School of Public Health and Community Medicine - University of Washington - Spr/Sum 2007

In May, Associate Professor Pete Johnson attended a computer systems conference in Stockholm, Sweden, and presented a paper, “Kids and gender: differences in exposure and how anthropometric differences could be incorporated in computer input device design.” He co-authored a second paper, “Evaluation of a mouse designed to improve posture and comfort” with Dan Odell of Microsoft. He helped organize a satellite course on the ergonomics of mobile devices and personal digital assistants (PDA), sponsored by Göteborg’s University and the UW’s School of Public Health and Community Medicine.

In its January-February issue, The Journal of Environmental Health identified 15 leaders in environmental health who are steering us into the future. Clinical Associate Professor Carl Osaki was included, as was Ngozi Oleru, his successor as director of environmental health for Seattle and King County.

Chuck Treser in Ireland
Courtesy of Chuck Treser

Keli Bort has replaced Becky Rooney as our department’s fiscal manager. Rooney has moved to the UW Budget Office on upper campus. Bort was previously our payroll coordinator.

Three faculty members have been promoted: Tom Burbacher and Zhengui Xia to full professor, and Pete Johnson to associate professor.

Matt Keifer

Associate Professor Matt Keifer served on the National Merit Review panel for the Healthier Wisconsin Partnership Program, a public health grant-making program at the Medical College of Wisconsin.

Graduate students Clarita Lefthand and Leah Tivoli each won student travel awards to attend the American Society of Microbiology meeting in Toronto in May.

Professor Zhengui Xia’s manuscript was published in the April issue of the Journal of Cell Biology and highlighted as a key paper in the section called “In this issue: How ERK5 prompts proliferation.”

Professor Tom Burbacher volunteered to replace Bill Daniell as the department’s Faculty Senate representative starting September 2007. Professor Dan Luchtel will become chair of the senate on August 1.

Clinical Professor and Boeing epidemiologist Mike Muhm is first author of a paper in the July 5 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, titled “Effect of aircraft-cabin altitude on passenger discomfort.”

Senior Lecturer Charles D. (Chuck) Treser participated in the Biennial World Congress on Environmental Health at Trinity College in Dublin, during a sabbatical last summer. He presented two papers at the International Environmental Health Faculty Forum at Dublin Institute of Technology.

Lecturer Rick Gleason spoke about the UW Disaster Site Trainthe-Trainer Program at the Pacific Northwest Section, American Industrial Hygiene Association’s spring symposium in Lacey, Washington. He also spoke at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) Worker Education and Training Program, National Trainers Exchange on using real-world case histories, and at the Voluntary Protection Program Association Regional Conference in Portland, Oregon, on voluntary protection programs.

Lecturer Kate Stewart presented two, two-day regional training sessions in the South and Southeast for Weyerhaeuser ergonomics site coordinators.

Research Associate Professor L-J Sally Liu presented “Assessing long-term source-specific air pollution exposure and effects in a large population-based Swiss cohort,” an invited seminar at the World Health Organization on Health relevance of particulate matter from various sources in Bonn, Germany, in March. She also presented a paper, “How to get quickly up-to-date information on air pollution,” at the Swiss Society of Pneumologie conference in March.

Janessa Graves, an MPH student in Environmental and Occupational Health, presented a poster at the International Union for Health Promotion & Education conference in Vancouver, BC, in June, and won a travel award from the UW Graduate and Professional Student Senate. She was also an invited presenter at the Canadian/International Symposium on Settings for Health and Learning. She works in the Department of Dental Public Health Sciences (School of Dentistry), where she manages a public health project in the Pacific Islands. She became interested in public health as a Peace Corps volunteer in Fiji.

The Occupational and Environmental Medicine Clinic recently won a $100,000 planning grant from the state Department of Labor and Industries for a COHE (Center for Occupational Health and Education). The funding will be used for activities related to reducing costs on workers’ compensation funds. Adjunct Assistant Professor Jordan Firestone spearheaded this effort.

Isaac Mohar, Tingting Li, and Fred Tilton won NIEHS Superfund/EPA scholarships to attend the Environmental Health Entrepreneurship Academy at the Tahoe Center for Environmental Studies.

Nadia Moore received an award from the Research Society on Alcoholism to attend its annual meeting July 8–11 in Chicago.

Affiliate Associate Professor Steve Gilbert has started a new project called Toxipedia, a wiki-based site at www.toxipedia.com. The site, designed to connect science and people, is a free toxicology encyclopedia and resource center. Toxipedia is seeking articles from scientific and public health experts willing to share their knowledge. Gilbert invites his peers to help create this resource for the general public, students, media, legislators, and public health experts.

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ANNUAL CERMONIES

At the annual School of Public Health and Community Medicine graduation ceremony on June 8, our students, staff, and faculty were the recipients of several awards.

Victor Van Hee, an MPH student in Occupational and Environmental Medicine, won the School of Public Health and Community Medicine’s Gilbert S. Omenn award for academic excellence for master’s students. Ming-Yi Tsai was nominated for the doctoral student award. Quynh Ngoc Bui was named the department’s outstanding undergraduate student and Lisa Tolbert the outstanding graduate student.

Joyce Tseng

Joyce Tseng, an MPH student in Environmental and Occupational Health, won the student community service award and Associate Professor Matt Kiefer won the faculty community service award. Both worked on El Proyecto Bienestar, a community-based research project in the Yakima Valley.

Rosie Schaffer

Rosie Schaffer, manager of the Environmental Health Laboratory, won the department’s distinguished staff award this year. Other nominees were Catherine Alexander, Ly Pham, Rory Murphy, Lynn Fritzen, Marc Beaudreau, Jacqui Ahmad, Mark Davey, Karen Powers, Quyen Dao, Keli Bort, Jerry Gluck, Terri Smith-Weller, and the PNASH team.

Fiscal supervisor Becky Rooney was nominated for the UW Distinguished Staff Award and Professor Mike Morgan was nominated for the UW Distinguished Teaching Award.

At the DEOHS graduation, later that day…

Undergraduate student Christopher Diangco was our first Jack Hatlen scholarship winner. Associate Professor Bill Daniell was named the outstanding faculty mentor of the year by the department’s graduate students.

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