NCI director, Nobel Laureate Dr. Harold Varmus to give Baylor College of Medicine commencement address.
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The commencement ceremony for graduating M.D. and Ph.D. students at Baylor College of Medicine will be held Tuesday, May 21, at 7 p.m. at the Jesse H. Jones Hall for Performing Arts, 615 Louisiana St. The 2013 graduating class includes 191 medical school graduates and 82 graduates from the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences at Baylor College of Medicine.
NCI Director Dr. Harold Varmus, the co-recipient of the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1989 for his studies on the genetic basis of cancer, will give this year’s commencement address.
Varmus was named director of the National Cancer Institute in 2010 after serving for 10 years as president of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and six years as director of the National Institutes of Health.
Honorary degrees will be presented to Varmus along with three other individuals, including:
-Dr. Barry Coller, a highly respected physician-scientist who joined Rockefeller University in 2001 as the first David Rockefeller Professor, head of the Laboratory of Blood and Vascular Biology, physician in chief of the Rockefeller University Hospital and vice president for medical affairs
-Corbin J. Robertson Jr., member of the BCM board of trustees, chair of the Best Minds Best Medicine Campaign and chair of the Board of Trustees from 2001-2006, in recognition for his leadership at BCM and of the sustained support of BCM by the Cullen Family since the College moved to Houston in 1943
-Dr. Miguel (Mike) Nevarez, former president of The University of Texas Pan American, in recognition for his central role in creating the Premedical Honors College with BCM in 1994 and for his tireless efforts to improve educational opportunities for all students in the Rio Grande Valley
In addition, Distinguished Leadership Awards will be presented to Dr. Bobby R. Alford, distinguished service professor at BCM in the Bobby R. Alford Department of Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery, and Dr. Bert O'Malley, professor and chair of molecular and cellular biology at BCM, in recognition of their leadership at BCM for more than 40 years.
