ROBERT D. FRY, MD, ELECTED TO TWO NATIONAL BOARDS

The American Board of Colon and Rectal Surgery elected Robert D. Fry, MD, the Gerald J. Marks Professor of Surgery and Director of the Division of Colon and Rectal Surgery, to serve as a director of the board for a term of four years. Dr. Fry was nominated for the position by the American College of Surgeons. The board's primary responsibility is the certification of candidates who have successfully completed training programs in colon and rectal surgery.

Dr. Fry has also recently been elected to the board of directors of the American Board of Surgery. The American Board of Surgery is responsible for examination and certification of candidates who have successfully completed approved residencies in general surgery.

JMC AWARDS MD DEGREE POSTHUMOUSLY TO JAMES BRYCE TEMPLETON, CLASS OF 1996

Jefferson Medical College has posthumously awarded an MD degree to James Bryce Templeton, who would have received his degree with his classmates in June had not a tragic and needless auto accident snuffed out his life at age 33. Jim was killed by a drunk driver on January 29, 1996.

Since the tragedy, his father, Bryce Templeton, MD, a former Jefferson faculty member, has dedicated himself to bolstering public education efforts against drunk driving, particularly through the organization MADD, Mothers Against Drunk Driving.

JMC has established a scholarship in the name of James Bryce Templeton. Any member of the Jefferson community may participate by contacting the JMC Alumni Office, M41, Jefferson Alumni Hall, 1020 Locust St., Philadelphia, PA 19107. Tel. 215-955-7750.

GRANT AND NATIONAL HONOR TO RHEUMATOLOGY FACULTY MEMBERS

Charlene J. Williams, PhD, Research Associate Professor, Division of Rheumatology, Department of Medicine, has been awarded a four-year grant of $956,884 from the National Institutes of Health entitled "Molecular Characterization of Familial Chondrocalcinosis."

Nathan M. Smukler, MD, Professor of Medicine/ Rheumatology, was recognized for his outstanding dedication to the field of rheumatology and was awarded the prestigious "Master of the American College of Rheumatology" national honor at the American College Rheumatology National Meeting.

E. Marshall Goldberg, MD, Department of Medicine, Division of Endocrinology, and Professor of Medicine, has been appointed to the San Diego-based Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center President's Advisory Council. In this position, Dr. Goldberg will serve as an advocate for the Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center providing consultation and advice to the board of trustees. The Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center, the sister center to Jefferson's Kimmel Cancer Center, provides cancer treatment and research, and currently is conducting over 60 clinical trials.

Troy L. Thompson II, MD, Daniel Lieberman Professor and Chair of the Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior at Jefferson Medical College and Hospital, has been elected to a three-year term to the National Board of Directors of Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society.

Larry A. Donoso, MD, PhD, Thomas D. Duane Professor of Ophthalmology, Jefferson Medical College, and Director of Research, Wills Eye Hospital, was honored by Queens Medical Center at Nottingham University with a research laboratory named after him. The Dr. Larry A. Donoso Eye Research Laboratory at Queens Medical Center in England is a tribute to Dr. Donoso's international reputation and skills as a research scientist, clinician and teacher, and to his assistance in setting up the lab. In recognition of this honor, the City of Philadelphia and the Pennsylvania Senate bestowed Dr. Donoso with an official citation for "advancing the world-renowned reputation of Wills Eye Hospital and Thomas Jefferson University in the international medical community." Among Dr. Donoso's students was Harminder Dua, MD, now Chairman of the Department of Ophthalmology at Queens Medical Center.

JEFFLINE AWARDED BEST WWW HOME PAGE BY AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION

The Library Public Relations Council (LPRC) of the American Library Association (ALA) announced JEFFLINE to be the first winner of the award "Best World Wide Web Home Page" for Division I ­ the category for a library servicing up to 65,000 patrons. JEFFLINE was judged to be excellent in its design, layout, delivery of information and to be a very effective putlic relations tool to generate interest in the Library.

JEFFERSON'S SAFETY PROGRAM AGAIN RECEIVES NATIONAL RECOGNITION

Jefferson's safety program has again received national recognition when the National Safety Council presented its Award of Recognition for three Jefferson projects submitted at the 43rd annual International Conference on Campus Safety, held this year at the University of Dayton.

The three projects, and the Environmental Health and Safety employees submitting them, included:

* "Implementation of Solvent Recycling Program" ­ Stephen Baker Jr.

* "Biohazard Waste Disposal in Research and Teaching Laboratories" ­ Nick Pinizzotto

* "The Reduction of Needlestick Accidents" ­ Jolene Shaw

The national program encourages creative problem-solving by rewarding new approaches to difficult challenges. Cost effectiveness and applicability to other institutions are among the evaluation criteria.

In 1995, Jefferson's safety program earned the University the prestigious Award of Honor from the National Safety Council. The award is the highest overall in the nationally recognized "Campus Safety Program" conducted by the Council.

BRUCE E. NORTHRUP, M.D., NEUROSURGEON, ELECTED PRESIDENT OF THE CERVICAL SPINE RESEARCH SOCIETY

Bruce E. Northrup, M.D., clinical associate professor of neurosurgery for Jefferson Medical College and a founding member of the Neurosensory Institute at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital and Wills Eye Hospital, has been elected President of the Cervical Spine Research Society.

Throughout his career, Dr. Northrup has been active in the research and clinical care of cervical spine and brain injuries. He has published and presented extensively on such topics as spinal cord injury and vasculature and stroke and head injury. Dr. Northrup was recently involved in a scientific study to correlate magnetic resonance images of acute cervical spine trauma with the severity of neurologic injury.

Certified by the American Board of Neurological Surgery, Dr. Northrup has been practicing neurosurgery for 20 years. His training began at Ohio State University, where he received his medical degree, and continued at The Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, where he completed a residency in neurological surgery.

Dr. Northrup has served as a lecturer in neurological surgery and in neuroanatomy at Johns Hopkins University, as an assistant professor of neurosurgery at Pennsylvania State Medical School and as an assistant clinical professor of neurosurgery at the University of North Dakota.

In addition to the Cervical Spine Research Society, Dr. Northrup is a member of the Congress of Neurological Surgeons, the American Association of Neurological Surgeons and the American Medical Association. He is the codirector of the Delaware Valley Regional Spinal Cord Injury Center and past president of the Pennsylvania Neurosurgical Society.