ASM News - Purdue UniversityASM News 2011 Election Results National Ofﬁcers, 2012–2013...

ASM News

2011 Election Results

National Officers, 2012–2013

Jeffery F. Miller, UCLA School of Medicine, LosAngeles, Calif., is the new president of ASM fora 1-year term beginning 1 July 2012.

Jo Handelsman, Yale University, New Haven,Conn., is the new president-elect of ASM for a1-year term beginning 1 July 2012.

Joseph Campos, Children’s National MedicalCenter, Washington, D.C. has been elected assecretary of ASM for his sixth term beginning 1July 2012.

James Tiedje, Michigan State University, EastLansing, Mich. is the new treasurer of ASM forhis fifth term beginning 1 July 2012.

Divisional Group Representatives,

2012–2014

Two of the four divisional groups elected grouprepresentatives for 2-year terms beginning 1 July2012.

Divisional Group II—Pathogenesis and Host Re-sponse Mechanisms (A, B, D, E, G, U, and Z)

Virginia MillerUniversity of North Carolina School of Medi-

cine, Chapel Hill

Divisional Group III - General and Applied Mi-crobiology (I, N, O, P, Q, R, and W)

Joy Doran PetersonUniversity of Georgia, Athens

Divisional Officers, 2012

The members of ASM’s 27 divisions electedofficers for terms beginning 1 July 2012. Chairsand chairs-elect serve a one-year term. The Ta-ble of Divisional Officers for 2012 is on page 87.

2012 General MeetingAward Laureates

The Committee on Awards is pleased to an-nounce the 2012 General Meeting award laure-ates. Biographical sketches of the 2012 award-ees appear below and in the next two issues ofMicrobe.

Roche Diagnostics Alice C. Evans Award

Micah I. Krichevsky, Ph.D, Chairman, Bionom-ics International, has been honored with theprestigious 2012 Roche Diagnostics Alice C.Evans Award from ASM. This award, estab-lished by the ASM Committee on the Status ofWomen in Microbiology, recognizes contribu-A

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78 Y Microbe / Volume 7, Number 2, 2012

tions toward the full par-ticipation and advance-ment of women inmicrobiology. Krichevsky“has demonstrated hiscommitment to the fullparticipation and ad-vancement of women inscience and microbiologythrough his service on andhis contributing work

with the ASM Committee on the Status of Womenin Microbiology (CSWM) and by his unendingwillingness to encourage, advise, mentor, and sup-port individual women in their careers in microbi-ology,” explains Candace McManus, formerly ofthe FDA. Krichevsky was nominated by SaraRothman, Walter Reed Army Institute of Re-search.

Krichevsky received his undergraduate degreeat the University of Connecticut, Storrs, and hismaster’s and doctoral degrees in Dairy Scienceat the University of Illinois, Urbana. His re-search career at the National Institutes ofHealth, primarily at the National Institute forDental Research, spanned 34 years, serving as aSection Chief from 1967 until his retirement in1992. He then established Bionomics Interna-tional, a nongovernmental organization.

Krichevsky has worked in several areas ofmicrobiological research as well as parallel ac-tivities in human rights in science. His majorresearch interests have included computer andinstrument methodology and the growth, phys-iology, and metabolism of bacteria of the oralcavity. He developed the first real-time com-puter analysis of chromatographic data,computer algorithms for double-label isotopecomposition calculations, and algorithms forreal-time analysis of gas chromatograph/massspectrometers. He also developed a standard-ized method for computer coding of microbio-logical phenotypic and macromolecular data fordata entry, management, analysis, and commu-nication—the RKC Code. While computer inde-pendent, the Code can be coupled with the Mi-crobial Information System (Micro-IS). TheMicro-IS is constantly enhanced by taking ad-vantage of modern computer programmingtechniques. The combination of the RKC Codeand Micro-IS is used in various developed anddeveloping countries.

Using his experience in acquiring and analyz-

ing microbiological data, Krichevsky has devel-oped extensive collaborations worldwide. Hehas organized and taught workshops and de-signed data banks for UNEP, UNIDO, ASM,SIM, NSF, and ICSU/CODATA.

“His sterling service on the NIH’s Equal Em-ployment Opportunity Committee earned himthe Award for Outstanding Contributions to theEqual Employment Opportunity Program of theNIH in 1976,” says Rothman. “During his ser-vice on that committee he advised and assistednumerous women in their efforts to achieveappropriate recognition and opportunities in anoften hostile environment.”

“Krichevsky worked tirelessly on as many aseight cases in one year to help female scientistsfacing illegal discrimination and unfair treat-ment in the nation’s foremost medical researchinstitutes,” adds Anne Morris Hooke of MiamiUniversity. He continues his activities in humanrights in science with an emphasis on interna-tional activities. He has also served as a memberof the Committee on Equal Opportunities forWomen for the American Society of BiologicalChemists. Currently he is an active consultingparticipant in CSWM programs.

Krichevsky continues to advise and supportpersons who feel they have been denied equalopportunity in the workplace. “I hold him in thehighest esteem and believe he is a more thanworthy candidate for this prestigious award,”summarizes Hooke.

Carski Foundation Distinguished

Undergraduate Teaching Award

The recipient of the 2012 Carski FoundationDistinguished Undergraduate Teaching Awardis Lilliam Casillas-Martınez, Ph.D., Professor,Biology Department, University of Puerto Rico-Humacao (UPRH). One of Casillas’ strongestpassions is to educate and help women fromlow-income homes, or “invisible students,” asshe calls them. Because there are so few LatinAmerican women in positions of power, shefeels that mentoring young women is crucial totheir development. Nominator and former stu-dent Lorraine D. Rodriguez-Rivera, now aPh.D. candidate in the Laboratory for FoodMicrobiology and Pathogenesis of FoodborneDiseases at Cornell University, describes Casil-las’ effect on others: “Casillas has had a pro-found impact on the professional development

Casillas-Martínez

Krichevsky

Volume 7, Number 2, 2012 / Microbe Y 79

of many women in Puerto Rico. As my under-graduate advisor, she provided me with valuabletools for my career. I would like to become aprofessor and inspire minority students the wayshe inspired me towards becoming a profes-sional in microbiology.”

Casillas received her B.S. in Industrial Micro-biology from the University of Puerto Rico,Mayaguez, and her Ph.D. in Microbiology fromthe University of Connecticut, Storrs. There shestudied Bacillus subtilis under the tutelage ofPeter and Barbara Setlow. Upon completion ofher doctorate, Casillas attended the MicrobialDiversity Course in Woods Hole, and she con-tinues to conduct research in emerging fieldssuch as geomicrobiology and metagenomics.Once at the University of Puerto Rico-Huma-cao, Casillas started a productive collaborationin geomicrobiology with Pieter Visscher fromthe Integrative Geosciences Department at theUniversity of Connecticut.

One of Casillas’ proud accomplishments isthe NSF-funded Cabo Rojo Salterns MicrobialObservatory, where undergraduate studentslearn how to conduct in situ studies. To date,more than 100 Puerto Rican students have re-ceived hands-on training in techniques in geomi-crobiology and metagenomics. In addition toworking on research projects, undergraduatestudents in Casillas’ lab are required to designoutreach activities to implement during visits tolocal public schools. Her laboratory is wellknown for its active participation in sciencefairs, open houses, and the development ofworkshops for local high school teachers.

Casillas’ nomination was supported byMayra Cancel, a high school teacher from thePuerto Rico public school system. “Casillas’ ef-forts have changed my perception of the com-munity of researchers in Puerto Rico and havestrengthened their ties with teachers of the pub-lic education system,” explains Cancel. “Educa-tion is basic for human progress, individuallyand collectively. Casillas’ workshops for teach-ers strengthen the collective of research groupsin the schools of our community and haveserved as motivation to reaffirm our confidencein higher education and its commitment to edu-cational principles.”

With the support of several agencies, Casillashas been able to combine undergraduate educa-tion with research projects such as characteriz-ing novel microorganisms, constructing meta-

genomic libraries from various extremeenvironments in Puerto Rico, and screening fornovel antibiotics. In the last decade, more than50 undergraduates from her laboratory havecontinued graduate studies. “Casillas’ success asa teacher and a mentor is evident in the triumphsof her students. Her down-to-earth style of men-toring, her charismatic personality and heravailability to her students allowed us to ap-proach her whenever advice was needed,” de-scribed a former undergraduate student, AngelCasanova—now a Ph.D. candidate in the Mi-crobiology Doctoral Training Program of theUniversity of Wisconsin, Madison. “She is morethan my undergraduate professor; she is ateacher from whom I have learned and acquiredmany skills that have allowed me to succeed inmy quest for knowledge.”

In her short career, Casillas has received sev-eral honors and has been invited to serve as amember on several review panels for agenciessuch as the National Science Foundation and theUnited States Department of Agriculture. Shehas been the main speaker in several local andinternational conferences and has publishedmore than 20 scientific publications (two ineducational journals) and three book chapters.More recently, she was awarded the 2010 Ar-turo Carrion Lecture Award from ASM’s PuertoRican Chapter for her excellence in teachingMicrobiology in Puerto Rico. Casillas is alreadybuilding a legacy through the achievement andvalues she instills in her students, as well as heroverall impact on the Puerto Rican community.

ASM Graduate Microbiology

Teaching Award

The winner of the 2012ASM Graduate Microbi-ology Teaching Award isJoanna B. Goldberg,Ph.D., Professor, Depart-ment of Microbiology,Immunology, and Can-cer Biology, University ofVirginia, and a Fellow ofthe American Academyof Microbiology. Thisaward recognizes an individual for distin-guished teaching of microbiology and mentor-ing of students at the graduate and postgraduatelevels, and for encouraging students to subse-

Goldberg


quent achievement. “Goldberg is truly deservingof this award,” describes Sara Cassidy of theUniversity of Michigan, a former student ofGoldberg’s. “Through years of practice, she hasdeveloped an uncanny ability to detect and ad-dress the needs of individual students—a qualityof mentorship that is difficult to teach.”

Goldberg received her B.A. in Biology fromBoston University, and her Ph.D. in Microbiol-ogy and Immunology from the University ofCalifornia, Berkeley. She was a postdoctoralfellow at the University of California, San Fran-cisco, and the University of California, Berkeley.Goldberg then took a faculty position in theChanning Laboratory at the Brigham and Wom-en’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School. She de-cided that a faculty position at a strictly aca-demic institution might allow her to have agreater impact on teaching and training the nextgeneration of scientists, so she joined the facultyat the University of Virginia as an AssociateProfessor, where her research program contin-ues to focus on bacterial physiology and patho-genesis.

Goldberg has mentored 13 graduate studentsin her own laboratory and has formally advisedover 75 students throughout her time at UVA. “Ihave interacted with virtually all of her graduatestudents at various local meetings,” says nomi-nator Dennis Ohman, her former mentor atBerkeley. “Her students are always enthusiasticand knowledgeable about their research proj-ects, and very eager to share ideas and takesuggestions. It is obvious to me that this positiveconfident attitude comes directly from Gold-berg’s approach to science.” Goldberg now di-rects the Microbial Pathogenesis course and isGraduate Advisor for the Department and forUVA’s Infectious Diseases and BiodefenseTraining Grants from the NIH. “More than anyone individual, Goldberg is responsible for theevolution of the now superb graduate programin Microbial Pathogenesis at UVA, where grad-uate students and M.D. and Ph.D. Fellows inter-act with and learn from each other,” adds Wil-liam Petri, University of Virginia.

Goldberg’s activities and service record reflecther interest and enthusiasm for mentoring andtraining graduate students and—through thiseffort—the entire scientific community. She is amember of UVA’s Academy of DistinguishedEducators, has chaired numerous local, na-tional, and international meetings, and is an

active volunteer for ASM. She has been a Divi-sion Councilor to the National ASM and Presi-dent of ASM’s Virginia Branch. Currently,Goldberg serves as chair of the ASM CareerDevelopment Committee and a member of theASM Conferences Committee and the Commit-tee on Awards. “Despite her international stat-ure and undeniable intellect, there is never a hintof arrogance in Joanna—actually, just the oppo-site,” summarizes Petri. “When I picture Joannain my mind it is of her broadly smiling, withtwinkling eyes full of energy and enthusiasm.Graduate students learn science rigorously fromher, and just as importantly have a role modelfor collegiality and mentoring that is second tonone. Goldberg is an absolutely spectacularmentor and teacher for graduate students, theepitome of what this award was designed torecognize.”

William A. Hinton Research

Training Award

LaJoyce Debro, Ph.D., Professor of Biology,Jacksonville State University, Alabama, is the2012 William A. Hinton Research TrainingAward laureate. “For more than 40 years, De-bro has been an outstanding educator,” says hernominator, Ellen Neidle from the University ofGeorgia. This award, given in memory of Wil-liam A. Hinton—a physician-research scientistand one of the first African-Americans to jointhe ASM—honors outstanding contributionstoward fostering the research training of under-represented minorities in microbiology. “Shehas had an impact on hundreds of students,”says Benjie Blair, Jacksonville State University.“She is highly respected for her depth of knowl-edge and dedication in teaching and research.”

Debro grew up in Clarksdale, Miss., and re-ceived her B.A. in Biology from Spelman Col-lege. She went on to receive her M.S. fromAtlanta University (now Clark-Atlanta), and herPh.D. in Biology with a concentration in Micro-biology from Purdue University. Before workingat Jacksonville State University, she instructed atCoahoma Community College in Clarksdale,Miss., Rust College in Holly Springs, Miss., andMiles College in Birmingham, Ala.—all histori-cal black colleges. Debro’s current instructionalresponsibilities at Jacksonville State Universityare in general biology, microbiology, genetics,and molecular biology. She is committed to the

Debro


instruction of biology as a process, and engagesher students in undergraduate research boththrough scheduled class laboratories and inde-pendent study projects. Recently, Debro joinedthe Science Education Alliance of the HowardHughes Medical Institute, and is engagingclasses of beginning students in investigationson mycobacteriophage diversity that involve thepurification, characterization, and genome anal-yses of environmental isolates.

Debro views her motivation and dedication toher students as the natural outcome of the spe-cial interest her teachers and professors showedin her as a student. It was these teachers andprofessors who encouraged her to pursue a doc-torate in biology. As a result, Debro strives toenhance the educational experiences of her stu-dents by showing a personal interest in them andensuring that they recognize that they have thepower to excel beyond their own expectations.She spends countless hours mentoring, motivat-ing, and providing individualized instruction toher students, who then become increasingly in-dependent and responsible for their own learn-ing. “Debro lives in Birmingham and is the firstto admit that she chooses to live near her familyand drive an hour each way to JSU in order towork with rural students (including many mi-norities). She has shown more dedication thananyone I can imagine in pursuit of this goal,”says Blair. Debro holds to the tenet that “A childcan’t be what a child can’t see,” and works tobroaden the vision of her students by extendingtheir campus experiences to include summerresearch positions at research intensive institu-tions. She also encourages her students to par-ticipate in research conferences, includingASM’s Annual Biomedical Research Conferencefor Minority Students (ABRCMS).

Debro’s mentoring extends beyond the stu-dents under her direct tutelage to include prote-ges enrolled in Ph.D. programs as well as youngprofessionals working to secure tenure. She hadthe opportunity to influence lives and careersfrom a different perspective by serving as a Pro-gram Director in Molecular and Cellular Biosci-ences at the National Science Foundation (NSF)while on a leave of absence from her facultyposition (2007–2009). At NSF she was dedi-cated to promoting research careers and activi-ties for faculty mentors and their students, andwas honored with the Director’s Equal Oppor-tunity Achievement Award for her diligence in

developing effective activities to enhance diver-sity in the reviewers and awardees within hercluster and in the biological sciences overall.Susanne von Bodman, a former colleague fromNSF, stated: “I am grateful for her sound andinsightful scientific judgment, her collegial andsupportive nature, and her ongoing willingnessto help with all aspects of the merit reviewprocess. Debro is a team player whose efforts tobuild an inclusive scientific community are im-pressive, successful, and contagious.”

According to Debro, her proudest profes-sional achievements are not her publications,presentations, awarded grants, or lab experi-ments. Instead she is proudest of her successes inpromoting young maturing scientists whoselives and careers she has influenced. “For hermany contributions, Debro richly deserves rec-ognition,” summarizes Neidle.

Raymond W. Sarber Awards

Jeff Chen, undergraduatestudent at the Universityof California, Davis, andSandeep Kishore, Ph.D.,currently postdoctoralfellow, Harvard MedicalSchool in the Departmentof Global Health & So-cial Medicine, have beenawarded the 2012 Ray-mond W. Sarber Awards.These awards, estab-lished in honor of Ray-mond W. Sarber for his contributions to thegrowth and advancement of ASM, recognizestudents for research excellence and potential atboth the undergraduate and predoctoral levels.

Chen’s first research experience took placewhile taking classes from the Pasadena CityCollege during his high school years. Under theguidance of his environmental science professorCarol Tydell, Chen attempted to track the causeof point source pollution through fecal coli-forms. Fascinated by the impact microbes haveon entire ecosystems, Chen spent the summerbefore college working with Maria Appleman ofthe University of Southern California KeckSchool of Medicine, where he was involved instarting a clinical study to determine impacts ofthe gut microbial population in relation to met-abolic disorder susceptibility.

Chen


Chen entered the University of California,Davis as an environmental toxicology major inorder to better understand other scientific areas.However, he continued to work with microbes.During his first few years, Jeff conducted re-search in Reen Wu’s lab, where he worked on apilot project studying the effects of differentimmune signaling factors on Klebsiella pneu-moniae infection in vivo. The following sum-mer, Chen had the opportunity to conduct re-search in Adrian Ponce’s lab at the NASA JetPropulsion Laboratory through the CaliforniaInstitute of Technology Amgen Scholars Pro-gram. His project focused on improving andautomating an assay to better detect bacterialendospores for various applications rangingfrom validating spacecraft sterility to bioterror-ism prevention.

Upon returning to the University of Califor-nia, Davis, Chen joined nominator Neil Hunt-er’s lab. “Chen is very personable, highly reli-able and independent, mature, trustworthy, andintelligent,” describes Hunter. “He has an excel-lent work ethic.” In Hunter’s laboratory, Chenexplored the field of yeast genetics, elucidatingthe role of proteins that promote crossing-overduring meiosis. “Chen initially characterized aspecific allele of the DNA mismatch-repair fac-tor, Mlh1, in order to determine its mutatorphenotype. This involved construction of a va-riety of yeast strains and standard microbialtechniques to perform fluctuation tests,” ex-plained Hunter. “His second project was toprepare and characterize numerous BAC clonesby pulsed-field gel electrophoresis as a preludeto a sequencing project. More recently, he hasbeen learning cell biology techniques to studychromosome metabolism during meiosis.”

Fascinated by the novel methods utilized inthe Hunter lab to better detect specific stages ofchromosome junction formation, Chen wasgiven an opportunity to innovate by the Har-vard Stem Cell Institute Summer Internship Pro-gram. Chen worked in Nabeel Bardeesy’s labo-ratory at Massachusetts General Hospital,where he studied a rare subpopulation of pan-creatic progenitor cells and established a novelassay for determining the effects of oncogenesand epigenetic factors on cellular plasticity. “Heperformed at such a high level and showed somuch initiative that I gave him an independentproject focusing on the characterization of pan-creatic progenitor cell populations,” explains

Bardeesy. “I soon realized that Chen had thematurity to develop a project on his own, whichwas remarkable for someone so young. Hestarted a new project to attempt to isolate, cul-ture, and study rare subpopulations of pancre-atic cells enriched for the stem cell marker.”With the generous Bardos Science EducationAward from the American Association for Can-cer Research (AACR), he presented his findingsat the 2011 AACR annual meeting.

In addition to research, Chen is heavily in-volved in science education and service. Heserves as a biology associate editor for the Jour-nal of Young Investigators, an internationalpeer review undergraduate journal. Chen hasalso contributed to and consulted for the Na-tional Science Bowl. His faculty advisor at theUniversity of California, Davis, Michael Deni-son, says he fully expects Chen to develop into atop-notch researcher. “Chen is an outstanding,intelligent, and highly motivated student whohas taken the time and effort to obtain excellenttraining and research experience.” “His com-mitment, work ethic, and enthusiasm are thehighest that I have seen for any undergraduateresearcher,” summarizes Bardeesy.

Kishore received the Sarber award for hisachievements as a predoctoral student in theM.D./Ph.D. program at Weill Cornell MedicalCollege. His nominator, Peter Hotez, foundingDean of the National School of Tropical Medi-cine at Baylor College of Medicine, was “deeplyimpressed with his drive and ambition to infusea sense of social purpose and action in graduateand medical education. Kishore constantly re-minds graduate students of the importance ofputting a social conscience behind science.” CarlNathan, Weill Cornell Medical College, callshim “a rare individual who is utterly devoted togood causes, singularly effective, everywhere atonce, and leaves behind whirlwinds of activitythat would otherwise not have stirred but oncelaunched are self-sustaining.”

Kishore received his B.S. in Biology fromDuke University. He then earned his M.Sc. fromthe University of Oxford, where he was anUsher Cunningham Scholar in Medical Sciences.While in the laboratory of Kirk Deitsch at WeillCornell Medical College, he made a fundamen-tal discovery regarding the evolution of the basictranscriptional machinery of malaria para-sites—a discovery that helped form the basis ofhis current research characterizing gene activa-

Kishore


tion in the parasite responsible for malaria (Plas-modium falciparum). “Kishore has demon-strated the ability to utilize multiple approaches,including epidemiology, molecular biology, andcomputational analysis, to advance this proj-ect,” says Deitsch. “This type of interdisciplin-ary approach is truly powerful, and in my opin-ion, represents the future of microbiology.”

According to Kishore, “one of my top priori-ties was to develop a trainee pipeline to provideearly and thorough exposure to interdisciplin-ary perspectives in global health. I wanted toattempt to answer the question: How does oneintegrate basic sciences and public health?” In2006, Kishore developed and co-taught an elec-tive curriculum at Weill Cornell Medical Col-lege that integrated economic, scientific, clinical,and public health perspectives on contemporaryissues surrounding malaria. Posted on the Web,this was the first open-source curriculum onneglected diseases, and garnered internationalattention at a medical education conference inHavana, Cuba in 2008. The course has sinceevolved into a full-fledged longitudinal, four-year curriculum managed by students and fac-ulty with full administrative support. The elec-tive curriculum now attracts 40% of the WeillCornell first year medical class and features fi-nancial subsidies and support for research, ap-plied public health, or clinical service abroad.

In addition to his outstanding research andclassroom accomplishments, Kishore has im-pressed many with his efforts in global healthadvocacy and policy. He sensed a large gapbetween basic scientists and public health prac-titioners, and wanted to ensure technologies andhealth innovations were made available in de-veloping countries. To address these concerns,he has made extensive contributions outside ofthe laboratory. In 2007, Kishore successfullyadvocated for the inclusion of a cholesterol-lowering statin on the World Health Organiza-tion’s Model List of Essential Medicines. He hassince petitioned the WHO to include a protonpump inhibitor and a modern beta blocker. In2009, he served as an invited speaker for theNational Academy of Sciences Institute of Med-icine (IOM) Board on Global Health for theIOM report “Promoting Cardiovascular Healthin the Developing World.” That same year, hefounded the Young Professionals’ Chronic Dis-ease Network (YP-CDN), a collection of youngleaders under the age of 40 that advocates for

policy change on chronic diseases from the bot-tom up. These 400 leaders represent 40 coun-tries and over 170 organizations. In 2010, herepresented the YP-CDN as a civil society dele-gate to the United Nations General Assembly.

In addition to the above efforts, Kishore’shealth-related work has been featured in thepopular press, including Scientific American,The Huffington Post, and The Scientist. He is acoauthor of the forthcoming textbook Sick So-cieties, published by Oxford University Press.His technical writings in public health have ap-peared in a broad range of journals includingPLoS Medicine, the Nature Reviews series, Clin-ical Pharmacology & Therapeutics, Globaliza-tion & Health, and Global Forum for HealthResearch. He currently serves on the Board ofDirectors of the global NGO Universities Alliedfor Essential Medicines (UAEM). He is the firstLancet Prize winner for community service, andwas a recipient of the Paul & Daisy Soros Fel-lowship for New Americans in 2008.

Scherago-Rubin Award

Brent Barrett, IndianaState Department ofHealth, is the 2012 Sch-erago-Rubin Award lau-reate. This award, pre-sented for over 20 years,recognizes an outstand-ing bench-level clinicalmicrobiologist. It was es-tablished by the late SallyJo Rubin in honor of hergrandfather, ProfessorMorris Scherago. “Barrett personifies the best ofclinical microbiology,” states his nominator, Ju-dith Lovchik, Indiana State Department ofHealth Laboratory and Diplomate of the Amer-ican Board of Medical Microbiology (ABMM).“His intense focus on clinical microbiology hasno parallel.”

Barrett received his B.S. in microbiology fromPurdue University in 1976 and his AmericanSociety for Clinical Pathology (ASCP) certifica-tion in 1980. Barrett worked as a medical mi-crobiologist at Community Hospital in India-napolis, Indiana from 1976 to 1980, then againpart-time from 1982 to 1995. In 1996 he beganpart-time work as a microbiologist at MidAmerica Clinical Laboratories, which he contin-

Barrett


ues today. His full-time position, which he hasheld since 1980, is microbiologist at the IndianaState Department of Health in Indianapolis.“Barrett is first and foremost a medical technol-ogist, who for many years has worked in theenteric and parasitic diagnostic laboratory at theIndiana State Department of Health,” explainsJames Snyder, University of Louisville Hospital,and ABMM Diplomate. “With his leadership,this laboratory gained national recognition asone of the few public health laboratories thatpractices state-of-the-art diagnostics and servesas a major source of information regarding epi-demiology and continuing education.”

“During his many years as a bench-level clin-ical microbiologist, Barrett has done more forthe continuing education of bench-level clinicalmicrobiology technologists than anyone I haveknown,” explains Larry Gray, Bethesda andGood Samaritan Hospitals, Cincinnati, andABMM Diplomate. A ProMED-mail Rappor-teur, he was presented in 2007 with theProMED-mail Award for Excellence in Out-break Reporting on the Internet. He is activelyinvolved in parasitology case studies and work-shops for the ASM and the South Central Asso-ciation for Clinical Microbiology (SCACM),ASM and ASCP audio-conferences on parasitol-ogy and Shiga toxin-producing E. coli, andSCACM’s Interest Group sessions on entericbacteria and parasitology. Barrett has also beenan active participant in ASM activities. He cur-rently serves as Division C listserv comoderator,an Askit Expert, and a member of the ClinicalMicrobiology Portal Committee.

In addition to his other duties, Barrett hasbeen a member of SCACM since 1978 and hasserved the organization in several elected andappointed positions, including Treasurer, Presi-dent, Director at Large, Internet ResourcesChairman, and Audioconference Chairman.“Barrett’s enthusiasm for, love of, and dedica-tion to bench-level clinical microbiology are ma-jor reasons SCACM is and continues to be theoldest, largest, and most active clinical microbi-ology organization in the world,” says Gray. In2006, Barrett was named SCACM’s Outstand-ing Contributor to Clinical Microbiology for hiscontributions.

Barrett is an excellent instructor who freelyshares his expertise and enthusiasm. A highlyrequested speaker, he frequently presents casestudies in parasitology and other enteric dis-

eases. “Barrett’s attributes and contributions todiagnostics and continuing education are excep-tional and place him in a class of his own. He istruly the consummate medical microbiologist,”summarizes Snyder.

TREK Diagnostic ABMM/ABMLI

Professional Recognition Award

L. Barth Reller, M.D., Professor of Medicineand Pathology, Duke University School of Med-icine, and Fellow of the American Academy ofMicrobiology, has been honored with the 2012TREK Diagnostic ABMM/ABMLI ProfessionalRecognition Award. This award recognizes aDiplomate of the American Board of MedicalMicrobiology (ABMM) or the American Boardof Medical Laboratory Immunology (ABMLI)for outstanding contributions to the profes-sional recognition of certified microbiologistsand immunologists and the work that they do.Reller was nominated by Lizzie Harrell, also ofDuke University. “Reller has made significantcontributions to the advancement and publicrecognition of the profession of clinical micro-biology through his numerous publications,worldwide lectures, mentoring and training ofclinical microbiologists at all levels, and long-term service to numerous scientific organiza-tions,” describes Harrell. “He is a strong advo-cate for evidence-based clinical microbiology,excellent training, and certification of clinicalmicrobiologists at all levels.”

Reller received his M.D. from the Universityof Virginia School of Medicine. He then com-pleted an Internal Medicine residency and fel-lowships in Infectious Diseases and Clinical Mi-crobiology at the University of Washingtonbefore continuing on to receive his Diploma inTropical Medicine and Hygiene from the Uni-versity of Liverpool. Reller next served as anEpidemic Intelligence Service Officer at the Cen-ters for Disease Control in Atlanta, Ga., beforebecoming the Director of Clinical Microbiologyat the University of Colorado Health SciencesCenter, followed by Professor of Medicine andMicrobiology and Immunology at the Univer-sity of Colorado School of Medicine. In 1988,Reller joined the faculty of the Duke UniversitySchool of Medicine as Professor of Medicineand Pathology, where his research interests in-clude bacteremia, enteric bacteriology, and par-asitic diseases. He was also Director of Clinical

Reller


Microbiology at Duke University Medical Cen-ter from his hiring in 1988 through 2011.

Many honors, certifications, and service con-tributions support Reller’s reputation as a leaderin the field of clinical microbiology. Reller isboard-certified in Internal Medicine and Infec-tious Diseases by the American Board of Inter-nal Medicine, and in Medical Microbiology bythe American Board of Pathology and theABMM. He is also a Fellow of the AmericanCollege of Physicians, the Infectious DiseasesSociety of America, and the Royal Society ofTropical Medicine and Hygiene. Reller serves asSpecial Section Co-Editor for Medical Microbi-ology for the Infectious Diseases Society ofAmerica’s journal Clinical Infectious Diseases,and the Past Chairman of the Anti-infectiveAdvisory Committee of the United States Foodand Drug Administration (FDA). He is now aconsultant to this committee, and also to theFDA’s Medical Microbiology Devices AdvisoryCommittee.

“Reller has diligently supported and guidedthe efforts of CLSI, CDC, FDA Anti-infectiveand Microbiology Devices panels, editorialboards, and professional committees, all of

which impact medical microbiology,” says Mi-chael Wilson, Denver Health and University ofColorado. “I believe Reller to be one of the bestmedical microbiologists; an individual who bringsdistinguished credit to himself, the ABMM, andour profession. I know of no other individual whohas been more effective at promoting the profes-sion of medical microbiology.”

In addition to his various contributions to thefield, Reller has mentored and trained 38 MedicalMicrobiology Fellows who now serve in leader-ship positions in the United States and six othercountries. He strongly encourages those he men-tors to become board-certified, remain active inthe field, and be stewards of the profession. “As anearly trainee under Reller’s tutelage, I can attest tohis generous and supportive mentorship. Overmany years he has given his time and ideas to histrainees, then guided them toward completion ofwork for which they receive primary credit butwhich could not be accomplished without his crit-ical thought and guidance. His keen intellect, en-cyclopedic knowledge, and common sense ap-proach make him truly deserving of this award,”says Melvin Weinstein of Robert Wood JohnsonMedical School.


ASM Report

2012 Division Officers (terms begin 1 July 2012)

Division Chair Chair-Elect

AAntimicrobial Chemotherapy

Jeffrey D. AlderBayer Healthcare Pharmaceuticals Inc.Montville, NJ

Keith P. KlugmanEmory UniversityAtlanta, GA

BMicrobial Pathogens

Nicholas P. CianciottoNorthwestern University Medical SchoolChicago, IL

Steven R. BlankeUniversity of IllinoisUrbana, IL

CClinical Microbiology

Sheldon CampbellYale University School of MedicineWest Haven, CT

Susan SharpKaiser Permanente, NWPortland, OR

DMicrobe-Host Interactions

Marvin WhiteleyThe University of TexasAustin, TX

Olaf SchneewindThe University of ChicagoChicago, IL

EImmunology

Maya SalehMcGill Life Sciences ComplexMontreal, Quebec, Canada

David MosserUniversity of MarylandCollege Park, MD

FMedical Mycology

John R. PerfectDuke University Medical CenterDurham, NC

Maurizio Del PoetaMedical University of South CarolinaCharleston, SC

GMycoplasmology

John GlassJ. Craig Venter InstituteRockville, MD

Chris MinionIowa State UniversityAmes, IA

HGenetics & MolecularBiology

Sidney KushnerUniversity of GeorgiaAthens, GA

Joseph E. PetersCornell UniversityIthaca, NY

IGeneral Microbiology

Joerg GrafUniversity of ConnecticutStorrs, CT

Eric V. StabbUniversity of GeorgiaAthens, GA

JCell and Structural Biology

Daniel KearnsIndiana UniversityBloomington, IN

Briana BurtonHarvard UniversityCambridge, MA

KMicrobial Physiology &Metabolism

Tyrrell ConwayUniversity of OklahomaNorman, OK

Jared R. LeadbetterCalifornia Institute of TechnologyPasadena, CA

LHealthcare Epidemiology

Connie PriceUniversity of ColoradoDenver, CO

Tom TalbotVanderbilt University Medical CenterNashville, TN

MBacteriophage

Carlos E. CatalanoUniversity of WashingtonSeattle, WA

Louise TempleJames Madison UniversityHarrisonburg, VA

NMicrobial Ecology

Karsten ZenglerUniversity of California-San DiegoLa Jolla, CA

K. Eric WommackUniversity of DelawareNewark, DE

OFermentation &Biotechnology

George M. GarrityMichigan State UniversityEast Lansing, MI

Badal C. SahaUSDA-ARSPeoria, IL

PFood Microbiology

Francisco Diez-GonzalezUniversity of MinnesotaSt. Paul, MN

Pina M. FratamicoUSDA-ARSWyndmoor, PA


2012 Division Officers (Continued)

Division Chair Chair-Elect

QEnvironmental & GeneralApplied Microbiology

Jill StewartUniversity of North CarolinaChapel Hill, NC

Donna FennellRutgers, The State University ofNew JerseyNew Brunswick, NJ

REvolutionary & GenomicMicrobiology

Rachel J. WhitakerUniversity of IllinoisUrbana, IL

Jennifer GardyBritish Columbia Centre forDisease ControlVancouver, Canada

SDNA Viruses

Lindsey Hutt-FletcherLouisiana State UniversityShreveport, LA

Katherine SpindlerUniversity of Michigan MedicalSchoolAnn Arbor, MI

TRNA Viruses

Leslie J. ParentPennsylvania State University College of MedicineHershey, PA

Kim Y. GreenNational Institute of Allergy andInfectious DiseasesBethesda, MD

UMycobacteriology

Sabine EhrtWeill Cornell Medical CollegeNew York, NY

Kathleen McDonoughDavid Axelrod InstituteAlbany, NY

VClinical & DiagnosticImmunology

Moon H. NahmUniversity of AlabamaBirmingham, AL

Nahed IsmailUniversity of PittsburghPittsburgh, PA

WMicrobiology Education

Robert W. BaumanAmarillo CollegeAmarillo, TX

Laurie F. CaslakeLafayette CollegeEaston, PA

XMolecular, Cellular & GeneralBiology of Eukaryotes

George F. Sprague, Jr.University of OregonEugene, OR

N. Louise GlassUniversity of CaliforniaBerkeley, CA

YPublic Health

Denise (Dee) A. PettitVirginia State Public Health LaboratoryRichmond, VA

Joanne BartkusMinnesota Department ofHealthSaint Paul, MN

ZAnimal Health

Shawn BearsonUS Department of AgricultureAmes, IA

Paul PlummerIowa State UniversityAmes, IA

AAFree-Living, Symbiotic andParasitic Protists

Peter J. MylerSeattle Biomedical Research InstituteSeattle, WA

Gustavo ArrizabalagaUniversity of IdahoMoscow, ID

At-Large Members of Council Representing Divisions, 2012–2014

James S. MakiMarquette UniversityMilwaukee, WI

Valerie J. (Jody) HarwoodUniversity of South Florida, Tampa

Janice Matthews-GreerLouisiana State University Health SciencesCenter, Shreveport

Michael DonnenbergUniversity of Maryland, Baltimore

Kirsten St. GeorgeWadsworth Center, New York StateDepartment of HealthSlingerlands, NY

Suzanne FleiszigUniversity of California, Berkeley

Yvonne SalfingerFlorida Department of Agriculture, TallahasseeMike McInerney

The University of Oklahoma, Norman


Journals

2011 Jack Kenney Award for

Outstanding Service

Peter Zuber was chosen by the Editors ofthe Journal of Bacteriology as this year’srecipient of the Jack Kenney Award forOutstanding Service on the EditorialBoard. This award is named to honor thegifted Production Editor who served thejournal for many years. On average, Peterhas reviewed more than three manuscriptsa month, with a turnaround time of 12days. More about this award and the fullcitations can be found at http://jb.asm.org/content/194/1/2.full.pdf.

Education Board

ASM Represented at National

Student and Educator Meetings

in Fall 2011

The strategic directions of the ASM Ed-ucation Board include collaboratingwith national organizations to promotebiology education at all levels. In fall2011, the Board sponsored the Society’sparticipation in the following confer-ences for science students and educators.

NABT Annual Meeting. Educationstaff member Kelly Gull and Committeefor K-12 Outreach chair Dave Westen-berg represented the society at the Na-tional Association of Biology TeachersAnnual Meeting (NABT) held 12–15 Oc-tober in Anaheim, Calif. During theevent, ASM sponsored a booth and a fullday of workshops under the theme“ASM Goes Viral at NABT!” The work-shops included “Studying Viral Patho-genesis: from the Lab to the Web,” “TheRole of Viruses in the Origin and Evolu-tion of Life,” and “Phage Discovery—aPlatform for Integrating Research andStudent Learning,” which were pre-sented by Society members Dave Wess-ner (Davidson College), Luis P. Villar-real (University of California, Irvine),and Erin R. Sanders (University of Cali-fornia, Los Angeles), respectively.

Compact Annual Institute on Teach-ing and Mentoring. The 18th AnnualInstitute on Teaching and Mentoringwas held 20 –23 October in Atlanta, Ga.The Compact for Faculty Diversity spon-

sors the four-day, invitation-only insti-tute, which seeks to provide minorityscholars with the strategies necessary tosurvive the rigors of graduate school,earn doctoral degrees, and succeed asmembers of the professoriate. The Edu-cation Board sponsored a display of ma-terials about ASM faculty and studentresources for the event.

Thinking Evolutionarily Conference.Education director Amy Chang and In-ternational Microbiology EducationCommittee chair Spencer Benson at-tended the Thinking Evolutionarily:Evolution Across the Life Sciences Con-ference held 25–26 October in Washing-ton, D.C. The event, convened by theNational Academies, brought together300 leaders from colleges and universi-ties, K-12 schools, professional societies,government agencies, and foundationsto address the need for a comprehensivestrategy to incorporate evolution as acentral theme in biology teaching. Changwas a presenter on the panel “NextSteps: Potential Roles of Key Players,”and Benson participated in the panel“Expanding Curricular Opportunities toIntroduce Evolutionary Thinking Acrossthe Grades.”

POD Network Annual Meeting. AlixDarden, University of Oklahoma HealthSciences Center and member of the ASMCommittee on Undergraduate Educa-tion, took part in the Annual Meeting ofthe Professional and Organizational De-velopment (POD) Network in HigherEducation held 26 –30 October in At-lanta, Ga. The POD Network encour-ages ongoing enhancement of teachingand learning through faculty and organi-zational development. Darden presentedthe poster “Leveraging Professional So-ciety Resources to Catalyze SoTL Con-versations on Campuses” about theASM Biology Scholars Program and vol-unteered at the ASM resource table topromote the program.

SACNAS. Education staff membersTiffani Fonseca and Irene Hulede at-tended the 2011 Society for the Advance-ment of Chicanos and Native Americansin Science (SACNAS) National Confer-ence held 27–30 October in San Jose,Calif. Conference programs featured ca-reer advancement workshops, scientificsymposia, exhibits, student research pre-

sentations, and speakers designed toprovide the resources that Chicano/La-tino and Native American students needto pursue advanced degrees in the sci-ences. During the exhibits program, Fon-seca shared information about ASM Ed-ucation Board resources and studentprograms.

ABRCMS 2011 Develops

Next-Generation Scientists and

Honors Their Research Efforts

“I could not have thought of anywherebetter to be on November 9 –12, 2011,”says an undergraduate attendee of the11th Annual Biomedical ResearchConference for Minority Students(ABRCMS) held in St. Louis, Mo. Thiscomment, made just after conference,reflects the excitement for research thatmany students took home after attend-ing the event. ABRCMS, the largest pro-fessional conference of its kind in thenation, is designed to encourage under-represented minority students to pursueadvanced training in the biomedical andbehavioral sciences, including mathe-matics; it also provides faculty with re-sources for facilitating student success.

With more than 3,300 people in atten-dance, this year’s conference shatteredits previous participation records. At-tendees included approximately 2,100students, 750 faculty and program direc-tors, and 500 recruiters for graduate andsummer research programs.

Every ABRCMS provides an excellentopportunity to exchange, explore, andshare information. Under the theme “In-creasing Diversity to Improve GlobalScientific Competitiveness,” participantsof the 2011 conference took advantageof numerous information-rich scientificsessions, research skills training events,professional development workshops,networking events, student poster andoral presentations, and talks by leadersin research and education. Highlights in-cluded:

• Keynote speeches by National ScienceFoundation Director Cora Marrett andBennett College President JulianneMalveaux.

• Plenary lectures by Howard HughesMedical Institute (HHMI) investigator


Alejandro Sanchez Alvarado, a neurobi-ologist at the Stowers Institute for Med-ical Research; renowned physicist Syl-vester James Gates, Jr., a member ofPresident Obama’s Council of Advisorson Science and Technology (PCAST)and a professor at the University ofMaryland, College Park; and HHMI in-vestigator and Whitehead Institutemember Susan Lindquist, a biology pro-fessor at the Massachusetts Institute ofTechnology.

• Information available from more than400 college, university, governmentagency, foundation, or professional so-ciety representatives about graduateprograms, research opportunities, fund-ing sources, and professional networks.

At the closing banquet, 215 undergradu-ate and postbaccalaureate students re-ceived awards of $250 each for outstand-ing research presentations. In addition, 41awards were presented to recognize stu-dents for their abilities in demonstratingevidence of interdisciplinary research.

In the 2011 postconference survey,95% of ABRCMS undergraduate re-spondents indicated that they would rec-ommend the conference to their peers.“I’m leaving [ABRCMS] knowing thatthe sky is not my limit but my footstool,”said one survey participant. “I canachieve anything knowing that it’s notgoing to be an easy road, but at the end,I will be able to serve my community[and use] my M.D./Ph.D. degree for aworthy and selfless purpose.”

ABRCMS is managed by ASM andsupported by a grant from the MinorityOpportunities in Research Division ofthe National Institute of General Medi-cal Sciences at the National Institutes ofHealth. For more information about theconference, please visit www.abrcms.org.

Professional Development

Opportunities for Faculty and

Students

Education Board programs support stu-dent and faculty development throughnumerous fellowships, conferences, in-stitutes, and workshops. Please share thefollowing program opportunities with

your students and colleagues in the mi-crobiological sciences.

Faculty

Biology Scholars Program Research Res-idency. The Research Residency of the2012 Biology Scholars Program seeksbiology educators who have been trainedin effective teaching strategies and areasking questions about how and whystudents learn in their classrooms. Re-search Residency Scholars learn how todesign research projects that investigatestudent learning; understand methodsfor collecting, analyzing, and interpret-ing surveys and data on student learningoutcomes; and identify the best venuesfor publishing study results. The 2012residency, supported by the NationalScience Foundation and managed byASM, kicks off with the Scholarship ofTeaching and Learning Institute on25–28 July in Washington, D.C. Applyby 1 March. Travel grants are available.See http://www.biologyscholars.org fordetails.

Students

ASM Kadner Institute. The ASM Com-mittee on Graduate and PostdoctoralEducation invites senior-level graduatestudents and early-career postdoctoralscientists to apply for the 2012 ASMKadner Institute for Graduate Studentsand Postdoctoral Scientists in Prepara-tion for Careers in Microbiology. TheKadner Institute, which is sponsored bythe National Institute of Allergy and In-fectious Diseases and the BurroughsWellcome Fund, will be held on 21–25July at Michigan State University. Insti-tute participants receive careful guid-ance and mentoring in key topics impor-tant for choosing and succeeding inmicrobiology careers: (i) career opportu-nities and preparation; (ii) preparation,review, and critique of research propos-als; (iii) scientific presentations and com-munication; (iv) effective teaching meth-ods; and (v) professional standardsdevelopment. The application deadlineis 15 May 2012. Learn more at http://www.asmgap.org.

ASM Robert D. Watkins Graduate Re-search Fellowship. The ASM Committeeon Minority Education invites senior-level graduate students to apply for the

2012 ASM Robert D. Watkins GraduateResearch Fellowship. The Watkins fel-lowship seeks to increase the number ofstudents from underrepresented minor-ity groups who complete doctoral de-grees and provides students with supportto complete and present their microbio-logical-sciences-based research. Watkinsfellows attend the ASM Kadner Institutefor Graduate Students and PostdoctoralScientists in Preparation for Careers inMicrobiology (see above) or the ASMScientific Writing and Publishing Insti-tute (http://www.asmgap.org/swpi) and,dependent on abstract submission andacceptance, are supported to presenttheir research at the ASM General Meet-ing. Interested students should apply by1 May 2012. Learn more at http://www.asm.org/watkins.

International Affairs

ASM LabCap: Advancing

Laboratory Capacity Globally

ASM’s Global Laboratory StrengtheningProgram, or LabCap, made gains thismonth in both South Asia and Africa,with a series of in-depth microbiologymentoring efforts designed to instilllong-term viability of public health sys-tems in resource constrained environ-ments. In Africa, LabCap deepened itspartnership with the African Centre forIntegrated Laboratory Training (ACILT)located in Johannesburg, with a series ofMycobacterium tuberculosis (TB)courses on culture, identification, anddrug susceptibility testing. LabCap men-tor Thor Elliot joined ACILT experts toimplement the two-week course for cli-nicians representing laboratories fromMozambique, Ghana, Zambia, Ethio-pia, Botswana, and Southern Sudan.Course content covered a wide array oftopics such as principles of DST, Bio-safety, MGIT, Line Probe Assays as wellas general problem solving. This event ispart of a broader effort with ACILT,with six more LabCap trainings sched-uled in 2012.

LabCap engagement in Southeast Asiahas focused initially in Vietnam, whereASM recently held a two-week Mycol-ogy Training Workshop at the NationalInstitute of Dermatology and Venereol-


ogy (NHDV) in Hanoi. The LabCapteam included Vlademir Cantarelli, JeniVuong, and Victor Silva, who led theo-retical classes as well as practical activi-ties in the mycology laboratory. The in-teractive program covered importantbasic concepts, including direct detec-tion of fungi, fungal culture and isola-tion, yeast and mold identification andsusceptibility tests, as well as new proce-dures and the latest diagnostics tech-niques. “We are very pleased that theactivity at NHDV has been a completesuccess,” says CDC Program OfficerHumberto Carvalho. “We have hadmembers from different hospitals askingus if they can have the same type ofsupport and also if the Mycology train-ing can be expanded to other places.”LabCap Engagement in South East Asiais only beginning, with Indonesia, Ma-laysia, and possibly Myanmar on thehorizon for 2012.

To learn more about ASM InternationalAffairs and the LabCap Program visitwww.asm.org.

2012 ASM International Affairs

Fellowship and Professorship

Recipients

The ASM International Education Com-mittee (IEC) is pleased to announce thewinners of Round One of the 2012 ASMInternational Fellowships and Professor-ships. These programs strive to put theIEC’s Strategic Plan into action by pro-viding high-quality education and train-ing programs to microbiologists and in-stitutions at all levels, fostering theprofessional development of interna-tional microbiologists, and promotingexcellence in the microbiological sci-ences through scholarly exchange. Tolearn more about how to apply for theseprograms, please visit: www.asm.org/international/grants.

ASM International Fellowships

The International Fellowship Programencourages research and training collab-orations in microbiological sciencesworldwide by enabling early-career sci-entists or students from resource-limitedcountries to visit the host laboratories of

experienced ASM members. The Inter-national Fellows for Round One, 2012are:

Sunday BabatundeAkinde, a lecturerat the Osun StateUniversity, Os-ogbo, Nigeria, wasawarded an ASMInternational Fel-lowship for Africato pursue the re-search project“Molecular char-acterization of hy-drocarbon-utilizing heterotrophic bacte-ria from crude oil-polluted sites in theNiger Delta, Nigeria” with Joseph Su-flita at The University of Oklahoma,Norman.

Yulia Evgen’evnaSpitsyna, a Ph.D.student at the Insti-tute of ChemicalBiology and Funda-mental Medicine,Siberian Branch ofRussian Academyof Science, Novosi-birsk, was awardedan ASM Interna-tional Fellowship for Asia to pursue theresearch project “Characterization ofthe cellular response to gold nanopar-ticles using immunofluorescence analysisand live-cell imaging” with Elke Muhl-berger at the Boston University, Mass.

Andrea Pedetta, aPh.D. student atthe Instituto de In-vestigaciones Bi-ologicas, Mar delPlata, Argentina,was awarded anASM InternationalFellowship forLatin America andthe Caribbean topursue the researchproject “Signaling abilities of mutantchemotaxis proteins” with John Parkin-son at the University of Utah, Salt LakeCity.

Nicolas Alberto Villagra, Ph.D. candi-date at the Universidad Andres Bello,

Santiago, Chile,was awarded anASM InternationalFellowship forLatin America andthe Caribbean topursue the researchproject “Iron spar-ing by RyhB smallRNA in Salmonella:a search for theplayers” with Nara Figueroa-Bossi at theCentre de Genetique Moleculaire of theCNRS in Gif-sur-Yvette, France.

Honorable MentionsHonorable Mentions are given to selectapplications which the Review Commit-tees felt merited special recognition;funding is not associated with an Hon-orable Mention. The 2012, round one,Honorable Mention recipients are:

Enas AbdulsttarNewire, a MedicalMolecular Re-searcher at the US.NAMRU-3 GlobalDisease DetectionResponse Program,Giza, Egypt, wasrecognized with anHonorable Men-tion for her pro-posed researchproject “Advanced molecular character-ization of ESBL-producing Enterobacte-riaceae in Egypt; metallo-�-lactamasesdetection and interpretation” with hostNeil Woodford at the Health ProtectionAgency in London, United Kingdom.

Olajide AdewaleOwolodun, Princi-pal Research Offi-cer at the NationalVeterinary Re-search Institute,Vom, Nigeria, wasrecognized with anHonorable Men-tion for his pro-posed researchproject “Molecular epidemiology ofhepatitis E virus and enteric calicivirusesin pigs, North-Central Nigeria” with Ju-lie Ann Kase at the United States Foodand Drug Administration, Centre for

Akinde

Spitsyna

Pedetta

Villagra

Newire

Owolodun


Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, Col-lege Park, Md.

ASM International Professorships

The International Professorship Pro-gram provides microbiological expertiseto faculty and students throughout theworld. The program enables an ASMmember who is scientifically recognizedin his/her area to travel to an institutionof higher learning in a resource-limitedcountry to teach an interactive shortcourse on a topic in any of the microbi-ological disciplines. The InternationalProfessors for Round One of 2012 are:

Michele KiyokoNishiguchi, a Pro-fessor and Associ-ate DepartmentHead at the NewMexico State Uni-versity, Las Cruces,was awarded anASM InternationalProfessorship forAsia to implementthe short course “A short course in mi-crobial genetics for microbial ecolo-gists” with Evelyn Grace Ayson at theSoutheast Asian Fisheries DevelopmentCenter and University of the Philippines,Visayas.

Maria Jose Figueras,a Professor at the Ro-vira i Virgili Univer-sity, Reus, Spain, wasawarded an ASM In-ternational Profes-sorship for LatinAmerica and the Ca-ribbean to imple-ment the shortcourse “Trainingcourse in poliphasic taxonomy applied tothe bacterial diagnostics” with HeribertoFernandez at the Institute of Clinical Micro-biology, Universidad Austral de Chile, Val-divia.

Karl Klose, a Professor at the University ofTexas, San Antonio, was awarded an ASMInternational Professorship for Latin Amer-ica and the Caribbean to implement theshort course “Short course on bacterial ge-

netics” with SergioMarshall at the Pon-tificia UniversidadCatolica de Val-paraiso, Chile.

Indo-U.S. Professor-ships in MicrobiologyThis ProfessorshipProgram encouragesscientific partnershipsbetween the UnitedStates and India and is sponsored by the Indo-U.S. Science & Technology Forum.

Nisha Tak, a SeniorResearch Fellow atthe Jai Narain VyasUniversity, Jodhpur,India, was awardedan ASM-IUSSTFIndo-US ResearchProfessorship to im-plement the researchproject “Use of greenfluorescent protein(GFP) labeledstrains to determine the nodule occu-pancy and symbiotic promiscuity ofnovel species of Rhizobium and Burk-holderia nodulating native legumes ofIndian Thar Desert” with Ann Hirsch atthe University of California, Los Ange-les.

Louise Temple, aProfessor at theJames Madison Uni-versity, Harrison-burg, Va., wasawarded an ASM-IUSSTF Indo-USTeaching Professor-ship to implementthe short course“Discovery and ge-nomic analysis of vi-ruses from the soil that infect non-patho-genic Mycobacterium bacteria: original sci-ence for university students and faculty”with Jogender Rana at the DeenbandhuChhou Ram University of Science & Tech-nology in Sonepat, Haryana, India.

MembershipAward

Vincent Racaniello, host of three ASM pod-casts and an ASM Communications Com-

mittee member, was awarded the 2012 PeterWildy Prize for Microbiology Education bythe Society for General Microbiology. Theaward recognizes outstanding contributionsto microbiology education. Racaniello re-ceived the prize in recognition of his exten-sive work in developing podcasts and socialmedia as tools for virology and microbiol-ogy education. He was also invited to give alecture at the Society for General Microbiol-ogy Spring Conference in Dublin, Ireland,highlighting a personal overview of a chosenarea of microbiology.

Racaniello is a Professor of Microbiologyat Columbia University Medical Center. Hehas been studying viruses for over 30 years,starting in 1975, when he entered the Ph.D.program in Biomedical Sciences at Mt. SinaiSchool of Medicine of the City University ofNew York. In 1982 Vincent joined the fac-ulty in the Department of Microbiology atColumbia University College of Physicians& Surgeons in New York City. There heestablished a laboratory to study viruses andto train other scientists to become virolo-gists. Over the years his laboratory has stud-ied a variety of viruses, including poliovirus,echovirus, enterovirus 70, rhinovirus, andhepatitis C virus.

Racaniello’s public education work in-cludes hosting the popular podcasts ThisWeek in Microbiology (www.microbe-world.org/twim), This Week in Virology(www.microbeworld.org/twiv), and ThisWeek in Parasitism (www.microbeworl-d.org/twip). He is also at the forefront ofrecording and sharing his lectures at Co-lumbia University as freely available pod-casts and is one of the cocreators of Bio-Crowd, a social network designed to bringtogether scientists of all disciplines.

Deceased Members

Eva Ruth Kashket died 21 May 2011 in herhome in Lexington, Mass. Kashket wasborn in Zagreb, Yu-goslavia, was a holo-caust survivor andemigrated afterWorld War II withher parents to Mon-treal, Canada, whereshe was educatedand was awarded aB.Sc. and M.Sc.inbiochemistry by

Nishiguchi

Figueras

Klose

Tak

Temple

Kashket


McGill University, Montreal, Quebec,Canada. She and her husband moved toBoston, Mass., where she obtained herPh.D. in bacteriology from Harvard Uni-versity, Cambridge, Mass., in 1963. Shewas a postdoctoral fellow at Tufts Uni-versity in Boston and a researcher atHarvard before joining the faculty atBoston University in 1974 as AssociateProfessor and then Professor in the De-partment of Microbiology, from whichshe retired in 2004.

Her major research interests were bac-terial bioenergetics, nutrient transport,pH regulation, and osmoregulation. Herstudies contributed significantly to thedemonstration of the protonmotiveforce that exists across cell membranessupporting the chemiosmotic theory incell biology. In later research, her focusturned to the regulation of solvent pro-duction, spore development, and straindegeneration in solvent-forming speciesof the anaerobe Clostridium. Researchwas aimed at the potential developmentof new bacterial strains for the produc-tion of useful chemicals from waste ag-ricultural and industrial biomass and forthe development of novel therapeuticagents.

Kashket served on many scientific re-view panels for the National ScienceFoundation, the National Iinstitutes ofHealth, the U.S. Department of Agricul-ture, the U.S. Department of Energy, theNational Research Council of Canada,and others. She was a member of theEditorial Board of the Journal of Bacte-riology and of Applied and Environmen-tal Microbiology and Anaerobe andserved as a reviewer for the Journal ofBacteriology, Applied and Environmen-tal Microbiology, the Canadian Journalof Microbiology, the Journal of Biologi-cal Chemistry, the Journal of MembraneBiology, Science, and others.

Kashket was a founding member ofthe ASM Committee on the Status ofWomen Microbiologists (1973–1980) aswell as Convener of scientific sessions atASM Annual Meetings (1977–2000) andchair of the Microbial Physiology andMetabolism Division of ASM (1984 –1985) and served in numerous otherroles in ASM and other scientific associ-ations. She was one of the organizers ofthe first rigorously controlled, quantita-

tive survey of the issues facing women inscience. The survey was distributed toASM members and documented the dif-ferentials in salary and rank adverselyaffecting female microbiologists, andreached a wider audience than ever be-fore through an article that was pub-lished in Science (183:488 – 494, 1974),with her as first author. She was awardedthe Alice C. Evans Award by ASM in2003 for fostering the inclusion, devel-opment, and excellence of women in ca-reers in microbiology.

After retirement, Eva studied painting.She joined the Lexington Arts and CraftsSociety where she was elected Chair ofthe Painters’ Guild, and continued topaint until shortly before her death. Evapublished two books, a memoir of heryears in the Holocaust (What I Remem-ber: A Memoir of My Family During theHolocaust Years and After) and a collec-tion of her artwork (My Paintings). Sheis survived by her husband of 53 years,Shelby Kashket; son Michael Kashket;daughter, Julie Mackley; and grandchil-dren, Rebecca, Michael, and Toby.

James W. Moulder was born in Burgin,Mercer County, Ky., on 28 March 1921.He passed away on 6 May 2011 in Ver-non Hills, Ill., at the age of 90. Jimgraduated from high school in BowlingGreen, Ky. at the age of 15 years. As anundergraduate, he first went for twoyears at Western Kentucky Universityand continued his education at the Uni-versity of Chicago, where he was a PhiBeta Kappa while earning his B.A. degreein 1941. Moulder was a microbiologistat the University of Chicago for over 40years, beginning after he finished hisdoctorate in Biochemistry in 1944.Moulder joined the faculty at the Univer-sity of Chicago in 1948 in Microbiology.From 1959 to 1968, Professor Moulderserved as the chairman of the Depart-ment of Microbiology. Later he was amember of Department of MolecularGenetics and Cell Biology. He was amember of this department until 1986when he retired. He was honored bybeing appointed as Professor Emeritus ofthe department.

Moulder performed groundbreakingresearch on many bacterial and parasiticdiseases. His chief research interestswere in the biochemistry of intracellular

pathogens, with major contributions inthe field of Chlamydia pathogenesis. Hisclassic 1962 monograph, “The Biochem-istry of Intracellular Parasitism,” dealtwith the commonalities of intracellularviral, parasite and bacterial (Chlamydia–then termed psittacosis–pneumonitisgroup and the Rickettsia) pathogens tosuccessfully occupy this in vivo niche.His early research provided convincingevidence that the agents of psitticosisand pneumonitis were bacteria and notviruses. However, it took over 10 yearsbefore medical microbiology textsceased to list Chlamydia and Rickettsiaas viruses.

During his long career, ProfessorMoulder was a Guggenheim Foundationfellow and a senior Fulbright scholar atthe University of Oxford from 1952 to1953. He received the Eli Lilly Award inBacteriology and Immunology in 1954and was a Burroughs-Wellcome VisitingProfessor of Microbiology at WesternKentucky University in 1984. He was atrustee of the Bergy’s Manual Trust since1981. He received the Bergey’s Medal in1999 for his lifelong contributions to thefield of microbiology, including researchthat led to crucial advances in the pre-vention and treatment of yellow fever,malaria, and Chlamydia. Moulder wasan elected Honorary Member of bothASM and the American Society for Rick-ettsiology and Rickettsial Diseases in1997. He was the Editor of the Journalof Infectious Diseases from 1957 until1968.

When he retired in 1986, Moulder andhis wife Della moved to Tucson, Ariz. Hewas appointed as a Visiting Scientist inthe Department of Microbiology and Im-munology at the University of ArizonaCollege of Medicine, where he had veryactive and productive interactions withfaculty member Richard Friedman andin the laboratory with his graduate stu-dents and postdoctoral fellows. He pub-lished his third monograph, “Intracellu-lar Parasitism,” in 1989 and continuedto write research manuscripts and reviewarticles.

Moulder was warmly regarded by hislegions of doctoral advisees, students,and postdoctoral fellows, many ofwhom continued to correspond with andvisit him long after graduating from the


university. He mentored and gave wiseand learned counsel to more than 30Ph.D. students. He returned to the Chi-cago area in 2004, to live closer to hisdaughter, Susan, and his son, John, andfamilies. Surviving are his children, JohnMoulder (Joan Dimow) of Milwaukeeand Susan (Scott) Perlman of Liber-tyville; five grandchildren, Brian Hub-

bell, David Kopsa, Benjamin, Mary“Becky” and Laura Perlman. He waspreceded in death by his wife “Della”Moulder and his daughters, Linda andCarol.

Richard L. Friedman

University of Arizona College of Medicine,Tucson

Roy Curtiss III

Biodesign Institute, Arizona StateUniversity, Tempe

Steven Zeichner

The George Washington University Schoolof Medicine

Washington, D.C.

ASM Journals: Edited by working scientists.

Applied and Environmental MicrobiologyImpact Factor: 3.778

Eukaryotic CellImpact Factor: 3.395

Infection and ImmunityImpact Factor: 4.098

Journal of BacteriologyImpact Factor: 3.726

Impact Factors as reported in the 2010 Journal Citation Reports® (Thomson Reuters, 2011)

Enjoy the value of ASM Membership

2012 Member Online Basic Package Rate$212

To order your online basic package, or for information on how to order individual titles and other packages please contact

Advantages for ASM Member Online Subscribers

the following electronic alerts:

Section feeds

journals

fees for corresponding authors

Journal of VirologyImpact Factor: 5.189

Impact Factor: 12.22

Molecular and Cellular BiologyImpact Factor: 6.188

Also included: mBio®

A subscription to the All-12 package provides access to content covering the full spectrum of basic and clinical microbiology research. This package offers full access to the entire suite of ASM journals.

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