Strobel named 2008 TIAA-CREF Distinguished Medical Educator

By Rob Cahill

Henry Strobel, PhD., professor of biochemistry and molecular biology and associate dean for faculty affairs, has been named the 2008 recipient of the TIAA-CREF Distinguished Medical Educator Award. Dr. Strobel is the third faculty member of the Medical School to earn this honor.

The award, founded by TIAA-CREF and supported by the John P. McGovern Museum of Health and Medical Science, is given annually to honor teaching physicians, nurses, and other health care professionals for their outstanding work, significant contributions, and exceptional influence in the field of medical education. The award carries a $10,000 honorarium for the recipient and 20 scholarships to The Health Museum’s mini medical camp donated in the recipient’s name. TIAA-CREF is a national financial services group and the leading provider of retirement services in the academic, medical, and research fields.

“It is an honor to present the TIAA-CREF Distinguished Medical Educator Award to Dr. Strobel – a person who embodies TIAA-CREF’s mission of serving those who serve the greater good,” says Tameeka Aviles, director of institutional business development at TIAA-CREF. “TIAA-CREF is pleased to continue our partnership with leaders of the Texas medical community to recognize one of its outstanding leaders who has had a deep impact on health care education.”

Dr. Strobel joined the faculty of the Medical School in 1972 shortly after the school opened. For 36 years, Dr. Strobel has excelled as a teacher of biochemistry and molecular biology and has sponsored international electives through the Medical School at universities around the world. As an assisting priest at Palmer Memorial Episcopal Church, Dr. Strobel’s involvement with and love for the church guides who he is as both an educator and a person.

“Dr. Strobel is a multi-faceted educator who has trained many knowledgeable and caring doctors,” says L. Maximilian Buja, M.D., executive vice president for academic affairs. “He is an excellent classroom teacher. He is innovative and focused on the development of the student as a whole person.”

A favorite among students, Dr. Strobel is known for the enthusiasm and talent he brings to his educational activities, routinely receiving high marks in student evaluations. In recognition of Dr. Strobel’s abilities and dedication as an educator, he is the frequent recipient of the Dean’s Teaching Excellence Awards. Dr. Strobel was honored with the John P. McGovern Outstanding Teacher Award from The University of Texas Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences at Houston in 2002 and with the 2006 President’s Scholar Award for Excellence in Teaching from the UT Health Science Center at Houston.

Dr. Strobel received his Ph.D. in biochemistry from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, followed by a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. He taught at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, for two years before joining the UT faculty. He has two children: Elizabeth Fulton and Nathaniel Strobel, M.D. For the first time in the history of the Medical School, a father and son are full-time faculty at the same time. Dr. Nathaniel Strobel joined the pediatrics department as an assistant professor in the Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine in 2006.