Newsmakers

What could make us prouder than reading about our fellow UMDNJers in the national media or seeing a colleague's face on national TV? As we do our work, day by day, and year by year, it's easy to lose sight of the fact that our daily toils often have positive reverberations far beyond the borders of our campuses. Sometimes it takes coverage by The New York Times or NBC's Today show to make us realize that our faculty and staff are so accomplished that people from far-flung locales are also wowed. In this issue, we present some of these University personalities. Because of the magazine's space constraints, we chose people and stories that have not appeared recently in other UMDNJ publications. But we want to mention some of the others (see below) and tell you where you can learn more about them.

Ira Black, MD, chair of the Department of Neurosciences and Cell Biology at UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School (RWJMS), has been featured in The New York Times and Newsweek, on NPR, MSNBC, CBS News and CNN.com, among others. He is one of just a few stem cell researchers in the state (his research is on adult stem cells) and founding director of the Stem Cell Institute of New Jersey. John Bach, MD, professor and vice chair of the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at UMDNJ-New Jersey Medical School (NJMS), has pioneered and promoted the use of ventilator alternatives for patients with neuromuscular and pulmonary diseases that weaken lung muscles. He was recently interviewed for an article in The New York Times. John Kostis, MD, chair of medicine at RWJMS, has been featured on MSNBC, CNN, CBS News, Yahoo.com, and by the Associated Press and other media outlets for his study showing that diuretics - used by millions of elderly people to lower high blood pressure - clearly reduce the long-term risk of death from heart attacks and strokes. Lee Reichman, MD, executive director of the NJMS National Tuberculosis Center and professor of medicine, and preventive medicine and community health, was quoted by the Associated Press, MSNBC, USA Today, Yahoo.com, The New York Times and Iafrica.com on TB treatment and control worldwide. R. Michael Gallagher, DO, dean of UMDNJ-School of Osteopathic Medicine and a highly regarded migraine researcher and clinician, was quoted throughout a recent Associated Press story on warding off the flu at a time when influenza vaccines were in very short supply in this country. James Oleske, MD, professor of pediatrics at NJMS and world-recognized pediatric AIDS specialist, and Arlene Bardeguez, MD, MPH, NJMS professor of obstetrics, gynecology and women's health with international renown in blocking maternal-fetal transmission of HIV, were interviewed on The News Hour with Jim Lehrer. William N. Hait, MD, PhD, director of The Cancer Institute of New Jersey and a breast cancer researcher, commented on a study published in The New England Journal of Medicine in October that found the taller a girl was at 14, the greater her chance of later developing breast cancer. The story was covered by CBS News, MSNBC, and the Associated Press. Robert Johnson, MD, chair of pediatrics at NJMS , was quoted in a New York Times article entitled, "The Battle for a Needle Exchange Program." The adolescent medicine specialist has worked with HIV-infected teens for more than two decades. Sidney Pestka, PhD, professor and chair of molecular genetics, microbiology and immunology at RWJMS, and two other scientists shared the 16th annual Warren Alpert Foundation Scientific Prize for their pioneering research that "made interferon therapy for hepatitis C a reality." Harvard's Focus and The Boston Globe covered the story. And with the ongoing interest in infectious diseases and "bioweapons," Nancy Connell, PhD, director of the UMDNJ Center for Biodefense and vice chair of research in the NJMS Department of Medicine, finds herself quoted in the media quite often. She was also profiled in More magazine in an article entitled "My Life, My Day."