Shore Fellows awarded valuable time

N. Stuart Harris, an emergency physician at Massachusetts General Hospital, is also an active researcher doing groundbreaking research on hypoxia — a shortage of oxygen in the body. He was on the phone explaining how sound waves move efficiently through water when he made a quick segue only parents are good at. “Walker Harris,” he told his 4-year-old son, “leave your sister alone.”

Emma is 2, the other half of a child-care duo that Harris and his wife, Malinda — an English professor — are responsible for. Their early professional careers are in a classic pressure cooker: too little time and too much to do, both at home and at work.

For Harris, at least, a little help is on the way. He is one of 94 junior faculty members and clinical and research fellows who will be recognized today (Oct. 18) at Harvard Medical School’s Gordon Hall. They are the 2007 recipients of grants from the Eleanor and Miles Shore 50th Anniversary Fellowship Program for Scholars in Medicine.

The program was founded in 1995 to mark the 50th anniversary of women first being admitted to Harvard Medical School (HMS). Since then, about 500 faculty and fellows have gotten awards, which so far total more than $13 million.