Appointments and awards

Appointments

James Bahcall was appointed clinical associate professor in the College of Dentistry’s Department of Endodontics. He was chair of endodontics at Northwestern University, then director of the department at Marquette. He most recently taught at the Midwestern University College of Dental Medicine.

Michael R. Markiewicz, was appointed assistant professor of oral and maxillofacial surgery. He recently was a fellow in head and neck oncologic and microvascular surgery at the University of Florida College of Medicine.

Awards & Honors

Miiri Kotche, clinical associate professor of bioengineering, received the Motivator of the Year award from the Association for Women in Science.

Wai-Man Chan

Graduate students Jonathan Bowen and Wai-Man Chan won awards in the 2016 BioImages Competition sponsored by the BioCommunications Association.

Bowen won Best of Show and the Canadian Founders Award for his poster, “Lifecycle of Basidiomycota (Mycena haematopus).”  Chan won an Award of Excellence for her poster, “The Lifecycle of the Rainbow Scarab Beetle,” and a Citation of Merit for “Corticotropin releasing hormone receptor bound to its ligand.”

School of Public Health students Karen Aquirre, Madison Hammett, Alyson Moser and Gabija Revis were selected for the Schweitzer Fellowship, a year-long service learning program that empowers students to design and implement innovative community-based projects to address the health needs of underserved Chicagoans. Each Schweitzer Fellow will provide 200 hours of direct service in the community.

Aguirre will develop a pipeline program to promote healthcare careers among low income, Latino high school students from the Back of the Yards neighborhood, providing education on health disparities, professional development and healthy behaviors.

Hammett will partner with Cabrini Green Legal Aid to create a support group for incarcerated mothers and their children’s caregivers to strengthen the communication and relationships between mothers and families.

Moser plans to create and implement an adult literacy and job readiness program for the adult residents of Oakley Square Apartments, helping participants write résumés and cover letters and developing career goals.

Revis will create an oral health component for the extensive training program used to teach caregivers of medically-complex children and healthcare professionals at Almost Home Kids, a transition facility for children moving out of intensive hospital care.

Bridget Hansen, a former Honors College member who received her bachelor’s in anthropology and classical studies in May, was awarded a $5,000 fellowship from the Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi. Hansen, who was awarded a Fulbright to teach English in Bahrain for 10 months beginning this fall, will start doctoral studies in cultural anthropology at Emory University in fall 2017.

Nisha Garg, who graduated from the College of Dentistry in May, was named the recipient of the Predoctoral Dental Student Merit Award for Outstanding Achievement in Community Dentistry by the American Association of Public Health Dentistry.

Junfeng Wu, a Ph.D. candidate in the organizational behavior/human resource management program, was recently selected as a Greenleaf Scholar by the Robert K. Greenleaf Center for Servant Leadership. The Greenleaf Scholars Program selects and supports promising early career scholars who wish to study the impact of servant leadership.

Angelica Lagunas, a DMD/PhD student who will graduate from the College of Dentistry in 2018, received an Irwin B. Robinson Research and Education Foundation Award from the Odontographic Society of Chicago.

Nisha Mehta, who recently received her master’s in oral sciences, is a recipient of the 2016 Illinois Society of Pediatric Dentists Dr. Indru C. Punwani Graduate Student/Resident Research Award. The award is in recognition of Punwani, professor emeritus and former head of pediatric dentistry.