Of note

Sara Binz, Ph.D., of the Department of Biochemistry; Todd Blevins, Ph.D., of the Department of Biology in Arts & Sciences; Julian Meeks, Ph.D., of the Department of Anatomy & Neurobiology; and Gerald Morris, M.D., Ph.D., of the Department of Pathology & Immunology, have been named 2008-09 W.M. Keck Postdoctoral Fellows in Molecular Medicine by the Division of Biology and Biomedical Sciences. Each year, the division selects four or five outstanding scientists in biomedical research with fewer than two years of postdoctoral research experience and awards each a fellowship of $25,000 for partial stipend support. This program was established and endowed at the School of Medicine in 1988 with a $900,000 grant from the W.M. Keck Foundation. …

Patrick Crowley, Ph.D., assistant professor of computer science & engineering, has received a one-year, $499,765 grant from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) for research titled “Revolutionizing Defense Communications with a Diversified Internet Infrastructure.” This award is the second phase of his participation in the DARPA Computer Science Study Group (CSSG), a program that supports university research in computer science and related fields while informing a new generation of researchers on the Department of Defense’s information technology needs and priorities. …

Steven Don, M.D., associate professor of radiology, received the Caffey Award for Best Basic Science Paper at the 51st Annual Meeting of the Society for Pediatric Radiology held in May 2008. The paper was titled “Evaluation of quality assurance quality control phantom for digital neonatal chest projection imaging.” …

Elliot L. Elson, Ph.D., the Alumni Endowed Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics, has received a four-year, $1,216,000 grant from the National Institutes of Health for research titled “Dynamics of Nanoscale Lipid Domains.” …

Jeffrey P. Henderson, M.D., Ph.D., an instructor of medicine, was one of 16 scientists selected nationally to receive the Burroughs Wellcome Fund (BWF) 2008 Career Award for Medical Scientists, which provides $700,000 in research funding over five years. He studies how Escherichia coli bacterium differs in harmless strains and in strains that case urinary tract infections. David Wang, Ph.D., assistant professor of molecular microbiology and of pathology & immunology, and Dong Yu, Ph.D., assistant professor of molecular microbiology, will each receive a 2008 BWF Investigators in Pathogenesis of Infectious Disease award, which provides $500,000 in research funding over five years. BWF gave 14 of the awards to researchers in the United States and Canada. Wang uses a technique called high-throughput DNA sequencing to identify previously unrecognized disease-causing microorganisms. Yu studies human cytomegalovirus, which is more commonly known as a form of herpes virus. …

Erin Leach, catalog librarian in the University Libraries’ Database Management Unit, was presented with the 2008 First Step Award by the Association for Library Collections & Technical Services. The award provides librarians new to serials-related work with the opportunity to broaden their perspective and to encourage professional development. It covers the winner’s cost of attending his or her first American Library Association conference, which in 2008 was held in June in Anaheim, Calif. …

John E. McCarthy, Ph.D., professor of mathematics in Arts & Sciences, received a $20,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to organize a conference on function spaces and their operators in St. Louis May 28-31. …

George Murphy, M.D., professor emeritus of psychiatry, received the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention Lifetime Achievement Award in May. Murphy was recognized for helping to create a new area of psychiatric research called the psychological autopsy and a new system of diagnostic criteria that became the basis for the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual. His research also led to the creation of a suicide prevention hotline. …

John Olney, M.D., the John P. Feighner Professor of Psychiatry and professor of pathology & immunology; and Wayne Yokoyama, M.D., the Sam J. Levin and Audrey Loew Levin Professor of Research in Arthritis, professor of medicine and of pathology & immunology and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator, each received an award for achievement from The University of Iowa Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine at its 2008 Distinguished Alumni Awards June 6 in Iowa City, Iowa. …

Anne Posega, head of Special Collections at University Libraries, attended the Frye Leadership Institute at Emory University in Atlanta in June. The purpose of the institute is to develop creative leaders to guide and transform academic information services for higher education in the 21st century. Participants are selected competitively from among applicants who have a commitment to, and talent for, leadership within higher education. …

Henry S. Webber, executive vice chancellor for administration, has been elected to the board of the Regional Housing and Community Development Alliance (RHCDA). RHCDA is a nonprofit organization that provides capacity building technical assistance and financial resources to nonprofit community-based development organizations to help them revitalize St. Louis-area urban core neighborhoods.

Speaking of

David Sinacore, Ph.D., associate professor of physical therapy, presented the Roger Pecoraro Lecture at the American Diabetes Association National Convention in June. The Pecoraro lecture is known as a lifetime achievement award for research into the diabetic foot. Sinacore’s talk was titled “Pedal Osteolysis: Pernicious Pathogen or Innocuous Consequence.”