Medical center people
First-year medical student Ronald Alfa is the recipient of the 2008 William Osler Medal awarded by the American Association for the History of Medicine. The medal is given annually for the best unpublished essay on a medical historical topic written by a student enrolled in a school of medicine or osteopathy in the United States or Canada. Alfa was chosen for his essay, "Redefining inert: The birth of the placebo in American medicine." The medal will be presented in April at the awards banquet at the association's annual meeting in New York.
Kay Chang, PhD, has been promoted to associate professor of otolaryngology-head and neck surgery, as of March 1. His research interests include hearing loss, neonatal hearing screening, otoacoustic emissions, auditory physiology and ototoxicity.
Andrew Connolly, PhD, has been promoted to associate professor of pathology, as of March 1. His research interests focus on vascular biology and cardiovascular pathology. Connolly is currently working on gene expression in endothelial cells at sites of pathology.
Josef Parvizi, MD, PhD, has been appointed assistant professor of neurology and neurological sciences, as of March 1. Much of his research has been about the study of brain architecture and how pathological changes in distinct brain circuitries are related to different clinical phenotypes. Parvizi is currently working on mapping the propagation of epileptic discharges in specific neural circuitries and how that might explain the stereotypy of behavior and thought during seizures.
Norbert Pelc, ScD, professor of radiology and of bioengineering, was named a fellow of the American Association of Physicists in Medicine. Pelc's award honors his career in advancing medical physics knowledge based on independent original research and in medical physics education. His research interests focus on the physics, engineering and mathematics of medical imaging, especially computed tomography, digital X-ray imaging, magnetic resonance imaging and hybrid multimodality systems. He also serves as associate chair of the Department of Radiology.
