UF College of Medicine Faculty Council recognizes faculty with Lifetime Achievement Awards
A virtual ceremony held May 14 honored faculty for their service
June 5, 2020 — The UF College of Medicine Faculty Council recognized several faculty members for their contributions to medicine and medical education during a virtual ceremony held via Zoom May 14. Remarks were given by UF College of Medicine Interim Dean Joseph A. Tyndall, M.D., M.P.H., and Faculty Council President Emily LeBrun, M.D.
Three faculty members, Bill Mendenhall, M.D.; Desmond Schatz, M.D.; and Nikolaus Gravenstein, M.D.; were each given a Lifetime Achievement Award, which “recognizes our most outstanding, active peers for providing extraordinary service, including recognition for the college through national reputation,” according to the Faculty Council. Nancy Mendenhall, M.D., received the 2020 David A. Paulus, M.D., Award for Clinical Excellence for her contributions, and Patrick Duff, M.D., received the Society of Teaching Scholars Lifetime Achievement Award. Members of the UF College of Medicine faculty who have given 20, 30 or 40 years of service were also recognized.
Nancy Mendenhall, M.D.
Nancy Mendenhall, M.D.
David A. Paulus, M.D., Award for Clinical Excellence
Nancy Mendenhall, or Dr. Nancy as her colleagues and patients call her, serves as the associate chair and medical director of the UF Health Proton Therapy Institute. She has more than 30 years of experience specializing in breast cancer, Hodgkin disease, lymphomas, pediatric cancer and prostate cancer. Her work led to establishing the first academic proton beam therapy facility in the southeastern United States, which has treated more than 8,000 patients and received global recognition.
Bill Mendenhall, M.D.
Lifetime Achievement Award
Bill Mendenhall has served cancer patients in Gainesville and Jacksonville since beginning his residency in 1978. He has held the UF Resident Alumni Professorship in Radiation Oncology since 2003, which enables him to dedicate funds to bolstering radiation oncology at the UF College of Medicine. He has published 31 articles in Cancer, the official journal of the American Cancer Society. Peers credit Mendenhall for establishing a “culture of learning and clinical improvement” in the field of radiation oncology.
Nikolaus Gravenstein, M.D.
Nikolaus Gravenstein, M.D.,
Lifetime Achievement Award
Nikolaus Gravenstein serves as the Jerome H. Modell Professor of Anesthesiology and a professor of periodontology and neurosurgery in UF’s department of anesthesiology, which he chaired from 1997 to 2008. He co-leads the college’s Center for Safety, Simulation and Advanced Learning Technologies, which allows anesthesiologists to achieve nationally endorsed simulation training. Following the death of Florida Gator football player Eraste Autin in 2001, Gravenstein developed a method for cooling football players using their padding as a means of ventilation, a technology adopted by the National Collegiate Athletic Association.
Desmond Schatz, M.D.
Lifetime Achievement Award
As interim chair of the UF department of pediatrics, interim physician-in-chief for UF Health Shands Children’s Hospital and the pediatric medical director of the UF Diabetes Institute, Desmond Schatz has devoted his career to serving pediatric endocrinology patients, researching Type 1 diabetes and mentoring the next generation of clinician-researchers. He serves as principal investigator on several grants funded by the National Institutes of Health and the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, including efforts to identify triggers of Type 1 diabetes and studies aimed at reversing Type 1 diabetes using autologous stem cells.
