Contents
June 19, 2009
HMS & HSDM Class Day
How to Stay Human in Medicine
HSPH Class Day
Importance of Public Health Celebrated
Faculty Symposium
Covering Care for an Aging Population
25th Reunion Symposium
The Varieties of Medical Experience
Alumni Day Symposium
When the White Coat Comes with a Pen
Class of 2009
Robes and Roles: Student Speakers Model Future
State of the School
HMS Dean Addresses Alums on State of the School
Year End Awards
Student, Faculty, and Staff Honors for 2009
Research Briefs
•Water
Bottle Chemicals Leach into Human Body
•Normal
Stress Management Genes May Be Cancer Drug Targets
Bulletin
•A
Farewell to Misia Landau
•First-years
Say Thanks to Faculty and Staff
•The
Class of ’79 Reconnects
Forum
Unwelcome Agenda: Planning End-of-life Care
BULLETIN
A Farewell to Misia Landau
Science writer Misia Landau, who has worked on Focus for 15 years, has recently decided to leave HMS to pursue her personal writing projects. We will keenly miss her deep knowledge of research and researchers at HMS, her passion and talent for explaining science, her skill at visualizing molecular biology, her warmth as a colleague and friend, and her grace in all situations. We wish her the very best in her next career.
First-years Say Thanks to Faculty and Staff
Photo by Jan Reiss
On May 28, HMS and HSDM first-years treated faculty and staff to a luncheon in order to show their appreciation for the support and enrichment they received during their first leg of the long journey to becoming doctors and dentists. “Henry Brooks Adams once said, ‘A good teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops,’” said Elizabeth Chao, one of the students who organized the event. “I believe that this quote best captures the spirit of the HMS and HSDM faculty and staff.” Chao added that she hopes the luncheon becomes a tradition.
The Class of ’79 Reconnects
Photo by Jan Reiss
Deborah Prothrow-Stith (left) and Eve Higginbotham reminisce about who sat where in the lecture hall 30 years ago.
Gathering to celebrate “the 10th anniversary of our 20th reunion,” the
HMS Class of 1979 reconnected through a mini-symposium, “Where Are
We Now and How Did We Get Here?” featuring presentations by six members
of the class, as well as a dinner and an afternoon clambake. The Class of
1979 boasts many notable graduates, including many currently at Harvard:
Nancy Oriol, HMS’s dean for students; Richard Schwartzstein, director
of the Academy at HMS and the Ellen and Melvin Gordon professor of medical
education; Deborah Prothrow-Stith, HSPH adjunct professor of the practice
of public health; and Eve Higginbotham, a Harvard University overseer
and dean of Morehouse School of Medicine. Oriol, founder of the Family Van—a
public health outreach program of HMS—led her classmates on a tour
of the van, which had come to HMS for the occasion. “It was a wonderful
moment!” she said. “And it was so good to hear of all the amazing
work these HMSers—30 years out—are doing with their lives.”