HMS/HSDM Class Day
2005
The Doctor’s Advice: Talk to Strangers
Faculty Symposium
Profs Tell Tales of Molecular Medicine
HSPH Class Day
UN Official Sees Women’s Health Crisis in Africa
Alumni Day
How Doctors Speak to the Public
Class Symposium
For Class of ’80, Risk and Reward Mark a Productive 25 Years
DMS Symposium
Integration Key to Student Success in Life Sciences
Student Speakers
Students Recount Lessons Learned
Scenes From Alumni Week
Pictures from Commencement and Alumni Week activities
Student and Faculty Awards
Honors Given to Faculty and Students During Commencement
Growth Factor May Aid in Crohn’s Disease Treatment
Bench Science Advances Against Cancer
Dental School Dedicates New Building on Longwood
Faculty Health Survey Being Conducted
Awards Recognize Advancement of Women
BLAST Resource Available to HMS Faculty
The July Effect: How Hospitals Cope with Intern Turnover
DMS SYMPOSIUM
Integration Key to Student Success in Life Sciences
Education for graduate students in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences would benefit from further integration with HMS, though numerous challenges must be met. That is the consensus of the Harvard faculty members who spoke at the June 8 Division of Medical Sciences alumni-sponsored symposium on the future of life science education at Harvard. After an introduction by HMS dean emeritus Daniel Tosteson that highlighted the dozens of “unbelievable events” that have occurred in Harvard’s life science disciplines in the last century, moderator Christopher T. Walsh, chairman of the Harvard Integrated Life Sciences (HILS) Graduate Program committee, introduced the five speakers on the panel.
 Photo by Graham Ramsay At the DMS Symposium, Connie Cepko (left) and Nancy Andrews advocated bringing the worlds of PhDs and MDs closer together. |
While the recent integration of the programs has been successful, the consensus among panelists and members of the audience was that more work is needed to further advance the educational opportunities available to graduate students. HILS, for example, is concerned about a potential lack of integration and synergy in the educational experiences of the PhD and MD students. “Some of the graduate students feel like they’re in a parallel universe with the med students,” said speaker Connie Cepko, Howard Hughes investigator and HMS professor of genetics. Nancy Andrews, HMS dean for basic sciences and graduate studies spoke of the success of the Harvard MD–PhD program in the integration of basic-science and medical thinking. But she also expressed her concern that opportunities are still being missed. Taking advantage of both social and educational opportunities would be a step forward, allowing students to “look at the world from different perspectives with each other,” she said.
One such example of integration in basic and clinical sciences is the field of virology, said David Knipe, HMS professor of microbiology and molecular genetics and director of the Graduate Program in Virology. Viruses are tools for other disciplines, he said, and the relevance of virology to clinical medicine in terms of infectious diseases like influenza and AIDS should draw both medical and basic-science students into a collaborative field. “I think this is an opportunity for integration—a challenge in the sense of defining what we’re going to become—from virology to a larger infectious disease program,” Knipe said.
Now, the trick is to put all the pieces of the puzzle together and integrate across all scales of complexity. Educators must think about what the challenges are for the future, said Gary Yellen, HMS professor of neurobiology and director of the Graduate Program in Neuroscience. “Each of us has the goal of training the next generation of scientists … and to give them the tools to surpass us.” The challenges to doing this, he said, are substantial.