Three Master Scholars Recognized for their Contributions to Medicine and the Medical Center Larry Silverstein Receives Valentine Mott Founders Award
Newswise — (New York, October 2, 2012) NYU Langone Medical Center will honor three faculty members for lifetime achievements in clinical excellence, education and science in a special convocation ceremony at the Eleventh Dean’s Honors Day today. This is the sixth year that Master Awards will be conferred on distinguished faculty members to recognize excellence at the institution. In addition to those receiving Master Awards, faculty members will be honored for their appointments to endowed chairs, or department chairs, service as chairs, receiving tenure or promotions, and extramural and intramural distinctions.
“The three people honored this year have woven together powerful intellect, sustained effort, steadfast achievement, and greatness of spirit. They remind us that excellence is an instantly recognizable “absolute” and at the same time, a deeply individual achievement,” said Dr. Robert I. Grossman, Saul J. Farber Dean and CEO. “They shine in very different, but equally spectacular ways. Mentors shape lives, not just career choices. And in so doing, they also make lasting contributions to the quality and effectiveness of our entire profession. We are honored to recognize them today.“
This year's Master Awards honorees include: Master Clinician: Philip K. Moskowitz, MD, Mamdouha S. Bobst Associate Professor of Internal MedicineAn outstanding clinician and dedicated teacher—a “doctor’s doctor”—Dr. Moskowitz has been a pillar of NYU Langone Medical Center for nearly fifty years. From his internship in the early 1960s to today, this beloved physician has come to embody all the caring, skill, and expertise that define an NYU Langone Master Clinician. In addition to his clinical and pedagogical roles, Dr. Moskowitz has served in numerous capacities at NYU Langone. For the past decade he has been Faculty Director of Development, recognizing the key role philanthropy plays in the future of the medical center. He was also a member of the executive committee for medical school admissions and participated in numerous projects in partnership with the Dean’s office. As leader of the development campaign for the Center for Emergency Services at NYU Langone, Dr. Moskowitz raised nearly $17 million for that effort. To honor Dr. Moskowitz and his many contributions to the practice and teaching of medicine at NYU Langone over the past five decades, the Philip K. Moskowitz, MD Professor and Chair of the Department of Neurology was established earlier this year by trustees Larry and Lori Fink. It will be held by incoming chair Steven L. Galetta, MD.
Born and raised in Brooklyn, NY, Dr. Moskowitz received his undergraduate degree from Brooklyn College in 1959. He completed his medical degree at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and was inducted into the prestigious Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society. In 1963 Dr. Moskowitz began his post-graduate training at NYU School of Medicine/Bellevue Hospital. After serving in the U.S. Army Medical Corps—in the Office of the Army Surgeon General and at Walter Reed Army Hospital—he returned to NYU School of Medicine to complete his residency, becoming chief resident. For the next fifteen years, Dr. Moskowitz directed the House Staff Teaching Program at NYU Langone, and in 2000 he was named the Mamdouha S. Bobst Associate Professor of Internal Medicine. Dr. Moskowitz has been married to his wife, Carol, for fifty-two years. They are the proud parents of three and grandparents of five.
MASTER SCIENTIST: Danny Reinberg, PhD, professor of Biochemistry and Molecular PharmacologyOver the course of a landmark research career now spanning nearly thirty years, Dr. Reinberg has focused his interest and passion on the biochemistry of gene transcription, the mechanism by which information from DNA is transferred to the RNA that directs protein production. A world-recognized leader in the field of epigenetics, Dr. Reinberg and his collaborators in his laboratory at NYU Langone have made fundamental discoveries about how the DNA inside a cell is read and transcribed. Most significantly, Dr. Reinberg has identified some of the key enzymes that control access to DNA in its cellular form, in which the double-stranded DNA helix is twisted around histone protein complexes to form much more compact fibers called chromatin. The degree of chromatin compaction is dynamic, however, and is part of the way cells control gene transcription. Among the Reinberg lab’s major breakthroughs was the development of a powerful new methodology for studying the unwinding of DNA that is required for gene activation. This finding, based on seven years of research and described in Molecular Cell, allows scientists to investigate the discrete steps necessary to turn individual genes on and off and how the process goes wrong in cancer and other diseases.
A native of Santiago, Chile,Dr. Reinberg earned a BS in biochemistry at Catholic University in nearby Valparaíso, and spent the summer after graduation working in the lab of Jerard Hurwitz, PhD, at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York, where he went on to obtain his PhD in molecular biology. He began a postdoctoral program at New York’s Rockefeller University and three years later became an independent investigator at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ)–Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in Piscataway. In 2006 Dr. Reinberg joined NYU Langone as professor of biochemistry and molecular pharmacology, Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator, and head of the Reinberg Laboratory.
Widely published and cited, Dr. Reinberg is a co-editor of an authoritative textbook on epigenetics. He was named a Distinguished Professor at UMDNJ and has been the recipient of numerous awards and accolades, including an NIH Merit Award, the Faculty Research Award of the American Cancer Society, and two HHMI Collaborative Innovation Awards. This past April, Dr. Reinberg was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, where he joins a current membership that includes more than 250 Nobel Laureates and more than 60 Pulitzer Prize winners.
Master Educator and Mentor: Linda R. Tewksbury, MD ’90, assistant professor of PediatricsAn unwavering commitment to excellence in medical education has been a hallmark of Dr. Tewksbury’s distinguished 20-year tenure in the Department of Pediatrics. Innovative pedagogical programs developed by Dr. Tewksbury have become central to student learning and professional development across the four years of medical school training at the School of Medicine. She has served as a mentor to countless students, supporting and guiding them to achieve their highest potential. As a forceful advocate for scholarship in medical education, she has contributed extensively to medical education research and taken on leadership roles at a national level.
Dr. Tewksbury received a BS in biology from Yale University, from which she graduated summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa, and completed her medical education, internship and residency at NYU Langone. A member of the prestigious Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society, Dr. Tewksbury was elected Distinguished Teacher in the Clinical Sciences by NYU School of Medicine’s graduating class of 2011.
Mentoring has long been a source of great professional and personal satisfaction for Dr. Tewksbury, who was among the first cohort of ten Master Scholars Advisors chosen for NYU School of Medicine’s formalized advisory program. She further coordinates the advisory program for all students applying in the field of pediatrics. In addition to providing personalized career guidance, Dr. Tewksbury strives to promote the well-being of students, helping them to manage the inevitable stresses of medical school and overcome personal and professional challenges.
A highly influential advocate for scholarship in medical education, Dr. Tewksbury has presented her evidence-based teaching and assessment strategies at numerous national meetings. She is a long-standing member of the Council on Medical Student Education in Pediatrics (COMSEP), the national pediatric clerkship organization, and serves on the council’s executive committee and as co-chair of its Research and Scholarship Task Force. Dr. Tewksbury has led several workshops on building skills in medical education research at COMSEP as well as at the annual meetings of the Pediatric Academic Societies and the Association of American Medical Colleges. Back on campus, Dr. Tewksbury is co-chair of the Department of Pediatrics’ Medical Education Committee, whose mission is to enhance, revitalize, and support the education of medical students and residents through the achievement of excellence in curriculum development, evaluation and assessment techniques, faculty development, research, and technology. In addition to the Master Awards, The Valentine Mott Founders Award was conferred on Larry A. Silverstein. The award, named for the father of modern surgery and co-founder of NYU School of Medicine, is presented to an individual who has shown exceptional support for the clinical, research and education missions of the Medical Center.
Larry A. Silverstein is a man who has literally changed the face of our city and who has proven a mainstay of New York University for nearly 40 years, as well as a pillar of NYU Langone Medical Center since joining our Board in 1998.
A born and bred New Yorker, he is a graduate of New York City’s High School of Music and Art, and of New York University. He's a lover of classical music, a passionate sailor, and a philanthropist who has generously supported a variety of important causes, and most recently endowed a $5.25 million scholarship fund for our medical students.
About NYU Langone Medical CenterNYU Langone Medical Center, a world-class, patient-centered, integrated, academic medical center, is one on the nation’s premier centers for excellence in clinical care, biomedical research and medical education. Located in the heart of Manhattan, NYU Langone is composed of three hospitals – Tisch Hospital, its flagship acute care facility; the Rusk Institute of Rehabilitation Medicine, the world’s first university-affiliated facility devoted entirely to rehabilitation medicine; and the Hospital for Joint Diseases, one of only five hospitals in the nation dedicated to orthopaedics and rheumatology – plus the NYU School of Medicine, which since 1841 has trained thousand of physicians and scientists who have helped to shape the course of medical history. The medical center’s tri-fold mission to serve, teach and discover is achieved 365 days a year through the seamless integration of a culture devoted to excellence in patient care, education and research. For more information, go to www.NYULMC.org.
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