For Release: September 4, 2013
Contact: Derik Hertel, (603) 650-1211 or Derik.Hertel@Dartmouth.edu
Dartmouth's Geisel School of Medicine Names Harold Swartz
Alma Hass Milham Distinguished Chair in Clinical Medicine
Geisel Professor Hal Swartz, with his wife, Ann Flood, next to one of the tooth dosimeters he and his team developed at Dartmouth. Swartz directs the EPR Center and leads a team of researchers at the medical school who have been developing new tools to detect radiation levels. Flood is one of three associate directors of the EPR Center, along with Benjamin Williams and Periannan Kuppusamy.
Hanover, NH—Harold Swartz, MD, PhD, professor of radiology, medicine (radiation oncology) and physiology at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, has been appointed as the Alma Hass Milham Distinguished Chair in Clinical Medicine.
Swartz leads a team of researchers at the medical school who have been developing new tools to detect radiation levels. A portable dosimeter device, invented by Swartz, detects levels of radiation in teeth, and is instrumental in assessing radiation injuries in survivors of radiological or nuclear catastrophes. In 2010, the National Institutes of Health awarded Swartz and his research in electronic paramagnetic resonance (EPR) a five-year, $16.6 million grant to form the Biodosimetry Center for Medical Countermeasures Against Radiation (Dart-Dose CMCR) at Dartmouth.
Dart-Dose CMCR is one of seven centers nationwide focusing, through the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, on the medical response to large-scale incidents.
"Hal has played a pivotal role in the medical school's research innovations and in creating new ways to assess levels of radiation and improve the health of patients around the world," said Wiley "Chip" Souba, MD, dean of the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth. "Under his leadership, his team's work has made Dartmouth and the medical school a world leader in this scholarship, which is improving lives globally. We're proud to honor his and his team's exemplary work through this distinguished chair in clinical medicine."
"I am extremely proud and pleased to have received the Alma Hass Milham Distinguished Chair in Clinical Medicine," said Swartz. "It has previously been occupied by colleagues whose work and accomplishments that I greatly admire. I see this as a reward and recognition of the entire team of the EPR Center and our collaborators, more than as a personal honor. I have been fortunate in having a strong and committed research team and colleagues throughout all of Dartmouth, including support from the Department of Radiology's Peter Spiegel and Cliff Belden and from Dartmouth Norris Cotton Cancer Center Director Mark Israel. I also appreciate the support and collaboration from other colleagues throughout Dartmouth."
"My hope is that the prestige of holding this chair will facilitate the ongoing exciting and important developments that we are carrying out in the EPR Center in the clinical applications of EPR, where we expect to make continued and greater contributions to critical problems such as dosimetry after major radiation events and the improvement of cancer therapy though our measurements of oxygen in tissues in vivo," said Swartz.
The Milham chair was established in 1992 with a gift to the Medical School from the estate of Alma Hass Milham, the widow of Charles G. Milham, a 1906 graduate of Dartmouth College.
The Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, founded in 1797, strives to improve the lives of the communities it serves through excellence in learning, discovery, and healing. The nation's fourth-oldest medical school, the Geisel School of Medicine has been home to many firsts in medical education, research and practice, including the discovery of the mechanism for how light resets biological clocks, creating the first multispecialty intensive care unit, the first comprehensive examination of U.S. health care variations (The Dartmouth Atlas), and helping establish the first Center for Health Care Delivery Science, which launched in 2010. As one of America's top medical schools, Dartmouth's Geisel School of Medicine is committed to training new generations of diverse health care leaders who will help solve our most vexing challenges in health care.
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