GALVESTON, Texas - The Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences of the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston will award 45 degrees during its 39th commencement ceremony on Saturday, May 2, in William C. Levin Hall, 11th and Market streets. UTMB President David L. Callender, and GSBS Dean Cary W. Cooper will preside over the 10 a.m. ceremony.
"We are especially proud of these graduates," Cooper said. "They have faced severe hardships and they have persevered, undaunted in their pursuit of scholarly achievement."
The faculty will follow their careers with special interest and pride, he said.
During the commencement, 38 graduates will be awarded doctoral degrees; two will receive a Master of Public Health degree; and five will receive combined M.D. and doctoral degrees.
Yuan Li, a graduate of the Preventive Medicine and Community Health program, is the recipient of the Dean's Award for Academic Excellence.
Commencement speaker is medical humanist Faith McLellan, the 2009 recipient of the GSBS Distinguished Alumna Award. McLellan now works as a scientist with the World Health Organization. The 1997 UTMB graduate earned her doctorate while working full time as an editor in the department of anesthesiology. McLellan, a medical humanist, serves as speaker, teacher and editor at several prestigious journals. She was the first non-MD to be appointed North American editor of The Lancet.
Two faculty members, Bryan Sutton and Johnny Peterson, will be recognized at the commencement for distinguished teaching and research. Sutton is the 2009 recipient of the Graduate Student Organization Distinguished Teaching Award and Peterson will receive the Distinguished Faculty Research Award.
In addition, the graduate school will present new Distinguished Faculty Service Awards to Bernd Budelmann, professor in neurosciences and cell biology and otolaryngology, and James E. Blankenship, professor and executive vice chairman of neuroscience and cell biology
The 2009 graduates represent 11 graduate programs including microbiology and immunology, pharmacology and toxicology, cell biology, experimental pathology, neuroscience, medical humanities, biochemistry and molecular biology, preventive medicine and community health and doctoral nursing.
Graduates have accepted post-doctoral fellowships at academic institutions across the country. Ten of the 38 doctoral recipients have joined the faculty at institutions of higher learning.
In addition to the 45 students who will graduate Saturday, the graduate school has awarded masters and doctoral degrees to an additional 43 individuals earlier in the year.