AWARDS
The Distinguished Service Award 2009 for exempliary service to IMGA and to Medical Geology
Umran Dogan Receives Landon Award
Prof. A. Umran Dogan, Department of Geological Engineering of Ankara University, Turkey; and Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering of the University of Iowa, USA, is part of a research team that has been presented with the Landon Foundation-AACR INNOVATOR Award for International Collaboration by the American Association for Cancer Research.
The award was presented to a team of experts in genetics, thoracic oncology, geology and pathology working in the United States and Turkey. The award supports highly meritorious research being conducted collaboratively by investigators in different countries around the world, and aims to promote international cancer research collaboration as an effective means to accelerate progress against cancer by providing the necessary support to sustain and enhance such collaborations.
In addition to Dogan, team members include lead researcher Michele Carbone, M.D., Ph.D., and Haining Yang, Ph.D., University of Hawaii; Nancy Cox, Ph.D., and Ian Steele, Ph.D., University of Chicago; Harvey Pass, M.D., NYU School of Medicine and Clinical Cancer Center; Joseph Testa, Ph.D., Fox Chase Cancer Center; Y. Izzetin Baris, M.D., University of Hacettepe in Ankara, Turkey; and Salih Emri, M.D., and Murat Tuncer, M.D., Hacettepe University School of Medicine in Ankara, Turkey.
Dogan and members of the team of international collaborators have discovered a unique mesothelioma epidemic in three Turkish villages and have demonstrated that it is caused by a genetic predisposition to mineral fiber carcinogenesis, a gene-environment interaction. Mesothelioma is a form of cancer where malignant cells develop in the mesothelium, a protective lining that covers most of the body's internal organs. Carbone and colleagues have identified exposure to erionite as the likely cause of the epidemic and have reduced exposure to that mineral fiber throughout the villages. They will apply the AACR INNOVATOR grant to their study of linkage analysis to identify the predisposing gene or genes for mesothelioma among this cultural group and map the genetic risk factors by genetic linkage studies. Findings from this research have implications far beyond the villages in Turkey as they can be applied to other geographic areas and communities worldwide with the goal of preventing this deadly form of cancer or finding new life-saving treatments.
Reinforcing its commitment to supporting high-quality cancer research, the Kirk A. and Dorothy P. Landon Foundation partner with the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) to support two funding opportunities, the Landon Foundation-AACR INNOVATOR Award for Cancer Prevention Research and the Landon Foundation-AACR INNOVATOR Award for International Collaboration in Cancer Research. The awards, each offering a two-year $100,000 grant, support the work of promising cancer researchers focusing on cancer prevention and international collaboration, respectively.
New award for the book
Every year in the January issue, Choice publishes a list of Outstanding Academic Titles that were reviewed during the previous calendar year. This prestigious list reflects the best in scholarly titles reviewed by Choice and brings with it the extraordinary recognition of the academic library community.
The list is quite selective. Choice editors base their selections on the reviewer's evaluation of the work, the editor's knowledge of the field, and the reviewer's record. The list was known as Outstanding Academic Books until 2000. The new name reflects an increase in reviews of electronic products and Internet sites.
In awarding Outstanding Academic Titles, the editors apply several criteria
to reviewed titles:
- overall excellence in presentation and scholarship
- importance relative to other literature in the field
- distinction as a first treatment of a given subject in book or electronic
form
- originality or uniqueness of treatment
- value to undergraduate students
- importance in building undergraduate library collections
Bernardino Figueiredo, our councillor, has received an honorouble award
Bernardino Figueiredo, our councillor, has received an honorouble award for his work with medical geology. He is awarded with the UNICAMP's "Zeferino Vaz Award for Academic Achievement" This award is distributed every year to one professor of each Institute and Faculty among those who presented the 3-years activity Report the year before. Those reports are evaluated by external committees.
This year the external committee for Geoscience was formed by Prof. Hardy Jost (University Brasilia, Archean Geology), Prof. Jorge Bittencourt (University of Sao Paulo, Ore Deposits) and Paulo Landin (University of State of São Paulo, Geomathematics), all of them dealing with "hard" Geology. However they wrote a conclusive statement as following:
"Prof. Bernardinos leadership, in the new, among us, emerging field of
Medical Geology, this multi disciplinary area, beside it's unifying character,
points out to new perspectives for the professionals of Geology"
Essentials of Medical Geology has won a prestigious reward!
Essentials of Medical Geology was recently recognized as a "Highly Commended" title in the Public Health category by the British Medical Association. As many likely know, this is a very prestigious acknowledgment. The book is one of the best of all published books in Public Health in 2005.
http://www.bma.org.uk/ap.nsf/Content/LIB2005WinnersBookCompetition
They bestow awards upon publications "which are deemed to best fulfill
the criteria of clinical accuracy and currency and which maintain a high standard
of design and production".
Essentials of Medical Geology has won a second prestigious reward in January 2006!
It was one of two winners in the "Geology/Geography" category of the 2005 Awards for Excellence in Professional and Scholarly Publishing. The PSP awards recognize both editorial standards as well as design and production standards.
PSP is the Professional Scholar Publishing division of the Association of American Publishers
The book has now been recognized in both communities for which it was intended
(first by the British Medical Association, and now as a Geology resource)!.
"Prix D'Excellence Pour Les Sciences de La Terre"
Medical geology and the links between earth processes and human health were
the focus of invited talks presented recently by USGS scientists Bob Finkelman
(ERERT), Chris Kellogg (USGS Center for Coastal and Watershed Studies) and Geoff
Plumlee (CRCICT) at the First International Mineralogy Days of Monaco Conference,
organized by the organisation Mondiale de Mineralogie. The conference, held
at the Oceanographic Museum of Monaco, brought together a diverse group of international
experts on economic geology, remote sensing, geophysics, climate change, and
medical geology.
The meeting culminated in the First Annual Monaco Bal Des Diamants (Diamonds
Ball), a formal ball held in the Monte Carlo Grand Hotel. As part of the ball,
which was attended by a number of local dignitaries, several scientists were
presented awards. Geoff Plumlee was one of three scientists presented with the
inaugural "Prix D'Excellence Pour Les Sciences de La Terre" (a medallion
with the visage of Prince Rainier on one side and the visage Prince Albert I
on the other side) for his medical geology research. Geoff accepted the medal
on behalf of his colleagues within and outside the
USGS studying the links between earth processes and human health. The conference
was truly memorable for all scientists in attendance, not only for the opportunity
to exchange information with scientists from a number of different international
institutions, but also because of the unique cultural and historical setting
of the meeting in Monaco, and because of
the patronage of both the meeting and awards by HSH Prince Rainier of Monaco.
Both the medical geology session (which was organized by Bob Finkelman) and
the award to Geoff illustrate the growing international recognition and impacts
of medical geology research within and outside the USGS.
Olle Selinus has been appointed the "Geologist of year 2005" in Sweden. The award and prize is because of his work within medical geology which "has moved the geological science one step further to the future".
"The Commission on Geoscience for Environmental Management has awarded Olle Selinus The 2005 Outstanding Achievement Award. This distinguished service award is for his dedication to leadership of the IUGS Medical Geology Activities (1996-2005)"