University Highlights: Dukakis Visits ACT in Greece; Quick Blood Test Created at Monash; Massey Health Professor Earns Lifetime Achievement Award
Greece
Former Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis Visits American College of Thessaloniki
Michael and Kitty Dukakis recently visited the American University of Thessaloniki for several dedications.
Former Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis and First Lady Kitty Dukakis recently visited Anatolia, Greece, to dedicate spaces on the Anatolia campus, home to the American College of Thessaloniki, a new EuroLearn program partner.
The Dukakakis’ visit commemorated the tenth anniversary of the Dukakis Chair in Public Policy and Service, according to a university news article. Having previously attended in a fundraising event in Los Angeles for Jewish victims of the German occupation of Greece in World War II, the Dukakis’ were invited to take part in the dedication of a classroom in the Ingle Hall Annex to the 94 Jewish Anatolia students who perished in the Holocaust.
They also participated in the dedication of a “Hope and Remembrance Garden” outside Eleftheriadis Library honoring Anatolians who were victims of human cruelty and brutality in the 20th century. These dedications were followed by a luncheon and symposium on Anatolia’s role as witness to such events.
Other highlights included a gala fund raising dinner at the Bissell Library celebrating the tenth anniversary of the launch of the Dukakis Chair at ACT, and Homecoming 2010. In addition, Governor Dukakis participated in an award ceremony for the 24 ACT students who collaborated in the Recycle Monster project as Dukakis Chair interns.
Prior to his departure, Governor Dukakis met on campus with representatives of Democrats Abroad Greece, who are in the process of creating a chapter in Thessaloniki.
The Michael S. Dukakis Chair in Public Policy, directed by David Wisner, was launched in September 1999 by Governor Dukakis and has since been host to more than 100 public events and public service initiatives (http://www.act.edu/dukakis_chair.jsp).
Australia
Monash University Researches Create New Blood Test
A new blood type test that costs less than 10 cents each, requires just one drop of blood, and is highly portable could save lives around the world, according to the Monash University developers who created it, says an EMax Health article .
Current blood type tests costs hundreds of dollars per test and involve intricate analysis using optical or microfluidic devices. Knowledge of a person’s blood type is essential for blood transfusions, because if the wrong type of blood is given to an individual, the person may die. It is also critical for pregnant women to have their blood typed, and blood type tests are also done to determine whether two people are likely to be blood relatives.
Human blood is typed by looking for certain markers, called antigens, on the surface of red blood cells. There are four main blood types—A, B, AB, and O—and the two most common blood type tests are the ABO and Rh tests.
New Zealand
Massey University Health Researcher Given Lifetime Achievement Award
Massey University Professor Neil Pearce.
Massey University Professor Neil Pearce of Wellington has received a lifetime achievement award for services to to occupational health, according to a university news article.
The noted epidemiologist who heads the University’s Centre for Public Health Research received the award at the New Zealand Workplace Health and Safety Awards in Auckland. The awards are organised annually by Thomson Reuters, publishers of Safeguard magazine.
Professor Pearce is regarded as a world leader in his field. His research has involved conducting international investigations into asthma and allergies in children. He leads one of the largest health studies in the world into asthma, involving more than a million children at more than 280 health centres in 100 countries. He has also led investigations that discovered meat workers, pulp and paper workers and farmers were at greater risk from certain forms of cancer.
Just a week prior to the award, the Health Research Council announced that Professor Pearce had won $1.19 million in funding over three years for research assessing whether occupational solvent exposure in spray painters is associated with neurological disorders.
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