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Last modified: Wednesday, October 11, 2006

IU College of Arts and Sciences honors alumni, professor

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Oct. 11, 2006

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- A physician, a sociologist and an economic development leader will be honored during the IU College of Arts & Sciences Annual Recognition Banquet on Friday (Oct. 13) in the Tudor Room of the Indiana Memorial Union, 900 E. 7th St. The reception will begin at 6:30 p.m., and dinner will be served at 7 p.m.

The College of Arts & Sciences will present its Distinguished Alumni Award to Lawrence H. Einhorn, of Indianapolis; the Outstanding Young Alumni Award to Nathan J. Feltman, of Carmel, Ind.; and the Distinguished Faculty Award to Bernice Pescosolido, of Bloomington, Ind.

Tickets for the banquet cost $30 and are available by calling (812) 855-7934.

Following are individual bios for each award recipient:

Lawrence H. Einhorn

Dr. Lawrence Einhorn has become known as the man who helped cure Tour de France cycling champion Lance Armstrong of testicular cancer. But his accomplishments go much further than one success story.

Dr. Einhorn graduated from Indiana University in 1965. He earned his medical degree at the University of Iowa in 1968, then returned to serve his internship and residency at the IU Medical Center. After a year's fellowship in oncology at M.D. Anderson Hospital Tumor Institute in Houston, he returned to Indiana and has been at IU ever since. In 1987 he was named Distinguished Professor of Medicine. He also is a program director at the Walther Cancer Institute in Indianapolis.

Dr. Einhorn knew in high school that he wanted to follow in his father's footsteps and become a physician. He began his studies of chemotherapy in testicular cancer, using a platinum-based drug, in 1974. The treatment, which has increased the cure rate with metastatic testis cancer from five percent to 80 percent, became standard after the very first study. Dr. Einhorn also is a recognized authority on urologic, lung and other adult cancers.

In 2006 Einhorn was named the first Lance Armstrong Foundation Professor of Oncology at IU, with a $1.5 million endowment from the foundation to fund further research into testicular cancer. Among many other honors, he was elected to the National Academy of Sciences and the American Philosophical Society, both among the most prestigious organizations of their kind.

Nathan J. Feltman

Nathan Feltman was raised in Mishawaka, Ind., but he took quite a detour before returning to Indiana and taking a path that recently led to his appointment as Indiana's next Secretary of Commerce in September 2006.

Feltman earned bachelor's degrees in political science and business from Indiana University in 1992. As part of his studies, he took classes in Russian language and traveled to the Soviet Union in 1990 with an IU language summer program. The experience convinced him to learn more about the country, and he decided to combine that interest with his goal of pursuing a career in law.

After graduating from the IU School of Law-Indianapolis in 1994, Feltman earned a master's degree in Russian law at the Institute of State and Law, Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow. He went on to work for the international law firm Baker & McKenzie, representing international companies desiring to enter the Russian market.

Feltman returned to the United States after three years living and working in Russia, settling in Chicago as an attorney, and eventually a partner, with the international law firm Altheimer & Grey. In 2003 he decided to return to Indiana to practice domestic and international business law as a partner with the law firm Ice Miller in Indianapolis.

Long interested in public service, Feltman accepted a position with the new Indiana Economic Development Corporation, after the election of Gov. Mitch Daniels in early 2005, as executive vice president and general counsel. The IEDC replaced the former Department of Commerce as the premier entity charged with statewide economic development, with Daniels chairing its board of directors. Feltman played the lead role in the creation of the governor's strategic economic development plan, Accelerating Growth, and has been part of the lead negotiating team that has brought new jobs to Indiana with such companies as Rolls Royce, Honda, Nestle, Pfizer, Toyota and Sysco.

Bernice Pescosolido

Sociologist and Chancellor's Professor Bernice Pescosolido has spent the last 25 years at Indiana University studying social networks -- the webs that connect individuals to communities and institutions. The focus of her research is how individuals, families and communities respond to illness, particularly behavioral disorders.

Pescosolido is the founder and director of the Indiana Consortium for Mental Health Services Research, a regional community of researchers, practitioners and policymakers interested in social networks in life crises and in aging. Pescosolido also directs IU's Strategic Directions Initiative's CONCEPT I Program in Health and Medicine.

In 2005 Pescosolido was awarded a $3.5 million grant by the National Institutes of Health to study attitudes toward mental illness in 15 countries. The five-year project, called the International Mental Health Stigma Study, is looking at how attitudes and behaviors of others affect the recovery rate of people with mental illness.

Pescosolido received the 2005 Leo G. Reeder Award for Distinguished Contributions to Medical Sociology, and she was appointed the same year to the Federal Advisory Committee of the National Children's Study, which is following the development of a sample of American children from birth through age 21. She has served as vice president of the American Sociological Association and chairwoman of the ASA Section on Sociology of Mental Health.

Pescosolido is a national authority on mentoring and teaching. In 2002 she received the Graduate Student Association's Outstanding Mentor Award, and, in 2003, she was honored with the Wilbert Hites Mentoring Award. She graduated from the University of Rhode Island in 1974 and earned her doctorate from Yale University in 1982.

The College of Arts & Sciences is the largest academic unit at Indiana University Bloomington, comprising more than 50 departments and programs offering undergraduate and graduate degrees. The College of Arts & Sciences Alumni Association works to foster the lifelong allegiance and support of students, alumni and faculty to their departments and to the College. For information, visit www.college.indiana.edu or call (812) 855-1646.