Awards and Achievements

Andreasen Receives APA's Judd Marmor Award

Nancy Andreasen, M.D., Ph.D., a professor of psychiatry who holds the Andrew H. Woods Chair of Psychiatry at the University of Iowa Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine, has received the 2007 Distinguished Investigator Award from the National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression (NARSAD) : the Mental Health Research Association.

The award supports highly significant research by scientists who have established themselves as leaders in their fields and who are on the cusp of a breakthrough. Andreasen is one of 23 outstanding scientists nationwide chosen to receive this year's award.

Butler Receives Veterinary Immunology Awards

John E. Butler, Ph.D., professor of microbiology in the University of Iowa Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine, has been named the recipient of national and international awards in the field of veterinary immunology.

The Veterinary Immunology Committee of the International Union of Immunological Sciences (IUIS) has selected Butler to receive its 2007 Distinguished Veterinary Immunology Award sponsored by Pfizer Animal Health. Butler also will receive the 2007 Distinguished Veterinary Immunology Award from the American Association of Veterinary Immunologists (AAVI).

The AAVI award is given to an individual whose contribution to veterinary immunology is widely acknowledged as significant and important to the understanding of the immunology of domestic and/or wild animals.

Mohler Named a 2007 Pew Scholar

Peter Mohler, Ph.D., assistant professor of internal medicine and molecular physiology and biophysics in the University of Iowa Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine, has been selected as a 2007 Pew Scholar in the Biomedical Sciences.

Mohler is one of just 20 scientists nationwide to receive the prestigious four-year, $240,000 award from the Pew Charitable Trusts and the University of California, San Francisco.

The Pew Scholars in the Biomedical Sciences program, launched in 1985, provides funding to early- to mid-career investigators who show outstanding promise in the basic and clinical sciences. The grants are specifically designed to be flexible in terms of how the money is used, allowing the recipients to take calculated risks, expand their research, and follow unanticipated leads.

Sigmund to Receive Corcoran Award

Curt D. Sigmund, Ph.D., Professor of Internal Medicine and Molecular Physiology and Biophysics has been named the recipient of the 2007 Arthur C. Corcoran Memorial Lecture Award from the Council for High Blood Pressure Research of the American Heart Association.

Sigmund will receive the honor and give a lecture during the AHA's 61st annual High Blood Pressure Research Conference September 26-29 in Tucson, Arizona.

Functional Genomics Center Receives $10 Million for Blood Pressure Research

A multidisciplinary University of Iowa research program has received a five-year, $10 million grant from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to study the regulation of blood pressure in essential hypertension and the mechanisms causing hypertension associated with obesity. The award to the Center on Functional Genomics of Hypertension in the Cardiovascular Research Center was effective June 1.

With this latest funding, the program, previously known as a Specialized Center of Research on the Genetics of Hypertension, has received more than $42 million to date in NIH support. Curt Sigmund, Ph.D., Professor of Internal Medicine and Molecular Physiology and Biophysics and Director of the Center on Functional Genomics of Hypertension, is principal investigator of the program, which was initiated in 1990 by the late Michael J. Brody, Ph.D., renewed in 1996 by Allyn Mark, M.D., the Roy J. Carver Professor of Medicine, and renewed again in 2001 by Sigmund.

Spector to Receive Leaf Distinguished Scientist Award

Arthur Spector, Professor in the Department of Biochemistry has recently learned that he will be the newest recipient of the International Society for the Study of Fatty Acids' (ISSFAL) Alexander Leaf Distinguished Scientist Award.

The award was created by the ISSFAL to recognize and reward excellence in the areas of research of relevance to ISSFAL core interests.

Spector will receive the award at the May meeting of the Society in Kansas City, Missouri.

Wacker Earns Prestigious International Honor

A child behavior specialist and researcher in the Center for Disabilities and Development at University of Iowa Children's Hospital recently received a distinctive designation that is held by fewer than 50 people in the world.

The Association for Behavior Analysis International named David Wacker, Ph.D., as a fellow. It is the highest recognition of professional contribution in the field of behavioral analysis.

National Cancer Institute Renews $11.9 Million Lymphoma Research Grant

Leaders with Holden Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of Iowa have announced the upcoming renewal of an $11.9 million Specialized Program of Research Excellence (SPORE) grant for lymphoma research from the National Cancer Institute (NCI).

The five-year grant is the first lymphoma SPORE grant ever to be renewed by the NCI. It is currently one of three lymphoma SPORE grants in the country. The SPORE is a joint effort of the University of Iowa and Mayo Clinic and is under the direction of George Weiner, M.D., Director of Holden Comprehensive Cancer Center.