Two faculty get “genius” grants

Mary E. Tinetti, M.D., the Gladys Phillips Crofoot Professor of Medicine and professor of epidemiology and of investigative medicine, and Richard O. Prum, Ph.D., the William Robertson Coe Professor of Ornithology, Ecology, and Evolutionary Biology, will each receive a five-year, $500,000 “genius” grant from the MacArthur Foundation.

Tinetti, director of the Yale Program on Aging, has devoted much of her research to fall prevention for the elderly. She was the first investigator to show that older adults at risk for falling and injury could be identified, that falls and injuries are associated with a range of serious adverse outcomes, and that multifaceted risk-reduction strategies are both effective and cost-effective. She is working to translate these findings into clinical and public health practice.

Tinetti has also investigated and published extensively on functional disability and mobility impairment. Her most recent research focus is on clinical decision making in the face of multiple health conditions, particularly trade-offs among health conditions; the harms and benefits of commonly recommended treatments; and the need for universal health outcomes that transcend individual diseases.

Prum, chair of the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and curator of ornithology at the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History, has diverse research interests that cross many academic boundaries. He is best known for his studies of the development and evolution of feathers and for research that supports the theory that dinosaurs were ancestors of contemporary birds.