CSR Appoints Four to New Posts
Dr. Karin Helmers has moved to the Center for Scientific Review to become the new scientific review administrator of the nursing research 2 study section. She previously directed the Neuroscience and Sensory Conditions Program at the National Institute of Nursing Research. After receiving her nursing degree from George Mason University, Helmers worked at Suburban Hospital, Chicago Lakeshore Hospital, and Children's Hospital National Medical Center. She later received a Ph.D. in medical psychology from the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, where she studied the psychosocial correlates to cardiovascular responses. She continued her research in postdoctoral studies at McGill University in Montreal, Canada.
Dr. Robert Lees has joined CSR as scientific review administrator of its medicinal chemistry study section. He holds a Ph.D. in organic chemistry from Stanford University, and conducted postdoctoral studies at MIT, where he worked with Nobel laureate H.G. Khorana in constructing DNA segments via chemical synthesis. Lees briefly served as an assistant professor of chemistry at Fordham University before moving to the American Cyanamid Co., which is now Cytec Industries. Early in his career there, he invented and patented the commercial process for Combat insecticide. He eventually became director of global technology for the company's coating and performance chemicals business unit. In this role, he led efforts that resulted in the commercialization of 11 products with annual sales of $30 million.
Dr. Sergei Ruvinov has become the new scientific review administrator for the SSS-L study section at CSR after participating in the center's Review Internship Program. His study section reviews small business grant applications related to drug development and delivery. Ruvinov received his Ph.D. in chemical enzymology from the Moscow Lomonosov University in Russia. He came to NIH under a Fogarty International Center fellowship and conducted enzyme structure and function studies in NIDDK's Laboratory of Biochemistry and Pharmacology. He then studied protein folding, stability and design at the University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute. Ruvinov returned to NIH and continued his research in the protein chemistry section of NHLBI's Laboratory of Biochemistry. Before coming to CSR, he studied protein-protein interactions and signal transduction in NCI's Laboratory of Biochemistry.
Dr. Karen Sirocco is the new chief of the biobehavioral and biobehavioral processes integrated review group at CSR. She also will coordinate reviews for the BBBP-6 study section, which assesses applications related to developmental, psychopathological and substance-use disorders in children and the effects of developmental disorders in adults. Sirocco previously coordinated reviews of small business grants for CSR's risk, prevention and health behavior IRG. After receiving an M.A. in experimental psychology from George Mason University in 1989, she joined NIAAA's Laboratory of Clinical Studies to help advance basic and clinical biobehavioral research on the causes, treatment and prevention of alcoholism.
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