta and lung squamous cell carcinoma." He will examine how TCFbeta signaling defects modulate behavior of airway epithelial cells in vivo and in vitro and how these changes promote the growth of lung squamous cell carcinoma.
Wounjhang Park, PhD, received a Ruth Kirschstein National Research Service Award for Individual Senior Fellows (F33) to study "Nanoprobes and integrated nanodevices for cancer detection and treatment." Park will create a training program for an electrical engineer who is an expert in nanotechnology so that he can better understand the clinical needs for early detection of cancer, especially melanoma.
Oct. 13
John Kappler, PhD, and Phillipa Marrack, PhD, both professors of Immunology in the School of Medicine, have been 'elected to membership' in the Institute of Medicine (IOM) in conjunction with the organization’s 38th annual meeting. Election to the IOM is considered one of the highest honors in the fields of health and medicine and recognizes individuals who have demonstrated outstanding professional achievement and commitment to service. IOM's mission is to serve as adviser to the nation to improve health.
Oct. 10
Kelly Grant, PhD, has been awarded the distinct honor of an American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Policy Fellowship. Grant’s fellowship will occur under the Environmental Protection Agency’s Design for the Environment department. As a part of her fellowship, she will collaborate with companies to eliminate known hormone-blocking synthetic chemicals in products that can disrupt normal body function.
According to AAAS, a fellow is defined as a member whose efforts in the advancement of science or its applications are scientifically or socially distinguished. Grant’s peers nominated her after she completed a post-doctoral fellowship in Craniofacial Biology at the University of Colorado Denver School of Dental Medicine.
“Interactions with the talented students, post-doctoral fellows, and faculty at the School of Dental Medicine greatly facilitated my research,” said Grant. “Furthermore, the community at the University of Colorado Denver was very supportive of thinking about the relationship between science and society, through their support of programs like Science as Art and Café Scientifique. These programs allowed me to explore the broader context of the interface of science and the broader world.”
Oct. 8
Jim Brickey is the new Colorado Principals' Center Executive Director in the School of Education and Human Development (SEHD). A long time Colorado Principals Center Board member, Brickey retired after a long career in both Cherry Creek and Douglas County School Districts. Most recently, he served as the director of Elementary Schools in Douglas County, working directly with all of the district's elementary school principals. Since his retirement, he has served as an interim principal of several elementary schools in the district.
SEHD Dean Lynn Rhodes has been appointed as the only higher ed member of the Colorado Department of Education Leadership Academy Board, a statewide group that has been created to implement 2008 legislation that established a Colorado School Leadership Academy Program.
Joni Dunlap's "Contributing to the thousands of invisible threads: Using blogs to help students engage in the professional community of practice" was published this month in PerformanceXpress. http://www.performancexpress.org/.
Phil Strain, SEHD, received a three-year award, $300,000 award for Head Start Innovation and Improvement Project in collaboration with Georgetown University. The proposal was in response to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families request for proposal (RFP).
Another $150,000 for a second year of funding was awarded to SEHD's Barbara Smith in collaboration with Vandervilt University for their work regarding the Center of the Social Emotional Foundations for Early Learning. The primary sponsor is the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Oct. 6
In August, Min Choi, assistant professor, College of Engineering and Applied Science, presented a paper on engineering computer graphics “Balanced Spatial Subdivision Method for Continuous Collision Detection,” at the 13th annual International Conference on Geometry and Graphics held at the Dresden University of Technology in Dresden, Germany from Aug. 4-8.
See the conference web site: http://webeos.math.tu-dresden.de/.
The university community is invited to check out Sense of Place, an exhibit of oil paintings by Denver artist Mary Connelly, associate professor in of the College of Arts and Media. The exhibit opens on Oct. 17, at the Charleston Heights Art Center, Las Vegas, Nev. A reception is scheduled for Friday, Oct. 17, at 6 p.m., with a lecture by the artist beginning at 7 p.m. This program is free and open to the public. Connelly will also be leading a critique session for local artists on Saturday, Oct. 18, at 11 a.m.
Tod Duncan, senior instructor of biology, traveled to the eighth International Conference on Supplemental Instruction held in Orlando, Fla. in May. The conference focused on program assessment, variations of the SI model, and implementation. Earlier this year, Duncan received a grant from the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences with which he will test a model of video supplemental instruction. Funding to attend the conference was provided by the Office for Undergraduate Experiences.
Laurel Hartley, assistant professor of biology, co-authored a new children’s book called Soils: Get the Inside Scoop, which explores how soil is part of our life. Hartley’s book was published in July in conjunction with the opening of “Dig It! The Secrets of Soils,” an exhibit at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History for which she was the content researcher. Learn about the exhibit and children’s book at https://www.soils.org/digdeeper/.
Tobias Riede, biology instructor, published a paper co-authored with I. Titze and Peter Popolo from the National Center for Voice and Speech at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts. Their paper, published in the Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, is “Nonlinear source-filtering coupling in phonation: vocal exercises.”
Brad Stith, professor of biology, co-authored a paper in the Journal of Lipid Research with Doug Petcoff (MSCD) and alumnus William L. Holland on “Lipid levels in sperm, eggs, and during fertilization in Xenopus laevis,” is the first to document the activation of different lipid pathways during fertilization that may be responsible for fertilization events. Stith also has been invited to serve on the National Science Foundation Signal Transduction panel in Washington, D.C.
Diana Tomback, professor of biology in CLAS, and Lynn Resler (Virginia Tech) just published an invited paper in a treeline issue of Physical Geography “Invasive pathogens at treeline: consequences for treeline dynamics.” Tomback and Resler present a model for disruption of treeline vegetation patterns and altered climate change predictions at treeline as a consequence of whitebark pine infection by the exotic disease white pine blister rust.
Oct. 1
Ross Camidge, MD, PhD, assistant professor of medical oncology and member of the Cancer Center Developmental Therapeutics Program, has a new R21 grant to conduct a randomized Phase II study of a new IGF-1R inhibitor in conjuction with erlotnib (Tarceva) in non-small cell lung cancer.
There is evidence that this class of drugs, when combined with chemotherapy, can result in a significant response rate in patients. Camidge says UCCC's Phase I Program provided some of the early results on the effectiveness of combining IGF-1R inhibitors with erlotnib.
"We are at an advantage here because Dr. Fred Hirsch has pinned down the molecular structure of tumors that respond to erlotnib, and we will be using his expertise to see if he can pin down the molecular structure of people who respond to this drug, called A12 from Imclone," he says. "We have the world-class expertise of Dr. Marileila Varella-Garcia, one of the only people in the world who can do FISH testing for IGF-1R. We hope that A12 will be more effective in general, and when combined with FISH assay, it will be even more effective for patients."
The study will begin enrolling patients in a few weeks.
T. John Hughes, Department of Architecture lecturer teaching architectural photography, is bringing his exhibit Cityscape Panorama Project to the Downtown Campus. There will be a reception to celebrate the exhibit opening Dean’s Suite in the CU-Denver Building. The work showcases the dramatic transformation of downtown Denver the past 15 years, featuring 20 sets of four panoramic photographs of downtown Denver taken from the identical vantage points in 1992, 1997, 2002 and 2007. Read Mary Voelz Chandler’s review in the Rocky Mountain News.
Patricia Valverde, program manager of Project SOL in the Cancer Prevention and Control Program reports that the group has received a two-year, $150,000 grant from the State Health Department to increase human papilloma virus vaccination use among Latinas. The HPV: Helping Prevent the Virus, program will target Latina girls ages 9 to 26 and their parents with the aim of increasing the number of Latinas who are vaccinated against HPV.
"We'll be doing outreach in Aurora, Metro Denver, Colorado Springs and La Junta," Valverde says. "At the beginning of 2009, we will also launch a media campaign targeted Spanish speaking parents of adolescent girls. That will be statewide."
Latinas have cervical cancer incidence and death rates that are higher than the state average. HPV vaccination protects against the strains of the virus that cause cervical cancer.