Awards
Dr. Paul Sponseller, professor of orthopedic surgery at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, was honored as a Hero With a Heart this week at the National Marfan Foundation's annual gala in New York City.
Sponseller has been instrumental in the care of children with the Marfan syndrome, a potentially fatal disorder of the body's connective tissue, for more than 25 years. The condition affects an estimated 200,000 Americans and is often characterized by disproportionately long legs and arms.
M. Gordon Wolman, the B. Howard Griswold Professor of Geography and International Affairs at the Johns Hopkins University, has been named a Franklin Institute Laureate for 2006.
He will deliver an address titled "Fluvial Processes in Geomorphology and Environmental Management" at 9 a.m. Wednesday in Heilmeier Hall at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.
Marilyn S. Albert, a professor in the department of neurology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, has received the 2006 Ronald and Nancy Reagan Research Institute Award.
The award, presented by the Alzheimer's Association at its national gala, recognizes Albert for her contributions to Alzheimer's research. Albert, the author of more than 150 peer-reviewed publications, has focused on risk factors for Alzheimer's in aging brains and lifestyle choices that may delay the onset of symptoms.
Albert is co-director of the Johns Hopkins Alzheimer's Disease Research Center and former chairman of the Alzheimer's Association's Medical and Scientific Advisory Council.
Carol Greider, a professor and director of molecular biology and genetics in the Johns Hopkins Institute of Basic Biomedical Sciences, has been named co-recipient of the Wiley Prize in Biomedical Sciences by the Wiley Foundation.
The award to Greider and Elizabeth H. Blackburn of the University of California, San Francisco, recognizes their discovery of telomerase, an enzyme that maintains the length and integrity of chromosome ends and has drawn interest from researchers studying topics such as aging and cancer.
Greider and Blackburn are the first women to receive the Wiley prize in its five-year history. The award includes a $25,000 grant and the opportunity to present a public lecture at the Rockefeller University in New York City.
