Emeritus faculty honored at Commencement included, from left, Elaine Sanders-Bush, Ph.D., Howard Roback, Ph.D., Gerald Fenichel, M.D., Hakan Sundell, M.D., Paul Nance Jr., M.D., and Daulat Ram Tulsiani, Ph.D. (photo by Steve Green)
During Commencement, Vanderbilt University Medical Center faculty members who are retiring this year were bestowed with the title of emeritus faculty, honoring their years of service to the University.
Ernest William Ewers, M.D., clinical professor of Medicine, Emeritus
Ewers earned his bachelor's degree from Vanderbilt in 1946 and his medical degree from Vanderbilt School of Medicine in 1948. After completing his internship and a year of internal medicine residency in Michigan, he returned to Vanderbilt to complete his residency in 1954.
Ewers has practiced internal medicine in Nashville at the Green Hills Medical Clinic since 1954 and joined Vanderbilt's clinical faculty that same year. He is a fellow of the American College of Physicians, the American College of Cardiology, the American College of Gastroenterology and the American College of Forensics Examiners.
He is a member of the Nashville Academy of Medicine, the Davidson County Medical Society, the Nashville Society of Internal Medicine, and the Tennessee Society of Internal Medicine. He has served as a member of the Vanderbilt University Medical Center Board and its Executive Committee and is a longstanding member of the Canby Robinson Society.
Gerald M. Fenichel, M.D., professor of Neurology, Emeritus
Fenichel graduated cum laude from Johns Hopkins University with a bachelor of arts in 1955 and earned his medical degree from Yale University School of Medicine in 1959. He completed his internship in surgery at Strong Memorial Hospital at the University of Rochester, a residency in neurology at the National Institute of Neurological Diseases and Stroke and a fellowship in neurology at Yale University School of Medicine.
In 1969 Fenichel became founding chair of the Department of Neurology at Vanderbilt, a position he has held for 32 years. The position of assistant vice chancellor of Medical Affairs was created following the recommendation of a governance committee chaired by Fenichel.
Fenichel's textbook, “Clinical Pediatric Neurology: A Signs and Symptoms Approach,” is now in its fifth edition.
He has held membership in numerous professional societies, including the American Neurological Association, the American Academy of Neurology, and the American Medical Association. He was a founding member of the Child Neurology Society and served as its president. He is the recipient of many honors and awards, including the Hower Award from the Child Neurology Society, the Zimmerman Award from the Muscular Dystrophy Association and the Lifetime Achievement Award from Vanderbilt Children's Hospital Pediatric Housestaff.
In 2008 the Gerald M. Fenichel Chair was established by the Department of Neurology in his honor.
E. Paul Nance Jr., M.D., associate professor of Radiology and Radiological Sciences, Emeritus
Nance earned his bachelor of science from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, in 1973 and his medical degree from the UNC School of Medicine in 1976. He came to Vanderbilt as a resident in diagnostic radiology in 1976.
Following his residency and fellowship, he directed the curriculum in musculoskeletal and emergency radiology for the residents in the Department of Radiology until 2000. He was also the course director for the required radiology course for second-year students at VUSM from 1983 until 1991, and he participated in the training programs for the residents and fellows in Orthopaedic Surgery, Rheumatology and Emergency Medicine.
Nance participated in original research resulting in 45 journal articles, 21 scientific exhibits and more than 100 presentations at national and international scientific meetings and courses. He is an active member of local, national and international radiology societies. He has served as a reviewer and on the editorial boards of several scientific journals and as a guest examiner for the American Board of Radiology since 1995.
Howard B. Roback, Ph.D., professor of Psychiatry, Emeritus
Roback joined the Department of Psychiatry in 1972 after receiving his Ph.D. in clinical psychology from York University. In his years at Vanderbilt, Roback has excelled in teaching and mentoring trainees, clinical care and academic scholarship. He received Excellence in Teaching awards from trainees in both Psychiatry and Psychology. He was also recognized with a Five Star Award in a national patient satisfaction survey.
Roback published two books, “Group Psychotherapy Research,” and “Helping Patients and Their Families Cope with Medical Problems: A Guide to Therapeutic Group Work in Clinical Settings,” and approximately 80 articles. He has delivered presentations at numerous professional conferences and served as a member of the editorial board of the International Journal of Group Psychotherapy.
Roback served on the Mentoring Committee, Promotions Committee and as an internship training coordinator for the VA Medical Center Psychology Internship program. His collaborative research on group interventions with impaired physicians was funded by the American Medical Association.
Elaine Sanders-Bush, Ph.D., professor of Pharmacology, Emerita
Sanders-Bush graduated from Western Kentucky University in 1962 and earned a Ph.D. in Pharmacology from Vanderbilt in 1967. After postdoctoral training, she joined the Vanderbilt faculty in 1969 and was promoted to professor of Pharmacology in 1980. In 2002 she was appointed the first director of the Vanderbilt Brain Institute.
Sanders-Bush's research accomplishments have brought her wide recognition, including uninterrupted funding from the NIH throughout her career.
Other awards include the Bristol-Myers Squibb Award for Neuroscience Research and a MERIT Award from the National Institute of Mental Health. In 2006 she was named the Harvie Branscomb Distinguished Professor at Vanderbilt and, that same year, was elected president of the American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics.
The Elaine Sanders-Bush Award for Mentoring Graduate and/or Medical Students in the Research Setting was created in 2006 in recognition of her impact in graduate education.
Sanders-Bush has worked to enhance minority training programs at Tennessee State University, Meharry Medical College and Vanderbilt. In recognition of her commitment and accomplishments, she was the first recipient of Vanderbilt's Levi Watkins Jr. Award for Leadership Diversity in 2002, and, in 2009, she received the Dr. Dolores C. Shockley Lecture and Partnership Award.
Hakan W. Sundell, M.D., professor of Pediatrics, Emeritus
Sundell obtained his doctor of medicine from the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden, and came to Vanderbilt in 1966 to serve as a Neonatology fellow with Mildred Stahlman, M.D. Sundell remained at Vanderbilt for his entire academic career, serving for 40 years on the VUSM faculty, where he has been a professor in the Department of Pediatrics since 1989.
Throughout his long and distinguished career, Sundell's scholarly focus has been on elucidating the physiology of the developing human fetus and premature human infant. His research has been continuously supported with funding from the NIH, the March of Dimes and the American Lung Association.
Sundell served Vanderbilt as a practicing neonatologist and teacher. As one of the earliest neonatologists in Stahlman's first neonatal intensive care unit, Sundell demonstrated a level of service and commitment in research, clinical care and teaching that directly resulted in Vanderbilt's extraordinary reputation in the field of neonatology.
Daulat Ram P. Tulsiani, Ph.D., professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Emeritus
Tulsiani received a bachelor of science from Ewing Christian College in Allahabad, India, in 1962. He received a master of science in 1964 and a Ph.D. in 1968 in organic chemistry and biochemistry from the University of Allahabad. In 1972 he was appointed as a research associate in Molecular Biology at Vanderbilt and joined the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology in 1988. He was promoted to professor in 1996.
Tulsiani is a member of the Center for Reproductive Biology Research, serving as director of the Reproductive Biology Center Seminar series from 1991 to 1992. He has also served as an ad hoc reviewer for the National Science Foundation since 1991 and in 1996 he became a member of the Reproductive Biology Study Section. He is currently a member of the NIH Reviewer's Reserve Committee.
Tulsiani's research interests include identification and characterization of complementary molecules present on the surface of male and female gametes. He has published his work in more than 100 peer-reviewed journals, reviews and book chapters, and edited a textbook “Introduction to Mammalian Fertilization” in 2003. He has been a guest speaker at numerous international conferences including the International Conference on Reproductive Health in Jaipur, India, and has worked with colleagues at the University of Paris, France, as an invited senior professor.