Middle schoolers learn about science and health careers

An audience of 70 middle school students listened attentively in the Allen Memorial Library as faculty members of Case Western Reserve University told them about the exciting career opportunities available in science and health care professions and the education and training required for each.

All of the students who attended the event, sponsored by the Case School of Medicine's Center for Science, Health and Society and HealthSpace Cleveland (the new name of the Cleveland Health Museum), earlier had indicated their interest in science and health professions.

This program and others conducted by the Center for Science, Health, and Society and HealthSpace are designed to help maintain the students' interest, provide opportunities for them to further explore and experience the health science professions and make them aware of training opportunities in Cleveland.

Nathan A. Berger, director of the Center for Science, Health, and Society, moderated the program, which featured speakers including Andre K. Mickel, Margaret A. Tandoh, John M. Clochesy and P. Hunter Peckham.

Campaign at 90 percent of goal

Theodore J. Castele, chair of the Campaign for the Future of Academic Medicine, has announced that the campaign for the Case Western Reserve University medical school has raised a little more than $269 million toward its goal of $300 million.
The campaign has raised $101.6 million

for research support, $62.7 million for equipment and other facilities for education and research, $44.7 million for endowed professorships, $30.1 million for medical student scholarships, $27.6 million for renovation of research laboratories and core facilities and $2.2 million for library renovation.

The public launch of the campaign wasin October 1999, and it is scheduled to continue until 2006.

Clowes to continue innovation

With the support of 1979 Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine alumnus Thomas J. Clowes, The Clowes Fund Inc. has awarded the School of Medicine $1 million to establish the Clowes Endowment for Innovations in Medical Education.

The Clowes Fund is providing the School of Medicine with a permanent source of funding to develop novel approaches for medical instruction and learning. Specifically, it is supporting the Scholars Collaboration in Teaching and Learning program, through which faculty and students work together to develop projects focusing on curriculum design, teaching methods and program evaluation.

Income from the endowment also will be used to fund innovative faculty development projects, as well as to teach core patient-physician communication skills in clerkships undertaken by third-year students.

Brunengraber named to new nutrition research professorship

Henri Brunengraber, professor and chair of the department of nutrition at the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, has been named the first person to hold the Mt. Sinai Auxiliary Commemorative Chair in Nutrition Research.

The professorship was made possible by a $750,000 grant from the Mt. Sinai Health Care Foundation to commemorate the Mt. Sinai Community Partners, formerly the Mt. Sinai Auxiliary.

Brunengraber holds a master's degree in chemistry from Universite de Liege as well as a medical degree and a doctorate in biochemistry from Universite Libre de Bruxelles. Both institutions are in Belgium.

He joined the School of Medicine and the former Mt. Sinai Medical Center in 1990.

Daniel family to begin fund

Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine emeritus faculty member Thomas M. Daniel and his wife, Janet, have pledged a gift to enable the Allen Memorial Medical Library to add to its collection of books and materials related to the history of medicine.

The expanded collection will increase opportunities for all who use the library to gain historical perspectives on the individual and societal impacts of diseases, medical discoveries and the people involved with them.

Daniel is professor emeritus of medicine and international health and the former director of the Center for International Health at Case. He joined the faculty in 1963 and attained emeritus status in 1994.

Neurosciences researchers to receive awards

Two neurosurgical residents at the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine who are conducting research in the department of neurosciences, have received distinguished awards.

Nicholas Bambakidis, chief neurosurgical resident at University Hospitals of Cleveland (UHC), has received the Outstanding Paper Award of the North American Spine Society (NASS) and The Spine Journal. Michael Steinmetz, neurosurgical resident, who will be chief next year, at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation (CCF), has won the Cloward Fellowship, an award presented annually to a U.S.- or Canadian-trained resident in neurosurgery.

Bambakidis studied spinal cord injury in animal models for 15 months in the laboratory of Robert H. Miller, professor of neurosciences.

Steinmetz, who is conducting neuroscience research in the laboratory of Jerry Silver, professor of neurosciences, is evaluating new ways to overcome barriers to making functional a damaged spinal cord through nerve regeneration.

Summer program hosts largest number of Hispanics

A Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine summer program aimed at minority undergraduates who want to go to medical school has hosted the largest number of Hispanics in its 15-year history.

While the majority of the students attending the 15th annual Health Careers Enhancement Program for Minorities at the were African-American, 16 of the 84 students this year were Latino, the largest number and largest percentage—nearly 20 percent—ever.

Students from all over the country, including five from Northeast Ohio, attended classes, lectures and workshops while living on the Case campus during the six-week program designed to give multicultural students the tools they need to get into medical school and an opportunity to see firsthand the successes of minorities in the medical field.

Return to the online edition of the 9-25-03 Campus News.