Medical School celebrates opening of six-story research building
Dec. 14, 2007, was a historic and emotional day in the life of the Medical School and its family. The Medical School celebrated the last phase of its recovery from Tropical Storm Allison with a ribbon-cutting ceremony of its new six-story research space.
“This is a great day in the life of our Medical School, especially for all who weathered Tropical Storm Allison and its aftermath,” said Dean Giuseppe Colasurdo. “This is also a very special day for me as a new dean – an event like this is the best part of my job – tangible evidence of what we all know about the greatness of our people and our school.”
The chilly weather did not stop hundreds from gathering outside the new facility’s front doors to hear the speeches by President Dr. James Willerson, UT System Board of Regents chair Scott Caven, and Dr. Bradford Goodwin, director of the Center for Laboratory Animal Research and Care (CLAMC). The invocation and blessing of the building was given by Dr. Bill Seifert, senior lecturer in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.
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Ribbon cutters await the countdown.
Photo by Eric Rasch
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Many in the crowd were moved to tears as they recalled that day in June 2001.
“All of the animals were drowned and there were $165 million in structural damages,” President Willerson said. “It was a daunting task, but we didn’t give up.”
Caven noted how the Medical School had increased its research funding during a time of increased competition and in makeshift workspaces. “With this new facility, we can only imagine the future,” he said.
Goodwin proclaimed it a day for celebration and a “truly a momentous occasion for me.” He described the resilience of the CLAMC staff as they cleaned up from the storm and spent years planning for this day. “My heartfelt thanks goes to all,” he said.
The $80.5 million facility, which adds 200,673 gross square feet to the Medical School Building, was built on the site of the two-story former John Freeman Building. The new facility will be dedicated to research, focusing on stem cells and regenerative medicine, emerging infection, cell signaling/membrane biology, and neurobiology and neurosciences. New and existing faculty will move to the building, and it will be used as a recruiting tool to grow these areas of research.
-D. Brown
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Dyer, McNeese honored at CSW banquet
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Dr. Max Buja and Dr. Sheryl McCurdy, far left, present Dr. Margaret McNeese with the President’s Award for Mentoring, administrative and professional, as her nominator, Dr. Rebecca Girardet, looks on.
Photo by Dwight C. Andrews
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Two Medical School faculty members were among the honorees at the Committee on the Status of Women’s Annual Award Banquet. Dr. Carmel Dyer, director of the Division of Geriatric and Palliative Medicine, was named the Distinguished Professional Woman, and Dr. Margaret McNeese, associate dean for admissions and student affairs, received the President’s Award for Mentoring Women, administrative and professional.
Dyer was nominated by Laura Prati who described Dyer as “the Energizer Bunny – except she keeps going and going at mach 10.” Prati also cited Dyer’s commitment to treating the elderly and her can-do attitude, which has catapulted her into the national spotlight for recognizing and treating elder abuse, neglect, and financial exploitation.
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Dr. Carmel Dyer addresses the crowd as the Distinguished Professional Woman of the Year.
Photo by Dwight C. Andrews |
“I am deeply honored by this award,” Dyer said, thanking the faculty of the Medical School, Harris County Hospital District, Memorial Hermann – Texas Medical Center, her former mentors at Baylor, her husband, and God.
She encouraged women to support one another and to be each other’s friends, “but not at the exclusion of men but in support of each other,” she said.
Support was what Dr. Rebecca Girardet, associate professor of pediatrics, said she received from McNeese as she learned from her mentor how to give comprehensive care to abused children.
“She has a special gift for surprising people with their own potential,” Girardet said of McNeese, who also was nominated by Stephen Jones, student affairs, and Dr. Sheela Lahoti, assistant dean of student affairs.
“My nominators are the real mentors, and they have taught me more than I could have taught them,” she said, thanking them and the offices of Student Affairs, Admissions, and the pediatrics clinic, as well as her two daughters.
The other president’s mentoring awards went to LaVone Moore, classified, and Dr. Luisa Franzini, faculty.
-D. Brown
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Six GSBS students win prestigious Medical School Dean’s Research Award
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Xi Mo, from left, Hanyin Cheng, Kim Mankiewicz, Kendra Carmon, Shelly Babin Fontenot, and Brian Phillips all received awards. |
Six students in the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences were recently awarded the prestigious 2007 Medical School Dean’s Research Award.
The awardees were Kendra Carmon (adviser: Dr. David Loose, associate professor of integrative biology and pharmacology); Hanyin Cheng (advisers: Dr. Robert Kirken, formerly associate professor of integrative biology and pharmacology and currently professor and chairman of biological sciences, University of Texas-El Paso and Dr. Jeffrey Frost, associate professor of integrative biology and pharmacology); Shelly Babin Fontenot (adviser: Dr. Anne Sereno, associate professor of neurobiology and anatomy); Kimberly Mankiewicz (adviser: Dr. Vasanthi Jayaraman, associate professor of biochemistry and molecular biology); Xi Mo (adviser: Dr. Renhao Li, assistant professor of biochemistry and molecular biology); and Brian Phillips (adviser: Dr. John Spudich, professor of biochemistry and molecular biology and Robert A. Welch Distinguished Chair in Chemistry).
“I am thrilled to be chosen out of such a competitive and dedicated group of students as those here at the Medical School and proud to be a representative of the great biomedical research that comes out of this institution,” Carmon said. “It is an honor to be recognized by both Dean Colasurdo and the Medical School Graduate Student Education Committee for all the hard work that I have put into my research during my time at GSBS.”
The Dean’s Research Award is given out to a group of outstanding GSBS students once a year who have progressed to Ph.D. candidacy and whose advisers are Medical School faculty. The award is meant to recognize those students who have achieved significant academic distinction during their time as GSBS students. The award is based on the student’s CV, letters of recommendation, and a brief written synopsis of their research project addressing the importance of the project, progress to date and importance of those results, and future work.
Faculty on the Medical School Graduate Student Education Committee (GSEC), a committee comprised of Medical School faculty and graduate students, review the applications and select the awardees. This year’s awardees each received $2,500 and presented their work at a dinner sponsored by GSEC in late September.
“We are fortunate to have an excellent contingent of graduate students in the Medical School and a strong commitment to graduate education by the Medical School community,” said Dr. Diane Bick, associate professor of pathology and laboratory medicine and chair of GSEC. “GSEC appreciates the significant level of support from Dean Colasurdo and previous Deans Dr. L. Maximilian Buja, Dr. Stanley Schultz, and Dr. Jerry Wolinsky that enables us to fund these awards. Congratulations to this year’s award winners.”
-K. Mankiewicz
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