Myron Genel, M.D., professor emeritus of pediatrics, has been appointed by Mike Leavitt, Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, to the Secretary’s Advisory Committee on Human Research Protections. The committee provides recommendations for the responsible conduct of research involving human subjects. Genel served for 19 years as associate dean and director of the School of Medicine’s office of government and community affairs. He is a former chair of the Association of American Medical Colleges’ Council of Academic Societies and the Council on Scientific Affairs of the American Medical Association.

Aaron W. McGee, Ph.D., postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Neurology, has received a Career Award in the Biomedical Sciences from the Burroughs Wellcome Fund for his work on neural plasticity in the laboratory of Stephen M. Strittmatter, M.D., Ph.D., the Vincent Coates Professor of Neurology. The awards, established in honor of Gertrude B. Elion and George H. Hitchings, provide $500,000 in “bridging support,” distributed over five years, to sustain the research projects of senior postdoctoral fellows as they move into junior faculty positions.

Geralyn Spollett, M.S.N., A.N.P., C.D.E., nurse practitioner in the Section of Endocrinology and Metabolism, was named Diabetes Educator of the Year at the 2006 annual meeting of the American Diabetes Association (ADA). Spollett has conducted research on type 2 diabetes in black women, and has lectured nationally and internationally on diabetes management from a nurse practitioner perspective. She is on the board of directors of the ADA, and of the American Association of Diabetes Educators, where she served as chair of the National Certification Board for Diabetes Educators.

Hongyu Zhao, Ph.D., Ira V. Hiscock Associate Professor in the Division of Biostatistics at the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, has been elected a fellow of the American Statistical Association (ASA), a scientific and educational society established to promote excellence in the application of statistics. Each year, no more than one third of 1 percent of ASA’s members are named fellows. Zhao’s research interests are developing mathematical, statistical and numerical methods to address scientific questions raised in molecular biology and genetics.