Award recognizes outstanding scholarship and research during 2012
TAMPA, Fla. – Eleven faculty members from the University of South Florida have been awarded the USF Faculty Outstanding Research Achievement Award for their exceptional achievements.
Awards Luncheon (Photo: Aimee Blodgett).
USF President Judy Genshaft, Dr. Paul R. Sanberg, senior vice president for Research & Innovation, and Dr. Dwayne Smith, senior vice provost, presented the awards at a luncheon held Oct. 28, 2013, to honor the university faculty for their outstanding publications, awards and grants recognizing their scholarship and research.
These awards are part of an open competition judged by the USF System Research Council to underscore the professional recognition that USF faculty have received from national and international peers during the previous calendar year.
Paul Sanberg addresses attendees (Photo: Aimee Blodgett).
The award recipients were:
Cesario Borlongan, Ph.D., Professor and Vice Chair for Research, Neurosurgery and Brain Repair, and Director of the Center of Excellence for Aging and Brain Repair, Morsani College of Medicine.
Dr. Borlongan was recognized for his research and scholarly activities in the translational biomedical research field. In 2012, Dr. Borlongan was elected as a Fellow of the AAAS (American Association for the Advancement of Science) based on his research on stem cell therapy for stroke, published 23 peer-reviewed articles in journals such as PloS One and Stem Cells and Development, filed a patent application, and became principal investigator on two federal grants, a James and Esther King state grant, and co-investigator on a VA Merit award.
Chad Dickey, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Molecular Medicine, Morsani College of Medicine and Byrd Alzheimer's Institute.
Dwayne Smith, Judy Genshaft, Chad Dickey, and Paul Sanberg (Photo: Aimee Blodgett).
Dr. Dickey was recognized for his research studies on the molecular mechanisms underlying neuro degeneration. In 2012, he published eight manuscripts in top journals: Journal of Biological Chemistry, Autophagy, Chemistry & Biology, ACS Chemical Biology, and Journal of Molecular Biology. Four of the manuscripts concentrated on compounds that target members of the heat shock family, which Dr. Dickey has found to have therapeutic potential. This discovery has advanced knowledge of the biological mechanism used by the cell to deal with protein aggregates. It has also led to the discovery of a lead compound for pharmacological intervention in Alzheimer's disease.
Benjamin Djulbegovic, M.D., Ph.D., Distinguished Professor and Director, Division of Evidence-Based Medicine and Health Outcomes Research, Department of Internal Medicine, Morsani College of Medicine.
Benjamin Djulbegovic (Photo: Aimee Blodgett).
Dr. Djulbegovic was recognized for his work in 2012 involving the development of two major theories in clinical research and decision-making: the theory regarding treatment success in clinical trials and the acceptable regret theory, and for his contributions to improving the practice of medicine using the following Evidence Based Medicine (EBM) methods: predicting and proving the optimal treatment discovery rate, developing a new theory of medical decision-making, and improving patient outcomes and saving resources by generating evidence-based guidelines.
David A. Eddins, Ph.D., CCC-A, Associate Professor of Communication Sciences & Disorders, College of Behavioral and Community Sciences.
David Eddins (Photo: Aimee Blodgett).
Dr. Eddins was recognized for his work in three areas: establishing the nature and consequences of age-related changes in auditory perception, developing a framework for measurement and computational modeling of the perception of voice quality, and understanding auditory pattern recognition in the context of auditory perceptual learning. In 2012, Dr. Eddins had eight peer-refereed publications in the Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, Hearing Research, Journal of Neuroscience, Experimental Brain Research, and Journal of Speech, Language, Hearing Research. Also in 2012, Dr. Eddins was inducted as a Fellow in The Acoustical Society of America, was awarded an NIH R01 grant for Psychoacoustic Approach to Dysphonic Voice Quality Perception, was principal investigator or co-investigator on five extramural grants, and served as a mentor on another federally funded grant.
Earl McCoy, Ph.D., Professor of Integrative Biology, College of Arts and Sciences.
Earl McCoy (Photo: Aimee Blodgett).
Dr. McCoy was recognized for his research and contributions in conservation biology. In 2012, Dr. McCoy was elected as a Fellow of the AAAS, co-wrote a $750,000 USDA training grant to enhance agricultural sustainability, which was later funded, submitted eight refereed publications which were published or in press in 2012 to the Journal of Fish and Wildlife Management, Journal of Applied Ecology, Journal of Herpetology, Fire Ecology, Genetics Research International, Diversity and Distributions, Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology, and Natural Areas Journal, and co-edited the book Biology and Conservation of North American Tortoises to be published this year by Johns Hopkins University Press.
Wilbur Kearse Milhous, Ph.D., Professor, Global Health Infectious Disease Research Program and Associate Dean of Research, College of Public Health.
Dr. Milhous was recognized for his research in translating technology from the laboratory to the field. In 2012, Dr. Milhous was designated as a distinguished alumnus from the University of North Carolina for his contributions to the field of discovery and development of drugs for neglected diseases, completed a five-year appointment to represent USF on the Advisory Committee of the Medicines for Malaria Venture (MMV), which holds the world's largest R&D portfolio of new and innovative antimalarial medicines, and was appointed as an editor of Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy, the leading journal in drugs for infectious disease.
Steven A. Murawski, Ph.D., Population Dynamics/Marine Ecosystem Analysis Professor, Downtown Progress Peter Betzer Endowed Chair, Biological Oceanography, College of Marine Science.
Steven Murawski (Photo: Aimee Blodgett).
Dr. Murawski was recognized for his work as a fisheries biologist and marine ecologist involved in understanding the impacts of human activities on the sustainability of ocean ecosystems. In 2012, Dr. Murawski was presented with the Dwight A. Webster Memorial Award from the American Fisheries Society for "Meritorious/prestigious service to the profession and fisheries," and began his term as Director and PI of the C-IMAGE consortium, leading a worldwide multi-disciplinary team of scientists investigating the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, with a combined expenditure of over $11 million. He also published two papers in 2012 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Frances L. Ramos, Ph.D., Associate Professor of History, College of Arts and Sciences.
Frances Ramos (Photo: Aimee Blodgett).
Dr. Ramos was recognized for her monograph, Identity, Ritual, and Power in Colonial Puebla, which was awarded the Rocky Mountain Council for Latin American Studies (RMCLAS) Michael C. Meyer Award for Best Book in Mexican History published between 2008 and 2012. Also in 2012, Dr. Ramos won a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship to conduct research for her project, The War of the Spanish Succession: Rumor, Gossip, and Political Discourse in Early Eighteenth-Century Mexico.
Alison Salloum, Ph.D., LCSW, Associate Professor of Social Work, College of Behavioral & Community Sciences, with a joint appointment in Pediatrics, Morsani College of Medicine.
Alison Salloum (Photo: Aimee Blodgett).
Dr. Salloum was recognized for her research in evidence-based cognitive behavioral trauma interventions for children. In 2012, she published an article in Behavior Research and Therapy on a Grief and Trauma Intervention for Children, was awarded a three-year R34 grant from the National Institute of Mental Health to develop and test the feasibility of a novel intervention for young children with PTSD, is PI on a grant with the Crisis Center of Tampa Bay to conduct child trauma treatment studies, and received a book contract for Grief and Trauma in Children: An Evidence-Based Treatment Manual.
John Skvoretz, Ph.D., Professor of Sociology, College of Arts and Sciences.
John Skvoretz (Photo: Aimee Blodgett).
Dr. Skvoretz was recognized for his work in social network analysis. In 2012, Dr. Skvoretz was awarded the American Sociological Association Mathematical Sociology Section's James S. Coleman Distinguished Career Award. The award recognizes a sustained record of achievement at the highest level, grant support, and publication in leading journals by someone who uses mathematics to build theoretical models of important social structures and processes. Also in 2012, he was elected a Fellow of the AAAS.
Ira Sukrungruang, MFA, Associate Professor of English, College of Arts and Sciences.
Ira Sukrungruang (Photo: Aimee Blodgett).
Mr. Sukrungruang was recognized for his writing, which is quickly gaining an international reputation. During 2012, Mr. Sukrungruang published 18 poems, stories, essays, and reviews, received the Anita Claire Schraff Award for the manuscript of his book of poems, In Thailand It Is Night, and received the Artsmith Artist Residency Fellowship.
"Outstanding achievement by USF faculty is a key reason our university is getting national and international recognition for research and innovation," said Sanberg. "Occasions like this give us the opportunity to celebrate and honor our faculty whose work drives that success."