Merkle Honored by ACGIH
Scott Merkle, chief of the NIEHS Health and Safety Branch, was
recently given the Meritorious Achievement Award for outstanding,
long-term contributions to the field of occupational health and
industrial hygiene by the American Conference of Governmental
Industrial Hygienists. Merkle has held a number of volunteer
positions with the ACGIH, and currently serves on the editorial
advisory board for Applied Occupational and Environmental
Hygiene Journal. He has served two elected terms on the ACGIH
board of directors and chaired the organization during 2000 and
2001. He has also served on a variety of committees. Merkle has
been a certified industrial hygienist since 1981.
Suk Receives Albert Award
NIEHS's Bill Suk, director of the Hazardous Substances Basic Research and Training Program and director of the Center for Risk
and Integrated Sciences, received the University of Cincinnati's Roy
Albert Memorial Award for Translational Research in Environmental
Health at a luncheon June 9. The university hosts an NIEHS-funded
environmental health sciences center. In awarding the honor, the
selection committee cited Suk's dedication to fostering outstanding
research linking basic science, remediation of environmental
contaminants and public policy.
Shen Earns Lane Award
NIAAA's Dr. Joannie Shen was recently presented the J.D. Lane
Award by Surgeon General Richard Carmona during the PHS
Commissioned Officers annual meeting in Scottsdale, Ariz. Also
known as the Clinical Society Open Award, the Lane Award is the
highest annual clinical investigator award across the PHS officers'
category for original research. Shen, a neuroscientist in the
Laboratory of Clinical Science, won the award as principal
investigator of a protocol conducted with a group of normal
volunteers at the Clinical Center. Her research uses functional
magnetic resonance imaging to explore electro-acupuncture's effects
on the reward response mechanisms in the brain's mesolimbic
system. Acupuncture is used as an effective complementary therapy
in many addiction treatment programs around the country, but the
precise nature of how and why it works remains unclear. Shen's
research could help the development of effective treatments for
alcohol dependence and other substance abuse disorders. Shen
acknowledged her coauthors in NIAAA's section on brain
electrophysiology and imaging: Dr. Dan Rio, Dr. Robert Rawling
and section chief Dr. Dan Hommer. She also thanked the National
Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, which
co-funded the study.
Wright Wins Special Libraries Association Honor
NIEHS's Larry Wright recently won the 2003 Distinguished Member Award for the Special Libraries Association's biomedical
and life sciences division. Wright, head of the reference section of
the NIEHS library, has been with the institute since 1985. He has
been active in the national organization as well as the local chapter,
where he has chaired committees and served on the executive
board. The SLA called him "a superb colleague and a leader in his
profession," and hailed his work as a mentor.
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