Gail Keenan, Ph.D., R.N., FAAN, delivered the opening keynote address at the 2021 Association for Common European Nursing Diagnoses, Interventions and Outcomes (ACENDIO) virtual conference. The topic of her presentation focused on artificial intelligence, machine learning and “big data” in the context of “The Future of Precision Nursing Care.”

Frederic Kaye, Ph.D., was nominated for CURE®’s 2021 Lung Cancer Heroes® Awards. This special award recognizes three individuals who have dedicated their time to supporting and uplifting those who have been affected by lung cancer.

Ji-Hyun Lee, Ph.D., was named the 2021 Outstanding Teachers at the department of biostatistics during the department’s spring picnic held at Lake Wauburg.

Catherine Woodstock Striley, Ph.D., MSW, ACSW, MPE, was one of the five UF College of Public Health and Health Professions faculty who expanded their knowledge of teaching strategies through the Center for Teaching Excellence Passport to Great Teaching Program and who received the “Great Teaching Certificate.” Dr. Striley completed courses that included Virtual Simulations, Asynchronous Discussions, Teaching in Classrooms with HyFlex Technology and No Walls Teaching activities and retreats.

Kathryn Hitchcock, M.D., Ph.D., was selected as a long-term oncology correspondent for Medscape. Dr. Hitchcock was also selected to be a study champion for the new NRG Oncology Alliance GI developing concept A022001 study team.

Fantine Giap, M.D., a third year UF radiation oncology resident, has received the April 2021 LEAD Resident Award, which recognizes a resident’s commitment to exemplary service, evident in their daily patient, peer, and interprofessional interactions. A resident award recipient is nominated by nurse colleagues based on his/her/their advocacy for patient safety and quality, a caring and compassionate approach, strong physician/patient relationships, clear and respectful communication, and the effective collaboration with nursing in the delivery of patient care.

UF Health Cancer Center director Jonathan Licht, M.D., has received the 2021 ASH Mentor Award from the American Society of Hematology. READ MORE

Dr. Licht also participated in an Leukemia and Lymphoma Society Specialized Center of Research grant review.

Biljana Horn, M.D., received an award from the Florida Pediatric Bone Marrow Transplant and Cell Therapy Consortium.

Angelie Rivera-Rodríguez, a trainee and a biomedical engineering Ph.D. candidate in the lab of Carlos Rinaldi-Ramos, Ph.D., for receiving a National Cancer Institute grant for a study titled, “F31: Tracking adoptive T cell therapy using magnetic particle imaging.”

Ryan Thomas, M.D., was asked to be the lead guest editor for a special issue in the journal Neoplasia, focusing on the cancer-microbiome. Dr. Thomas was also selected as an ad-hoc reviewer for the NIH K99/R00 study section and for the Pancreas Cancer Research Fund (London, UK).

Merry-Jennifer Markham, M.D., FACP, FASCO, chair-elect of ASCO’s Joint Certifications Committee, was named the moderator and chair of the Oncology Division Chiefs & Department Chairs’ Summer Session at thee 2021 ASCO Annual Meeting (Virtual). Dr. Markham also presented “Sexual Harassment of Oncologists,” “Patterns of telehealth utilization during the COVID-19 pandemic and preferences for post-pandemic telehealth use: A national survey of oncology clinicians,” and “Factors associated with endowed chair allocation in medical oncology divisions and departments in the United States” at the ASCO Annual Meeting.

Carma Bylund, Ph.D., was named editor-in-chief of PEC Innovation, an online, open access Elsevier spinoff journal of Patient Education & Counseling. Dr. Bylund was also appointed as a regular member of the National Cancer Institute, Sub-Committee I, Transition to Independence Study Section for a four-year term.

The UF Consortium on Trust in Media and Technology has named Dr. Bylund one of five UF Trust Consortium Scholars for 2021-2022 who exemplify its commitment to working across disciplines to examine ways trust is being eroded and how it can be restored. As a Trust Scholar, Dr. Bylund will examine how the trust patients place in online health information and their clinicians intersects with cancer and vaccines. She’ll examine how issues of trust in online information and physicians influence the effectiveness of online intervention for cancer caregivers, with an emphasis on improving caregivers e-health literacy to enable them to critically evaluate online cancer information. Dr. Bylund will also explore the role of trust as it relates to HPV vaccines and, potentially, the COVID-19 vaccine.

Guangrong Zheng, Ph.D., presented “Using PROTAC approach to address the platelet toxicity associated with Bcl-xl inhibitors” at the AACR Annual Meeting.

Christian Jobin, Ph.D., presented about the intestinal microbiota and cancer at the University of Pennsylvania virtual meeting, the American Association for Cancer Research virtual meeting, the IMKASID 2021 meeting, the Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Molecular Genetics virtual meeting in San Antonio and the Cleveland DDRCC Seminar Series.

Elisabeth Shenkman, Ph.D., was appointed to the National Institutes of Health PASC Clinical Cohort Task Force and appointed to the Agency for Health Care Research and Quality National Advisory subcommittee on Quality of Care Measurement.

Sara Falzarano, M.D., Ph.D., was selected to be Genitourinary (GU) section editor of a pathology journal.

Olga Guryanova, M.D., Ph.D., co-organized and moderated the inaugural American Society of Hematology (ASH) Journal Club and was an invited speaker at the 4th UF Drug Discovery Symposium.

Bernadett Papp, Ph.D., was nominated and serves as the faculty advisor for UF College of Dentistry research students since June 2021.

Arun Srivastava, Ph.D., presented at the Genetic Engineering News and Biotechnology Webinar, Oxford Global Gene Therapy Europe and the American Society of Gene and Cell Therapy Scientific Symposium.

Meghan Ferrall-Fairbanks, Ph.D., presented “Single-cell eco-evolutionary dynamics of intratumor heterogeneity” at the 2021 Annual Meeting of the Society of Mathematical Biology.

Natalie Atyeo, a graduate student in the College of Dentistry, presented oral talk on the international 2021 IADR dental research conference. Her research project title “Oral herpesvirus infection induces FOXQ1, a novel lytic cycle promoter.” She also competed in the highly prestigious 2021 International IADR Hatton competition in the junior basic science category. She won the 1st place award in the North-American division, and continued to international competition, where she won the worldwide 1st place award with her research.

Seung Jin “James” Jang, a graduate student in the College of Dentistry, won research awards during the joint 2021 American Association for Dental Research / International Association for Dental Research meeting.

David Janicke, Ph.D., ABPP, was named the chair of the UF College of Public Health and Health Professions department of clinical and health psychology.

Perry Johnson, Ph.D., was selected as the UF Health Proton Therapy Institute’s director of physics.

As a fifth-year Ph.D. student in the College of Medicine Graduate Program in Biomedical Sciences, Mai Tanaka-Wakefield was selected to participate in the American Association for Cancer Research, or AACR, Early-Career Hill Day in February, where she met virtually with members of congress to stress how important it is to invest in the future of cancer research.

Brian Ramnaraign, M.D., participated in the Neuroendocrine Tumor Clinical Trials Planning Meeting: Treatment in the Era of Peptide Receptor Radionuclide Therapy.

The UF Health Cancer Center and UF Institute of Food & Agricultural Sciences have named two Fall 2021 Cancer Policy Interns: Taylor Bell (pictured) and Maya Kedmi. Bell, a UF College of Nursing graduate student, will be focused on cancer health policy while Kedmi, a graduate student in the UF College of Agricultural and Life Sciences, will be focused on telehealth. Michael Gutter, Ph.D., is Kedmi’s mentor. READ MORE