News Release

DeFriese Awardees Honored

February 10 , 2005

The winners of the Gordon H. DeFriese awards were honored at The Aging Exchange 2005 program on January 25. These annual awards have been established to recognize Dr. DeFriese's thirty-year distinguished career in the conduct and development of research to improve the quality of lives of older North Carolinians, and especially to his unwavering commitment to developing and supporting the careers of his colleagues.

Gordon DeFriese, May Baydoun, and Dr. Jay Kaufman

Barbara Waag Carlson, Ph.D., RN, assistant professor in the School of Nursing, received the award in the faculty/staff category. She had also completed her doctoral studies in the School of Nursing at UNC. The award is made to a junior faculty member or staff member judged to be of great promise, and working in the area of aging. Dr Waag Carlson's research concentrates on the relation of sleep to cognitive impairment in vulnerable elders, and the biobehavioral measurement of human physiological responses. She is currently the principal investigator on a large NIH/NINR R01 award studying respiratory periodicity and cognitive decline in elders.

May Baydoun, MPH, received the doctoral student award, which is given to a doctoral student of great promise, who works in the area of aging. Ms. Baydoun is in the graduate program of the Deparatment of Epidemiology in the School of Public Health. Her advisor and mentor is Dr. Jay Kaufman. Interested in international aging and health issues, May Baydoun has published numerous population profiles for the UN Economic & Social Commission for Western Asia, focusing on the Middle East.  She recently completed a predoctoral traineeship at the Carolina Population Center, where she analyzed the China Health and Nutriton Survey to study the impact of socio-economic factors on functional status among community-swelling older adults. Her current research focuses on the relationship of nutritional factors to cognitive decline in the elderly.

Nominations are currently being accepted for the 2005 DeFriese Awards. To get more information on the awards and download nomination materials, visit the DeFriese Awards page.