The medical and dental school students have chosen Dr. Robert Bona, Department of Medicine, to receive this year’s Loeser Award. The award is given to the faculty member who has the ability to evoke in students an enthusiasm for learning, a desire to emulate their own attributes of scholarly curiosity, and to give wholeheartedly to advance the welfare and education of their students. The award is named after Charles N. Loeser, one of the Health Center’s most popular and respected first faculty members.
Second-year dental student Melissa Papio presented the award saying, “Dr. Bona promotes a stimulating learning experience and has given us an invaluable opportunity to learn and understand basic medical sciences.”
Awards were also given to five faculty members in recognition of their excellence in teaching: Drs. Richard Zeff, Kevin Dieckhaus, Dan Henry, James Watras and T.V. Rajan.
The Committee Award for Meritorious Educational Leadership (C.A.M.E.L.) award was given to Dr. Bona’s Homeostasis Committee. The C.A.M.E.L. is given to the subject committee that “promotes a stimulating learning experience and, in its organization, presentation of material and overall level of teaching, has afforded the students an invaluable opportunity to learn and understand basic medical sciences.”
Board of Director’s Faculty Recognition Award
Dr. Marja Hurley is this year’s winner of the Board of Director’s Faculty Recognition Award, honoring outstanding contributions to research, teaching, and mentoring.
Hurley is an internationally recognized researcher, a professor of medicine, an accomplished endocrinologist, and has been associate dean and director of the Health Career Opportunity Programs for more than two decades.
Hurley is a graduate of UConn and the UConn School of Medicine and has been an integral part of the faculty since completing her fellowship in endocrinology in 1986. As a professor of medicine, Hurley lectures first and second year students, works closely with residents and supervises graduate students and postdoctoral fellows.
As the associate dean and director of the Health Career Opportunity Programs, Hurley has successfully fostered innovative educational programs that have reached out to talented students from middle school, high school, college and graduate levels and encouraged students to pursue careers in medicine, dentistry and allied health.
Hurley is also a widely published endocrinology researcher whose work has been supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) since 1989. She is known nationally and internationally for her research in the field of molecular biology of growth factors and their role in normal and pathological disorders of bone and has published extensively in this area in peer reviewed journals.
“Along with achieving national acclaim for her endeavors, Dr. Hurley has clearly helped to advance the academic, research and outreach goals here at the Health Center and is extremely deserving of this award,” says Dr. Cato T. Laurencin, vice president for health affairs and dean of the UConn School of Medicine.
