UMDNJ - New Jersey Medical School

Faculty of the Year 2007-8: Joel A. DeLisa, M.D. in Clinical Sciences and Michael B. Mathews, Ph.D. in Basic Sciences

Clinical Sciences - Joel A. DeLisa, M.D.Dr. DeLisa is being honored for contributions well beyond his role as a Chair at NJMS. Widely recognized as a leader in academic medicine, Dr. DeLisa has been an invited speaker at numerous national and international meetings. Dr. DeLisa serves as Editor-in Chief of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation: Principles and Practice, the leading textbook in the field of physical medicine and rehabilitation within the U.S. and the world. In addition to publishing very extensively and serving as Editor of the Journal of Spinal Cord Medicine from 1999 to 2005, he has made important contributions to many national and international organizations related to his field. These include serving as Chairman of the Board of the American Physiatric Education Council. He is a Past President of the American Association of Electrodiagnostic Medicine, the Association of Academic Physiatrists, and the American Paraplegia Society and he has headed many other important bodies including Chair of the Council of Academic Societies of the Association of American Medical Colleges. The Faculty of the Year Award gives the faculty of the New Jersey Medical School the opportunity to add their recognition to the many awards that Dr. DeLisa has received from national organizations such as the Outstanding Service Award from the Association of Academic Physiatrists and the Gold Key Award from the American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine. We should not hold it against him that Dr. DeLisa served as an Interim Dean of the New Jersey Medical School.Basic Sciences - Michael B. Mathews, Ph.D.

Dr. Mathews is being recognized for activities that are outside his administrative responsibilities as chair of the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. He has played an important role in establishing centers that function across departmental lines. These include the Center for Emerging and Reemerging Pathogens, the Center for Advanced Proteomics, the Cancer Center Construction Grant and an interdepartmental Program in Virology. Dr Mathews has initiated new graduate courses including Critical Reading of the Literature and Molecular Biology of the News. He took the unusual step for a chair of serving as Course Director for 2 years of the Molecular and Genetic Medicine Course and was key to the organization of that inter-departmental course. In addition Dr. Mathews has brought recognition to the New Jersey Medical School by maintaining a vigorous, NIH-funded research program and serving on an NIH study section and an editorial board together with organizing international meetings.