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Stanford Report, July 7, 2004

Medical center people

Ronald Levy

William Dement

Ronald Levy, MD, the Robert K. and Helen K. Summy Professor in the School of Medicine, will be featured in a Thursday broadcast at 8 p.m. on the Discovery Health Channel. He is one of 13 pioneers in health and medicine being honored by the channel, in association with the National Health Museum and 11 national health organizations. Levy, professor of medicine (oncology) and an American Cancer Society Clinical Research professor, was nominated for the award by the ACS. A Stanford medical alumnus and a faculty member since 1975, he was recognized as the first physician to treat lymphoma successfully with a monoclonal antibody to improve survival of patients. His discovery led to the 1997 approval of a genetically engineered monoclonal antibody, rituximab, for treating the disease. The inaugural awards show and gala were taped June 23 in Washington, D.C.

William C. Dement, MD, PhD, the Lowell W. and Josephine Q. Berry Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, received the 2004 Peter C. Farrell Prize in Sleep Medicine at Harvard. Dement received the award for a lifetime of scientific contributions to sleep medicine. The ceremony June 4 at Harvard included a special grand rounds presentation on sleep medicine by Dement along with a poster session, award ceremony and dinner.

Postdoctoral scholars Rowena Gomez, PhD, and Ki A. Goosens, PhD, and professor of biological sciences Robert Sapolsky, PhD, received awards from the National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression. The prize provides $220,000 to the three researchers including Young Investigator Awards to Gomez and Goosens and a Distinguished Investigator Award to Sapolsky. Gomez, working at the medical school in psychiatry and behavioral sciences, plans to study individuals with major depression and psychoses and their risk for dementia. Goosens, working in biological sciences, plans to focus on the possible influence of the amygdala on the hippocampus in depression and post-traumatic stress disorder. Sapolsky will investigate the role of glucocorticoids in anxiety disorders; he hopes to better understand the neurobiology of anxiety and fear and discover more about gene therapy for trauma and anxiety.