News Release

A sampling of UM SPH highlights from 2004.

December 15 , 2004 press release from the University of Michigan School of Public Health

January — Over 400 health professionals from across U.S. attend international symposium on SARS as case study for preparedness, hosted by Michigan Center for Public Health Preparedness.

February — Construction of new SPH facility, The Crossroads, begins; designed to foster interdisciplinary research and teaching, buildings will include modular laboratories, communication-technology hubs, and centralized classroom spaces.

March — Professors Neal Krause, Linda Chatters, and Cathleen Connell coauthor study in Psychology and Aging showing that adults who receive parental support in childhood have better physical and mental health throughout life course.

April — School establishes new Risk Science and Communication Center, whose mission is to promote informed decision-making about health risks through use of analytical methods and effective communication techniques.

May — W.K. Kellogg Foundation provides $5 million grant to support SPH Crossroads of Public Health; anonymous couple gives $5 million for SPH projects including a conference center in new SPH facility.

June — NIH renews funding for Study of Women’s Health Across the Nation (SWAN), largest-ever national study of women at mid-life and menopausal transition; Professor MaryFran Sowers is principal investigator.

July — Alexis Handal, doctoral student in epidemiology, receives Fulbright grant to spend year in Quito, Ecuador, studying pesticide use in cut-flower industry and its adverse effects on child development.

August — School’s new Distance Learning Lab expands online coursework, allowing students in Executive Master’s programs to personalize learning.

September — Alumnus David Green, MPH ’82, receives MacArthur Award for his work manufacturing and distributing low-cost intraocular lenses and digital hearing aids to blind and hearing-impaired people in developing countries.

October — Hundreds attend schoolwide symposium “Global Health: The Challenge of Inequality”; speakers include James M. Hughes, director, National Center for Infectious Diseases, CDC.

November — Lauren Zajac, master’s degree candidate in environmental health sciences, receives APHA Environment Section Student Scholarship for her work on environmental justice in Dearborn, Michigan, and its relation to health of Arab-American community.

December — Study by Professor Robert Wolfe and colleagues in New England Journal of Medicine leads to new, racially non-biased system for determining matches between kidney donors and transplant candidates.

Contact: Terri Mellow, Director of Communications
Phone: (734) 764-8094
E-mail: twm@umich.edu

“So rolls the changing year, and so we change;
Motion so swift, we know not that we move.”

—Dinah Maria Mulock Craik

"We look forward to helping to make the year 2005 a healthy one for all."

—Noreen M Clark, Dean