Casanova, Foulks and Abu Kwaik appointed to endowed chairs at university
Clockwise from top left: Manuel Casanova, M.D.; Gary Foulks, M.D.; and Yousef Abu Kwaik, Ph.D.
Manuel Casanova, M.D., Gary Foulks, M.D., and Yousef Abu Kwaik, Ph.D., have been selected to fill endowed chairs in the School of Medicine.
Manuel Casanova has been named the Gottfried and Gisela Kolb Endowed Chair in Outpatient Psychiatry and a professor of anatomical sciences and neurobiology.
Casanova joined the UofL faculty after having served as a professor of psychiatry and neurology at the Medical College of Georgia since 1991. A former lieutenant commander in the U.S. Public Health Service, Casanova earned his medical degree from the University of Puerto Rico and has completed clinical and research fellowships at The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.
He kindled an interest in developmental disorders of the brain while at Hopkins and subsequently helped establish two of the most successful brain banks in the country, including one at the National Institutes of Mental Health.
He spent several years as a deputy medical examiner in Washington, D.C., and has published extensively on postmortem techniques. His recent research projects have examined brain abnormalities in patients with language disturbances, including autism, dyslexia and Asperger's syndrome.
Gary Foulks has been appointed as the Drs. Arthur and Virginia Keeney Chair in Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences at the University of Louisville.
Foulks, who earned his medical degree from Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons, also is director of the Corneal Service and the Ocular Surface Disease Research Unit at UofL's Kentucky Lions Eye Center.
Foulks came to Louisville from the University of Pittsburgh, where he was director of clinical research.
A former chief medical officer with the U.S. Public Health Service, Foulks has served as principal investigator in more than 10 clinical trials addressing ocular surface disease and dry eye syndrome.
He has published more than 80 peer-reviewed articles, authored or co-authored 25 textbook chapters and edited five books. Foulks currently serves as the clinical science editor of The Ocular Surface and serves on the editorial board of the journals Cornea and The Eye and Contact Lens.
The Keeney chair was created with an endowment made possible by gifts from the Arthur Keeney Ophthalmic Fund and the Blondina F. Evans Trust. The gifts were matched by the state's Research Challenge Trust Fund.
Yousef Abu Kwaik has been named to fill the university's Bumgardner Endowed Chair in Molecular Pathogenesis of Microbial Infections.
The chair was created with an endowment made possible by a gift from the estate of J. Samuel Bumgardner. The gift was matched by the state's Research Challenge Trust Fund, more commonly known as "Bucks for Brains."
Abu Kwaik comes to UofL from the University of Kentucky, where he served as an associate professor in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology since 1999.
He has authored or co-authored more than 50 peer-reviewed publications and conducted research projects with grants totalling more than $3 million.
Abu Kwaik's current research is focused on the molecular bases of Legionnaires' disease and tularemia, with the intent of better understanding the bacterial virulence mechanisms essential for causing infection.
These mechanisms are primary targets for drug therapies and preventative vaccinations.
Abu Kwaik earned a doctorate in microbiology from State University of New York at Buffalo and was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Michigan Medical School.
