Kreps To Receive Donohew Health Communication Award
Dr. Gary
L. Kreps has been selected to receive the 2004 Robert Lewis
Donohew Outstanding Health Communication Scholar Award at the 2004 Kentucky
Conference on Health Communication at the University of Kentucky in Lexington
on Apr. 16. The award recognizes outstanding research contributions to the
health communication field made during the biennium preceding the 2004 Kentucky
conference. Kreps has been chief of the Health Communication and Informatics
Research Branch at the National Cancer Institute since 1999. Prior to coming
to NCI, he was founding dean of the School of Communication at Hofstra University
in New York.
Alexander Honored by American Medical Association
NICHD director Dr. Duane Alexander was recently honored by the American Medical Association for his work in greatly expanding knowledge of childhood diseases and human development. He received the AMA's Dr. Nathan Davis Award for Outstanding Government Service. Named for the AMA's founder, the award recognizes federal, state and municipal officials whose contributions promote the art and science of medicine and the betterment of the public health. In particular, the AMA commended Alexander for NICHD's leadership in research on sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). For many years, placing infants to sleep on the back was thought to increase an infant's risk of serious lung infection, brought on by inhaling vomit. NICHD-sponsored research verified that placing infants to sleep on their backs not only reduces the risk of SIDS, but also does not carry with it any other risks to infant health. Based on this evidence, in 1994, NICHD formed a coalition of national organizations to launch Back to Sleep, a national public awareness campaign. Since the campaign began, the overall rate of SIDS in the U.S. has declined by more than 50 percent.
Wurtz Selected for Dan David Prize
National Eye Institute scientist Dr.
Robert Wurtz, one of the nation's leading researchers on how
the eye and brain work together to process vision, has been selected as
a recipient of the Dan David Prize, which recognizes innovative research
that crosses traditional boundaries and paradigms. Wurtz will share the
$1 million award with two others. His research has contributed greatly to
our understanding of how parts of the brain communicate with each other
and how the brain processes specific aspects of vision, such as motion.
His work has helped to understand how the brain transforms the image it
receives from the eye into actual sight. Wurtz and other prize recipients
will receive their awards at Tel Aviv University on May 16.
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