Members of the UNMC College of Medicine were recognized in April at the annual faculty meeting hosted by UNMC Chancellor Jeffrey P. Gold, MD.
The following faculty members were recognized for their length of service at UNMC.
Samuel Cohen, MD, PhD, 40 years: Dr. Cohen was one of a small group of faculty members who envisioned and implemented the transition of the university hospital into a tertiary care subspecialty medical center that focused on liver and bone marrow transportation. He helped build a clinical department that could support high-technology medical care. He also was a major participant in the Eppley Cancer Center effort focused on environmental toxicology. He became chair of the UNMC Department of Pathology and Microbiology in 1992, serving for 15 years and initiating the infectious diseases center, launching the MD-PhD training program and creating multiple lectureships and distinguished chairs. (One will be named in his honor this year.) His expertise was in demand internationally on questions about cancer-causing chemicals, and he served as a longtime member and chair of the FDA advisory committee on food additives. He received the University of Nebraska’s Outstanding Research and Creative Activity (ORCA) Award in 1990, is a fellow of the Academy of Toxicological Sciences and the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and he is the recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Society of Toxicologic Pathology.
Jon Thompson, MD, 40 years: Chief of the UNMC Division of General Surgery, Dr. Thompson holds the prestigious Shackelford-Marichal Professorship of Surgery. He has received the department’s Outstanding Faculty Award six times, and he was the recipient of the faculty senate’s Outstanding Teaching Award in 2017. His many roles in the UNMC Department of Surgery include interim chair and program director of general surgery. To honor his dedication to teaching residents, the department created the Jon S. Thompson, MD, Award in 2011. He has more than 300 publications to his credit. Dr. Thompson served as director of the American Board of Surgery and president of the Southwestern Surgical Congress. The department has established the Jon Thompson Endowed Professorship.
James Harper, MD, 30 years: Dr. Harper is an associate professor in the UNMC Department of Pediatrics, Division of Hematology/Oncology. His clinical and research focus has been on hemophilia and sickle cell disease. He has delivered exceptional care for patients with these conditions and has been the pediatric director of the Nebraska Hemophilia Treatment Center since 1991. He has served as the principal investigator on numerous federal, societal and industry-sponsored research trials related to diagnosis and treatment, while serving in education roles such as the course director of the pre-clinical phases of the medical school curriculum, as pediatric clerkship director and currently as the CME committee chair for Children’s Hospital & Medical Center, where he helped pioneer remote learning years before the pandemic. He has overseen Children’s through two CME reaccreation cycles, led the program planning and overseen the development of learning objectives and helped direct nearly 500 pediatric grand rounds programs.
Ronald Hollins, MD, DMD, 30 years: Professor of surgery in the UNMC Division of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, Dr. Hollins started the division at UNMC in 1991, serving as the chief of the division until 2017 and was instrumental in starting UNMC’s plastic and reconstructive residency program. Dr. Hollins has led by example as a skilled surgeon, tireless worker, educator, and role model whose clinical practice focused on cosmetic surgery and breast reconstructive surgery. He has contributed to all levels of UNMC and Nebraska Medicine, helping advance the field of reconstructive and plastic surgery through his publications and presentations. He has recently been recognized with the creation of the Ronald Hollins, MD, Plastic Surgery Endowment Fund to support resident education.
Robert Norgren, PhD, 30 years: Professor in the UNMC Department of Genetics, Cell Biology and Anatomy, Dr. Norgren’s research accomplishments include collaborating to create a genome array and a new genome, which have been used to make important discoveries related to infectious diseases, reproductive biology and neuroscience. He has co-authored two Nature papers, has received the UNMC Distinguished Scientist Award and is currently working on creating new models of human genetic diseases. His research has been NIH-funded, and he has served on many NIH review panels. He is the co-director of the UNMC College of Medicine neuroscience block, and he has received many teaching awards, including three Golden Apple Awards. He is working with the iEXCEL team to create innovative approaches to teaching neuroanatomy.
Kaushik Patel, PhD, 30 years: Dr. Patel, the A. Ross McIntyre Professor of Physiology, has researched the neural regulation of cardiovascular and renal function in health and disease states such as heart failure, diabetes and hypertension. His research has been funded by a variety of entities including the NIH, the American Heart Association and industry. He has been part of the NIH Program Project Grant titled "Neuro-Circulatory Function in Chronic Heart Failure," which the department has held for more than two decades. He authored more than 200 publications in per-reviewed journals and is known as a valued mentor for developing faculty. He has served on many NIH study sections and has been active in the American Physiological Society and the AHA. His awards include the UNMC Distinguished Scientist Award.
Thomas Porter, MD, 30 years: A professor and the Theodore F. Hubbard Distinguished Chair in Cardiology, Dr. Porter has clinical and research collaborations across the UNMC campus. He has been the director of the non-invasive cardiology laboratory since 1992. He has a long history of NIH and industry-sponsored funding, and he is internationally known for his research focused on diagnostic and therapeutic applications of non-invasive ultrasound technology in cardiac and vascular diseases. He is active in the American College of Cardiology, the AHA and the American Society of Echocardiography, where he is a key contributor to their standards and guidelines. He also is a recipient of the ORCA Award and the UNMC Distinguished Scientist Award, as well as many top teacher awards. Dr. Porter holds more than 20 patents and has published more than 240 manuscripts and 30 book chapters.
Mark Rupp, MD, 30 years: As chair of the UNMC Division of Infectious Diseases, Dr. Rupp also serves as the medical director for Nebraska Medicine’s department of infection control and epidemiology. He is known for his calm leadership on campus, in the community and throughout the nation in helping to lead the response to the COVID-19 pandemic. He has a long track record as a funded clinician-investigator and has been recognized as a UNMC Distinguished Scientist. He has more than 180 publication and has edited several textbooks. He has provided leadership to several infectious disease organizations, such as the Society of Hospital Epidemiology of America, where he is a past president. He is known as a top educator and mentor at UNMC.
John Smith, MD, 30 years: A veteran of the first Gulf War, Dr. Smith has practiced the full spectrum of family medicine at UNMC over the course of his career. He’s been recognized as an outstanding residency program faculty, earning faculty of the year honors. In addition to teaching medical students in the clinical environment, he has been a longstanding preceptor for longitudinal clinical experience and Phase 1 communication skills groups in the medical school curriculum. Nationally, he has served as a question writer and reviewer for the American Board of Family Medicine certification exam and in-training exam. He also serves as the family medicine service line chief, rotating as the physician of the day for Nebraska Medicine.
James Talmadge, PhD, 30 years: Dr. Talmadge is a nationally recognized expert on cellular therapies for cancer, and, as UNMC developed its clinical transplantation program, collaborated in the establishment of transplantation as successful therapies lymphoma and other cancers. Dr. Talmadge’s research has focused on the role of the microenvironment and host immunity during the tumor progression and metastasis, as well as interventional strategies to augment the host response against tumors, and overcome immune suppression associated with tumor growth and myelosuppressive therapy. More recent work has examined immune recovery following stem cell transplantation. Dr. Talmadge has published more than 225 papers during his career. His broad expertise in immunology and therapeutics led to his selection as the editor of the Journal of International Pharmacology, a position that he has held for over 20 years. Dr. Talmadge is the recipient of the Mary Crowley Medical Research Center Excellence Award and the iSBTc Team Science Award.