May 13, 2009

Medical School Alums Gather to Honor Peers, Reunite

INDIANAPOLIS — Five Indiana University School of Medicine alumni will be honored May 16 for their distinguished work in medicine at the 62nd annual Medical Reunion Weekend.

Beginning Friday, members of IU medical school classes will gather at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis for lectures, campus tours and class reunions. On Saturday, at the traditional Strawberry Shortcake Luncheon, the awards will be presented to distinguished alumni, all from the class of 1964.

• David E. Longnecker, M.D., of Annapolis, Md., who is the Robert D. Dripps Professor Emeritus of Anesthesiology and Critical Care at the University of Pennsylvania. He is an elected fellow of the Royal College of Anesthetists in the United Kingdom and a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences, where he chairs the Committee on Aerospace Medicine and Medicine for Extreme Environments, which advises NASA on health-related matters associated with space flight. Dr. Longnecker also serves on the NASA Advisory Council. He earned a bachelor’s degree from IU in 1961, followed by an M.D. in 1964 and an M.A. in 1968.


• Robert K. Stoelting, M.D., of Indianapolis, a member of the faculty of the IU Department of Anesthesia since 1970. He retired in 2003 as professor and chair of the department. He now serves full time as president of the Anesthesia Patient Safety Foundation in Indianapolis. He completed a B.A. at IU in 1960.
• Ronald D. Miller, M.D., Mill Valley, Calif., is professor and chairman of the Department of Anesthesia and Perioperative Care at the University of California, San Francisco, where his research has focused on neuromuscular pharmacology and blood products. He joined the UCSF faculty in 1970, was named chairman of the department in 1984 and also is a member of the executive medical board for Moffitt/Long Hospitals at the University of California. He is an elected fellow of the Royal College of Anesthetists in the United Kingdom and a recently elected member to the Institute of Medicine, part of the National Academy of Sciences. He holds a bachelor’s degree from IU and a master’s degree in pharmacology from the University of California.

Presented with the 2009 Early Career Achievement Award will be David G. Reuter, M.D., Ph.D., class of 1994, of Bothell, Wash. Dr. Reuter has paired clinical and academic work with innovations in the development of medical devices.

He is currently chief medical officer for Cardiac Dimensions Inc., a start-up company in Kirkland, Wash., which he co-founded in 2001. In his work with Cardiac Dimensions, he has developed a catheter-based mitral annuloplasty implant which is in clinical trials in Australia, Paraguay, Germany, the Netherlands and the United States. Previously, he was co-founder and vice president of Myometrix Inc., in Redmond, Wash., where he worked in 1998 and 1999 to explore device therapy for pre-term labor. Before that, he was director of clinical research for InControl Inc., supporting clinical cases to implant automatic atrial defibrillators for patients with atrial fibrillation.

Dr. Reuter also holds positions as a physician for the Seattle Children’s Hospital Emergency Department, as an instructor at the University of Washington, and as regional faculty in pediatric advanced life support at Seattle Children’s Hospital. In addition to his IU School of Medicine degree, he holds a B.S. in civil engineering and a Ph.D. in biomedical engineering from Purdue University.

The Glenn W. Irwin Jr., M.D., Distinguished Faculty Award will be presented to Eric S. Williams, M.D., class of 1971, in recognition of his achievements as a teacher and clinician. Dr. Williams is a professor of medicine at the IU School of Medicine, where he has been on the faculty since 1976. He is associate director for the Division of Cardiology and the Krannert Institute of Cardiology, serving as interim director from 2004 to 2007. He is also director of the School of Medicine’s Cardiovascular Fellowship Training Program and associate dean for Clarian Affairs at the IU School of Medicine. He earned his B.A. with high distinction from IU in 1968.

Medical Reunion Weekend is sponsored annually in May by the IU School of Medicine Alumni Association. With almost 17,000 alumni, the IU School of Medicine is the second largest medical school in the United States.

# # #

Media Contact:

Mary Hardin
(317) 274-7722
(317) 695-4090 (cell)
mhardin@iupui.edu