People in the news October 2012

Collins to receive Galien Foundation award

NIH Director Dr. Francis S. Collins has been named the 2012 recipient of the Pro Bono Humanum Award by the Galien Foundation, in recognition of his exemplary and innovative efforts in improving the human condition. Collins was honored for his contribution to the ethical implications of scientific research.

Dr. Francis S. Collins

Dr. Maria C. Freire

Freire to become president of NIH foundation

Dr. Maria C. Freire has been named president of the Foundation for the NIH and will assume her new role in November. She is currently president of the Albert and Mary Lasker Foundation and previously held key positions at the Global Alliance for TB Drug Development and the NIH Office of Technology Transfer. She has also served on Fogarty’s advisory board.

Austin named director of NIH center

Dr. Christopher P. Austin has been promoted to director of the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences from his position leading the center’s division of preclinical innovation. Austin, a developmental neurogeneticist by training, came to the NIH in 2002 from Merck.

Dr. Christopher P. Austin

Dr. Janine A. Clayton

Clayton to lead NIH women’s health office

Dr. Janine A. Clayton was named director of the NIH Office of Research on Women’s Health, after serving as acting director for a year. Before joining the office, Clayton was deputy clinical director of the National Eye Institute.

Longtime Fogarty collaborator is mourned

Renowned epidemiologist Dr. R. Palmer Beasley has died of pancreatic cancer at age 76. Beasley, a longtime Fogarty and NIH grantee, linked the hepatitis B virus to liver cancer. He was dean at The University of Texas School of Public Health. Before that, he worked at the University of Washington and the American University Medical Center in Taipei, Taiwan.

Dr. R. Palmer Beasley

Dr. Donald Silberberg

Ecuador honors Fogarty grantee Silberberg

The government of Ecuador has selected Dr. Donald Silberberg for its highest scientific honor, the Vicente Rocafuerte medal. Silberberg, a Fogarty grantee at the University of Pennsylvania and the first American to receive the award, was recognized for his work on neurological and psychiatric conditions in Ecuador.

Petroze recognized for Rwandan work

Former Fogarty scholar Dr. Robin T. Petroze has received an American College of Surgeons/Pfizer Surgical Volunteerism Award for significantly contributing to surgical care. Petroze, who attends the University of Virginia, has studied the burden of diseases requiring surgery in Rwanda.

Dr. Robin T. Petroze