NYU Langone Medical Center honored three faculty members who were awarded Master Scholar Awards for lifetime achievements in clinical excellence, education, and science at the 15th annual Dean’s Honors Day Ceremony held October 5, 2016. In addition to those receiving Master Scholar Awards, other members of the faculty were recognized for receiving appointments as endowed chairs and department chairs for their service as chairs, for receiving tenure or promotions, and for other extramural and intramural distinctions.

“Tonight we honor the beacons lighting our path—individuals who are luminescent— incandescent in fact,” says Robert I. Grossman, MD, the Saul J. Farber Dean and CEO of NYU Langone. “Each Master Scholar this year is, simply put, as good as it gets.”

This year's Master Awards honorees include:

Master Clinician: David E. Cohen, MD, MPH, the Charles C. and Dorothea E. Harris Professor of Dermatology, vice chair for clinical affairs, Ronald O. Perelman Department of Dermatology

Through his clinical practice and research in occupational and environmental dermatology, David E. Cohen, MD, has improved the lives of countless patients and helped protect many more across the country through his work in public health. He is a world renowned expert on dermatologic reactions to chemicals and environmental stressors.

As director of occupational environmental and allergic dermatology at NYU Langone, Dr. Cohen evaluates patients for their reactivity to environmental allergens, and also conducts research to test the safety and utility of common consumer ingredients. Over the course of his distinguished career, Dr. Cohen has served on many government panels, studying responses to disasters such as the Gulf of Mexico oil spill and developing a bioterrorism preparedness plan for cutaneous anthrax. He consulted with the New York City Department of Health to evaluate dermatologic effects of the World Trade Center attack in 2001.

Additionally, Dr. Cohen is currently president-elect of the American Dermatological Association, and has served as president of the American Contact Dermatitis Society, the Dermatology Section of the New York Academy of Medicine, and the New York Dermatological Association. He has authored over 95 articles and 18 book chapters, and lectured nationally and internationally on a variety of dermatologic disorders.

Master Educator: Molly E. Poag, MD, clinical associate professor and director of medical student education Department of Psychiatry

A passionate educator and dedicated mentor, Molly E. Poag, MD, has been devoted to medical student education since her own residency training, having received the Senior Resident Teaching Award at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons.

In addition to her role as director and teacher in both the preclinical and clinical medical school programs in psychiatry, Dr. Poag has contributed to NYU School of Medicine’s C21 Curriculum, collaborating with numerous departments to create novel teaching tools including online modules, interdisciplinary selectives, and activities at the New York Simulation Center for the Health Sciences Simulation Center. She also teaches in the psychiatry residency program on residents as educators, supporting the strong integration of the medical student and residency education programs.

She is involved in continuing medical education of anxiety disorders, depression in the medically ill, depression and heart disease, and physician health. One of her major goals is that medical students understand the mechanisms by which mental health impacts physical health status, and the frequent bidirectional relationship.

Dr. Poag has received numerous awards in education, including the American Psychiatric Association’s Nancy C.A. Roeske Award for Excellence in Medical Student Education, and the Association of Directors of Medical Student Education in Psychiatry’s Innovations in Medical Education Poster Award. Her writing has been primarily on anxiety and anxiety disorders, and has appeared in publications for medical students. In addition, she co-edited an on-call guide for residents. Dr. Poag was previously chair of the Department of Psychiatry and vice president of the Medical Board at Lenox Hill Hospital.

Master Scientist: Richard Tsien, D. Phil, Druckenmiller Professor of Neuroscience and chair, Department of Neuroscience and Physiology

A cardiac electrophysiologist by training, the research of Richard T. Tsien, D. Phil, focuses on the dynamics of the synapse, discovery of calcium channels that trigger neurotransmitter release, and understanding how postsynaptic activity controls nuclear transcription. His work has clarified how ion channels are modulated by transmitters and, in turn, regulate intracellular signaling. His group developed new optical approaches to peer into single vesicle fusion events and the workings of multiple synaptic inputs in networks. These findings have relevance to disease states such as pain, epilepsy, autism, and schizophrenia, and their amelioration by therapeutic agents.

In 2015, Dr. Tsien was named the inaugural scientific director of NYU Langone’s Marlene and Paolo Fresco Institute for Parkinson’s and Movement Disorders.

Dr. Tsien received both an undergraduate and graduate degree in electrical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He continued his training as a Rhodes Scholar, graduating with a doctorate in biophysics from Oxford University, England. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the Institute of Medicine, and the Academia Sinica. His past honors include the Cole Medal, the Palade Medal, the Cartwright Prize, the Axelrod Prize, the 2014 Bard Lectureship, the 2014 Annual Review Prize, and the 2014 Gerard Prize.

Valentine Mott Founders Award: Fiona Druckenmiller

In addition to the Master Awards, The Valentine Mott Founders Award was conferred on Trustee Fiona Druckenmiller. The award, named for the father of modern surgery and co-founder of NYU School of Medicine, is presented to an individual who has shown exceptional support for the clinical, research, and education missions of the Medical Center. 

Fiona Druckenmiller has been a trustee at NYU Langone since 2006 and joined the NYU Board of Trustees in September 2016. She is an honorary trustee and former vice chair of the American Museum of Natural History and is on the leadership council of the New York Stem Cell Foundation. She is a director of the Druckenmiller Foundation, which supports the Neuroscience Institute at NYU Langone and has also endowed the Druckenmiller Professorship in Emergency Medicine. 

View the Dean’s Honors Day program.  

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Rob Magyar
Phone: 212-404-3591
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