Governor McDonnell Announces 2012 Virginia's Outstanding Scientists and the Governor's Award for Science Innovation
RICHMOND – Governor Bob McDonnell and Science Museum of Virginia Chief Wonder Officer Richard C. Conti are pleased to announce Virginia's Outstanding Scientists of 2012 and the recipient of the Governor's Award for Science Innovation presented by Altria. The honorees receive their awards at the Science Museum of Virginia's General Assembly Reception on Thursday, Jan. 19, at 6 p.m.
"I am honored to recognize Virginia's top science talents for 2012," said Governor McDonnell. "This year's outstanding scientists have pioneered research to improve global health, presented ground-breaking research into psychiatric genetics and successfully shown the link between geology and oceanography to understand our river systems. The company receiving the Governor's Award for Innovation develops products by partnering with scholarly publishers to transform content for a more valuable user experience on all devices. Their creativity, contributions and dedication will make a better Virginia and a better America for all of us."
"These amazing people are an inspiration to us all," said Conti. "They are dedicating their lives to improving the world."
Virginia's Outstanding Scientists 2012
Richard L. Guerrant, M.D.
Richard L. Guerrant, M.D. is known as an international leader in infectious diseases and global health who has devoted his career to the study of gastrointestinal pathogens. Dr. Guerrant currently holds the positions of Thomas H. Hunter Professor of International Medicine and Director for the Center of Global Health at the University of Virginia. His in-depth research has brought attention to the long-term physical and cognitive impact of early childhood diarrhea caused by a lack of adequate water and sanitation. Through his work, Dr. Guerrant was able discover three emerging pathogens as the leading causes of persistent diarrhea and to define the cognitive deficit most affected was similar to that seen in Alzheimer's disease. Dr. Guerrant's research attracted the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to fund a $30 million project in Asia, Africa and Latin America to understand the impact of intestinal infections on malnutrition and cognitive development and develop innovative solutions to eradicate this problem.
Throughout his career, Dr. Guerrant has been awarded many honors including the prestigious Walter Reed Medal presented by the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. He is a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences and currently chairs its Board on Global Health. Serving on several editorial and advisory boards, Dr. Guerrant has collaborated with the WHO and USDA. Dr. Guerrant has contributed to over 300 peer-reviewed publications in high-impact medical journals and been the editor of six books including Tropical Infectious Diseases and Infections of the Gastrointestinal Tract.
Kenneth S. Kendler, M.D.
Kenneth S. Kendler, M.D. is recognized as one of the top psychiatric geneticists in the world and is one of the most internationally cited researchers in behavioral medicine. Dr. Kendler currently serves as the director of the Virginia Institute of Psychiatric and Behavioral Genetics as well as the Rachel Brown Banks Distinguished Professor of Psychiatry at Virginia Commonwealth University. Along with key colleagues at VCU, his work at the Virginia Twin Registry led to the development of a new paradigm for behavioral genetics that clarified the developmental pathways through which genes and environment contribute to the risk of mental illness. Along with a broad team of collaborators, he has worked extensively in Ireland and more recently in China to identify large informative samples of subjects with schizophrenia, alcoholism and depression. Using rapidly advancing molecular methods, this team is working hard to identify the specific genes that influence vulnerability to these disorders, which together cause so much human suffering.
Throughout his career Dr. Kendler has developed an integrative etiological model for depression that is taught in medical schools throughout the country. He is a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences and has been recognized through many prestigious awards such as the 2011 ISPG Ming Tsuang Lifetime Achievement Award by the International Society of Psychiatric Genetics. Dr. Kendler is the editor of Psychological Medicine and serves on the editorial board of numerous prominent psychiatric journals as well. He has published 679 articles in peer-reviewed journals and authored 9 books including Genes, Environment, and Psychopathology: Understanding the Causes of Psychiatric and Substance Use Disorder.
John D. Milliman, Ph.D.
John D. Milliman, Ph.D. currently serves as a Chancellor Professor at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science at the College of William and Mary. He is considered a leading international expert in the field of sedimentary geology, specifically in the study of the transport, deposition and diagenesis of sediments and river discharge into the ocean. Dr. Milliman's research has spanned several continents in his endeavor to discover the impact of climatic and human influences on rivers around the world.
During his career, Dr. Milliman has been a senior research scientist at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and the Director of the Marine Geosciences Program at the National Science Foundation for a two-year tenure. He has carried out the roles of teacher, dean, and advisor throughout his career and often serves on scientific evaluation panels, steering committees and organizational panels. Dr. Milliman is also the chief editor of Deep Sea Research, a publication which he has run for almost 20 years. Authoring over 200 peer-reviewed contributions in sedimentary geology, river discharge and carbonate chemistry in the world's oceans, his work has brought together the two separate disciplines of oceanography and geology. Dr. Milliman has produced two of the most cited articles in all of geology and written the groundbreaking book River Discharge to the Coastal Ocean: A Global Synthesis.
Governor's Award for Science Innovation presented by Altria
Silverchair Information Systems
Silverchair Information Systems, founded in 1993 by Thane Kerner and Elizabeth Willingham, began as a small two-person office that has grown to over 150 employees dedicated to delivering advanced semantic technologies, publishing platforms, and e-learning solutions to scientific, technical and medical publishers, professional societies, and the federal government. In June 2011, Silverchair launched SCM6, the most substantial upgrade to its SCM web product development platform in company history. Eight leading scientific societies simultaneously announced plans to migrate their digital publishing operations to, and develop new product lines on, the new platform. SCM6 was built using a natively semantic architecture, enables rapid product and feature deployment, best-of-breed navigation and utility for all content types including journals, and supports myriad new business models to optimize publishers' entire content portfolios.
With headquarters in Charlottesville, Virginia, Silverchair was recently featured as a fast-growing job creator on the governor's website as the company continues to expand and bring innovation to the STM and scholarly publishing market. Silverchair was nominated for the Governor's Award for Science Innovation by the Hampton Roads Hispanic Chamber of Commerce (http://www.hrhcc.org/).
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