From new hires and promotions to industry awards, here’s a roundup of achievements by businesses and individuals in the greater Ann Arbor area:

Martin Bouma and the Ann Arbor-based real estate team The Bouma Group recently welcomed two new buyer's agents: Morgan Hart and Nick Rutan.

• Saint Joseph Mercy Ann Arbor has received approximately $102,000 from the Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan Foundation to help fund the hospital's Enhanced Recovery initiative. The hospital's initiative is a 16-step standardized process to improve patient outcomes, decrease complications and shorten hospital length of stay after colorectal surgery. Pledged over a 24-month period, the grant money will provide a dedicated clinical research nurse assigned to the program to conduct pre-admission patient teaching and collect data on patient outcomes as part of a formal research study.

• Bodman attorney Susan M. Kornfield, based in the law firm's Ann Arbor office, presented "What you missed in the rest of the IP World when you were stressing out over the AIA" to the Michigan Intellectual Property Law Association at the organization’s monthly meeting held at the Somerset Inn in Troy April 16. MIPLA is an association of intellectual property attorneys, patent agents, and law students from across the State of Michigan who have an interest in patents, trademarks, copyrights, and other intellectual property issues.

• IDG's Computerworld Honors Program has announced Michigan-based Merit Network Inc. as a 2013 Laureate in recognition of the REACH-3MC Project (Rural Education Anchor Community Health care - Michigan Middle Mile Collaborative). The annual award program by IT publication Computerworld honors applications of information technology promoting positive social, economic and educational change. Merit Network Inc., a nonprofit corporation owned and governed by Michigan's public universities, owns and operates America's longest-running regional research and education network.

• Cole Taylor Mortgage, an Ann Arbor-based division of Cole Taylor Bank , surprised 75 of its customers last month by giving them a "pot of gold" in honor of St. Patrick's Day: a month's free mortgage payment. The Grand Prize was awarded to Tom and Kathy Hall of Livonia, who will receive a year without mortgage principal and interest payments.

• University of Michigan professor Robert Axelrod is the winner of the 2013 Johan Skytte Prize in political science, awarded for "profoundly having changed our presumptions about the preconditions for human cooperation." Axelrod is the Walgreen Professor for the Study of Human Understanding, with appointments in the department of political science at the college of literature, science, and the arts, and at the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy. He is best known for his interdisciplinary work on the evolution of cooperation which has been cited more than 30,000 times. His current research interests include international security and sense-making.

• Starting April 22 and continuing through Saturday, April 27, approximately 3,000 local Comcast Cable employees, along with their families and friends, will lend a hand at community organizations to commemorate the company's 12th Comcast Cares Day. Among the volunteer projects throughout Michigan, two were set to take place in the Ann Arbor area. On Tuesday, April 23, the Comcast volunteer project was a blood drive at the Comcast Ann Arbor Call Center, on behalf of the American Red Cross (Ann Arbor). On Saturday, April 27, volunteers will assist Kids Against Hunger with food packaging at multiple Comcast facilities, to be donated to the Food Gatherers food bank in Ann Arbor, Gleaners of Macomb County and Plymouth United Way.

• MichBio, the statewide biosciences industry association, and the Michigan Economic Development Corp. this week co-host the Michigan Pavilion at the 2013 BIO International Convention in Chicago April 22-25.The Michigan Pavilion will highlight the diversity of Michigan’s bioscience industry via the nearly 20 companies that have chosen to represent Michigan’s diverse bioscience industry at BIO, including: 3D Biomatrix, Algal Scientific, Ash Stevens, City of Southfield, DeNovo Sciences, Detroit Clinical Research Corridor, Ferndale Pharma Group, Global Clinical Connections, Impact Analytical, Lifeline Ventures, Michigan Business Incubator Association, Michigan State University, MPI Research, MYcroarray, Originus, polyElements, The Right Place, Velesco and Wayne State University.

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