USC Faculty Awards presented to three School of Medicine educators

School of Medicine faculty Norma Frizzell, PhD, James Fadel, PhD, and Chuck Carter, MD, received awards during the University of South Carolina’s 2012 Faculty Awards Ceremony.

Chuck Carter, MD, associate professor in the Department of Family and Preventive Medicine, received the Clinical Practice Teaching Award. A 1999 graduate of the School of Medicine, he returned to his alma mater as a faculty member in 2005. He serves as program director for the Palmetto Health/USC Family Medicine Residency Program. Recognized as an outstanding educator in the clinical setting, he has received acclaim due to his integration of teaching practices that include quality improvement and reflective practitioner training into the curriculum. His involvement in the residency program testifies to his commitment to continued improvements in the learning process, particularly in clinical training.

James Fadel, PhD, associate professor in the Department of Pharmacology, Physiology and Neuroscience, received the USC Educational Foundation Research Award for Health Sciences. He joined the faculty at USC in 2002. His focus is the study of the anatomical and neurochemical basis of age-related cognitive and homeostatic changes – work that has been supported over the past five years by multiple National Institutes of Health grants. Additionally, he has collaborated on projects related to the biology of neuropsychiatric disorders, earning him awards from the National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression, and the International Congress on Schizophrenia Research. He has been a member of the American Federation for Aging Research National Scientific Advisory Council since 2003, and in 2009 was elected to the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology.

Norma Frizzell, PhD, assistant professor in the Department of Pharmacology, Physiology and Neuroscience, received the Outstanding Undergraduate Research Mentor Award. Her research focuses on investigating the non-enzymatic regulation of proteins by chemical modifications and understanding how they may relate to mitochondrial stress in diabetes, cancer and mitochondrial neurodegenerative disorders. She is described by her students as an outstanding mentor who motivates and nurtures students pursuing undergraduate research.

April 27, 2012