Graduate School honors outstanding alumni, research
Prolific researchers in the fields of maternal health and polymer science – one over the course of more than 30 years and the other just in the past few years – were honored with alumni awards by the School of Graduate Studies in the Health Sciences at its annual combined Distinguished Alumni Ceremony and Research Day.
Dr. Joey Granger, the longtime former dean of SGSHS and a Billy S. Guyton Distinguished Professor, received the Distinguished Alumnus Award.
Dr. Jared Cobb, a team lead research chemist at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, received the Early Career Achievement Award. The honor recognizes accolades of young graduates within five years of either graduation or post-doctoral fellowship training.
“This award is not just a reflection of my work,” Granger said, thanking Dr. John Hall, chair of physiology and biophysics, his pre-doctoral mentor who introduced him at the event. “It’s a tribute to the people and partnerships that guided, challenged and inspired me along the way. Biomedical research isn’t just an individual endeavor but a team event. It’s the shared pursuit of discovery that depends on the wisdom, collaboration and commitment of many.”
Granger was dean of the graduate school from 2007 until retiring in 2023 after 33 years overall at UMMC. He is a past associate vice chancellor for research and, since 2004, has held the Guyton rank, the highest faculty rank at UMMC. He serves as the director of the Mississippi Center for Clinical and Translational Research and the principal investigator of the Hypertension and Cardiorenal Diseases Research Training Program grant.
He earned his undergraduate degree from the University of Louisiana, then completed his PhD in 1983 physiology and biophysics from UMMC and shortly afterward began his postdoctoral fellowship at the Mayo Clinic.
He is the author or co-author of more than 315 manuscripts in peer-reviewed journals, including Hypertension, Science, Circulation Research, American Journal of Physiology, Journal of the American Society of Nephrology and Kidney International. His recent work on cardiac dysfunction in women with preeclampsia has led to a National Institutes of Health clinical trial in postpartum preeclamptic women with cardiac dysfunction. The Granger laboratory has been continuously funded by the National Institutes of Health since 1985. A major advance in the field made by the Granger lab was the development and systematic characterization of the Reduced Uterine Perfusion Pressure model of placental ischemia.
Granger, renowned in Medical Center circles during his time as dean for his talents in the kitchen, usually preparing huge pots of gumbo or bread pudding for school events, answered questions from students and fellows on their poster presentations following his brief acceptance speech. He shared a heartfelt thanks to his wife, Linda, and how his award letter from current dean Dr. Sydney Murphy seemingly came with a string attached.
“I was very excited until I looked down in the fine print of the letter than indicated that receipt of this award would be contingent on my cooking for the school of graduate studies’ open house for the next 10 years,” he said, later thanking all his former students and trainees through the years for their creativity, for their enthusiasm, and “for keeping me curious and making me look good. Your willingness to push boundaries reminded me every day of why I fell in love with science in the first place.”
Cobb completed his PhD in biomedical materials science from UMMC and earned his undergraduate degree in polymer science from the University of Southern Mississippi.
“I think the key to success is having good people in your life,” Cobb said after his introduction from his mentor, Dr. Amol Janorkar, chair of biomedical materials science. “It’s being surrounded by good students, good friends, good family.”
He has served as the principal investigator or co-principal investigator on $26 million in reimbursable research and development projects. He has expanded the materials team from three to nine scientists and has contributed to the team earning 14 awards. His research encompasses protective coatings for optics, ultra-thin polymer films, recyclable thermoset polymers, materials for capturing PFAS, electro-mineralization processes, and compact chemical and biological sensors. He is also the author or co-author of more than 20 publications, including several government reports.
His more than 30 previous awards include the Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC) Outstanding Achievement in Tech Transition award to federal agencies, the Environmental Lab Innovation in Research and Development Award and the ERDC Award for Outstanding Innovation in Research Development.
Cobb’s first five years of achievements, which also includes the Robert A. Mahaffey Memorial Award, among the top research awards from the graduate school, shows “a career trajectory that’s nothing short of remarkable,” said Janorkar.
For his part, Cobb simply emphasized the importance of relationships in both graduate school at UMMC and at ERDC, the Corps’ research and development arm based in Vicksburg.
“I always ended up finding people to collaborate with, both at UMMC and at USM,” Cobb said. “It was a good time. And it was good because of the people around me.” One was his wife, Dr. Meredith Cobb, who is a cardiology fellow at UMMC and serves on the MD-PhD advisory committee for SGSHS.
“One cool thing was that I got to eat lunch with my wife every day,” he said.
The SGSHS also presented 10 students and fellows with awards for their presentations:
Oral Winners
Sheetal Chowdhury, biomedical materials science
Christy Chambers, experimental therapeutics and pharmacology
Dr. Cristiane Favoretto, psychiatry and human behavior
Poster Winners
Goodness Adegbola, neuroscience
Komal Beeton, microbiology and immunology
John Crawford, cell and molecular biology
Arunendu Ettuthaiyil Sambasivan, biomedical materials science
Jordan Hart, physiology and biophysics
Jacob Haskell, neuroscience
Md Fahim Khan, microbiology and immunology
Aditi Rudrashetty, neuroscience
Dr. Anukool Bhopatkar, pharmacology and toxicology
Dr. Manar Eissa, pharmacology and toxicology
