By Alysa TeichmanThe Daily Northwestern
Northwestern administrators announced a new dean for the Feinberg School of Medicine Wednesday.
University President Henry Bienen and Provost Lawrence B. Dumas named Dr. J. Larry Jameson vice president of medical affairs and dean of the medical school.
Jameson has been part of the Feinberg faculty since 1993 and was the former chairman of the department of medicine, Feinberg’s largest department. He will succeed Dr. Lewis Landsberg, who has been dean since April 2000.
Landsberg notified Bienen and Dumas of his decision to step down from the dean position during the summer.
According to university spokesman Al Cubbage, Jameson is well regarded in the three divisions of the medical school – education, research and clinical.
“The bottom line is that there is no question that Dr. Jameson is someone who is extremely well thought of in the medical school and nationally,” Cubbage said.
Feinberg students train at several hospitals in the Chicago area: Northwestern Memorial Healthcare, Evanston Northwestern Healthcare, Children’s Memorial Hospital and the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago. Cubbage said it is important that the Feinberg dean maintains close ties with these hospitals.
Dr. Joanne C. Smith, the president and chief executive officer of the Rehabilitation Institute, called Jameson a “remarkable physician, scientist and medical educator” in a press release.
Jameson specializes in molecular endocrinology. In addition, he has researched the molecular and cellular mechanisms that contribute to sex determination. He has published more than 250 articles in scientific journals, including the New England Journal of Medicine, Nature Genetics, Science and the Journal of Clinical Investigation. He also is an editor of “Harrison’s Principles of Internal Medicine.”
Weinberg junior Ilya Karagodin, who is in the Honors Program in Medical Education, said the change of deans was a positive step.
“I feel like it might be a good sign,” Karagodin said. “It might help to have some sort of change, because they have lost a lot of emphasis on research and have been focusing on clinical meds.”
As Karagodin and other HPME students prepare to enter the medical school within the next few years, they are wondering what changes lie in store for the NU program, he said.
“I guess there’s a lot of uncertainty not knowing what the new dean is going to bring,” Karagodin said. “I know the school has been stable the last couple of years, so I’m not sure what they expect.”
Reach Alysa Teichman at [email protected].
