2 Roswell Park Faculty Receive Prestigious Awards; Colleagues Named to Professional Association Board

Highlights
  • John Subjeck, PhD, to receive highest honor of Society for Thermal Medicine
  • Dr. Odunsi one of many Roswell faculty to receive D'Youville Achievement Award
  • Rigual, Gollnick named to board of new PanAmerican Photodynamic Association

BUFFALO, NY — Several Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center (Roswell Park) faculty members have been selected to receive prestigious honors from their colleagues in recognition of their professional achievements, or have been elected to leadership positions in professional associations:

Kunle Odunsi, MD, PhD, FRCOG, FACOG, will receive the 17th annual D’Youville College Achievement in Health Care Award February 23 at Salvatore’s Italian Gardens. The award recognizes individuals who have made significant contributions to the healthcare profession in Western New York. Dr. Odunsi is Professor and Chair of the Department of Gynecologic Oncology and Director of the Center for Immunotherapy at Roswell Park, as well as Professor of Gynecology & Obstetrics in the University at Buffalo’s School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences. Past recipients have included several Roswell Park faculty: Thomas J. Dougherty, PhD; T. Ming Chu, PhD; Thomas B. Tomasi, MD, PhD; Julian L. Ambrus, MD, PhD, ScD, and Clara M. Ambrus, MD, PhD; Norma J. Nowak, PhD, David C. Hohn, MD; and Edwin A. Mirand, PhD, DSci.

John R. Subjeck, PhD, a Member of the Department of Cell Stress Biology, will receive the 23rd J. Eugene Robinson Award at the annual meeting of the Society for Thermal Medicine in Portland, OR, April 15. Dr. Subjeck will be recognized for his body of work in hyperthermia research as well as his leadership in the society, including “his outstanding mentorship of numerous graduate students and postdoctoral fellows in heat-shock protein biology who have gone onto successful careers in cancer research.” The Robinson Award, the highest and most prestigious awarded by the Society, is presented annually to an investigator who has made outstanding contributions to the field of hyperthermic oncology. Dr. Subjeck will deliver the J. Eugene Robinson Lecture at the meeting, on the topic, "The High Molecular Weight Stress Proteins: Identification, Characterization and Utilization in Cancer Therapy.”

Additionally, Nestor Rigual, MD, FACS, and Sandra Gollnick, PhD, were recently elected to the Board of Directors of the PanAmerican Photodynamic Association (PAPA). Dr. Rigual is Professor of Oncology, Medical Director of the Photodynamic Therapy Center and Physician Leader for the Head & Neck Center, Department of Head & Neck/Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, at Roswell Park and Professor of Clinical Otolaryngology at the University at Buffalo (UB), and Dr. Gollnick is a Member of Roswell Park’s Departments of Cell Stress Biology and Immunology. The PAPA is a new professional association that seeks to facilitate photodynamic therapy (PDT) education of healthcare professionals, basic scientists and the general public in the Americas by promoting and encouraging the study and practice of photodynamic therapy techniques in the treatment of human and animal diseases, toward the goal of improving the early diagnosis and treatment of human and animal diseases.

The mission of Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center is to understand, prevent and cure cancer. Roswell Park, founded in 1898, was one of the first cancer centers in the country to be named a National Cancer Institute-designated comprehensive cancer center and remains the only facility with this designation in Upstate New York. The Institute is a member of the prestigious National Comprehensive Cancer Network, an alliance of the nation’s leading cancer centers; maintains affiliate sites; and is a partner in national and international collaborative programs. For more information, visit Roswell Park’s website at http://www.roswellpark.org, call 1-800-ROSWELL (1-800-767-9355) or email AskRoswell@Roswellpark.org.

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Annie Deck-Miller, Senior Media Relations Manager
716-845-8593; annie.deck-miller@roswellpark.org