Awards and Honors: March-April 2007

Feng Cao, PhD, postdoctoral scholar in the Cardiovascular Molecular Imaging Lab, received the 2006 Best Basic Science Paper Award from the journal, Circulation, for her paper, "In Vivo Visualization of Embryonic Stem Cell Survival, Proliferation, and Migration after Cardiac Delivery." In this article, Dr. Cao and colleagues analyze the fate of murine embryonic stem (ES) cells carrying fluorescence, bioluminescence, and positron emission tomography reporter genes transplanted into the heart.

Chona Diosomito, radiology clerical supervisor, received the March Stanford Hospital and Clinics Radiology Wingspread Award from the former recipient. Ms. Diosomito has been working in the scheduling division of Stanford Radiology since January 23, 2006, after moving to California from New York. She has worked in the health-care industry since 1990 as a patient financial services cash control supervisor for St. Vincent's Catholic Medical Center, Comprehensive Cancer Center (Aptium Oncology), and Hospital for Special Surgery. Ms. Diosomito's experience as a supervisor has given her an appreciation of how important it is to provide excellent care for each patient. In recognition of her outstanding work, Ms. Diosomito was awarded the Wingspread Award, which is given by one employee to another who has proven that he or she is a "special performer" by demonstrating exemplary performance in areas such as job knowledge; work ethics; communication skills; inter- and intradepartmental relationships; versatility; and judgment. The Wingspread Award gives employees the opportunity to recognize who among them has gone above and beyond the fulfillment of his or her usual duties. Wingspread awardees can keep the award for as long as they wish or until they discover another "special performer." Monthly awarding of the Wingspread honor is encouraged as part of the SHC departmental staff meetings.

Garry E. Gold, MD, associate professor of radiology, has been awarded a 2007 Cum Laude Award for an outstanding paper by the Society of Computed Body Tomography and Magnetic Resonance (SCBT/MR). The title of the paper is "Isotropic MRI with 3D-FSE-XETA (Extended Echo Train Acquisition)" (Gold GE, Busse RF, Stevens KJ, Han E, Brau AC, Beatty PJ, Beaulieu CF).

Sam Mazin, MS, graduate student in the Electrical Engineering Department, has been awarded the Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE) Cum Laude Award for his poster, "A Fast 3D Reconstruction Algorithm for Inverse-Geometry CT Based on an Exact PET Rebinning Algorithm." Only one poster within the "Physics of Medical Imaging" conference can receive this award each year. Cum Laude Awards are bestowed upon scientists who attain a standard of excellence judged by the quality and quantity of their results.

Joseph McGinley, MD, PhD, second-year radiology resident, has been selected as one of six trainees nationwide in radiology and cardiology to participate in the "Siemens Outstanding Academic Research (SOAR) Award Program: Awards for Excellence in Cardiac CT," sponsored by the Society of Cardiac Computed Tomography (SCCT). Dr. McGinley was selected to participate in this program based on his interest in cardiac imaging, current CV, and previous areas of research, which include a PhD in cardiac physiology focused on valvular heart disease from Temple University in Philadelphia. Under this award program, Dr. McGinley has been selected to write and present a review of the CT imaging of valvular heart disease. His manuscript will be published in Applied Radiology, and he will compete with the six other candidates at the 2nd annual meeting of the SCCT in July of 2007 in Washington, D.C. One person will be awarded from each specialty and will receive a six-month funded fellowship in cardiac imaging research as well as funding to return for the annual meeting in 2008.

Teresa Nelson, CRT, MRI supervisor, received the April Stanford Hospital and Clinics Radiology Wingspread Award from the former recipient. Raised in San Carlos, California, Ms. Nelson is a native of the peninsula. In 1994, she graduated with her AS degree from Canada College's Radiology Technology Program and worked at Seton Medical Center in Daly City and California Pacific Medical Center (CPMC) in San Francisco. Ms. Nelson started her Stanford career in January of 2000, when she began working in diagnostic radiology and mammography. During the fall of 2001, she completed MRI training and has been the MRI supervisor since 2003. As the MRI supervisor, Ms. Nelson has had the opportunity to train other technologists and engage in research. Last year, she spoke at the Fifth Annual Breast MRI Interpretation, Correlation, and Intervention Continuing Medical Education (CME) Conference in Las Vegas with Anne Marie Sawyer, RT (R) (MR), from the Lucas Center. In recognition of her outstanding work in MRI, Ms. Nelson was awarded the April Wingspread Award, which is given by one employee to another who has proven that he or she is a "special performer" by demonstrating exemplary performance in areas such as job knowledge; work ethics; communication skills; inter- and intradepartmental relationships; versatility; and judgment. The Wingspread Award gives employees the opportunity to recognize who among them has gone above and beyond the fulfillment of his or her usual duties. Wingspread awardees can keep the award for as long as they wish or until they discover another "special performer." Monthly awarding of the Wingspread honor is encouraged as part of the SHC departmental staff meetings.

Sandra Rodriguez, RT (R) (MR), MR research technologist, was awarded a Women's Opportunity Award from the Soroptimist Club. Many Women's Opportunity Award recipients have overcome enormous obstacles in their quest for a better life. The purpose of the awards is to improve the lives of women by giving them the resources that they need to improve their education, skills, and employment prospects. To be eligible for a Women's Opportunity Award, the applicant must provide the primary financial support for her family and must be enrolled in or have been accepted to a vocational/skills training program or an undergraduate degree program. Since its inception in 1972, the Women's Opportunity Awards Program has disbursed $15 million and has assisted more than 20,000 women. Ms. Rodriguez is currently enrolled in the Bachelor of Science in Health Administration (B.S.H.A) online program through the University of Phoenix. She anticipates receiving her degree in the 2008/2009 academic year and continuing her education by attaining a Master of Health Administration (MHA).

Ricky Tong, PhD, medical student in the Multimodality Molecular Imaging Lab, was awarded a 2007 Society of Nuclear Medicine Student Fellowship for his proposed project, which involves creating a transgenic mouse with the ubiquitous expression of a triple-fusion reporter protein. Any cells and tissues taken from this universal donor mouse can be traced using three of the most commonly available imaging techniques: bioluminescence, fluorescence, and PET. Dr. Tong's transgenic mouse promises to be an extremely valuable tool in many fields such as cancer and transplant biology.

David N. Tran, medical student at Stanford University, was awarded a "Society of Computed Body Tomography and Magnetic Resonance (SCBT/MR) in Training Award" at the 30th annual 2007 meeting of the Society of Computed Body Tomography and Magnetic Resonance (SCBT/MR). The award is granted to the young investigator who presents the best paper in CT or MR. Mr. Tran's winning paper is entitled, "Promises and Limitations of Dual-Energy CT in Lower Extremity CT Angiography" (Tran DN, Roos J, Straka M, Sandner D, Razavi H, Chang M, Pelc N, Napel S, Fleischmann D). He obtained his undergraduate degree from the University of California, Los Angeles, in electrical engineering and is currently a second-year medical student. Mr. Tran's research interests include improving the diagnostic evaluation and treatment planning for patients with peripheral arterial occlusive disease, and he is considering diagnostic and interventional radiology as a future clinical career.

Joseph Wu, MD, PhD, assistant professor of medicine (cardiology) and radiology, has received a California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) SEED grant for his work on the in vivo imaging of hESC derivatives and tumorigenicity. Through his research, Dr. Wu is investigating human embryonic stem cell survival, proliferation, and differentiation in vivo to improve the safety of hESC delivery. Selected from among 231 applications, Dr. Wu is one of twelve Stanford principal investigators to be funded in this initial round by the CIRM, which has approved 72 grants totaling approximately $45 million over the next two years.