Two of our own medical school leaders were honored as Distinguished University Professors at last month’s annual UMB faculty convocation. A Distinguished University Professor is the highest appointment bestowed upon a faculty member at UMB. Congratulations to Deanna Kelly, PharmD, the Dr. William and Carol Carpenter Professor in Psychiatry for Mental Illness Research, and Director of the Maryland Psychiatric Research Center and Thomas Scalea, MD, the Honorable Francis X. Kelly Distinguished Professor of Trauma Surgery, Director of the Program in Trauma, and Physician-in-Chief of the Shock Trauma Center!

I recently announced the retirement of a long-time member of our community, James B. Kaper, PhD. After more than 45 years of dedicated service to the University of Maryland School of Medicine, Dr, Kaper will retire as Professor and Chair of the Department of Microbiology & Immunology. I want to congratulate Jim on his amazing career and thank him for his sincere commitment to the School and its mission for all these years. His scientific work, his passion for training the next generation of leaders, and his many leadership roles across the SOM have truly made a lasting impact on this institution. I hope everyone enjoyed the symposium held in his honor on Friday. I appointed Joao Pedra, PhD, Professor, Department of Microbiology and Immunology, as the Interim Department Chair after Dr. Kaper steps down on October 1; Dr. Kaper will fully retire from his faculty position on November 1. You can read more about the announcement in the press release here.

I want to congratulate a few individuals who were recently awarded shared instrumentation grants from the National Institutes of Health. Ivy Dick, PhD received a $759K award for a High-Throughput Automated Patch Clamp Instrument, with dedicated support from Matthew Trudeau, PhD. 

Miroslaw Janowski, MD, PhD received a $1M award for a new Positron Emission Tomography (PET) insert for the Center for Translational Research in Imaging.

And Christine Brantner, PhD received a $674K award for a new Transmission Electron Microcope.

Since 2001, there have been 33 Shared Instrumentation Grants awarded at UMB with a total value of $21M. Easy access to instrumentation like these, including the services and expertise our researchers need, is foundational to ensuring our investigators are productive throughout their entire research careers.  

I have been meeting with and presenting to many of our boards lately, namely on the importance of academic medical centers and our role in fueling the economy. As I mentioned in the State of the School presentation, the funding crisis is not over, and we need to continue to be as productive as possible – submit for more grants, figure out how your research can pivot to a current or emerging need, and think outside of the box in both collaborations and resources. 

With enthusiasm and commitment,

Mark

Mark T. Gladwin, MD

Dean, University of Maryland School of Medicine

Vice President for Medical Affairs, University of Maryland, Baltimore

John Z. and Akiko K. Bowers Distinguished Professor and Dean