The Gerontological Society of America congratulates new 2023 awardees

2023-12-08

(Press-News.org) The Gerontological Society of America (GSA) — the country’s largest interdisciplinary organization devoted to the field of aging — is proud to acknowledge the work of 34 outstanding individuals through its prestigious awards program.

GSA salutes outstanding research, recognizes distinguished leadership in teaching and service, and fosters new ideas through a host of awards. Nominated by their peers, the recipients’ achievements serve as milestones in the history and development of gerontology.

The awardees were honored at various events associated with the GSA 2023 Annual Scientific Meeting, which was held from November 8 to 12 in Tampa, Florida. This conference is organized to foster interdisciplinary collaboration among researchers, educators, and practitioners who specialize in the study of the aging process.

Society-Wide

M. Powell Lawton Award

Sam Fazio, PhD, FGSA

Alzheimer's Association

This award honors contributions from applied gerontological research that have benefited older people and their care. This award is sponsored by the Polisher Research Institute of Abramson Senior Care.

Academy for Gerontology in Higher Education

Graduate Student Paper Award
Xuexin Yu, MS

University of Michigan

This award recognizes excellence in scholarly work by a student at an AGHE member institution or has selected AGHE as a primary or secondary section, and who presents his or her work at the GSA Annual Meeting.

Mildred M. Seltzer Distinguished Service Honor
Nina Silverstein, PhD, FGSA

University of Massachusetts Boston
This honor is presented annually to recognize colleagues who are near retirement or recently retired.

Mildred M. Seltzer Distinguished Service Honor
Judith A. Sugar, PhD, FAGHE

University of Nevada Reno
This honor is presented annually to recognize colleagues who are near retirement or recently retired.

Mildred M. Seltzer Distinguished Service Honor
Donna Weinreich, PhD, MSW

Western Michigan University
This honor is presented annually to recognize colleagues who are near retirement or recently retired.



Part Time/Adjunct Faculty Honor
Michelle Pleasant, PhD

University of South Florida
This honor recognizes the efforts and dedication of part-time or adjunct faculty members for contributions to gerontology and/or geriatrics education.

David A. Peterson Award

Recipient: Colette V. Browne, et al. (2022) for “Developing a culturally responsive dementia storybook with Native Hawaiian youth,” Gerontology & Geriatrics Education, 43:3, 315-327

Honorable Mention: Andrew Perrella, et al. (2022) for “Assessing the learning needs of physical medicine and rehabilitation residents to develop a geriatric medicine and rehabilitation curriculum,” Gerontology & Geriatrics Education, 43:1, 119-13

This award honors excellence in scholarship in academic gerontology and/or geriatrics for an article in a volume of Gerontology & Geriatrics Education.

James McKenney Student Travel Award
Kallol Kumar Bhattacharyya

Utah State University

This award advances student education on aging in memory of James McKenney.

James McKenney Student Travel Award
Runcie C.W. Chidebe

Miami University, Ohio
This award advances student education on aging in memory of James McKenney.

James McKenney Student Travel Award
Elisa Enriquez Hesles

University of Virginia

This award advances student education on aging in memory of James McKenney.

James McKenney Student Travel Award
Sibo Gao

University of Texas at Austin
This award advances student education on aging in memory of James McKenney.

James McKenney Student Travel Award
Justin Lam

Carnegie Mellon University

This award advances student education on aging in memory of James McKenney.

James McKenney Student Travel Award
Emily Lim

University of Massachusetts Boston

This award advances student education on aging in memory of James McKenney.

James McKenney Student Travel Award
Lígia Passos

University of Aveiro
This award advances student education on aging in memory of James McKenney.

James McKenney Student Travel Award
Yan-Jhu Su

University of Massachusetts Boston
This award advances student education on aging in memory of James McKenney.

James McKenney Student Travel Award
Dana Urbanski

University of Minnesota

This award advances student education on aging in memory of James McKenney.

James McKenney Student Travel Award
Hannah Wolfe

Northeastern University
This award advances student education on aging in memory of James McKenney.

Behavioral and Social Sciences Section

Student Research Award, Pre-Dissertation
Sangha Jeon, MA

University of California, Irvine

This award honors an excellent student paper with a topic of relevance to the Behavioral and Social Sciences section of GSA.

Student Research Award, Dissertation
Emily Morris, MS

University of Michigan

Zhirui Chen, PhD

The University of Alabama at Birmingham

This award honors an excellent student paper with a topic of relevance to the Behavioral and Social Sciences section of GSA.

Boaz Kahana Student Poster Award
Soohyeon Ko, BA

Korea University

This award recognizes a current BSS student member for original and innovative research relevant to mental health and aging.

Biological Sciences Section

George Sacher Award
Nisi Jiang, BS, MS

UT Health San Antonio
This award is given to the best student paper or poster contribution by a GSA member at the Society's Annual Scientific Meeting.

Emerging Scholar and Professional Organization

Douglas Holmes Award
Karina Tavares, MS

University of Rhode Island
This award recognizes research with potential to improve quality of life and/or quality of care in long-term care.

Interdisciplinary Paper Award
Emily Morris, MS

University of Michigan

This award honors the best interdisciplinary research paper on a topic related to aging by a GSA student member.

Poster Award
Tsai-Chin Cho, MS

University of Michigan
This award honors exceptional posters presented by GSA student members.

Poster Award
Taylor Jansen, PhD

University of Massachusetts Boston
This award honors exceptional posters presented by GSA student members.

Poster Award
Xiaojuan Liu, MS

Stanford University
This award honors exceptional posters presented by GSA student members.

Poster Award
Aung Zaw Zaw Phyo, PhD

Monash University
This award honors exceptional posters presented by GSA student members.

Poster Award
Ambika Verma, PhD

University of Arkansas
This award honors exceptional posters presented by GSA student members.

Minority Issues in Gerontology Committee Student Poster Award
Xiang Qi, BSN

New York University
This award honors an exceptional poster presented by a GSA student member from an underrepresented racial and ethnic group.

Health Sciences Section

Person-In-Training Award
Kening Jiang, MHS

Johns Hopkins University

This award honors a student of the Health Sciences section for the best student paper at the Society's Annual Scientific Meeting.

Research Award
Yurun Cai, PhD

University of Pittsburgh
This award honors a new investigator in the Health Sciences Section.

Austin Bloch Post-Doctoral Fellow Award
Louay Almidani, MD, MS

Johns Hopkins University
This award is given to recognize an outstanding paper or poster contribution by a Postdoctoral Fellow in health sciences.

Social Research, Policy, and Practice Section

Barbara J. Berkman Award for Outstanding Interdisciplinary Research, Practice, or Policy in Aging and Health Care

James Lubben, PhD, FGSA

Boston College

This award acknowledges many years of significant and substantive career contributions to research, practice and policy in aging and health care services.

Elaine M. Brody SRPP Thought Leader Award

Roberta R. Greene, PhD, FGSA

University of Texas

This award acknowledges outstanding career contributions in social research, policy, and practice.

Outstanding Student Poster Award

Narcissa Plummer, MPH

Northeastern University

This award recognizes a current SRPP student member, graduate or undergraduate, for excellence in research as reflected in an outstanding research poster presentation.

###

The Gerontological Society of America (GSA) is the nation's oldest and largest interdisciplinary organization devoted to research, education, and practice in the field of aging. The principal mission of the Society — and its 5,500+ members — is to advance the study of aging and disseminate information among scientists, decision makers, and the general public. GSA’s structure includes a nonpartisan public policy institute, the National Academy on an Aging Society, and GSA is also home to the National Center to Reframe Aging and the National Coordinating Center for the Resource Centers for Minority Aging Research.

END

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Texas A&M Institute part of national effort to harness nuclear laser fusion for limitless energy

2023-12-08

Nuclear fusion, the process that powers the sun, is the ultimate source of energy for all life on Earth. On the sun, deuterium and tritium nuclei combine to produce an alpha particle (the nucleus of a helium atom) and a neutron. The dream is to do the same down here, on Earth, in a controlled manner. It’s for good reason that harnessing fusion energy is one of the greatest scientific and technological challenges of the 21st century. Fusion requires the fuel to be heated to more than 100 million degrees (10 times hotter than the core of the sun). Practical fusion energy also requires that the burning fuel is kept at these hot temperatures long enough so that energy ...

How health system hesitancies contributed to COVID risks

2023-12-08

More than 1.2 million people have died in the United States during the COVID-19 pandemic to date, more documented deaths than any other nation on Earth. While many have attributed the high death toll on widespread personal hesitancy to wear masks, avoid crowded places or receive vaccines once they were developed, there were several “system hesitancies” that contributed to the tragic outcomes that need addressing, according to an analysis published Dec. 6, 2023, in Health Affairs Forefront. The analysis ...

Stand Up to Cancer names Julian Adams, Ph.D., President and CEO

2023-12-08

LOS ANGELES – December 8, 2023 – Stand Up To Cancer® (SU2C) today announced the appointment of Julian Adams, Ph.D., as president and chief executive officer, which will be effective on January 1, 2024. Adams had previously served on SU2C’s Scientific Advisory Committee since 2008, and officially joined SU2C in July 2023 in the newly created position of chief science officer. He succeeds Russell Chew, who joins SU2C’s Board of Directors. Adams is a longtime oncology researcher and pharmaceutical industry senior executive specializing in drug discovery and development in cancer. With this appointment, Adams assumes management responsibility for SU2C’s overall ...

Immersive VR goggles for mice unlock new potential for brain science

2023-12-08

Northwestern University researchers have developed new virtual reality (VR) goggles for mice. Besides just being cute, these miniature goggles provide more immersive experiences for mice living in laboratory settings. By more faithfully simulating natural environments, the researchers can more accurately and precisely study the neural circuitry that underlies behavior. Compared to current state-of-the-art systems, which simply surround mice with computer or projection screens, the new goggles provide a leap in advancement. In current systems, mice can still see the lab environment peeking out from behind the screens, and the screens’ ...

Racial and ethnic differences in hospice use among Medicaid-only and dual-eligible decedents

2023-12-08

About The Study: In this study, in both Medicaid only and dual-eligible populations, Hispanic and non-Hispanic Black individuals had the lowest odds of receiving hospice, and Hispanic individuals had the highest odds of a short hospice stay. Knowledge about, access to, and acceptance of hospice may be lacking for these low-income individuals. Further research is needed to understand barriers to and facilitators of hospice use for people with nursing facility stays. Authors: Julie ...

County–level variation in preterm birth rates

2023-12-08

About The Study: In this analysis of U.S. county-level preterm and early preterm birth rates, substantial geographic disparities were observed, which were associated with place-based social disadvantage. Stability in aggregated rates of preterm birth at the national level masked increases in nearly 1 in 6 counties between 2007 and 2019. Authors: Sadiya S. Khan, M.D.,M.S., of the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago, is the corresponding author. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at ...

T cells tackle new 'Pirola' SARS-CoV-2 variant

2023-12-08

LA JOLLA, CA—In August, researchers detected a new SARS-CoV-2 "variant of concern" in patients in Israel and Denmark. Since then, this variant, dubbed BA.2.86 or "Pirola," has made its way around the globe. The Pirola variant has raised alarms because it is highly mutated. In fact, Pirola is as mutated as the Omicron variant was, compared with the early SARS-CoV-2 variant included in the original vaccinations. As Pirola spreads, researchers at La Jolla Institute for Immunology (LJI) are investigating whether COVID-19 vaccines (or previous ...

MIT engineers design a robotic replica of the heart’s right chamber

2023-12-08

MIT engineers have developed a robotic replica of the heart’s right ventricle, which mimics the beating and blood-pumping action of live hearts. The robo-ventricle combines real heart tissue with synthetic, balloon-like artificial muscles that enable scientists to control the ventricle’s contractions while observing how its natural valves and other intricate structures function. The artificial ventricle can be tuned to mimic healthy and diseased states. The team manipulated the model to simulate conditions of right ventricular dysfunction, ...

New cause of diabetes discovered, offering potential target for new classes of drugs to treat the disease

2023-12-08

Dec. 8, 2023 Contact: Bill Lubinger 216.368.4443 william.lubinger@case.edu Ansley Kelm 678-313-6525 Ansley.Kelm@UHhospitals.org CLEVELAND—Researchers at Case Western Reserve University and University Hospitals have identified an enzyme that blocks insulin produced in the body—a discovery that could provide a new target to treat diabetes. Their study, published Dec. 5 in the journal Cell, focuses on nitric oxide, a compound that dilates blood vessels, improves memory, fights infection and stimulates the release of hormones, among ...

MD Anderson and Rigel Pharmaceuticals announce strategic alliance to advance olutasidenib in AML and other cancers

2023-12-08

HOUSTON and SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. ― The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center and Rigel Pharmaceuticals, Inc. today announced a multi-year strategic development collaboration to expand the evaluation of olutasidenib in acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and other hematologic cancers. The alliance brings together MD Anderson’s clinical research expertise with Rigel’s differentiated targeted molecule. Under the strategic collaboration, Rigel and MD Anderson will evaluate the potential of olutasidenib to treat newly diagnosed and relapsed ...

University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus awarded one of the largest clinical trial grants in campus history to lead trauma study

Several healthy diet patterns are associated with reduced risk of type 2 diabetes regardless of ethnicity – shows meta-analysis of more than 800,000 people

Liver fibrosis to cancer: scientists map path to block deadly transition

Microbiota boost immunotherapy? A meta-analysis dives into fecal microbiota transplantation and immune checkpoint inhibitors

Cancer's double agents: Fibroblasts both help and hinder immunotherapy

[Press-News.org] The Gerontological Society of America congratulates new 2023 awardees

The Gerontological Society of America congratulates new 2023 awardees

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES: