1962
John L. Cameron, of Baltimore, director of the Department of Surgery and surgeon-in-chief of The Johns Hopkins Hospital from 1984 to 2003, has received the 2019 Henry Jacob Bigelow Medal from the Boston Surgical Society. After setting down his scalpel in 2016, Cameron remains active on the faculty, seeing patients and making rounds seven days a week.
1987
James R. Barrett, of Oklahoma City, began serving in December 2019 as the interim chair of the Department of Family Medicine at the University of Oklahoma.
1994
Benjamin R. Lee, of Tucson, Arizona, has been awarded the George W. Drach, MD, Endowed Chair of Urology at the University of Arizona College of Medicine. Lee is the chief of urology at the college and has focused his career on advancing new treatments for renal cell carcinoma and calculus disease, while developing new technologies and techniques for urologic oncology and endourology.
1995
Michael J. Caterina, of Baltimore, has been named director of the Department of Biological Chemistry. He currently is the Solomon H. Snyder Professor of Neurosurgery and director of the Neurosurgery Pain Research Institute.
1997
Seth Blackshaw, of Baltimore, has received the 2019 Stein Innovation Award from Research to Prevent Blindness, the leading nonprofit organization supporting research aimed at the prevention, treatment or eradication of all diseases threatening vision. The award provides flexible funding of up to $300,000 over three years to support Blackshaw’s goal of using insights gained from learning how individual cell types operate and whether they can be replaced in patients with neurodegenerative diseases.
2001
Michele A. Manahan, of Baltimore, has been named the 172nd president of MedChi, the Maryland State Medical Society, the largest physician organization in the state. An associate professor of plastic and reconstructive surgery, Manahan joined the faculty in 2007 after completing her internship and residencies in general and plastic surgery at Johns Hopkins.
2003
Sean R. Moore, of Charlottesville, Virginia, has been appointed chief of the Division of Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition at the University of Virginia Children’s Hospital. He also currently co-directs the university’s Microbiome Initiative.
2004
Sarah Polk, of Baltimore, an assistant professor of pediatrics, was selected last October as one of 35 fellows for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholars Program. Polk is medical director of the Children’s Medical Practice clinic at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center and also works closely with the Johns Hopkins Center for Salud/Health and Opportunity for Latinos. She was recognized for her leadership on a project involving immigrant Latina mothers and their risks for depression and unmet social needs. She and other members of a scholars program team will receive funding and salary support of up to $525,000 over three years to collaborate on a project to address complex health problems.
2005
Chetan Bettegowda, of Baltimore, a professor of neurosurgery and oncology, and director of the Meningioma Center, has been named head of the Physician Scientist Training Program (PSTP). Founded in 2016, the PSTP enhances the medical school’s long-held status as a national leader in physician-scientist training. Among other activities, it hosts workshops to teach skills for success in research, provides constructive feedback on papers and funds proposals. It also provides travel allowances to enable students, residents and junior faculty members to attend scientific meetings, and funds mini-grants for exploratory research projects.
2007
Fasika A. Woreta, of Baltimore, an assistant professor of ophthalmology who specializes in cataracts, corneal/anterior segment disease, corneal diseases and ocular immunology, has been named 2019 Physician of the Year, one of six honors bestowed annually by the Johns Hopkins Medicine Clinical Awards for Physicians and Care Teams. Woreta was nominated based on her attention to continuous improvement, commitment to evidence-based medicine and focus on continuing medical education.
House Staff, Fellows and Faculty
Edward S. Bessman (HS emergency medicine, 1982; faculty, emergency medicine, 1992–present), of Baltimore, has received an Excellence in Service and Professionalism Award from the Office of Johns Hopkins Physicians. The Johns Hopkins Medicine Clinical Awards for Physicians and Care Teams were launched in 2015 to honor those who embody the best in clinical excellence. Bessman has worked in Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center’s Department of Emergency Medicine for 28 years, including 20 years as director. He has been senior director of faculty practice in the department since 2017.
Mark F. Teaford (fellow, cell biology and anatomy, 1983–84; faculty, cell biology and anatomy, 1984–2015), of Vallejo, California, has received the American Association for Anatomy’s 2020 Henry Gray Distinguished Educator Award, the highest award in the country for anatomy education. He currently is a professor and vice chairman of basic sciences of Touro University’s College of Osteopathic Medicine. An anthropologist and anatomist, he has specialized in what the wear on teeth can reveal about a creature’s diet.
Christoph Stein (faculty, anesthesiology and critical care medicine, 1992–97), of Berlin, Germany, has been named to the editorial board of Scientific Reports and a member of the Narcotics Board in the German Ministry of Health. He served as professor and chair of anesthesiology and critical care medicine at Freie Universität Berlin from 1997 to 2018, when he became chair of the workplace of experimental anesthesiology at Charité Hospital’s Benjamin Franklin Clinic in Berlin. He has been invited to give the Founder’s Lecture at the International Narcotics Research Conference 2020.
Ted M. Dawson (fellow, neurosciences, 1990–92; faculty, neurosciences, 1992–present), of Baltimore, currently director of the Institute for Cell Engineering, has received a 2020 Zenith Fellows Award from the Alzheimer’s Association. The award recognizes the innovative science Dawson had used to contribute to the understanding of Alzheimer’s disease and dementia. Specifically, the award cited Dawson’s work examining whether a protein known to cause nerve cell death in people with Parkinson’s disease plays a similar role in Alzheimer’s disease. He and the two other winners of the 2020 awards each will receive $450,000 over a three-year period to support their research.
Susan L. Gearhart (HS; fellow, faculty, surgery, 2000–present), of Baltimore, an associate professor of surgery and oncology, received the Southern Surgical Association’s 2019 Shipley Award in recognition of her presentation of the best scientific paper at the association’s annual meeting. The award is named for Arthur Shipley (1878–1955), who in 1911 was named the first surgeon-in-chief at Johns Hopkins Bayview (then Baltimore City Hospitals).
Joseph W. Stauffer (HS, anesthesiology and critical care medicine, 2000–02; part-time faculty, anesthesiology and critical care medicine 2002–16), of Princeton, New Jersey, was appointed last May as chief medical officer of Inheris Biopharma Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Nektar Therapeutics. It will focus on developing and marketing drugs for central nervous system disorders.
Mary Armanios (fellow, oncology; molecular biology and genetics, 2003–05; faculty, oncology; genetic medicine, 2005–present), of Baltimore, was elected as a 2019 fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, a lifetime distinction that recognizes her outstanding contributions to science and technology. Armanios, clinical director of the Telomere Center at Johns Hopkins, studies the dysfunction of telomeres, the protective ends of chromosomes, in an effort to understand the role of telomere abnormalities and DNA repair defects in disease susceptibility.
Divya Srikumaran (HS, ophthalmology, 2009–10; faculty, ophthalmology, 2011–present), of Baltimore, was named one of Baltimore magazine’s Top Doctors for 2019. An annual peer review survey of the metropolitan area’s physicians led to the honor. An assistant professor of ophthalmology and chief of the Wilmer Eye Institute’s satellite office in Odenton, Maryland, Srikumaran specializes in cornea and external diseases, cataracts, and refractive surgery (LASIK).
Rheanna Platt (HS, pediatrics, 2006–09; faculty, psychiatry and behavioral sciences, 2013–present), of Baltimore, has been chosen to be one of 35 fellows for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholars Program. An assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences and medical director of the Latino Family Clinic at Johns Hopkins Bayview, Platt’s expertise includes child, adolescent and adult psychiatry, as well as child development and behavioral health. Her fellowship recognizes her leadership skills and ability to collaborate on projects that address complex health problems.