EnHS: EnHS News 2003

Faculty and Staff News:

Joyce Blomquist retired on September 18, 2003 after 25 years of service. Joyce began her employment at the University of Minnesota in 1978 as a survey interviewer for the Health Status of American Men-Post Vasectomy Survey lead by Dr. Leonard Shumann and Dr. Jack Mandel. This study continued until 1983. Joyce was a coordinator for subsequent studies; the FARM study (Factors Affecting Rural Men) with Dr. Robert Gibson as the Principal Investigator; the Beta Carotene Skin Cancer study from 1983 to 89 with Jack Mandel as Principal Investigator; the "Wattenberg Study" from 1991 to 1993 with Dr Lee Watttenberg as Principal Investiagor, (Clinical trials with acidophilus milk, and acetyl cystiene); Nutritional Prevention of Polyps - with Principal Investigators Jack Mandel and Tim Church (Phase I - Antioxidants - 1989 to 1991, Phase II - Calcium - 1989 to 1996; 5-year followup currently underway; and Phase III - Aspirin/Folate - 1994 to present). Joyce comments that the most challenging part of her work was to both conduct a current study and recruit participants for a new study.

William A. Toscano, Jr., Ph.D. was awarded the Faculty Excellence Award by the 2003 EnHS graduating class. This award, initiated by the Environmental Health Class of 1966, is presented annually to an EnHS faculty member for "excellence of graduate instruction and progress in the professional development of the graduate students in the past academic year."

Donald Vesley, Professor, received the Arnold G. Wedum Distinguished Achievement Award for 2002 at the annual meeting of the American Biological Safety Association held in San Francisco in October. This career achievement award is the most prestigious of ASBA awards, and is named in donald vesley photo honor of Dr. Arnold G. Wedum who is considered the Father of Biological Safety for his pioneering work in the safe handling of pathogens.

photo ramachandran Gurumurthy Ramachandran won the "Top Ten Achievement Award" for his Professional Development Course (PDC) on "Mathematical Models for Assessing Exposures to Indoor Air Contaminants" at the American Industrial Hygiene Conference and Exposition (AIHCE) at San Diego, 2002.The award selection is made by the PDC attendees at over 95 PDCs offered at the conference.

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Student News:

Anne Jurek, a doctoral student in EnHS won the Epidemiology Section student paper award from APHA., which will be presented at the APHA meeting in San Francisco November 2003.

Michael Byrns a doctoral student in environmental health studying with Lisa Peterson, won first prize in the graduate student competition of the Division of Chemical Toxicology at the National American Chemical Society meeting in New York City early this September. The title of his poster was "Development of a sensitive assay for the detection of DNA adducts formed by cis-2-butene-1,4-dial."

Mary Findorff fulfilled the requirements for her Ph.D. degree on August 21, 2003. Mary's thesis is "An Evaluation of Work Related Violence in the Health Care Industry." Her primary advisor was Patricia McGovern, Ph.D., and her secondary advisor was Susan Gerberich, Ph.D. Mary received her MPH in the occupational health nursing specialty in 1998.

Janel Warmka is the first student in the School of Public Health to be the recipient of a Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship from the Graduate School. Janel's faculty advisor is Dr. Betsy Wattenberg.

Tara Bromenshenkel, a first-year masters student in the IH program, received a 3M Industrial Hygiene Scholarship Award. This gives her a check for $3000 and an all expenses paid trip to the American Industrial Hygiene Conference in Dallas. (Also pictured are l-r: Allen Broderius, Lisa Brosseau, Peter Raynor, Tara Bromenshenkel, Claudiu Lungu, and Gurumurthy Ramachandran.

EnHS Students Participate in Earth Day at Patrick Henry High School April 24

EnHS students Carrie Rigdon, Michael Byrns, Renee Mijal, Nicole Thompson and Deanna Scher participated in Earth Day on April 24 at Patrick Henry High School in Minneapolis with interactive experiments spooling salmon DNA. The experiments gave students a brief introduction to DNA, exposure to laboratory procedures, as well as a public health message about how chemicals in the environment (smoking, ultraviolet radiation), and diet affect DNA.

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EnHS Students Participate in "Impress the President - Public Engagement and Research Initiatives: A Student Expo"

Two EnHS students were chosen to participate in the inaugural event: “Impress the President—Public Engagement and Research Initiatives: A Student Expo" on February 28. Student representatives presented a collection of research and public engagement activities happening on University of Minnesota campuses. Dawn Newman, RN, MPH, (left) presented "Preliminary Findings on the Relationship between Incidence and Cost of Cumulative Trauma Disorder and Workplace Location." Janel Warmka (below left) presented "Cancer Prevention: Environmental Signals and Sensors."