Tarek Fahmy, Ph.D., and Erin Lavik, Sc.D., both assistant professors of biomedical engineering, have received Wallace H. Coulter Foundation Early Career Translational Research Awards in Biomedical Engineering. Fahmy was recognized for his developing nanoparticle technology that can track T cells (such as those responsible for lupus) by MRI and can also deliver drugs to those cells. Lavik was honored for her development of a long-term drug-delivery technology for the treatment of glaucoma. The awards were established in 2005 in memory of the foundation’s benefactor, “an engineer, inventor, and entrepreneur who believed that the results of research must be taken to the stage of a commercially viable product in order to truly benefit humanity.”

Joel L. Rosenbaum, Ph.D., professor of molecular, cellular and developmental biology, has won the E.B. Wilson Medal from the American Society for Cell Biology (ASCB). The Wilson Medal, the society’s highest scientific honor, is awarded for “significant and far-reaching contributions to cell biology over the course of a career.” Rosenbaum has made fundamental discoveries about the assembly and function of cilia and flagella, and particularly the role of cilia in polycystic kidney disease, during a scientific career spanning five decades.

Alison P. Galvani, Ph.D., assistant professor of epidemiology, and Frank J. Slack, Ph.D., assistant professor of molecular, cellular and developmental biology, have received 21st Century Science Initiative Awards from the James S. McDonnell Foundation. The awards provide up to $450,000 toward “the acquisition of new knowledge and ... the responsible application of knowledge for solving real-world problems.” Galvani’s research merges game theory, psychology, economics, epidemiology and other disciplines to develop optimal strategies for community vaccination against human papillomavirus. Slack will explore the use of microRNAs to diagnose and treat brain cancer.

Philip E. Rubin, Ph.D., adjunct professor in the Department of Surgery and chief executive officer of Haskins Laboratories, an independent, Yale-affiliated research institute focusing on the science of the spoken and written word, has been named chair of the National Academies (NA) Board on Behavioral, Cognitive and Sensory Sciences (BBCSS). The BBCSS is an advisory board that helps the National Research Council, the NA’s research wing, to identify areas in which new scientific developments are creating opportunities or problems for public policy.

Heping Zhang, Ph.D., professor of public health and statistics, has been named a fellow of the Institute of Mathematical Statistics (IMS). Established in 1933, the IMS is an organization that fosters the development and dissemination of theory and applications of statistics and probability. This year, Zhang is one of 20 IMS members selected for the honor, which has been granted to only 5 percent of the society’s 4,500 active members. The IMS cited Zhang’s “distinguished contributions to genetic statistics, public health, and medicine.”

Barry L. Zaret, M.D., Robert W. Berliner Professor of Medicine and professor of diagnostic radiology, received the Distinguished Service Award of the American Society of Nuclear Cardiology (ASNC), the highest award granted by the society, at the ASNC’s annual meeting in Montreal in September. The award, which has been given only four times previously, recognized Zaret’s contributions to the field of nuclear cardiology, in which radioisotopes are used for diagnostic and therapeutic purposes, and his 10-year term as the founding editor-in-chief of the Journal of Nuclear Cardiology.