Dr. William O. Robertson will receive a 1998 Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) for making contributions to pediatrics that have had a national and international impact. A professor of pediatrics, Robertson joined the School of Medicine in 1963. He has played a major role in the WWAMI program by establishing many new pediatric residencies; he continues today to play an active role in the region and as coordinator of medical student education for the Department of Pediatrics. A skilled clinician and expert in toxicology, Robertson is also medical director of the Washington Poison Center. He will receive the lifetime achievement award on Oct. 20 during the AAP’s annual meeting in San Francisco.

Dr. Bruce Sangeorzan, professor of orthopaedics, has been named chief of orthopaedics at Harborview Medical Center. Sangeorzan is an internationally recognized specialist in foot and ankle reconstruction, lower extremity injury and salvage. He is the principal investigator of a large research program concerning lower limb mechanics and prosthetics. Sangeorzan was appointed to the UW medical faculty in 1986. Most recently, he was chief of orthopaedics at Veterans Affairs Puget Sound Health Care System.

Dr. Ralph Youdelis, professor emeritus of prosthodontics in the School of Dentistry, recently received this year’s Outstanding Achievement Award from the Dental Alumni Association at the University of Alberta, Canada. Youdelis was director of the graduate training program in prosthodontics at the UW for more than 25 years. He continues to teach graduate students in both prosthodontics and periodontics and maintains a private practice.

Dr. Steven Gabbe, professor and chair of obstetrics and gynecology, has received two national honors. In June, Gabbe gave the 1998 Safon Lecture in Clinical Obstetrics at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. He spoke on gestational diabetes. The lectureship recognizes obstetricians who have made outstanding contributions to patient care, to physician education and to the institutions they serve. On another occasion, the Council of University Chairs of Obstetrics and Gynecology honored Gabbe, the immediate past president of the council, for his leadership achievements.

Dr. George Kraft, professor of rehabilitation medicine, spoke this summer at a dinner given by the Hawaii Chapter of the Multiple Sclerosis Society to honor Sen. Daniel Inouye for his longstanding advocacy for legislation and organizations that support people with disabilities. Kraft is the author of Living with Multiple Sclerosis — A Wellness Approach, a guide for patients recently diagnosed with MS.

Harborview Medical Center’s Community House Calls program has been recognized by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation for the way the project “addresses the gap in cultural practices between individual providers and institutions, on the one hand, and immigrants, on the other hand, in a unique and successful way.” The program is highlighted in “Opening Doors: Reducing Sociocultural Barriers to Health Care,” a report on projects that identify and break down non-financial, culturally based barriers to health care. The article cites the roles of community advisers, cultural mediators, outreach workers and hospital interpreters in helping Asian and East African families receive care at HMC.

Dr. Frank Cecchin, assistant professor of pediatrics and a pediatric electrophysiologist at Children’s Hospital and Regional Medical Center, received the “Heart of a Child” award at the first Pacific Northwest Cardiac Arrhythmias Research and Education (CARE) Foundation dinner last month. Cecchin joined Children’s in 1995 as the hospital’s first director of cardiac electrophysiology and pacing services.

Dr. Russell Ross, professor of pathology, will receive the 13th annual Okamoto Award from the Japan Vascular Disease Research Foundation in Kyoto on Nov. 7 and will present the first Distinguished Vascular Biology Lecture of the American Heart Association at the association’s annual meeting in Dallas on Nov. 10. Ross is an internationally recognized authority on atherosclerosis, the primary cause of cardiovascular disease. Also, on Oct. 6 Ross accepted the 1998 Artur Lucian Award from McGill University in Montreal. Announced last year, the award honors outstanding research on circulatory diseases.

Dr. Nelson Fausto, professor and chair of the Department of Pathology, recently presented the Hans Popper Lecture at the World Congress of Gastroenterology in Vienna. The lecture honors the man who is considered the founder of modern hepatology (study of the liver).

Alana Upthagrove, a Ph.D. candidate in the School of Pharmacy’s Department of Medicinal Chemistry, has been selected to receive the 1998-99 Hope Barnes Graduate Fellowship. The fellowship, awarded for academic excellence, carries a stipend of $2,500 and research support for three quarters. Upthagrove earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in chemistry from the University of Nebraska and Northwestern University before coming to the UW. The fellowship honors Hope Barnes, a senior graduate student in medicinal chemistry who was killed in a 1991 mountain climbing accident just weeks before defending her Ph.D. thesis. ¶