News Release

A sampling of UM SPH highlights from 2003.

December 12, 2003 press release from the University of Michigan School of Public Health

January --  Kimberlydawn Wisdom, MD, MS '91, appointed surgeon general of Michigan, the first state surgeon general in United States.

February -- Sixty-eight percent of students now apply online to SPH; number of applicants to school rises by 18%.

March -- Professor Martin Philbert and colleagues receive $1.5 million from W.M. Keck Foundation to fund campus-wide research project using nanotechnology.

April -- Hillel Shuval, MPH '52, the Lunenfeld-Kunen Professor of Environmental Sciences at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, receives honorary doctor of sciences degree at University of Michigan commencement.

May -- Professor Michael Boehnke, Research Investigator Laura Scott, and National Human Genome Research Institute researchers identify mutations that cause progeria, a disease of premature aging in children.

June -- U.S. Food and Drug Administration approves FluMist,a nasal-spray influenza vaccine developed by Professor John Maassab.

July -- National Cancer Institute awards $10 million to Professor Victor Strecher to create University of Michigan Center for Health Communications Research.

August -- New Interdepartmental Concentration in Global Health is launched; IC focuses on public health impacts and policies resulting from economic, cultural, and environmental globalization.

September -- Modern Healthcare lists Professor Catherine McLaughlin among the nation's "100 most powerful people in health care."

October -- Groundbreaking ceremonies take place for major construction creating SPH as a Crossroads, designed to expand inter-disciplinary research and teaching.

November -- Program in Industrial Hygiene launches mentor program that matches current students with alumni mentors in the work force.

December -- During 2003, SPH Academic Center for Public Health Preparedness provides training to 38 of Michigan's 45 local health departments.

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

© 2003 The Regents of the University of Michigan
Updated December 12, 2003

"Each year we see
breeds new beginnings... "

--Matthew Arnold

"We look forward to helping
to make the year 2004
a healthy one for all."

--Noreen M. Clark, Dean