Dr. Gonzalez, a graduate of the Class of 1991, was presented the award by Aman Bhullar, MD, Class of 2007, chair of the society’s Awards & Recognition Committee. Dr. Bhullar noted that the recognition is the highest honor the USF College of Medicine Alumni Society bestows to acknowledge the personal, professional and community contributions of its alumni.

Aman Bhullar, MD, ’07 (right) presents the 2013 Distinguished Physician Alumnus Award to Eduardo Gonzalez, MD, ‘91 (left).

 A member of USF’s medical community for nearly 20 years, Dr. Gonzalez consistently demonstrates his dedication to the medical profession and his service to students, patients and the community at large.

Dr. Gonzalez received both his MD and undergraduate degrees at USF.  In addition to being an associate professor, he serves as director of the Department of Family Medicine, practicing at the Morsani Center for Advanced Healthcare.  He is also a medical staff physician in the Department of Family Practice at Tampa General Hospital.

For more than 10 years, Dr. Gonzalez has also participated in Project World Health trips, taking students on educational mission trips to the Dominican Republic. In recent years, he has also served as the co-medical director of the BRIDGE Healthcare Clinic.

His  longstanding track record as a strong and dedicated supporter, teacher and mentor of students is summed up in the following tribute written by the BRIDGE Clinic student directors:

“Whether it is clinical work in the office, or during the multiple volunteer hours he donates to working with the BRIDGE Healthcare Clinic and Project World Health international health mission trips, it is obvious how passionate Dr. Gonzalez is about providing quality family medicine and primary care to all patients. Seeing how much his patients respect and cherish him as their doctor sets an invaluable example for all his students and coworkers at USF. Dr. Gonzalez exemplifies not only what it is to be an amazing physician, but, more importantly, he is an amazing person with a selfless and strong character.”

The award is part of VCU’s 120th anniversary celebration, which recognizes 120 outstanding alumni and faculty, living and deceased, as Visionary Leaders. Dr. Munro was honored during VCU School of Nursing’s Gala in May.

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Cox works in the lab of Narasaiah Kolliputi, PhD, assistant professor in the Division of Allergy and Immunology in the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine. Dr. Kolliputi and members of his lab recently published an article in the American Journal of Physiology detailing the effects of a proinflammatory complex believed to be important in acute lung injury progression.

Cox’s grant AHA proposal aims to attenuate the activity of this complex and thus reduce inflammation seen in acute lung injury.

Working in Dr. Kolliputi’s lab since 2010, Cox has presented his work at multiple international conferences, including those of the American Thoracic Society, World Allergy Organization, Experimental Biology 2013, Keystone Symposia, and American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology.

See more on the Fast 56.

See the entire inaugural list.

Housed in the USF College of Public Health, the program currently has 24 graduate students serving in the field. Students in the master’s program begin studies on campus, and then serve abroad with the Peace Corps for 27 months before returning to campus to complete graduation requirements for a Master of Public Health (MPH) or a Master of Science in Public Health (MSPH) degree.

In the Peace Corps’ ranking, USF ranked fifth out of more than 80 colleges and universities with PCMI programs. Michigan Technological University led the rankings with 35 students in the field.

See more on the Fast 56.

See more on Dr. Hartman.

See the entire inaugural list.

The national appointment is a two-year term. The Pain and Palliative Care Section, which represents the fields of both Pain Medicine and Palliative Care to the academy, is one of the largest sections of the Academy.

“Dr. Brock’s election is testimony both to his national reputation in the field of Pain Medicine, as well as his growing leadership in the world of academic medicine at large, and is another example of USF Neurology Faculty taking the lead at the national and international levels,” said Clifton L. Gooch, MD, professor and chair of the USF Department of Neurology, and director of the USF Neuroscience Collaborative

The Abraham Flexner Award for Distinguished Service to Medical Education, considered the highest honor in academic medicine, is presented annually to an individual for extraordinary contributions to medical schools and to the medical education community as a whole. The Flexner award was established by the AAMC in 1958.

Dr. Klasko will serve a two-year appointment on the Selection Committee, which selects a recipient who receives the award at the AAMC’s annual meeting.

Malaney was among four USF Health students, and 12 campus-wide, who received $500 travel awards for their outstanding poster presentations at the March 22 symposium sponsored by the Graduate School, USF Office of Research and Innovation, and Graduate and Professional Student Council. She also joined USF’s winning students on April 19 at the new graduate statewide symposium, which showcased the top research of graduate students across Florida.

Prerna Malany, a PhD student student in Pathology and Cell Biology, with her advisor Vrushank Dave, PhD, an assistant professor in the department.

Malaney’s presentation was titled “Intrinsic disorder in proteins and their interaction hubs as a novel tool for network medicine.”  The study focused on using systems-level structural informatics to probe the inherent structural disorder of the tumor-suppressor gene PTEN (phosphatase and tensin homolog).  Abnormalities in PTEN function are associated not only with cancers, but with neurological disorders including autism.

“Researchers have tended to look at singular events, focusing on a certain molecule or pathway abnormality, without much success in finding effective therapeutic targets for a given disease,” said Malaney, who works in a cancer research laboratory at USF Health. “Network medicine uses a more integrated holistic approach to analyze disease.”

That includes mapping how genes and proteins link together and interact and how these interactions are disrupted by disease.  A better understanding of these complex intracellular networks may lead to the discovery of new treatments or cures, Malaney said.

Malaney’s PhD advisor is Virushank Dave, PhD, assistant professor pathology and cell biology, and she works with laboratory colleagues Ravi Ramesh Pathak, PhD, and Jaymin Kathiriya. Her collaborators on the research project were Vladimir Uversky, PhD, and Bin Xue, PhD, faculty members in the Department of Molecular Medicine.

Other USF Health graduate student winners at this year’s symposium were Andrea Bingham, Department of Global Health, “Development of a mosquito trap that uses sugar feeding to detect Eastern equine encephalitis virus;” Nadine Nelson,  Department of Molecular Medicine, “The role of Ikaros in regulatory T cell (Treg) development and function in murine pancreatic cancer;” and Mahmooda Pasha, Department of Community and Family Health, “Factors impacting modern contraceptive use: An analysis of 2011 Uganda demographic and health survey.”

- By Anne DeLotto Baier, USF Health Communications

The award includes $3,000 and allows medical students to shadow a board certified gynecologic oncologist in hopes that the students go on to a career in gynecologic oncology.

Gourgue, who was one of 10 students to receive the award this year, will be shadowing USF’s Mitchel Hoffman, MD, professor of Obstetrics And Gynecology and associate vice president for USF Health, for one month in August.