Distributed December 5, 2001
For Immediate Release
News Service Contact: Scott Turner



Jack Wands, M.D., appointed first Greenberg-Joukowsky Professor

Jack Wands, M.D., will hold the Jeffrey and Kimberly Greenberg – Artemis and Martha Joukowsky Professorship in Gastroenterology at Brown Medical School. Two $1.25 million gifts endowed the professorship.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Jack Wands, M.D., an internationally recognized expert in liver diseases, has been selected as the University’s first Jeffrey and Kimberly Greenberg – Artemis and Martha Joukowsky Professor of Gastroenterology at the Brown Medical School.

Wands is a professor of medicine at the Brown Medical School, director of the Liver Research Center and director of the Division of Gastroenterology, which is located at Rhode Island Hospital and The Miriam Hospital. The author of more than 365 publications, Wands has received numerous national and international awards. He has also received 34 patents.

“Dr. Wands is an expert in hepatitis B and C,” said Donald J. Marsh, M.D., dean of medicine and biological sciences. “In his work he examines the process by which these viruses cause liver cancer, and has developed a gene therapy method for attacking liver cancer.

“The work of Dr. Wands is a splendid example of basic scientific understanding bring applied to the development of a specific, targeted treatment,” Marsh continued. “Although it has been used on animal models only so far, the prospects for success in humans is high. I am very, very proud to have Jack Wands conducting groundbreaking research here at Brown.”

Prior to his appointment at Brown and Lifespan in 1999, Wands directed the Molecular Hepatology Laboratory at the Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center. He was a faculty member at both the Harvard Medical School and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

In coming to Rhode Island, Wands recruited several junior faculty members from the Harvard Medical School to the Liver Research Center, where about 25 individuals study various aspects of liver disease. These researchers include junior faculty, postdoctoral fellows, Brown medical students and undergraduates.

Wands has received five research grants from the National Institutes of Health. Central to his work is the education of a new generation of physician-scientists. Many of the more than 90 individuals trained by Wands have come from countries where rates of liver cancer are spiraling. A large number of these physician-scientists have returned home, armed with the latest treatments for liver disease and the ability to advance local research efforts.

A combined $2.5 million in gifts to Brown Medical School endowed the professorship. Jeffrey W. Greenberg ’73 and Kimberly E. Greenberg gave $1.25 million, and Artemis A. W. Joukowsky ’55 and Martha S. Joukowsky ’58 gave $1.25 million.

Jeffrey Greenberg is the chairman and CEO of Marsh & McLennan Companies, a global professional services firm. Kimberly Greenberg is a director of Young Audiences and The Children’s Aid Society. The couple are longtime supporters of medical education, research and clinical care at institutions in New York City as well as at Brown.

Currently a University fellow, Artemis Joukowsky has served Brown as chancellor and vice chancellor since his retirement as executive of American International Group in 1987. Martha Joukowsky is a professor of anthropology and chair of Brown’s Center for Old World Archaeology and Art. They have been actively engaged in the life of Brown and the community for more than two decades.

Dedication of the professorship took place at a ceremony at Brown on Nov. 30.

######