Alumni News

By

Marianne Wolff’52, Alumni News Editor
Additional class notes by Bonita Eaton Enochs, Editor

1944
See Alumni in Print to read about a book by Gene H. Stollerman. Gene, professor emeritus of medicine and public health at Boston University, has contributed to the eradication of rheumatic heart disease in developed countries and, more recently, the creation of a vaccine against the cause of rheumatic fever—streptococcal sore throat—for developing countries. “I wrote this memoir entirely from memory as an exercise that I have long advocated as a gratifying way to celebrate one’s life,” Gene writes. “I adopted a conversational writing style to try to make the content clear to non-professionals, hopefully without distorting the historic medical science I included.” Gene, now 92 and living in New Hampshire, spent his career at four medical schools—the University of Tennessee, where he chaired the Department of Medicine for 17 years and where his students endowed a professorship in his name; Northwestern University; Boston University; 
and Dartmouth.

1953
Jim Neely, who spent 40 years as clinical professor of surgery at UCSF, writes from California: “Retired to bucolic Napa Valley 15 years ago to play tennis and write poetry. A published author and poet. A fine full life of love and laughter.” Jim calls his son, Robert’08, “a wunderkind fourth-year cardiothoracic resident, learning inter alia to transplant human hearts, who calls me at odd hours, he says, just to keep my hand in.” Jim sent along this poem: 

Class Notes
(for George Cahill)

Time comes when no longer
the names are those you know
moving through these pages

where those now
appear doing nothing
that you have not already done 

and none of the names you do know
that still land here 

are not those you once were
sure about 

as it was always easier to live 
with certainty 

among all the others 
who come and go that this one 

or especially that one in truth
for the life of me 
would live forever

1958
See Alumni in Print to read about a book by Lawrence W. Norton that recounts stories during his training that range from colorful characters such as demanding medical professors and surgical bosses to indigent patients who frequented hospital emergency rooms. He trained at Cincinnati General Hospital, the University of Colorado, and the University of Kentucky. After becoming board-certified in surgery, Dr. Norton spent five years as a medical missionary in India. Returning home, he entered academic surgery, eventually becoming a professor at the University of Arizona and later the University of Colorado. Since his retirement, he and his wife, Ann, have traveled extensively and he has volunteered in developing nations as a visiting professor, lecturer, and volunteer surgeon in government and mission hospitals. Larry also wrote the book, “Doctor Sahib: Stories of an American Surgeon in India.”

1959
See Class of 1996 for a photo of Ken Forde with Robyn Gmyrek.

1960
Bill Taylor has emailed classmates whose addresses he could locate to describe a new project aimed at helping stressed health professionals. He invites all alumni to visit his blog—http://stressedhealthprofessionals.blogspot.com/—and consider taking part. The blog’s March 9, 2013, entry offers more information. 

1961
See Alumni in Print to read about a book by Alan Wanderer. After graduating from P&S, Alan trained in internal medicine and pediatrics at Bellevue Hospital and Cornell. His book is set in Denver, where he completed a fellowship in allergy, asthma, and immunology at National Jewish Hospital-Health. He has conducted clinical research in inherited inflammatory disorders, asthma, cold hypersensitivity syndromes with anaphylaxis, sickle cell disease, and transplant organ viability. He has practiced in Denver and Bozeman, Mont., where he now lives with his family and is medical director of a clinical research drug study center.

1963
Norma M.T. Braun gave the Margaret Pfrommer Memorial Lecture at the American College of Chest Physicians annual scientific meeting in Atlanta in October 2012. The lecture award was established in 1999 to honor a polio survivor and patient advocate. Norma, who is clinical professor of medicine at P&S/St. Luke’s-Roosevelt, also was one of three faculty named Foundations in Clinical Medicine Teacher of the Year by the P&S Class of 2015.

1965
Having just returned from a meeting of the American Urological Association in Hawaii (at which he presented four posters and a paper), Anthony H. Horan advises young practitioners to send in abstracts of their work annually. Tony is a member of the nominating committee and was also invited to two social functions given by the president of the association.

1966
See P&S News in this issue to read about Robert Lefkowitz’s Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

1969
Virginia A. LiVolsi received the 2012 Harvey Goldman Master Teacher Award at the United States and Canadian Academy of Pathology’s annual meeting in Vancouver in March 2012. Professor of pathology and laboratory medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, Virginia has clinical expertise in thyroid, parathyroid pathology, gynecological pathology, and head and neck pathology/salivary glands. The Goldman award was created to honor the memory of Harvey Goldman, professor of pathology at Harvard and an international leader in gastrointestinal pathology, who died in 2009. The award is given to a master educator and mentor in the field of pathology.

1970
Karen Hein received the 2012 Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health Policy Fellows Lifetime Achievement Award in recognition of her career and her contributions to health policy at all levels. Karen was a Robert Wood Johnson Health Policy Fellow in 1993-94, serving on the U.S. Senate Finance Committee, where she worked on legislation related to health benefits, including mental health and substance abuse parity in the proposed health reform package of that era. She also worked on legislation that funds undergraduate and graduate medical education and academic health centers. Former president of the William T. Grant Foundation and former executive officer of the Institute of Medicine, Karen currently serves on the Vermont Green Mountain Care Board, appointed by Vermont’s governor to oversee the state’s comprehensive health care reform efforts. Her international work has included post-tsunami relief work in India. Karen is an adjunct professor at Dartmouth Medical School and a visiting fellow at the Feinstein International Center at Tufts University. 

1973
Edward Craig, an orthopedic surgeon at the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York City and professor of clinical orthopedic surgery at Weill Cornell Medical College, received a lifetime achievement award from the New York chapter of the Arthritis Foundation. The presentation was made by fellow P&S alumnus Thomas Sculco’69, surgeon-in-chief at Special Surgery. Ed is a pioneer in shoulder replacement. He designed both an anatomic and a reverse total shoulder replacement system for patients with severe arthritis in the shoulder. He also specializes in rotator cuff repair of the shoulder and has designed a rotator cuff repair system. His other specialties include arthroscopic surgery and sports medicine. He completed a residency in orthopedic surgery and two fellowships (shoulder and elbow surgery) at Columbia.

1974
William Theodore has written an essay about the P&S experience of multiple generations of his family—including his father (Frederick’31) and daughter (Deborah’14)—and curriculum changes over the past 100-plus years. Read his essay.

Byron Thomashow has been chosen to receive the 2013 Public Advisory Roundtable Excellence Award from the American Thoracic Society. Byron, who is clinical professor of medicine at P&S, will receive the award during the ATS 2013 international conference in Philadelphia. Byron was chosen for his exemplary service to patients with lung diseases and critical illnesses.

1975
Orthopedic surgeon David Roye Jr. has been named an inaugural Samberg Scholar in Children’s Health, a newly endowed appointment at NewYork-Presbyterian/Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital. Hospital trustee Arthur Samberg and his wife, Rebecca, donated $25 million for the program. The 10 Samberg Scholars, who were announced at a January ceremony, are pediatricians or pediatric subspecialists who demonstrate excellence in patient care and meet additional criteria, including leadership, expertise, community commitment, and teaching. 

1976
Peter K. Gregersen, working out of the Feinstein Institute for Medical Research in Manhasset, Long Island, is one of three 2013 winners of the Crafoord Prize in Polyarthritis, to be presented in May 2013 by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. This award recognizes work done on rheumatoid arthritis, identifying genetic (HLA) and environmental (smoking effects on the lungs) factors in its pathogenesis. One of the other winners is Robert Winchester, professor of medicine (in rheumatology) at P&S; the third is a Swedish scientist. 

1978 
Steven B. Nagelberg will receive one of the Endocrine Society’s 2013 Laureate Awards at the group’s annual meeting in San Francisco in June. The awards were established in 1944 to recognize the highest achievements in endocrinology. Steven will receive the inaugural Outstanding Clinical Practitioner Award, established in 2012 to recognize extraordinary contributions by a practicing endocrinologist to the endocrine and/or medical community. “He is widely known in the Philadelphia medical community for his clinical expertise in endocrinology,” says the Endocrine Society. Steven has built the largest private endocrinology group in the Delaware Valley. He lives in Cherry Hill, N.J., with Debra, his wife of 33 years.

1979
See Alumni in Print to read about a book by Jeffrey P. Kahn. Jeff is clinical associate professor of psychiatry at Weill Cornell Medical College. He completed a residency at Columbia in 1983 and served on the P&S faculty from 1983 to 1991. He has practices in New York City and Scarsdale.

1980
Lisa DeAngelis was elected to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies, one of 70 new members announced in October 2012. Election to the IOM recognizes individuals who have demonstrated outstanding professional achievement and commitment to service. Lisa is chair and professor of neurology at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and professor of neurology at Weill Cornell Medical College.

See Alumni in Print to read about a book by Julia Schlam Edelman. Julia is clinical instructor at Harvard Medical School, a clinical consultant at Massachusetts General Hospital, and a practicing gynecologist. In 2010, the North American Menopause Society selected Julia as its Menopause Practitioner of the Year.

1984
Barbara Milrod received the first Leon Kupferstein Memorial Award for Innovation in Psychoanalysis from the New York Psychoanalytic Society & Institute in January 2013. Barbara is professor of psychiatry at Weill Cornell Medical College and maintains a private practice specializing in panic disorder and agoraphobia, with expertise in anxiety and mood disorders in adults and children. She completed a residency in general psychiatry and a fellowship in child and adolescent psychiatry at the Payne Whitney Clinic in Manhattan and received her psychoanalytic training at New York Psychoanalytic Society & Institute.  

1985
George Hripcsak was one of 70 new members elected to the Institute of Medicine in October 2012. IOM election recognizes individuals for their outstanding professional achievement and commitment to service. George is the Vivian Beaumont Allen Professor of Biomedical Informatics at P&S, where he chairs the Department of Biomedical Informatics.

1986 
Lourdes M. Dominguez was named one of the 2012 Physicians of the Year by NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital’s nursing department. The award honors physicians, fellows, house staff, and medical students who demonstrate collegiality and collaboration and who contribute to nursing practice. Lourdes is associate clinical professor of psychiatry at the Allen Hospital.

1992
Uniting Against Lung Cancer honored Kwok-Kin Wong in November 2012 for his leadership in lung cancer research. Kwok-Kin is associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and attending medical oncologist at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute. He received a PhD from Columbia in 1996. He has been a member of the board of Uniting Against Lung Cancer since 2009. He was honored for his leadership, his contribution to advancement in the field of lung cancer, and his work in guiding the foundation’s scientific program.

1993
Jeffrey E. Rosen chairs the Department of Orthopedics & Rehabilitation at New York Hospital Queens and is associate professor of orthopedic surgery at Weill Cornell Medical College.

Elizabeth Tillinghast has written a new “Stress Points” column for the Columbia Medicine website. The column focuses on mid-life crises. Read her column.

1995
Stephen Fealy was recently named as orthopedic consultant to the Major League Baseball Players Association. He lives in New York City with his wife and three children and is a sports medicine/shoulder specialist at the Hospital for Special Surgery.

Two members of the Class of 1995—general pediatrician Patricia Hametz and orthopedic surgeon Michael Vitale—have been named inaugural Samberg Scholars in Children’s Health, a newly endowed appointment at NewYork-Presbyterian/Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital. Hospital trustee Arthur Samberg and his wife, Rebecca, donated $25 million for the program. The 10 Samberg Scholars, who were announced at a January ceremony, are pediatricians or pediatric subspecialists who demonstrate excellence in patient care and meet additional criteria, including leadership, expertise, community commitment, and teaching. 

1996 
Robyn Gmyrek and Kenneth Forde’59 participated in the ribbon cutting that formally opened ColumbiaDoctors Midtown, the faculty practice organization’s new site near Rockefeller Center. (See more in P&S News.) Robyn, assistant clinical professor of dermatology at P&S, is chair of the Board of Directors at ColumbiaDoctors Midtown. Ken participated in the ribbon cutting as a member of the Board of Trustees for both Columbia University and NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital. He is the Jose M. Ferrer Professor Emeritus of Clinical Surgery at P&S. Ken was Robyn’s preceptor when she was in medical school.

See Alumni in Print to read about Julie Wu’s debut novel. Julie received a BA degree in literature from Harvard University. She received a writing grant from the Vermont Studio Center and in 2012 received a Massachusetts Cultural Council fellowship. She lives near Boston with her husband and children. Her website is www.juliewuauthor.com. 

1997
Andrew Lassman received the 2012 Gary Lichtenstein Humanitarian Award at the Voices Against Brain Cancer’s run/walk in Central Park on Dec. 2, 2012. Andy is director of neuro-oncology at P&S. Voices Against Brain Cancer was founded in memory of Gary Lichtenstein, who died in 2003. Its mission is to advance scientific research, increase awareness within the medical community, and support patients, families, and caregivers affected by brain cancer.

Dara Matseoane-Peterssen was named one of the 2012 Physicians of the Year by NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital’s nursing department. The award honors physicians, fellows, house staff, and medical students who demonstrate collegiality and collaboration and who contribute to nursing practice. Dara is assistant clinical professor of obstetrics & gynecology at the Allen Hospital.

1998
Stephen Tsang, associate professor of ophthalmology and of pathology & cell biology at P&S, is editor of “Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine in Ophthalmology.” The creator of a gene-targeting model for a recessive form of retinitis pigmentosa, he is working on embryonic stem cells as a possible replacement for diseased human retinal cells. In 2005 he received the Research to Prevent Blindness Award from the Association of University Professors in Ophthalmology. A member of the Macular Society, he was named as one of America’s Top Ophthalmologists in 2009. He teaches residents and directs the ophthalmology basic science course at Columbia.

1999
Blanche Fung Liu is in a four-person gastrointestinal group that recently partnered with NYU’s Langone Medical Center. She resides in Manhasset, N.Y., with her husband, Alan, and their two children.

2008 
Julia Iyasere was named one of the 2012 Physicians of the Year by NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital’s nursing department. The award honors physicians, fellows, house staff, and medical students who demonstrate collegiality and collaboration and who contribute to nursing practice. Julia is instructor in clinical medicine at P&S.

2010 
Marc Pimentel married Camilla Benedicto (a 2008 Columbia MPH graduate) in Boston on Aug. 25, 2012. Groomsmen included George Eng’10, James Ji’10, and Eugene Tsai’10. Several other P&S alumni attended.

House Staff Alumni
Clifton K. Meador, a medicine resident under Robert Loeb from 1955-1957, has published his 12th book, “True Medical Detective Stories.” The book chronicles 19 medical mysteries and the medical detectives who solved them. Clifton’s 2007 book, “Twentieth Century Men in Medicine: Personal Reflections,” includes a chapter about Dr. Loeb. His reflection of Dr. Loeb was adapted for a Fall 2007 article in P&S Journal (now Columbia Medicine).