Emeritus Faculty | Pathology, Microbiology, and Immunology | University of Nebraska Medical Center

Distinguished Professorships

Emeritus Faculty joined us in celebrating the Samuel M. and Janet L. Cohen Distinguished Professorship award.

From left: Steven Hinrichs, MD, James Talmadge, PhD, James Landmark, MD; James Wisecarver, MD; James Newland, MD; Mary Haven, MS; Charles Kuszynski, PhD. Not shown: S. James Booth, PhD; Steven Carson, PhD; Nora Chapman, PhD; Rodney McComb, MD; Phyllis Muellenberg, MA; Steven Tracy, PhD and Dennis Weisenburger, MD.

John J. Baker, MD, Professor Emeritus

Dr. Baker is a specialist in surgical pathology, cytopathology, and fine needle aspiration. He is one of our subspecialty pathologists with expertise in psychopathology and breast pathology. In his role as emeritus, Dr. Baker provides didactic lectures to our residence and serves as a consultant on cases of interest. He continues to be available to the cytotechnology training program.

S. James Booth, PhD, Professor Emeritus

Medical Education
My primary responsibility is the education of medical and pharmacy students in the area of microbiology with a goal to strive to improve our medical students performance on Part 1 of the United States Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE).

	Steven D. Carson, PhD, Professor Emeritus Hemostasis, human genetics, virology, biochemistry Dr. Carson has expertise in blood coagulation and fibrinolysis, and especially the role of tissue factor in the initiation of blood coagulation. Drawing on his knowledge of human genetics, he taught Molecular Basis of Human Disease. He has studied the biochemistry and biophysics of the interaction of coxsackievirus B3 with its cell membrane receptor, CAR, and his study of this biology is ongoing. His knowledge of biochemistry and enzymology continues to be useful for ongoing studies of Staphylococcal amino acid metabolism. Dr. Carson's personal website (carsonscience.com).

	Nora M. Chapman, PhD, Professor Emeritus Virology and molecular biology Dr. Champan's primary research focus is on group B coxsackieviruses and their receptor(s).

	Wing (John) C. Chan, MD, Professor Emeritus Hematopathology

	Timothy C. Greiner, MD, Professor Emeritus Hematopathology Dr. Greiner has served as the Medical Director of the Nebraska Medical Center Immunohistochemistry Lab and the Molecular Diagnostics Lab during his tenure at UNMC. Dr. Greiner is an expert Hematopathologist who has been with the Department for over 20 years. Dr. Greiner's research involved the study of the etiology and progression of lymphoma by examining the mutational spectra of oncogenes and tumor suppresser genes.

	Mary C. Haven, MS, Professor Emeritus Clinical Chemistry Mary Haven mentored medical technologists, developed new procedures, assisted with clinical trials on therapeutic drug monitoring of immunosuppressants, and evaluated new automated analytical instruments. In 1995, Ms. Haven became the associate dean of UNMC's College of Allied Health Professions. She expanded the distance-learning program into rural Nebraska offering medical technology, radiaton therapy, radiography and cytotechnology. Ms. Haven retired from UNMC in July of 2006.

	Steven H. Hinrichs, MD Dr. Hinrichs is the previous Chair of the Department of Pathology and Microbiology, former Director of the Nebraska Public Health Laboratory (NPHL) and was the University of Nebraska Center for Biosecurity. In his past position as laboratory director he has been responsible for the development of a statewide program for the rapid identification of biological agents of mass destruction. He is principal investigator of multiple national awards from the Association of Public Health Laboratories (APHL) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Department of Defense for the development of an outreach program to extend training and expertise in the early recognition of biological warfare agents. Dr. Hinrichs is past Chair of the APHL committee on Management and Information Systems and is a strong advocate for further development of communication systems and electronic infrastructure in rural states. Under his direction, the NPHL was one of the first public health laboratories in the country to develop internet-based test ordering and reporting capabilities with the ultimate goal of real-time identification of emerging epidemics. He was the national co-leader of the Public Health Informatics Project (PHLIP) that is focused on the harmonization of electronic laboratory messaging practices.

Charles Kuszynski, PhD, Assistant Professor Emeritus

Flow Cytometry
Dr. Kuszynski is an expert in the application of flow cytometry to biological systems, isolation and characterization of adult stem cells, as well as development of model systems for cell transplantation and gene therapy. He is a member of the Nebraska Center for Virology in Lincoln, NE.

James D. Landmark, MD, Associate Professor Emeritus

Transfusion Medicine
Dr. Landmark is instrumental in our residency and fellowship education as he is a specialist in transfusion medicine and immunohematology and hemolytic disease. He was the former director of the American Red Cross in Nebraska.

	Rodney D. McComb, MD, Professor Emeritus Neuropathology Dr. McComb is a specialist in neuropathology and his interests include brain tumors, muscle and nerve pathology, surgical and autopsy neuropathology, neurodegenerative disease, and electron microscopy.

	Phyllis Muellenberg, M.A., Professor Emeritus Clinical Laboratory Science and Education

	James R. Newland, MD, Professor Emeritus Dr. Newland is a specialist in surgical pathology. He lectures medical students and is involved in faculty development at UNMC.

	Stanley J. Radio, MD, Professor Emeritus Dr. Radio is a specialist in cytopathology and cardiovascular pathology.

	James E. Talmadge, PhD, Professor Emeritus Dr. Talmadge is a specialist in transplantation immunology.

Steven M. Tracy, PhD, Professor Emeritus

My laboratory closed when I retired as Professor Emeritus in 2015. The primary interest of my laboratory from 1981 until retirement was understanding the biology of human enteroviruses with a focus on the group B coxsackieviruses. My lab was continually funded from diverse sources, we published numerous basic research papers, book chapters, monographs and reviews dealing with the molecular biology, immunology, and pathogenesis of the coxsackie B viruses, I trained numerous graduate students and post-docs and the laboratory was nationally and internationally known and respected. The lab illuminated the pathogenic role of the group B coxsackieviruses and developed these viruses as a valuable virological research system with which to better understand the molecular biology of enteroviruses in general. Highlights include collaboratively identifying the coxsackievirus B receptor protein on cell surfaces, clarifying the role of enteroviruses in the causation of acute myocarditis (a disease of the heart muscle which can be lethal or lead to chronic inflammatory heart disease), and demonstrating how enteroviruses can either cause or protect mice from type 1 diabetes (T1D), work which indicated that a human enterovirus-based vaccine should protect from T1D onset. The T1D work presented in depth the concept that modern living in a hygienic environment, so different from past human history, has led to the increase in T1D cases in modern times. We demonstrated different approaches to stably attenuating group B coxsackieviral pathogenicity (and by inference other enteroviruses), work intended to aid the design of safe vaccine strain strains, and demonstrated that these viruses could also be used as expression vectors as well; a patent to this end was granted. We provided the first evidence to show echovirus 22 (later termed human parechovirus 1) was not an enterovirus. Our final work discovered, and elaborated on, a hitherto unsuspected novel viral genomic deletional pathway by which enteroviral infections can persist long after the acute infection is cleared by the host immune response. Since retiring, I have maintained an active collaboration with colleagues at Creighton University studying the independently replicating extrachromosomal DNA elements in Naegleria species which encode all of the organisms’ ribosomal RNA, work which has to date resulted in 6 publications.

For a complete list of publications: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/myncbi/1N5bA07vw5s1vn/bibliography/public/

Dennis Weisenburger, MD, Professor Emeritus

Clinical Hematopathology
Dr. Weisenburger is a specialist in lymphoma and is board certified in Anatomic and Clinical Pathology from the American Board of Pathology.

James Wisecarver, MD, Professor Emeritus

Dr. Wisecarver was the Pathology and Microbiology Department's hospital laboratory medical director and was responsible for many improvements in service over the years. In addition, he was a highly regarded educator for medical students, residents, fellows and as Director of the Medical Technology training program. He continues to be available to the medical technology training program. He was active on the national front as a Past President of the American Association of Clinical Pathologists and championed the “choosing wisely” national laboratory initiative. Dr. Wisecarver's research interests included studies of mixed chimerism following solid organ and minimally ablative bone marrow transplantation. Dr. Wisecarver will provide didactic lectures to our residents and serve as a consultant on cases of interest as Professor Emeritus.

Distinguished Professorships