The Health Law Institute has awarded its inaugural Health Law Institute Distinguished Research Fellowship to Dr. Oluyomi Faparusi Sr. of Belcamp, Md.Faparusi is a third-year law student who earned his medical degree in 1997 from the University of Ibadan in Nigeria. He earned a Ph.D. in public health from Johns Hopkins University in 2005 and is expected to graduate from Widener Law’s Delaware Campus in May 2009.Through the fellowship, which lasts until May, Faparusi is working 10 hours a week with Health Law Institute faculty members on their initiatives and research. To date, he has worked on the law of informed consent, and on the feasibility of starting a journal devoted to health-law issues. “Yomi was the perfect choice as the inaugural recipient of this fellowship,” Health Law Institute Director John G. Culhane said. “His rich background in both medicine and public health give him rare insight, and his research skills are outstanding.”Faparusi, who chose to attend Widener in large part because of its signature health law program, received postgraduate training in psychiatry at the University of Maryland Medical Center and St. Elizabeths Hospital in Washington, D.C. The Health Law Institute program on Widener’s Delaware Campus is currently ranked ninth in the country and has appeared regularly on the national list, published by U.S. News &amp; World Report, for a decade.