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Seven Pitt School of Medicine Faculty Inducted into Prestigious Physician-Scientist Associations

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5/21/2015

Five University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine faculty members have been inducted into the Association of American Physicians (AAP), a nonprofit, professional organization founded in 1885 for the “advancement of scientific and practical medicine,” and two have been inducted into the American Society for Clinical Investigation (ASCI), which was founded in 1908 and is “dedicated to the advancement of research that extends our understanding and improves the treatment of human diseases.”

Election to AAP is an honor extended to individuals with outstanding credentials in biomedical science and/or translational biomedical research and is limited to 60 inductees per year. An association of the country’s most accomplished physician-scientists, AAP serves as a forum to create and disseminate knowledge and as a source of inspiring role models for upcoming generations of physicians and medical scientists.

Election to ASCI reflects early career accomplishment as new members must be 50 or younger. ASCI represents physician-scientists who are “at the bedside, at the research bench and at the blackboard.” Up to 80 new members are elected annually from hundreds of nominations.

“With their election to these prestigious societies, I’m delighted that our next generation of biomedical scientists is being recognized for significant contributions to science and medicine along with our well-established and well-deserving senior investigators,” said Arthur S. Levine, M.D., Pitt’s senior vice chancellor for the health sciences and John and Gertrude Petersen Dean of Medicine. “These honors reflect our deep commitment to fostering faculty research and clinical excellence.”

AAP Inductees:

Juan C. Celedón, M.D., Dr.P.H., is UPMC Niels Jerne Professor of Pediatrics and chief of pediatric pulmonology, allergy and immunology at Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC. His research is centered on identifying genetic factors and early life environmental exposures that influence the development of asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, particularly in ethnic minorities.

J. Timothy Greenamyre, M.D., Ph.D., is the Love Family Professor of Neurology, and director of the Pittsburgh Institute for Neurodegenerative Diseases and the American Parkinson Disease Association Advanced Center for Parkinson’s Disease Research at the University of Pittsburgh. His research is focused on the mechanisms that cause nerve cell death in disorders such as Parkinson’s, Huntington’s and Alzheimer’s diseases. With respect to Parkinson’s disease, he is interested in interactions between environmental toxins (natural or man-made) and genes that increase or decrease an individual’s susceptibility to developing the disease.

John Kirkwood, M.D., is the Sandra and Thomas Usher Professor of Melanoma as well as a professor of medicine, dermatology and translational science. Dr. Kirkwood’s research has focused on developing new and effective treatment approaches for melanoma. He has received international acclaim for leading a multicenter study developed on the basis of his pioneering work with immunomodulators for melanoma that provided the first FDA-approved adjuvant therapy for melanoma in 1996.

George K. Michalopoulos, M.D., Ph.D., is the Maud L. Menten Professor of Experimental Pathology and chair of the Department of Pathology. His research focuses on new therapies for liver fibrosis and the disease mechanisms in alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency.

Yoel Sadovsky, M.D., is the Elsie Hilliard Hillman Professor of Women’s and Infants’ Health Research and scientific director of the Magee-Womens Research Institute. His research focuses on fetoplacental development and placental nutrition, injury and adaptation.

ASCI Inductees:

Pawel Kalinski, M.D., Ph.D., is a professor of surgery and of immunology, School of Medicine; professor of infectious diseases and microbiology, Graduate School of Public Health; and professor of bioengineering at the Swanson School of Engineering, all at Pitt; as well as director of the Immunotransplantation Center in the Division of Surgical Oncology at the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute. His research aims to determine the cellular and molecular background of the interactions between tumors and the immune system and to develop effective measures of counteracting tumor-associated immune dysfunction and promoting immune-mediated tumor destruction.

Jeremy Kahn, M.D., M.S., is an associate professor of critical care medicine in the School of Medicine and of health policy and management in the Graduate School of Public Health, both at Pitt. Dr. Kahn’s research focuses on the organization, management and financing of critical care services. He also directs several grants from the National Institutes of Health examining the effect of ICU organization on the outcome of care for patients’ critical illness.