Grantee Honors

Dr. Joanna S. Fowler, a senior chemist and Director of the Radiotracer Chemistry, Instrumentation and Biological Imaging Program at the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory, was awarded the National Medal of Science at a White House ceremony on October 7, 2009. She is one of nine researchers named by President Barack Obama to receive the nation's highest award for lifetime achievement in science. The National Medal of Science was created by statute in 1959 and is administered for the White House by the National Science Foundation. The annual award recognizes individuals who have made outstanding contributions to science and engineering. Nominees are selected by a committee of Presidential appointees based on their advanced knowledge in, and contributions to, the biological, behavioral/social, and physical sciences, as well as chemistry, engineering, computing and mathematics.

NIDA grantee Dr. Margaret L. Brandeau, of Stanford University, was elected a Fellow of the Institute for Operations Research and Management Sciences (INFORMS) at the INFORMS annual conference, October 20-23, 2009, "For expanding the recognition and understanding of OR/MS in healthcare and for developing methods to inform public policy and to improve the effective control and treatment of disease and the distribution of critical resources."

Dr. Carrie Oser received the American Sociological Association (ASA) Alcohol, Drug, & Tobacco section, Junior Scholar Award, 2009.

Dr. Vivek Shetty of UCLA received the Laskin Award for the year's most outstanding article on Comparative Effectiveness Research, a subject of high priority in the Obama Administration. The article was published in the Journal of Oromaxillary and Facial Surgery. This NIDA-funded research is paving the way for a bill on methamphetamine and associated oral/dental consequences that the US Congress is considering.

Lawrence S. Brown, Jr., MD, MPH, FASAM, Executive Senior Vice President, Addiction Research and Treatment Corporation and Principal Investigator for the Infections and Substance Abuse Study (CTN 0012) has been named Addiction Physician of the Year by Karen M. Carpenter-Palumbo, Commissioner of the Office of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Services (OASAS) in New York. This award is given to "a physician who has earned widespread recognition from his/her peers, and whose work reflects the highest level of professional conduct and dedication to serving individuals and families suffering from alcoholism and/or substance abuse."