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IUPUI NURSING PROFESSOR ELECTED TO PRESTIGIOUS INSTITUTE

INDIANAPOLIS - An IU School of Nursing (IUSON), IUPUI professor was one of only two nurses recently elected to the prestigious Institute of Medicine (IOM), National Academy of Sciences.

Current members elected Distinguished Professor Joan Austin, nationally recognized for her research on children with epilepsy, to IOM for her contributions to health and medicine.

"The election of Joan Austin to the Institute of Medicine adds greatly to the reputation of Indiana University School of Nursing because that organization is the 'think tank' for national health policy," said IUSON Dean Angela McBride. "This is Austin's second major honor this year. Earlier she became the first nurse to receive a Jacob Javits Neuroscience Award from the National Institutes of Health (NIH)."

The National Advisory Neurological Disorders and Stroke Council, a division of the NIH, awards the Jacob Javits Neuroscience Award to researchers with a distinguished record of contributions to the field of neurological science.

Austin has won numerous other awards for her research including the Epilepsy Foundation of America Special Recognition Award in 1995, and an Award of Social Accomplishment awarded jointly by the International Bureau for Epilepsy and the International League Against Epilepsy in 1999.

Austin is currently a research commission member of the International Bureau for Epilepsy, serves on the advisory board of the Epilepsy Foundation of America as well as on the board of directors for the American Epilepsy Society. She has been a faculty member at IUSON since 1981. Austin also is the principal investigator who leads the administrative core of the new Center for Enhancing the Quality of Life in Chronic Illness that is funded by a NIH grant and headquartered at IUPUI. The School is one of just nine nursing schools in the country to receive the distinction as a center. Austin received her bachelor's degree from Texas Woman's University and her master's and doctoral degrees from IUSON.

IOM is a division of the National Academy of Sciences made up of more than 600 volunteers who conduct studies and author reports on health policy issues. Current projects include studies on the early detection of breast cancer, a medical system to support long-duration space travel beyond Earth's orbit, and the safety of the anthrax vaccine used by the U.S. military.

The IU School of Nursing was started in 1914 in Indianapolis and has become the largest multipurpose nursing school in the country. U.S. News and World Report recently ranked IUSON 12th overall for its graduate program and 12th nationally in National Institute of Health funding for nursing schools. The school offers programs on eight campuses throughout Indiana.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) is a leading urban university campus where achievement-oriented students receive degrees from Indiana University or Purdue University. With more than 10,000 classes in hundreds of career fields, IUPUI offers the broadest range of degree programs of any campus in Indiana. Located in the heart of Indiana's capitol city with many opportunities for internships and employment, IUPUI offers its 27,000 students small-sized classes, state of the art facilities, and exceptional faculty.

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