Medical School researcher nets national advisory role Professor Sharon Wilsnack, a globally renowned researcher on women and alcohol and a neuroscientist at the School of Medicine and Health Sciences, has accepted an invitation to serve a four-year term on a grant review study section of the National Institute of Health’s (NIH) Center for Scientific Review (CSR). NIH selects members for this prestigious assignment based on their demonstrated competence and achievement in their scientific discipline. Wilsnack and her research partner and husband, Richard Wilsnack, established a pace-setting cross-cultural research program on women and alcohol, working with research teams in more than 40 countries. The Wilsnacks also direct a national longitudinal study of U.S. women’s drinking. At 20-plus years, it is the world’s longest-running study of its kind and netted Wilsnack an appearance on the Oprah Winfrey show and many other media appearances. The Wilsnacks’ research has been funded continuously since 1980 by the NIH’s National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, with funding exceeding $12.5 million. In her seat on the NIH review team, Wilsnack, who earned the coveted UND Chester Fritz Distinguished Professor title for her stellar research and teaching, will be part of the CSR’s Behavioral Genetics and Epidemiology Study Section. Study sections review grant applications submitted to the NIH, make recommendations about the applications, and survey the status OF research in their fields of science. These functions are vital to medical and allied research. -- School of Medicine and Health Sciences.