News in Brief
Two VP&S faculty members were elected to the National Academy of Medicine last fall: Siddhartha Mukherjee, MD, associate professor of medicine, and Brent R. Stockwell, PhD, professor of pathology & cell biology. Dr. Stockwell is also the William R. Kenan Jr. Professor of Biological Sciences, professor of chemistry, and chair of the Department of Biological Sciences at Columbia. Both Dr. Mukherjee and Dr. Stockwell are members of Columbia’s Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center. Dr. Mukherjee was elected for contributing to research in the immunotherapy of myeloid malignancies, such as acute myeloid leukemia, for establishing international centers for immunotherapy for childhood cancers, and for the discovery of tissue-resident stem cells. His book, “The Emperor of All Maladies,” won the Pulitzer Prize and was nominated by Time as one of the century’s 100 most influential books.
Dr. Stockwell was elected for his discovery of ferroptosis, a form of iron-driven, oxidative cell death involving lipid peroxidation. He defined its features, mechanistic basis, the key genes and proteins and inhibitors that regulate it, and tools to study it. He identified the roles of ferroptosis in neurodegenerative diseases and cancer, suggesting novel therapeutic strategies.
Hashim Al-Hashimi, PhD, will succeed Arthur Palmer, PhD, as VP&S associate dean of biomedical graduate education as of the 2024-25 academic year. Dr. Al-Hashimi served as chair of the Graduate Education Future-State Task Force, which reimagined the future of PhD graduate programs at VP&S by holding discussions with current students, program directors, and chairs and consulting colleagues at other institutions. The task force considered program governance structures, resources needed by graduate students and their faculty mentors, new models for research training, and the best means to recruit talented and diverse students. Dr. Al-Hashimi is the Roy and Diana Vagelos Professor of Biochemistry & Molecular Biophysics. He joined Columbia in 2022 following appointments at Duke and the University of Michigan.
BALSO—the Black and Latino Student Organization—joined the VP&S Office of Student Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging to host the Latino Medical Student Association’s Fall House of Delegates at Columbia. Nearly 100 medical students, including chapter representatives from 43 medical schools across the Northeast, attended the event. The theme this year was “Unidos, Empoderando la Comunidad” (Together, Strengthening the Community), chosen because it represents the association’s commitment to empowering local communities through policy change, research initiatives, nutrition as medicine, and more. Melissa Hynds, VP&S medical student and 2023 LMSA president, welcomed the conference attendees. Ms. Hynds was a co-leader of the conference with fellow VP&S medical students Kimberly Sanchez and Gerardo Ramos-Lemos. BALSO is a chapter of the Student National Medical Association and the Latino Medical Student Association.