A new financial and reporting structure for UI Heart and Vascular Center includes the appointments of Theresa Brennan, MD, as medical executive officer; Jamal Hoballah, MD, as surgical executive officer; and Deann Montchal, as associate director for administration.

Keith Carter, MD, was formally named the Lillian C. and Dr. C.S. O'Brien Chair in Ophthalmology.

Randy Kardon, MD, PhD, was appointed to the Pomerantz Family Chair in Ophthalmology.

George Weiner, MD, has been appointed chair of a National Cancer Institute committee that determines which cancer centers receive NCI designation.

Kalpaj Parekh, MD, a UI assistant professor specializing in thoracic surgery, was named director of the UI Lung Transplant Program; pulmonologist Julia Klesney-Tait, MD, is medical director.

Optherion, Inc.—acompany that was founded based on scientific discoveries by UI professor of ophthalmology

Gregory Hageman, PhD, and a colleague at Yale—received $37 million to expand into new facilities at UI's Oakdale Research Park.

Satish Rao, MD, PhD, received the American Gastroenterology Association (AGA) Distinguished Educator Award.

Jeffrey Segar, MD, is president-elect of the Perinatal Research Society.

Ann Williamson, PhD, RN, a patient care director at the University of California, San Francisco Medical Center and an associate clinical professor in the UCSF School of Nursing, was named associate vice president for nursing and chief nursing officer, effective Feb. 1, 2008.