The Benefactor: Fall 2018

PA R T N E R S I N E D U C AT I O N , D I S C O V E R Y, S E R V I C E , A N D L E A D E R S H I P

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4 Improving treatment of sensory disorders

10 Turning the tide against Lyme disease

13 Increasing student diversity

Campaign concludes, but the ripple effects endure A lot has happened in the past seven years. So much has changed, including science, medicine, and technology. Harvard Medical School has changed too, thanks in part to The World Is Waiting: The Campaign for Harvard Medicine. At its core, this ambitious fundraising initiative was about helping people live longer, healthier lives through investments in education, discovery, service, and leadership. Surpassing its $750 million Campaign goal, HMS raised more than $789 million from July 1, 2011, through June 30, 2018. Nearly 10,000 alumni, friends, volunteers, faculty, staff, corporations, and foundations made Campaign gifts and pledges At the official launch event for the Campaign, thenHMS Dean Jeffrey S. Flier, MD, said, “Even at Harvard, in this pulsing ecosystem of energized people able to educate, innovate, and discover, we cannot fund everything we should—and must.” Flier added that the success of this fundraising initiative, the most ambitious in HMS’s history, would be critical to the health of our children, grandchildren, and the whole human family around the globe. “When we launched this Campaign, I said that if you’re looking to advance human medicine, investing in the best means investing in Harvard Medicine,” says Campaign Chair Joshua Boger, AM ’75, PhD ’79, founder and former CEO of Vertex Pharmaceuticals, a member of the HMS Board of Fellows, and co-chair of the HMS Discovery Council. “I am thrilled to see that so many people chose to join us and heed the call.” These collective gifts have enabled significant progress. In the area of education, Campaign support has made it financially possible for more of the most promising students of all backgrounds to attend the School. And it has allowed us to increase the number of fully funded students

Education

admitted directly to the Harvard/MIT MD-PhD program, which trains the next generation of physician-scientists who will devote their careers to compassionate patient care and translational biomedical research. 73 new financial aid funds: 38 current-use and 35 endowed In the area of discovery, private philanthropy and non-governmental grants secured directly by HMS faculty have advanced critical, curiositydriven research that holds great promise toward enhancing, sustaining, and saving lives. 695 new research funds, including $168 million raised directly by HMS faculty This funding has allowed us to explore novel approaches to therapeutic and regulatory science

Discovery

Service

so that we can help make drug development cheaper, faster, and better. And it has enabled powerful, disease-based research partnerships between faculty at HMS and its affiliated hospitals, with the ultimate goal of benefiting patients on a local, national, and global scale. 69 new professorships: 12 based at HMS and 57 based at HMS-affiliated hospitals One example of such a partnership is the Evergrande Center for Immunologic Diseases, a joint program of HMS and Brigham and Women’s Hospital established in 2013 thanks to support from the Evergrande Real Estate Group. The center brings together experts in biomedical research with a focus on understanding the role of chronic inflammation in multiple human diseases. See CAMPAIGN, Page 2

Leadership

Academic Deans Gretchen Brodnicki, JD Dean for Faculty and Research Integrity Jules Dienstag, MD Interim Dean for Faculty Affairs R. Bruce Donoff, DMD ’67, MD ’73 Dean of the Harvard School of Dental Medicine David Golan, AB ’75, MD, PhD Dean for Basic Science and Graduate Education Edward Hundert, MA, MD ’84 Dean for Medical Education

“This transformative gift has enabled the launch of the Evergrande Flagship Project on Colorectal Cancer. Bringing together clinical and research scientists across HMS and Harvard-affiliated institutions, the Flagship Project is advancing progress toward understanding an important disease for which there is a huge unmet medical need,” says Arlene Sharpe, AB ’75, AM ’76, PhD ’81, MD ’82, co-chair of the Department of Microbiology and Immunobiology, co-director of the Evergrande Center, and the George Fabyan Professor of Comparative Pathology at HMS.

EDUCATION $70,088,551

Lee Nadler, MD ’73 Dean for Clinical and Translational Research Joan Reede, MD, MPH ’90, SM ’92, MBA Dean for Diversity and Community Partnership David Roberts, MD ’95 Dean for External Education Fidencio Saldaña, MD ’00, MPH ’05 Dean for Students Nancy Tarbell, MD Dean for Academic and Clinical Affairs Administrative Deans and Officers Lisa Boudreau Dean for Alumni Affairs and Development M. William Lensch, PhD

Service initiatives bolstered by the Campaign include developing and implementing scalable global health programs that strengthen health systems and impact millions of lives. Funding in this area also advanced health care policy research, including nearly $20 million in grant funding from the Laura and John Arnold Foundation to support the new Healthcare Markets and Regulation Lab. And a $30 million gift from an anonymous donor spurred the launch of the HMS Center for Primary Care, which focuses on strengthening health systems through the transformation of primary care delivery, teams, and leaders.

DISCOVERY $496,240,853

Chief of Staff Stephen Maiorisi Chief Campus Planning and Facilities Officer Elaine Martin Director and Chief Administrative Officer, Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine Kate McDaniel Chief Human Resources Officer Lisa Muto, AB ’79, PhD Executive Dean for Administration Deborah Corwin Scott, MBA Chief Information Officer Gina Vild Associate Dean for Communications and External Relations and Chief Communications Officer Michael White, MS

In the area of leadership, unrestricted gifts provided former Dean Flier and current Dean George Q. Daley, AB ’82, MD ’91, PhD, with flexible funds that they could apply when and where they were most needed to spur innovation. “Thank you to the members of the Harvard Medical School community for your generosity and commitment to our mission in action. There is no more audacious or worthy goal than transforming the future of human health and wellbeing. Your partnership and passion are critical as we work to live up to our values and be a force for good in the world,” says Daley.

SERVICE $151,200,706

July 1, 2011, through June 30, 2018

CAMPAIGN, From Page 1

Dean of Harvard Medical School

Campaign Results: $789 Million Raised

George Q. Daley, AB ’82, MD ’91, PhD

Funds yet to be designated: $998,235

Chief Financial Officer

LEADERSHIP $70,831,268

The Benefactor is produced by the Harvard Medical School Office of Alumni Affairs and Development, 401 Park Drive, Suite 505, Boston, MA 02215. Dean for Alumni Affairs and Development

Designer

Lisa Boudreau

Associates

Editor

Photographers Suzanne Camarata Ball Michael Blanchard John Deputy Gretchen Ertl Steve Gilbert Channing Johnson Steve Lipofsky Shehzad Noorani Len Rubenstein Photography John Soares Joshua Touster Bethany Versoy

Randy Fox Production Coordinator Eliza Butts Writers Christy Brownlee Laura DeCoste Randy Fox Susannah Garland Kat Maus Brandy Newlon

Sametz Blackstone

Contributors

CAMPAIGN HONOR ROLL View the list of generous donors who gave $100,000 or more from July 1, 2011, through June 30, 2018, to support The World Is Waiting: The Campaign for Harvard Medicine

hms.harvard.edu/campaign-honor-roll

Matt Durno Kristine King Steve Stanton

For information, please contact Randy Fox, senior editor and writer, at randall_fox@hms.harvard.edu or 617-384-8629. ©2018 President and Fellows of Harvard College

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Thank You!

Campaign Impact: In Their Words “Harvard Medical School’s openness to exploring new ideas and collaborating with others for the benefit of patients is very important. Our gift supports fresh thinking and enables scientists to take forward new ideas, through effective partnership and innovation.” Ernesto Bertarelli, MBA ’93 Chairman, Bertarelli Partners and Waypoint Capital Member, HMS Board of Fellows

“A significant investment in Harvard Medical School to support current and future leaders in global health will change things for the better. It comes down to kindness to humanity. If HMS can teach and train others to replicate the work Paul Farmer and his team do every day, the world will be better for it.”

“I am confident that the next 5–10 years will see many new treatments for deafness, blindness, and pain, and I think the projects of the Bertarelli Program, by encouraging cross-disciplinary solutions, will be among the most exciting and effective.” David Corey, PhD Bertarelli Professor of Translational Medical Science Director, Bertarelli Program in Translational Neuroscience and Neuroengineering

“I am grateful that this gift from Ronda Stryker and William Johnston allows us to do the kind of great work our children imagine us to do.” Megan Murray, MD ’90, MPH ’96, SD ’01 Ronda Stryker and William Johnston Professor of Global Health Founding Director, HMS Global Health Research Core

Ronda Stryker Director, Stryker Corporation Member, HMS Board of Fellows

“Warren Alpert said that Harvard Medical School is one of the world’s greatest treasures, and if anyone could add to its significance it would be a good thing to do. It’s very personal for us at The Warren Alpert Foundation to carry on his legacy and commitment to HMS.” August “Gus” Schiesser Executive Director, The Warren Alpert Foundation

“Learning I had been accepted into the HMS/MIT MD-PhD Program was a dream come true. I am being trusted with the incredible opportunity to serve my community through the means I feel most passionate about: health care delivery and research.” Tamina Kienka James T. Healy Scholar Harvard/MIT MD-PhD Program

“Recognizing the tremendously talented research environment here, it was a priority for Henri and me to support promising investigators early and directly, with the goal of advancing therapeutic approaches that may dramatically improve patient outcomes.” Belinda Termeer Manager, Termeer Family Office Member, HMS Board of Fellows

“I am privileged to lead a team that is revitalizing health care by redesigning the work of primary care doctors and developing new educational models to improve the patient experience and health outcomes—the ultimate aim of primary care.” Russell Phillips, MD Director, HMS Center for Primary Care William Applebaum Professor of Medicine

“We are bringing together a diverse crosssection of experts throughout the Harvard cancer community, breaking down barriers that have all too often impeded the integration of knowledge and the kind of transformational advances required to develop new and effective therapies.” Joan Brugge, PhD Co-Director, Ludwig Center at Harvard Louise Foote Pfeiffer Professor of Cell Biology

“My laboratory focuses on transformative technologies, including genome reading and editing, often dismissed as ‘too far off ’ or too disruptive to business as usual. Having flexible funding and the support of wonderful donors has been essential for each project we have undertaken.” George Church, PhD ’84 Robert Winthrop Professor of Genetics Founding Core Faculty, Wyss Institute at Harvard University hms.harvard.edu/ca mpa i g n | 

Bertarelli Foundation reinvests in promise of translational research to tackle sensory disorders Neuroscience has reached an extraordinary inflection point. Knowledge gleaned from decades of fundamental research on the brain can now be leveraged to treat some of the most devastating neurologic and psychiatric conditions. Experts believe that sensory disorders—those affecting vision, hearing, smell, taste, touch, and pain in tens of millions of people across the globe—will be at the forefront of this revolution, in part because the sense organs are more accessible and more easily studied than deeper parts of the brain. Now, the Bertarelli Foundation has announced that it is redoubling its investment in this area of research, with a gift of $6.35 million to Harvard Medical School to build on the previous successes of the Bertarelli Program in Translational Neuroscience and Neuroengineering. Ernesto Bertarelli, MBA ’93 (left), and HMS Dean George Q. Daley, AB ’82, MD ’91, PhD, celebrated the accomplishments of the

Established in 2010, the program aims to help bridge the gap between basic and translational neuroscience and to help address important issues that, once solved, will have life-changing outcomes for patients. “In terms of scientific and medical research, Harvard Medical School remains at the pinnacle, and I am very pleased we are able to develop our partnership with this new program,” says the Foundation’s Ernesto Bertarelli, MBA ’93, who is a member of the HMS Board of Fellows. “The School’s openness to exploring new ideas and collaborating with others for the benefit of patients is very important. This new gift aims to support fresh thinking and enable scientists to take forward new ideas, through effective partnership and innovation,” he says. Of this new gift, $5 million will support collaborative research projects focused on understanding and

collaborative grant awardees who presented their research at the 2018 Bertarelli Neuroscience Symposium in Boston last April.

treating sensory disorders, as well as core facilities that will serve as technology incubators. These facilities will develop new instruments and methods that enable previously impossible investigations. “I am confident that the next five to 10 years will see many new treatments for deafness, blindness, and pain, and I think the projects of the Bertarelli Program, which encourage cross-disciplinary solutions, will be among the most exciting and effective,” says neurobiologist David Corey, PhD, the Bertarelli Professor of Translational Medical Science at HMS and the program’s director. The remaining $1.35 million will support the continuation of an international fellows program, bringing five graduate students from École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne—a research

university in Switzerland that specializes in science and engineering—to Boston to complete yearlong academic projects in labs at HMS and its affiliated hospitals. “The Bertarelli Program embodies our quest as physician-scientists to catalyze discovery from bench to bedside,” says HMS Dean George Q. Daley, AB ’82, MD ’91, PhD. “The scientists funded over the past eight years have pinpointed some of the most fundamental aberrations at the root of sensory and neurologic disorders, and they are developing treatments that promise to transform the lives of countless patients, thanks to the foresight and generosity of Ernesto Bertarelli and the Bertarelli Foundation,” Daley says.

BERTARELLI SYMPOSIUM FOCUSES ON GENE THERAPY FOR SENSORY DISORDERS This year’s Bertarelli Symposium, held at Harvard Medical School on April 11, featured investigators applying the latest innovations in gene therapy toward the treatment of sensory disorders. The annual symposium highlights the research projects and investigators funded as part of the Bertarelli Program in Translational Neuroscience and Neuroengineering, a partnership between HMS and the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Geneva. The program was launched with a gift from the Bertarelli Foundation in 2010. In his opening remarks, HMS Dean George Q. Daley, AB ’82, MD ’91, PhD, said: “The Bertarelli Foundation engaged HMS and EPFL in a bold experiment. The premise was that modern biology, specifically the biology needed to bring

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treatments for some of the most terrible maladies of the brain, was too complicated for any one group or laboratory to carry out on its own. Instead, their vision was that cures for neurologic and psychiatric disease could only come from collaborations that brought complementary skills to bear on common problems. Ten years later, we see how prescient this vision was.” The symposium’s keynote speakers were David Liu, AB ’94 (pictured), professor of chemistry and chemical biology at Harvard University; Kathy High, AB ’72, president and head of research development at Spark Therapeutics; and Botond Roska, MD, PhD, director of the Institute of Molecular and Clinical Ophthalmology Basel. Watch Liu’s keynote lecture on a new form of gene editing at hms.harvard.edu/news/restoring-sense

PATEL CELEBRATED AS INAUGURAL PERSHING SQUARE PROFESSOR OF GLOBAL HEALTH

Clearing the roadblocks that impede drug development

Renowned global mental health researcher and innovator Vikram Patel, MBBS, MSc, PhD, was celebrated in May as the inaugural incumbent of the Pershing Square Professorship in Global Health. Patel came to Harvard Medical School in 2017 from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, where he co-founded the Center for Global Mental Health. He also co-founded Sangath, an Indian nongovernmental organization that has won awards from the MacArthur Foundation and World Health Organization. Patel’s research focuses on the epidemiology, sociocultural determinants, and treatment of mental disorders in impoverished regions of India and other resource-poor settings. His research has helped illuminate the burden of mental disorders and suicide in young people, the association of poverty and gender-based violence with depression and suicide, and the integration of interventions for mental disorders in routine-care settings. The professorship was established by The Pershing Square Foundation, which has catalyzed social change by investing in organizations and individuals on the cutting edge of their respective fields. Founded in 2006 by Bill Ackman, AB ’88, MBA ’92, and Karen Herskovitz, MLA ’93, the foundation has stimulated breakthrough achievements in many fields, including global health and social justice.

Joshua Boger, AM ’75, PhD ’79, speaks at the June launch event for the new Harvard-MIT Center for Regulatory Science.

Cheaper, faster, better. Harvard Medical School Dean George Q. Daley, AB ’82, MD ’91, PhD, has used these words repeatedly when discussing his vision for therapeutic development. This articulation resonates strongly with Joshua Boger, AM ’75, PhD ’79. Boger says that while regulation of drug development is necessary and useful, the regulations need “a total rethink.” He says high costs and slow and uncertain processes threaten patients, health care systems, and therapeutic innovation. That’s why he and his wife, Amy Schafer Boger, AB ’77, MD, recently gave $3 million to support the Harvard Program in Therapeutic Science (HiTS) and its new Harvard-MIT Center for Regulatory Science. “We are stuck with an overly complicated, overly expensive, and overly uncertain system of regulations, here in the U.S. and around the world, that has simply fallen behind,” says Joshua Boger, founder and former CEO of Vertex Pharmaceuticals, a member of the HMS Board of Fellows, co-chair of the HMS Discovery Council, and chair of The World Is Waiting: The Campaign for Harvard Medicine.

From left: Paul Farmer, MD ’90, PhD ’90, Kolokotrones University Professor and chair of the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine; Patel; and Ackman celebrate Patel’s inauguration.

“Everyone in the system—researchers, regulators, developers—is working as hard as they can for patients, but the processes themselves are out of date in translation from science to patient. So we need to start over, placing science in the center of a redesign of the entire process, and that is the mission of this new Center for Regulatory Science,” he says. The center brings together scientists, engineers, and physicians from academic institutions, biopharmaceutical companies, and the FDA to apply systems engineering approaches to improve the testing and evaluation process for therapeutics, accelerate the introduction of new medicines, and reduce the cost of biomedical innovation.

Joshua Boger helped to lay the groundwork for the new center, sharing his vision and advocating for it over the past several years. “As much as we benefit from Joshua’s financial support, we benefit equally or more from his advice and leadership,” Sorger says. Boger says one key to improving the regulatory process is to make sure that any new techniques that are developed replace older techniques. Simply adding new ideas to an outdated system results in higher and higher costs, he says. “For example,” Boger says, “most clinical trials and their regulation assume very limited data from each patient gathered at only certain specified times (e.g., follow-up visits). Yet technology now exists to gather and transmit data passively and continuously, and that data could be analyzed and the trials adjusted in real time, not only after the trial ended. Trial designs of this type could be radically cheaper, much faster, and demonstrably better and more relevant to real patient experiences, but we are struggling to shoehorn these new processes into old expectations, paradigms, and regulations.” Adaptive trials of this type are already underway at Harvard and are a key area of research for the new Center for Regulatory Science. Boger will continue his involvement with the center by co-leading its scientific advisory board with former Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Margaret A. “Peggy” Hamburg, AB ’77, MD ’83. He is confident the center will develop methods applicable to cheaper, faster, and better drug development for the benefit of patients and their families. “Regulatory science is exciting science, and Harvard and MIT are the right places to center this crucial work. The future of life sciences may depend on it,” Boger says.

Peter Sorger, AB ’83, PhD, head of HiTS and the Otto Krayer Professor of Systems Pharmacology at HMS, describes the Bogers’ gift as “catalytic.” He says hms.harvard.edu/ca mpa i g n | 

Family helps build momentum toward bipolar disorder breakthroughs When two of his four children were diagnosed with bipolar disorder in their late teens, Kent Dauten, MBA ’79, says it was “like a lightning bolt to our family.” He and his wife, Liz, have no known family history of the disorder. “It was an illness that frankly I knew nothing about,” he says. After working firsthand with doctors, exploring community resources for their children, reading up on the disorder, and attending seminars, the Dautens have become very knowledgeable in the field. But the more they’ve learned, the more they’ve discovered is still unknown. The best drug in the field, lithium, was discovered 70 years ago. Of the few pharmaceutical advances since, most carry side effects that can be untenable for patients, limiting compliance. And far too little is known about the disorder’s biological underpinnings, which has stymied innovation. That’s where the Dautens have stepped in. “It’s become our family’s number one philanthropic priority,” says Jenna Toan, the Dautens’ eldest daughter, who serves as executive director of the Dauten Family Foundation.

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The Dauten Family Foundation has renewed its support of the Harvard Brain Science Initiative Seed Grant Program, aiming to improve the basic understanding of bipolar disorder. Pictured here are Kent Dauten, MBA ’79, and his eldest daughter, Jenna Toan.

To encourage discoveries that might benefit the estimated 5.7 million Americans—and millions more around the world—suffering from this disorder, the Dautens have made gifts targeting specific research goals. They’ve backed studies through Massachusetts General Hospital testing new pharmaceutical regimens, as well as research at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard investigating the genetic underpinnings of bipolar disorder. Three years ago, the family began supporting the Harvard Brain Science Initiative (HBI) Seed Grant Program, a joint initiative between Harvard University’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences and Harvard Medical School. The Dautens gave $3 million over three years to improve the basic understanding of bipolar disorder, building a foundation that could eventually be used to discover new treatments.

HBI Co-Directors Joshua Sanes, AM ’76, PhD ’76, Jeff C. Tarr Professor of Molecular and Cellular Biology and Paul J. Finnegan Family Director of the Harvard Center for Brain Science, and Michael Greenberg, PhD, Nathan Marsh Pusey Professor and chair of the Department of Neurobiology at HMS, lead a team of neurobiologists from Harvard University and Harvard Medical School that distributes $100,000 seed grants to 10 scientists each year through a competitive grant process. These grants have funded a diverse array of projects, such as creating mouse models, studying circadian rhythms, and using neuroimaging to look for subtle brain changes before manic and depressive episodes.

“This is a problem that will take many years to solve,” says Greenberg. “With this second round of funding, the Dautens have shown that they’re with us for the long haul, helping us continue to build momentum.” Sanes says: “When we reached out to the research community, we found a huge number of people with creative new ideas for tackling this problem. We now have an even larger community of interested researchers than we ever expected, and this program has helped us grow it.”

Kent Dauten says that with so much success generating interest among researchers in such a short amount of time, the family decided to renew its commitment with another $3 million gift this year.

WARREN ALPERT PRIZE RECOGNIZES CYSTIC FIBROSIS RESEARCH PIONEERS The Warren Alpert Foundation Prize is awarded yearly to one or more scientists, physicians, or researchers whose achievements have led to the prevention, cure, or treatment of human diseases or disorders. At the annual symposium in October at Harvard Medical School, five extraordinary recipients of the 2018 prize were honored for their contributions to the discovery of the cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) gene, as well as their contributions to the research that led to the development of transformational precision medicines to treat the underlying cause of cystic fibrosis.

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The honorees were Francis Collins, MD, PhD, director of the National Institutes of Health; Paul Negulescu, PhD, senior vice president of research at Vertex Pharmaceuticals; Bonnie Ramsey, MD ’76, vice chair for research in the Department of Pediatrics and the endowed chair in cystic fibrosis at the University of Washington School of Medicine; Lap-Chee Tsui, PhD, founding president of the Academy of Sciences of Hong Kong, president of the Victor and William Fung Foundation, and director of the Qiushi Academy for Advanced Studies; and Michael Welsh, MD, Roy J. Carver Biomedical Research Chair in Internal Medicine and Molecular Physiology and Biophysics at the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine.

From left: Collins, Ramsey, Welsh, and Negulescu at the annual symposium. Tsui was unable to attend.

Omenn invests in rising stars in biomedical informatics Inspired by his enriching experiences as a Harvard Medical School student—engaging in productive laboratory research, participating in the Second Year Show, and serving as class president, to name a few—Gilbert S. Omenn, MD ’65, PhD, has always endeavored to give back to HMS, both philanthropically and as an influential voice on key councils and committees.

in directing us programmatically to the most scientifically rich areas to explore and suggesting an important set of industrial and academic strategic relationships to help further the department’s agenda,” he said. Omenn, who is chair of the HMS Visiting Committee, a member of both the Advisory Committee on Education and the DBMI Advisory Council, and former president of the Harvard Medical Alumni Association, is proud to invest in the development of the department. He says there’s a shortage of specialty training in this rapidly expanding scientific discipline—a field he stresses is critical to the future of human health.

A professor of computational medicine and bioinformatics, internal medicine, human genetics, and public health at the University of Michigan, Omenn was a key advocate in urging HMS to create a formal Department of Biomedical Informatics (DBMI), which it did in 2015. Now, he’s strengthening the department with a $2 million gift to establish the Gilbert S. Omenn, MD ’65, PhD Associate Professorship in Biomedical Informatics. This endowed professorship will help HMS recruit and retain outstanding young faculty. “I’m really excited about this gift,” says Isaac Kohane, MD, PhD, Marion V. Nelson Professor of Biomedical Informatics and chair of DBMI. “Gil has helped get the best and brightest to join our efforts to change the way medicine is practiced, to more of a knowledge- and data-driven discipline. This gift enables us to bring together people with quantitative reasoning skills and an understanding of molecular biology and genetics. We can recruit these rising stars by providing a named professorship

“Biomedical informatics is essential for analysis and modeling of big data from genomics, proteomics, neurosciences, electronic medical records, and wearable sensors. And it is essential for predictive, preventive, personalized, precision medicine,” Omenn says. Gilbert S. Omenn, MD ’65, PhD, has many close colleagues from his days as an HMS student, as well as many ongoing contacts with HMS faculty.

to recognize them and further accelerate work at Harvard Medical School.” Kohane further praised Omenn for his contributions to the department. “Gil has also been very helpful

Kohane couldn’t agree more, emphasizing the field’s vital role in getting the proper treatments to patients. “At this moment, where breakthrough therapies are being developed for cancers and rare diseases, being able to use a large database can make the difference between being able to treat someone effectively tomorrow or having to wait 10 years.”

HYMAN RECEIVES DAVID MAHONEY PRIZE

A SURE THING Give and receive with a Charitable Gift Annuity to help alleviate human suffering caused by disease

Every two years, the Harvard Mahoney Neuroscience Institute (HMNI), which was founded in 1990 by the late David Mahoney and his wife, Hildegarde “Hillie” Mahoney (right), awards a prize recognizing individuals who have significantly increased public awareness about brain science and disorders of the nervous system. The 2018 David Mahoney Prize was given to Steven Hyman, MD ’80 (left), director of the Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Harvard University Distinguished Service Professor of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology, and former provost

of Harvard University. Hyman also served as director of the National Institute of Mental Health, emphasizing investment in neuroscience and emerging genetic technologies. During an April symposium honoring the occasion in New York City, Edward F. Rover, JD ’64, chairman and president of The Dana Foundation and member of the HMNI Council, moderated a conversation between Hyman and Eric R. Kandel, AB ’52, MD, whose seminal discoveries about the biological basis of memory earned him the Nobel Prize in 2000.

Current CGA Rates: Age 70: 6.0% Age 80: 7.7% Rates vary by age

Try our free gift calculator at hms.harvard.edu/calculator to calculate your fixed income for life Or call 1-800-922-1782

hms.harvard.edu/ca mpa i g n | 

Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation honors former president with Academy professorship In 2001, George E. Thibault, MD ’69, helped establish the Academy at Harvard Medical School to recognize outstanding teachers and to promote innovations in medical education. Fast forward 17 years, and Thibault found himself reflecting on his career as a medical educator while delivering the Medical Education Grand Rounds at HMS, a monthly series hosted by the Academy. At the close of the April event, Dean for Medical Education Edward M. Hundert, MD ’84, announced that the Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation, which is the only national foundation dedicated solely to improving the education of health professionals, had established the George E. Thibault Academy Professorship at Harvard Medical School with a gift of $2 million. The professorship honors a decade of impactful foundation leadership by Thibault, who stepped down from his role as president in June. “One of the most meaningful things we have in academia is an endowed chair for a beloved mentor whose name can ripple through the generations because of the impact they’ve had and continue to have through their mentees,” said Hundert. A fixture in the fields of health care and medical education, Thibault taught and mentored medical students, residents, fellows, and junior faculty as a leader at HMS and its renowned affiliated hospitals for four decades. While at the foundation, he helped change the national perspective on the importance and effectiveness of interprofessional education, improved nursing education and promoted nursing leadership, and stimulated and influenced the national dialogue on health professions education.

Left to right: Edward M. Hundert, MD ’84, George E. Thibault, MD ’69, and David A. Hirsh, MD, celebrate the announcement of the George E. Thibault Academy Professorship, established by the Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation.

“George has been an extraordinary leader of the Macy Foundation, forging new thinking and new paradigms for the education of health professionals, while burnishing the foundation’s over 80-year legacy as a vanguard for change,” said Board Chairman William H. Wright II. “The establishment of an Academy professorship is a fitting tribute to a leader who leaves behind a rich and impactful personal legacy that will continue to inform the Macy mission and the everevolving field of health professionals education.”

named the inaugural incumbent of the professorship, which was celebrated formally Oct. 30. “I can’t think of anything that makes me happier than having a permanent presence here at Harvard Medical School, while supporting David and the mission of the Academy,” said Thibault. “The professorship exists in perpetuity, which to me means the Academy will exist in perpetuity. That’s a very important statement of values for the Medical School.”

David A. Hirsh, MD, director of the Academy and of the HMS Academy Fellowship in Medical Education, was

CELEBRATING INVESTMENTS IN POSSIBILITY Students, donors, volunteers, and leaders of the Harvard Medical School community gathered on Sept. 13 at Hotel Commonwealth in Boston for Spotlight on Medical Education. This annual event celebrates the School’s students and those who have invested in teaching, learning, and financial aid at HMS. Paul Farmer, MD ’90, PhD ’90, Kolokotrones University Professor and chair of the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine at HMS, gave the keynote address. A scholarship recipient himself, Farmer spoke about how support from HMS made much of his career possible. “Philanthropy gave me a chance to become a physician. That would never have happened to anyone in my circumstances,” said Farmer. His father died not long after he was accepted at HMS, and his mother was working as a grocery store cashier trying to support a family of six children. “This night is a chance for me to say thank you for all of the support that has made my life possible and made it so rich and invigorating,” he added.

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HMS Dean George Q. Daley, AB ’82, MD ’91, PhD, introduced two financial aid recipients, both of whom underscored their need for support and their gratitude for it. Rachel Wolfson, Harvard/MIT MD-PhD Class of 2019, said her desire to help patients in the clinic while studying the biology of their diseases in the lab led her to cancer research at HMS. Parisa Fallah, MD Class of

2020 (pictured), said she developed an interest in helping the underserved when she witnessed great poverty while growing up in Seoul, South Korea. “Knowing I could attend such an institution was life changing,” Fallah said. “Being at HMS has put me in a place that I honestly could never have imagined.”

Grateful alumni pass it on It is a privilege to be part of the healing profession. Alumni Fund Chair Tamara R. Fountain, MD ’88, says this is easy to forget sometimes. “It is now our turn to pay it forward and help Harvard Medical School continue this storied tradition of medical education for the next generation of aspiring young physicians,” she says. More than 2,700 alumni heeded the call in fiscal year 2018, which ran from July 1, 2017, through June 30, 2018, with gifts totaling nearly $10 million. These generous gifts ranged in size from $10 to $1 million, with a median gift amount of $250 and average gift amount of $2,000. Encouraged to support the area most meaningful to them, the vast majority of alumni designated their gifts to either education, which bolsters financial aid for students, or to flexible, unrestricted funding, which can be used where and when it is needed most.

“I was a recipient of financial aid at HMS, so I truly understand the power of that extra support toward obtaining a medical education. I hope that my gift provides for students in need who, like me, would not have otherwise been able to attend HMS,” says Marks, an EHC member.

The chair celebrates his 60th Reunion and honors Arthur Guyton, MD ’43, a teacher and mentor of Todd’s at the University of Mississippi whose endorsement made it possible for Todd to transfer to HMS in 1956.

Supporting education comes naturally for Joe Todd, MD ’58. “My parents were professional educators whose careers were dedicated to advancing public education in America’s poorest state (Mississippi), so donating to various scholarship funds in their honor has been a priority for me. There is nothing poor about HMS, but its mission is noble and deserves my support,” says Todd, a retired cardiovascular and thoracic surgeon in Cincinnati. Todd made a gift to HMS through his individual retirement account to name a chair in the Joseph B. Martin Conference Center Amphitheater.

Ezekiel Hersey Council member Shirley Marks, MD ’73, MPH ’76, is recognized nationally for her efforts to reduce the stigma associated with mental illness.

Their motivations for giving back are as personal as their experiences. “HMS and the community matter tremendously to me. I am forever grateful to the instructors that taught me, which is why I give back,” says Liz Kwo, MD ’09, MBA ’11, MPH ’16. A physician-entrepreneur—she is co-founder and CEO of Kalea Wear scrubs and formerly started InfiniteMD—with two kids under 3 years old, Kwo still finds time to stay connected to HMS. She volunteers as a class leader, co-hosted a Recent Grad luncheon last year, and is a member of the Federman Loyalty Circle, which recognizes alumni who have given annual gifts for five years or more. For pediatrician Melinda Zitin, MD ’73, and psychiatrist Barry Zitin, MD ’73, both now retired, HMS’s influence is clear. “The most profound impact of HMS on my life was meeting and marrying my classmate Melinda, still my wife of over 46 years. Oh yes, I also got a great medical education, had some wonderful mentors, and bonded with many incredibly bright and caring classmates,” says Barry Zitin.

Steadfast donors Barry and Melinda Zitin (second and third from left) join their 1973 classmates to celebrate their 45th Reunion in June.

Not only are the Zitins part of the Federman Loyalty Circle, they are also members of the Dean’s Council, which recognizes annual gifts of $2,000 or more, and the Ezekiel Hersey Council (EHC), which recognizes those who have established a life-income gift or included HMS in their estate plans. They are dedicated volunteers, too. Barry’s leadership as a class agent and the couple’s involvement in their 45th Reunion Committee were instrumental in helping their class raise the largest gift—$731,318— among all Reunion classes. Shirley Marks, MD ’73, MPH ’76, a psychiatrist based in Tyler, Texas, established her first charitable gift annuity (CGA) at HMS in honor of her 40th Reunion. This year, in honor of her 45th Reunion, she established a second CGA. In addition to receiving tax benefits, she has deferred her annuity income from both of these gifts so that she’ll receive higher payments than if she had accepted the income immediately. Dean’s Council member Joseph Todd, MD ’58, visits the chair he

Federman Loyalty Circle member Liz Kwo, MD ’09, MBA ’11,

named at HMS to celebrate his 60th Reunion and honor his late

MPH ’16, spends some quality time with her daughter Leila.

teacher and mentor Arthur Guyton, MD ’43. hms.harvard.edu/ca mpa i g n | 

Family hopes to speed up progress of Lyme disease research

EBERT NAMED INAUGURAL CANELLOS PROFESSOR OF MEDICINE Benjamin L. Ebert, MD ’99 (left), chair of medical oncology at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (DFCI), has been installed as the inaugural George P. Canellos, MD, and Jean S. Canellos Professor of Medicine. At DFCI, Ebert has made significant contributions to the understanding and treatment of hematologic disorders, such as leukemia and myelodysplastic syndrome. He oversees more than 200 faculty members and 40 laboratories studying the causes of, and developing new therapies for, a wide range of adult cancers. In his research, Ebert has focused on uncovering the genetic mutations and mechanisms that underlie myeloid malignancies. By gaining insight into the clinical impact of genetic abnormalities in these diseases, he and his associates hope to identify new therapeutic targets and improve the identification of patients most likely to benefit from specific treatments.

The Fairbairn family — Nina Fairbairn, AB ’17; Grant Fairbairn, Harvard College Class of 2021; Emily Fairbairn; and Malcolm Fairbairn, MBA ’94 — is hoping to spur change in the fight against Lyme disease.

Nina Fairbairn, AB ’17, played on Harvard’s golf team all four of her undergraduate years, deftly mixing athletics with academics to ultimately graduate cum laude.

estimates 330,000 Americans contract each year. In contrast, the NIH will spend nearly double that amount on West Nile virus, which infects only about 2,000 Americans annually.

But during the summer between her junior and senior years, Nina, usually full of energy, became chronically tired, even after sleeping nine or more hours a night. When she returned to school, she started slipping away between classes to nap, despite consuming up to seven cups of coffee a day. On top of her extreme fatigue, she had shooting pains in her joints and back, persistent low thyroid hormone issues, and a pervasive brain fog that made it difficult to think or concentrate.

To spur change, Emily and Malcolm gave $250,000 to Harvard University’s Department of Athletics to fund tick bite prevention efforts. But to help those who already have the disease, they wanted to give more. So, they made a $1 million gift to the Harvard Medical School labs of Chao-ting Wu, AB ’76, PhD ’85, professor of genetics, and George Church, PhD ’84, Robert Winthrop Professor of Genetics.

It was only after Nina’s mother, Emily, ran into another Harvard golf mom that she finally gained some insight. The woman, whose son was taking time off to recover from Lyme disease, started describing symptoms that were frighteningly similar to Nina’s. Not only that, but the health problems the woman described were similar to health issues plaguing Emily, her husband, Malcolm Fairbairn, MBA ’94, and their son, Grant, a Harvard College student (Class of 2021). Emily decided to request testing for the whole family. “We all had it. Every one of us, even the dog,” she says. After reading more about the disease, Emily says she was shocked to find out how few federal research dollars are spent on Lyme research. In 2018, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) will spend about $23 million on Lyme, a disease that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

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The professorship was made possible by George and Kaity David and their children, Harry David, Anastassis David, the late Nicola David-Pinedo, and Clemente Pinedo, the Stavros Niarchos Foundation, and by gifts from family and friends of George P. Canellos (right), the professorship’s namesake. Canellos joined DFCI in 1975 and served as the chief of medical oncology for 20 years. He is the William Rosenberg Professor of Medicine, Emeritus.

Church says that he, Wu, and their colleagues plan to use these funds to study both individuals who contract Lyme and those in high-risk settings who have never had symptoms or used antibiotics to prevent an infection. “We hope that we might find examples in Lyme analogous to our experience with HIV, for which a small fraction of people are resistant either because of rare neutralizing antibodies or genetically missing HIV receptors on T-cells,” he says. “Both of these observations have transitioned to therapeutics in clinical trials.” Emily says she hopes her family’s gift will encourage other donors—especially those who might also be personally affected—to contribute to the fight against this disease. “The tide is turning against Lyme,” she says. “But for me, it’s not turning fast enough.”

WHOM WILL YOU HONOR? Name a chair in the Joseph B. Martin Conference Center Amphitheater Visit hms.harvard.edu/chairs or call 617-384-8441 to learn more

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1 Left to right: Ben Wyler, MD ’08, MPH ’09, emergency medical resident at Los Angeles County Medical Center; Melissa Burroughs Peña, MD ’08, physician and cardiologist at Stanford Health Care; and John Allen Houston, MD ’08, emergency physician at Oklahoma University Medical Center, enjoy the Recent Graduate Gathering at the Rooftop@Revere. 2 David Mou, AB ’08, MD ’13, MBA ’14, psychiatrist at Massachusetts General Hospital and co-founder and medical director of Valera Health, and Katie McCafferty, AB ’07, DMD ’13, pediatric dentist at Chestnut Dental, enjoy the Reunion Gala at the Four Seasons Hotel Boston, where guests mingled during a cocktail reception prior to their private class dinners. 3 Left to right: Mathai Mammen, AM ’93, MD ’93, PhD ’96, global head of research and development at Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson; Peter Clark, MD ’93, professor and chair of urology at Carolinas HealthCare System; and Rajesh Mangrulkar, MD ’93, associate dean for medical student education at University of Michigan Medical School, reconnect for their 25th Reunion. 4 Left to right: Alvin Poussaint, MD, professor of psychiatry and faculty associate dean for student affairs at HMS; Reunion Committee volunteer Allison Bryant, AB ’94, MD ’98, MPH ’04; and Richard Morris, MD ’98, attend the Underrepresented in Medicine Gathering.

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5 The Scientific Symposium, titled “Discovery at HMS: Regenerative Biology,” featured speakers (left to right) Douglas Melton, PhD, Xander University Professor at Harvard University; HMS Dean George Q. Daley, AB ’82, MD ’91, PhD; Harald C. Ott, MD, associate professor of surgery at HMS and thoracic surgeon at Massachusetts General Hospital; April M. Craft, PhD, assistant professor of orthopedic surgery at HMS and Boston Children’s Hospital; and panel moderator A.W. Karchmer, MD ’64, chair of alumni relations.

7 Laird Patterson, MD ’68, who volunteered for her 50th Reunion Committee and is a member of both the Dean’s Council and Ezekiel Hersey Council, laughs with attendees of the 25th Reunion Symposium during a break.

6 Margaret Hamburg, AB ’77, MD ’83, foreign secretary of the National Academy of Medicine, president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, former head of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and vice chair of the HMS Board of Fellows, was among the featured speakers at the Alumni Day Symposium, titled “Advances in Medicine: It Takes a Biomedical Village.” The event was moderated by Michael Rosenblatt, MD ’73 (far left), chief medical officer of Flagship Pioneering, a Reunion Committee volunteer, and member of the Board of Fellows, Advisory Council on Education, Alumni Council, Dean's Council, and Federman Loyalty Circle. The other featured speakers were Lee Nadler, MD ’73 (second from left), dean for clinical and translational research and Virginia and D.K. Ludwig Professor of Medicine at HMS; Christopher Austin, MD ’86 (right), director of the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences at the National Institutes of Health; and Mathai Mammen, AM ’93, MD ’93, PhD ’96 (not pictured), global head of research and development at Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson.

9 Left to right: Rainu Kaushal, MD ’93, MPH ’00, Nanette Laitman Distinguished Professor and chair of the Department of Healthcare Policy & Research at Weill Cornell Medicine and New York Presbyterian Hospital, Reunion Committee volunteer, and Dean’s Council member; Elizabeth Garner, MD ’93, MPH ’94, chief medical officer at Agile Therapeutics Inc. and a Reunion Committee volunteer; and Tejal Gandhi, MD ’93, MPH ’99, chief clinical and safety officer at the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, shared insights on “Finding Joy in Healing and Caring” during the 25th Reunion Symposium.

8 Student-led campus tours gave alumni and friends a look inside the Countway Library, Gordon Hall, and the newly renovated Tosteson Medical Education Center (TMEC), including the Clinical Skills Center in TMEC (pictured).

10 Reunion Committee volunteer and Dean’s Council member David T. Cooke, MD ’98, enjoys the Reunion Family Picnic on the Charles River with his wife, Rachael Fulp-Cooke, MPH, and daughter Audrey.

Visit alumni.hms.harvard.edu/reunion-2018 for more photos hms.harvard.edu/ca mpa i g n | 11

Gaining insight into autism Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is one of the most common neurodevelopmental disorders, affecting more than 2 million people in the U.S.— and its prevalence appears to be growing. While about 1 in 150 children were diagnosed with ASD in 2000, now the ratio is closer to 1 in 59. Despite decades of research, scientists have made little headway in gaining a precise understanding of what causes ASD or in developing truly effective treatments for this condition. That’s why Rick Moskovitz, AB ’69, MD ’73, and his wife, Nancy, have decided to fund a unique project in Harvard Medical School's Department of Biomedical Informatics. The People Powered Medicine Project for Autism aims to generate and analyze a wealth of data derived from patients with ASD. Department Chair Isaac Kohane, MD, PhD, says that rather than obtaining information from clinic visits—the traditional method of ASD research—this new effort will gather a wideranging data set largely unobtainable from traditional medicine. The information in this dataset will include whole-genome sequences from saliva samples, daily activity logs from activity trackers, material from public-facing social media, and responses to questionnaires regarding patients’ experiences with this disorder.

Considering the amount of data generated, says Kohane, the department is uniquely positioned to parse the data to find patterns that might translate into new biological insights into this disorder. This type of research isn’t typically funded by government grants because it’s not hypothesis-based. “But that’s precisely why such projects should be funded,” says Moskovitz. “With the help of big data analytics, large diagnostic groups can be broken down according to multiple parameters, including nuances in clinical symptoms, gender, genetic signatures, neurophysiological and imaging studies, chemical markers, and even patientderived stem cells,” he says. “Therapeutic agents can be studied in groups of patients that are truly biologically similar.” Moskovitz continued: “The autistic spectrum includes patients that vary widely in symptom type and severity as well as levels of disability, ranging from people incapable of surviving on their own to people able to adapt to their limitations and live independently. Intuitively, this would suggest not one, but likely a variety of specific disorders that will hopefully be described in the future with help from big data and artificial intelligence.”

Rick Moskovitz, AB ’69, MD ’73, and his wife, Nancy, are funding a project at HMS that will use big data analytics to gain new insights into autism spectrum disorder.

HMS legend’s life-income gift boosts scholarship fund Carl Waldemar Walter, AB ’28, MD ’32, is memorialized at Harvard Medical School by an amphitheater bearing his name in the Tosteson Medical Education Center. He inspires awe not only for his colossal contributions to medicine—developing the plastic blood bag, reducing infections and fire risks at hospitals, and advancing medical education, to name a few—but also for his efforts raising funds to support students and faculty.

During his life, Walter, who taught surgery at HMS for decades and, following his retirement, ambitiously guided alumni giving, established several life-income gifts and funds supporting student research and professorships. He named Dorothy Wysocki Errera the beneficiary of one of his charitable remainder unitrusts, which provided her income during her lifetime. Following Errera’s passing last year, the trust has distributed $844,800 to HMS, supporting the endowed Wysocki Family Scholarship Fund.

“Scholarship funds that come in through life-income gifts are some of the most precious gifts to support our goal of making our MD program accessible to anyone who is admitted to HMS,” says Dean for Medical Education Edward M. Hundert, MD ’84. “Carl W. Walter was a legend, and his close collaboration with Dorothy Errera is a beautiful example of creative partnership to advance the HMS mission to relieve human suffering.”

Errera earned her registered-nurse credential from Peter Bent Brigham Hospital School of Nursing in the early 1940s and became a staff nurse at the hospital (now Brigham and Women’s Hospital), where Walter spent his 40-year career. She worked for many years at HMS, helping coordinate projects undertaken by a prolific medical and surgical research team featuring Walter. This team pioneered work on blood transfusions, aseptic surgical techniques, and kidney dialysis.

“Scholarship funds that come in through lifeincome gifts are some of the most precious gifts to support our goal of making our MD program accessible to anyone who is admitted to HMS.”

As Walter’s chief assistant, Errera collaborated with him on a specialty publication for the journal Hospital Topics that focused on operating room procedures and techniques. She also edited the seminal text “Aseptic Treatment of Wounds,” written by Walter. Inspired by her experiences working with surgical residents at the Brigham, Errera became an exceptional philanthropist in her own right. She established nine charitable gift annuities between 1988 and 2005 totaling more than $428,000, all in support of the Wysocki Family Scholarship Fund. Carl Waldemar Walter, AB ’28, MD ’32, established a charitable remainder unitrust to benefit Dorothy Wysocki Errera, a registered nurse and his former chief assistant, during her lifetime.  | the benefactor

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—Edward M. Hundert, MD ’84

Believing in the dean’s vision Longtime Harvard Medical School supporters Christiana Bardon, MD ’98, MBA ’03, and Ansbert Gadicke, MD, are more excited than ever about the direction the School is heading. They want to ensure that HMS Dean George Q. Daley, AB ’82, MD ’91, PhD, has the resources to keep pushing HMS to the center of the medical universe. “George has a vision that leadership requires,” Bardon says. “We are in the midst of a multiyear evolution expanding HMS’s influence beyond Harvard and beyond the walls of academic medicine, positioning the School as the leader in all things medical.” Daley praised the couple’s “wonderfully generous gift” to the Dean’s Leadership Fund and their unwavering support.

of Ansbert and Chris as Board of Fellows advisers— and as friends—means so much.” Gadicke, who has remained in close contact with Daley since the early 1990s, when they both held positions at the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, is encouraged to see the dean interacting with industry. “George can be a tremendous leader in this area,” says Gadicke. Given that Bardon has kept close ties with HMS over the years, it’s fitting that this gift was made a few months before she celebrated her 20th Reunion, for which she served on her Reunion Committee and hosted an alumni gathering at her home. “HMS is training a generation of leaders throughout all fields of medicine, so it’s exciting to stay connected,” she says.

“As a dean, leadership support is so helpful in addressing key priorities,” Daley said. “The support

HMS Board of Fellows members Ansbert Gadicke, MD, and Christiana Bardon, MD ’98, MBA ’03, want to ensure that HMS Dean George Q. Daley, AB ’82, MD ’91, PhD, has the resources he needs to advance the School’s mission.

Yeung family seeks to increase student diversity As a member of the Harvard Medical School Board of Fellows and co-chair of the Advisory Council on Education, Alan C. Yeung, MD ’84, counsels HMS leaders on the School’s educational programs and activities. Through this lens, he has been passionate about supporting scholarships and financial aid at his alma mater. Most recently, Yeung and his wife, Elene Lee, established the Yeung Family REACH Scholarship at Harvard Medical School with gifts totaling $200,000. “The cost of a medical education continues to rise, and high debt levels can impact where an admitted student chooses to study,” says Yeung. “I’m happy HMS is looking for ways to think beyond traditional loans and grants and is putting an emphasis on keeping students who would do best at Harvard, but who may opt to attend another institution due to financial constraints.”

Medical student debt has increased since the federal government ceased subsidizing the interest on

students who are historically underrepresented in the medical profession to accept their HMS admission. “We are at risk of medicine becoming a profession only for the wealthy, or where matriculated, lowincome students graduate lacking the financial latitude to choose public service, academic, or communitybased careers,” says Edward M. Hundert, MD ’84, dean for medical education. “Gifts such as those from the Yeung family ensure that HMS can reduce barriers to educational access and provide opportunities for deserving students from all walks of life.”

Alan C. Yeung, MD ’84, and his wife, Elene Lee, are committed to making medical education affordable and accessible to all admitted students.

professional-school loans. Also, most deferred and low-interest loans that were standard in the past are no longer offered. The REACH program provides supplemental scholarship funding to reduce the mandatory unit loan, making it more feasible for

Yeung believes the School also has a responsibility to educate students who reflect the diversity of the patients they will serve. “There is a lot of opportunity for HMS to provide more care, more equitably, by targeting these aspiring medical students and giving them the freedom to pursue their interests,” he says. Faculty and students talk about HMS's commitment to diversity at tinyurl.com/HMSdiversity

ALUMNI COUNCIL ELECTION RESULTS This past spring, Harvard Medical School graduates cast their votes during the annual Alumni Council election, selecting four new councilors. Representing the Second, Fifth, and

Ninth Pentad, respectively, the new councilors are (left to right) Joanna “Mimi” Choi, MD ’09, assistant clinical professor of pediatrics at Olive View-UCLA Medical Center; Allison L. McDonough, MD ’97,

an oncology-focused primary care physician at Primary Care Associates (MGH West); and Ted R. Kohler, AB ’72, MD ’76, professor of surgery at University of Washington VA Puget Sound Health Care System. Alfred Sommer, MD ’67 (far right), dean emeritus and professor at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, was elected councilor-at-large.

hms.harvard.edu/ca mpa i g n | 

Alumnus expands REACH Harvard Medical School has a proud tradition of adhering to the twin values of need-blind admissions and need-based financial aid. In recent years, however, the proliferation of merit awards at other medical schools has made it harder for HMS to achieve the diverse community of students that is so critical to 21st-century medicine. In 2017, an anonymous gift enabled HMS to pilot the REACH Financial Aid Fund, a supplemental scholarship program that acknowledges student attributes of resilience, excellence, achievement, compassion, and a demonstrated commitment to helping the underserved. The program provides funding to reduce the mandatory unit loan, making it more feasible for students who are historically underrepresented in the medical profession to accept their HMS admission. In the program’s pilot year, 92 percent of students who were offered this funding decided to attend HMS.

Inspired by this early success, Martin R. Prince, MD ’84, has established a REACH Scholarship in his name with a gift of $450,000, which creates both a current-use and an endowed fund to support student financial aid administered and awarded through the program.

perspectives among students, staff, and faculty enrich the entire Harvard Medicine community. We are grateful for the support Dr. Prince has given us,” says Hundert.

“I hope that this program continues to make Harvard Medical School accessible to those exceptional applicants who are being recruited by many top schools so they can choose based on fit rather than financial aid packages,” he says. Dean for Medical Education Edward M. Hundert, MD ’84, is optimistic about the long-term future of REACH and its impact on medical education at the School.

Martin R. Prince, MD ’84, hopes that programs such as the REACH Financial Aid Fund will allow applicants to choose

“We strongly believe that education for all physicians is enhanced by student diversity, and that different

where to pursue their medical education based on fit rather

“I want the money spent down so that it’s helping immediately and creating a foundation for future work. I also hope that the funds will be spent on the seed stage of promising projects—ideas that are not mature enough for grant support,” he says.

Golub, a member of the HMS Discovery Council, says his affinity for Harvard has roots in the previous generation of his family. His uncle Benjamin S. Golub, AB ’39, and father, Leon M. Golub, AB ’42, grew up poor during the Great Depression but still earned degrees at Harvard College as commuting students with almost full-time side jobs.

than on financial aid packages.

Paying back a debt of gratitude As Harvard University’s record-breaking capital campaign was winding down, Lawrence Golub, AB ’80, JD ’83, MBA ’83, took some time to reflect on his philanthropy. Already a generous donor to The Harvard Campaign, Golub chose to make additional gifts across several schools, including his first gift to Harvard Medical School. “I had long planned to support HMS, and sometimes a deadline, like the end of a campaign, gets things moving,” Golub says. He gave $150,000 to the Harvard Medical School Unrestricted Fund because he felt that’s where his gift would make the greatest impact.

HMS Dean George Q. Daley, AB ’82, MD ’91, PhD, says he’s deeply grateful for Golub’s investment in the School’s mission. “Lawrence’s discretionary support enables our faculty and students to advance the ideas that will have the greatest potential to help people live longer, healthier lives,” Daley says.

“I am incredibly grateful for their hard work and for the life transformation that Harvard provided to them. Their accomplishments enabled mine. So, our family feels a permanent sense of gratitude toward Harvard,” says Golub.

ALUMNI DAY OFFERS CHANCE TO RECONNECT Harvard Medical School alumni were invited to rediscover the campus June 1, when a wide variety of offerings were presented as part of Alumni Day.

Alumni Association. They were then treated to an impressive roster of speakers at the Alumni Day Symposium, whose theme was “Advances in Medicine: It Takes a Biomedical Village.”

After enjoying a continental breakfast at the New Research Building, alumni were welcomed at the Annual Business Meeting of the Harvard Medical

Next came the State of the School Address, delivered by HMS Dean George Q. Daley, AB ’82, MD ’91, PhD, followed by a private lunch for Society of the Silver

Stethoscope members—alumni who have celebrated their 60th Reunion. Tours of the HMS campus were a mid-afternoon highlight, while late afternoon featured the Underrepresented in Medicine Gathering. Finally, that evening, alumni who graduated in 2003 or later mingled at the Rooftop@Revere Bar. Left: Ouzama Nicholson, AB ’94, MD ’98 (center), and Pamela Weinfeld, AB ’94, MD ’98 (right), chat with fellow HMS alumni at the Annual Business Meeting of the Harvard Medical Alumni Association.

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In brief Bruce Yankner, MD, PhD, professor of genetics and neurology and co-director of the Paul F. Glenn Center for the Biology of Aging, received $472,500 from the Ludwig Family Foundation in support of the work in his laboratory on transcriptional regulation in aging and Alzheimer’s disease, and the exploration of novel therapeutic approaches that focus on preventing cognitive decline during aging.

The following faculty-generated grants of $250,000 or more were awarded by organizations to support Harvard Medical School faculty members in their work to alleviate human suffering caused by disease.

Mariella Filbin, MD, PhD, instructor in pediatrics at Boston Children’s Hospital; Andrew Elia, MD, PhD, assistant professor of radiation oncology at Massachusetts General Hospital; and Deepak Rao, MD, PhD, assistant professor of medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, each received $700,000 from the Burroughs Wellcome Fund via the foundation’s Career Awards for Medical Scientists program.

The Commonwealth Fund awarded a grant of $800,000 to support The Commonwealth Fund Mongan Fellowship in Minority Health Policy under the direction of Dean for Diversity and Community Partnership Joan Y. Reede, MD, MPH ’90, MS ’92, MBA (above with Mongan Fellows). A second grant of nearly $350,000, awarded to David Grabowski, PhD, professor of health care policy, supports a crossinstitution collaboration aiming to evaluate key economic and clinical outcomes associated with the Commonwealth Care Alliance health care model.

David Ginty, PhD, the Edward R. and Anne G. Lefler Professor of Neurobiology at HMS, received more than $700,000 as part of the Simons Foundation Autism Research Initiative. The grant supports Ginty’s research into the underlying neural mechanisms associated with touch perception in autism spectrum disorder.

Johannes Walter, PhD, professor of biological chemistry and molecular pharmacology, received an American Cancer Society Research Professor Award worth $400,000 in support of his work elucidating the impact of DNA replication, transcription, and repair on the development of cancer. Nancy Keating, MD, MPH ’98, professor of health care policy, received $143,000 from the society’s Pilot and Exploratory Projects in Cancer Control and Prevention Research program for her work to understand what is most important to patients with advanced cancer as they near the end of their lives. The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation gave a $327,033 grant to Jose Zubizarreta, PhD, assistant professor of health care policy, for his work developing statistical methods that improve the design and analysis of randomized experiments and observational studies of causal effects.

The Edward N. and Della L. Thome Memorial Foundation awarded $500,000 to Sandeep Robert “Bob” Datta, MD ’97, PhD ’04, associate professor of neurobiology, to support his research into a gene family that may provide insight into and therapeutic potential for neurodegenerative diseases.

The Howard Hughes Medical Institute gave nearly $500,000 to support the 2018 HHMI Medical Research Fellows Program under the direction of Jane Neill, associate dean for medical education planning and administration. The funding provides a year of full-time, mentored laboratory research training for 13 HHMI Medical Fellows at HMS. A 14th student will participate in the program thanks to support from the Foundation Fighting Blindness.

The Aetna Foundation gave $484,000 to continue its support of the Aetna Research Collaboration under the direction of Isaac Kohane, MD, PhD, the Marion V. Nelson Professor and chair of the Department of Biomedical Informatics. The collaboration focuses on new methods of analyzing health care data to further clinical research and improve the quality and affordability of health care.

The Louis E. Wolfson Foundation provided $320,000 to help HMS students with demonstrated financial need pay for tuition through institutional loans, continuing more than 30 years of support for deserving students. . Sichen Shao, PhD, assistant professor of cell biology, received a Smith Family Award for Excellence in Biomedical Research from the Richard A. and Susan F. Smith Family Foundation. The $300,000 award supports her research into the fundamental principles that govern protein triage reactions, which are critical for maintaining cellular physiology and preventing disease. hms.harvard.edu/ca mpa i g n | 1

Honoring faith in leadership Brimming with energy. That is how John A. Kaneb, AB ’56, describes HMS Dean George Q. Daley, AB ’82, MD ’91, PhD, adding that this is a great trait for Harvard Medical School to have in its leader. “His background is ideal, academically and medically. And frankly, he understands very well the challenges that are presented by the School’s financial model,” says Kaneb, who is chairman of HP Hood. This confidence in Daley recently led Kaneb and his wife, Ginny, to give $100,000 to HMS to be used at the dean’s discretion. This gift builds upon the couple’s legacy of support, which spans 20 years. In addition to being longtime members of the HMS Board of Fellows, they have funded immunology research and established a fund to recognize and

support two outstanding junior faculty researchers who are selected by the dean annually and known as Kaneb Fellows. “We are so impressed with George Daley and what he is bringing to the medical school. We wanted to provide support in a very targeted way for him to be able to personally decide where it would be best used, rather than telling him where we wanted it to be used,” says John Kaneb. Daley says this flexible funding will help support new initiatives and areas of greatest opportunity, such as therapeutics. “I am so grateful for the Kanebs’ support and for their confidence in me. I will work hard to live up to their hopes and expectations,” says Daley.

John A. Kaneb, AB ’56, and his wife, Ginny, say they have a deep knowledge and appreciation for “the greatness of HMS.”

Bequest reflects donor’s fondness for Countway Growing up as an only child in Chile, Rogelio Alarcón spent a lot of time playing with the four siblings of a neighboring family. He was staying with this family when he found out that his parents, returning home from a wedding 300 miles away, were killed in an auto accident. The neighboring family took in Alarcón as one of its own, but soon after, that family’s patriarch died, leaving the mother, Isabel Banegas, to raise all five children. A pharmacist, she moved the family to Chile’s capital city, Santiago, in search of better opportunities for her kids. Undeterred by the heartache he experienced, Alarcón succeeded in school and decided to study medicine at the University of Chile, earning his MD degree in 1950. He came to the U.S. and eventually worked as a research associate at the Children's Cancer Research Foundation (now Dana-Farber Cancer Institute), Harvard Medical School, and the Cancer Research Institute at New England Deaconess Hospital (now Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center). He then worked as a staff physician at Boston Children’s Hospital and the Bedford VA Medical Center.

Alarcón spent countless hours poring over the literature on cancer at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, which opened in 1965. His fondness for that institution is reflected in the $144,196 testamentary gift the library has received from Alarcón’s estate. The library’s director and chief administrative officer, Elaine Martin, said the Countway is thrilled to receive Alarcón’s bequest. “His generous gift will allow us to begin reshaping the library by working on goals that align with creating a library for the future,” Martin said. “In particular, we plan to use a portion of the gift in support of student services. We hope to convert current administrative space into more user-friendly student study space, incorporate student wellness initiatives into the library, and embed our librarians into the curriculum.”

During his life, Alarcón built a huge collection of music that he listened to every day, and he traveled the world attending classical-music concerts. Upon retiring, he returned to Chile to be with members

of the family that took him in decades before. He died in 2013 at the age of 87. “Countway is one of the leading medical libraries in the world, and with contributions such as Dr. Alarcón’s, we intend to remain in that position and continue our pursuit of excellence with innovative spaces and programs,” Martin said. That would be music to Alarcón’s ears.

Students work inside the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine.

EZEKIEL HERSEY COUNCIL DINNER FEATURES DISCUSSION ON THE AGING BRAIN On behalf of Ezekiel Hersey Council (EHC) Chairman Jordan J. Cohen, MD ’60, HMS Dean George Q. Daley, AB ’82, MD ’91, PhD, welcomed Council members to the 28th annual EHC dinner May 2 at the Harvard Club of Boston. The dinner featured a discussion titled “Advances in Understanding and Treating Disorders of the Aging Brain.” Nancy J. Tarbell, MD (left), dean for academic and clinical affairs and the C.C. Wang Professor of Radiation Oncology at Harvard Medical School, moderated the discussion between HMS faculty members David Corey, PhD (right), Bertarelli Professor of Translational Medical Science, and Bruce Yankner, MD, PhD (center), professor of genetics and neurology.

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The Council comprises more than 600 members from around the world who have made investments in education, discovery, service, and leadership by

establishing life income gifts, naming HMS as a beneficiary of a retirement, investment, or bank account, or including HMS in their estate plans.

Making MEDscience a national success Brant Binder was concerned that his oldest daughter’s all-girls school was writing off STEM education because “girls don’t do that.” So, he funded one classroom’s participation in Harvard Medical School’s MEDscience program, a creditbearing, semester-long high school course designed to expose students to careers in science, technology, engineering, and math through hands-on clinical cases and classroom teaching. The students had a blast, Binder said, and the program was transformative for his daughter, who found her passion in school and is now a pre-med student at the University of San Diego. Binder joined the MEDscience board of advisers and has supported the program’s expansion—it now partners with about 30 schools in the Greater Boston area, reaching nearly 1,000 students annually—but he would like to see scaling at a national level. To that end, he introduced the program to his parents, Adele and Gordon Binder, MBA ’62, who live in California. “I want the program to get more young people excited about pursuing careers in medicine,” Adele says. The couple recently gave $100,000 to support the program and its growth. Now, MEDscience leaders are in talks to roll out the program in California schools.

MEDscience supporter Brant Binder says a lot of the kids in the program have been frozen out of learning opportunities.

“Our hope is that you can take the MEDscience curriculum and apply it in any setting,” Brant says. MEDscience Executive Director Julie Joyal, EdM ’08, praised Brant and his parents for their commitment to the program. She said Brant also helped pilot MEDscienceLAB, which debuted this year and equips students with research and laboratory skills that make them employable immediately.

Says Brant: “These kids are doing graduate-level college experiments in a lab setting. It’s a path to get involved in the local biotech industry. This is experience they couldn’t get anyplace else.” Watch science come to life for high school students at tinyurl.com/MEDsciencetraining

Inspired by incredible mentors DID YOU KNOW 80% OF HMS STUDENTS RECEIVE FINANCIAL AID? Meet one of them:

When one donor to Harvard Medical School is asked to list the HMS faculty members who had a tremendous impact on him during and after his adult psychiatry residency training at Massachusetts General Hospital and McLean Hospital, he reels off 44 names—and he says the list is not complete. “It is rare to find teachers who are smart, hard-working, and generous. Many institutions have faculty and staff with two of those three qualities, but I have never experienced so many mentors who possess all three traits as there were at HMS,” says the donor, who chooses to remain anonymous.

So when this donor, who funded his medical school education largely through loans, wanted to support

medical students, he chose HMS, giving $100,000 to establish an endowed financial aid fund. “The last thing students need as they embark on their journey of becoming a doctor is to be burdened by worry about how to pay for their education,” says the donor, whose fund will support students pursuing careers in psychiatry. “I have limited means and cannot support every deserving student from each specialty,” he says. “With the little bit I can contribute, I want to impact the lives of the most stigmatized people in societies around the globe. I hope my gift will inspire those with more resources to help fund mental health education and research. Getting more people to rally around this important problem could be truly transformative.”

“My financial aid package at HMS allows me to focus on my schooling without having to worry about any financial burdens on myself or my family. Without such generous support, I would have had to choose another medical school.” —Troy Ameen, MD ’20

Please consider a leadership gift to support need-based financial aid Contact Ariadne Valsamis at 617-384-8501 or ariadne_valsamis@hms.harvard.edu to learn how you can support the next generation of leaders in science and medicine.

“I hope in some small way,” says the donor, “my gift will enable HMS to continue to recruit the very best students, regardless of their financial means.” hms.harvard.edu/ca mpa i g n |  

Accelerating Down syndrome research Illuminating the mind. That is the core of the LuMind Research Down Syndrome Foundation, which is focused on enabling independence and improving cognitive ability in people with Down syndrome. “Our mission is to catalyze a clinical trial network and to identify and accelerate high-impact research for Down syndrome,” says Hampus Hillerstrom, MBA ’07, MSc, president and CEO of the Massachusettsbased foundation. The LuMind Foundation’s recent $125,000 gift to Harvard Medical School, made possible through the generosity of co-founder Roger Kafker, MBA ’89, will advance two of its critical projects.

independence and prevent the early onset of Alzheimer’s in people with Down syndrome. “Private philanthropy from farsighted organizations, such as the LuMind Foundation, can have an exceedingly important role in moving science forward,” says Cliff Tabin, PhD, the George Jacob and Jacqueline Hazel Leder Professor of Genetics and chair of the Department of Genetics at HMS. “This kind of investment in research and researchers allows investigators to follow up on tantalizing clues nature may provide to them, at a stage where the conservative federal funding agencies may not yet be ready to commit their support.”

First, it will support the Down Syndrome Clinical Trials Network, which the foundation describes as the first of its kind, geared toward more rapidly testing the most promising new treatment approaches. Second, it will support a gene and chromosome silencing therapy initiative, which the foundation says has great potential to improve

“This kind of investment in research and researchers allows investigators to follow up on tantalizing clues nature may provide to them, at a stage where the conservative federal funding agencies may not yet be ready to commit their support.” —Cliff Tabin, PhD

Forever grateful to HMS His achievements in medicine innumerable, Marvin H. Sleisenger, MD ’47, perhaps made his greatest impact teaching, mentoring, and supporting those who became top clinicians and professors of medicine.

gastroenterology division, Marvin Sleisenger moved to California. It was there that Sleisenger, who served in the U.S. Navy Medical Corps during the Korean War, dedicated himself to improving the care of veterans through his role as chief of the medical service at the San Francisco Veterans Affairs Medical Center. He also served as vice chairman of the Department of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), strengthening that school’s academic programs.

Though Sleisenger died last year, his support of future top clinicians lives on via the Lenore R. and Marvin H. Sleisenger Financial Aid Fund at Harvard Medical School. The School recently received a gift of approximately $183,000 from Sleisenger’s estate supporting this endowed fund, which he and his wife established in 1989. The couple made gifts to the fund totaling more than $135,000 during their lifetimes.

His son says that one of his father’s HMS classmates, Lloyd Hollingsworth Smith, was instrumental in recruiting his dad to the West Coast, where he oversaw the rise of the San Francisco VA Medical Center as an acclaimed academic institution that became part of UCSF.

Thomas Sleisenger, AB ’77, says his father was always grateful to HMS “for opening so many doors for him.” Marvin H. Sleisenger, MD ’47, was one of the founding editors

After serving as a professor of medicine at Weill Cornell Medicine and eventually leading that school’s

of “Sleisenger and Fordtran’s Gastrointestinal and Liver Disease,” considered to be the benchmark textbook in the field.

TEMPANY-AFDHAL INSTALLED AS JOLESZ PROFESSOR OF RADIOLOGY Clare Tempany-Afdhal, MB, principal investigator and director of the Ferenc Jolesz National Center of Image Guided Therapy at Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH) and Harvard Medical School, was installed in July as the inaugural Ferenc Jolesz, MD Professor of Radiology at HMS and BWH. For more than two decades, under Jolesz’s mentorship, Tempany-Afdhal (pictured) worked with colleagues to advance magnetic resonance imaging technologies for cancer patients. Jolesz, known as the father of modern image-guided therapy, died in 2014.

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The professorship was made possible by BWH and General Electric. “Through the establishment of this professorship, Brigham and Women’s Hospital and GE are honoring the legacy of Dr. Jolesz while ensuring that HMS, Dr. Tempany-Afdhal, and all future incumbents of this professorship continue to advance research and further progress in the field of radiology,” said HMS Dean George Q. Daley, AB ’82, MD ’91, PhD, at the professorship celebration.

Had his father not attended HMS, “who knows if this would’ve happened,” Thomas Sleisenger said.

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1 Class Day keynote speaker Neal Baer, EdM ’79, AM ’82, MD ’95, an award-winning television writer and producer, addresses the crowd at Harvard Medical School on May 24. 2 After delivering the keynote speech at the Harvard Club of Boston’s 110th annual business meeting in May, HMS Dean George Q. Daley, AB ’82, MD ’91, PhD, joins club Treasurer Michael F. Cronin, AB ’75, MBA ’77 (front right), club President Karen Van Winkle, AB ’80 (front center), and a contingent of HMS students who attended the meeting. 3 Sarah Teichmann, PhD, of the Wellcome Sanger Institute, was one of the featured speakers at the fifth annual Symposium on Immunity and Inflammation in Disease and Tissue, hosted by the Evergrande Center for Immunologic Diseases at HMS and Brigham and Women’s Hospital on June 15. Here, she engages HMS postdoctoral researchers and graduate students at a postsymposium reception.

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4 On Alumni Day, Firmon Hardenbergh, AB ’52, MD ’56, listens as Gavin Ovsak, Class of 2019, talks about his HMS experience during a private lunch for members of the Society of the Silver Stethoscope, which comprises alumni who have celebrated their 60th Reunion. 5 Italian graduate and medical students mingle with their HMS lab hosts during the Armenise-Harvard Foundation Summer Fellows Research Day in late August. The Foundation hosted its ninth class of Italian students this summer, providing an opportunity for hands-on research experience at HMS and its affiliated hospitals.

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and MIT Bootcamps. They worked around the clock to create a venture that would address a current health care challenge. 8 After receiving their white coats in early August, members of the Class of 2022 walk up the new Gordon Hall access ramp on their way to Brigham and Women’s Hospital for their first patient clinic.

6 Members of Harvard Medical School’s newly minted Class of 2018 raise their stethoscopes during Commencement ceremonies in Harvard Yard on May 24.

9 Joan Reede, MD, MPH ’90, SM ’92, MBA (center), dean for diversity and community partnership, connects with Beverly Coleman, MD ’74 (left), and Valerie Montgomery Rice, MD ’87, at an August reception for HMS alumni held in conjunction with the National Medical Association’s annual convention and scientific assembly in Orlando, Florida, where Reede also spoke about the School’s new diversity initiatives endorsed by HMS Dean George G. Daley, AB ’82, MD ’91, PhD.

7 Participants in the first MIT-HMS Healthcare Innovation Bootcamp enjoy a break during their intense six-day journey. A diverse group of 88 innovators from around the world attended the August program put on by HMS's Center for Primary Care

10 Christine Ament, AB ’97, MD ’02, chats with Ronald A. Arky, MD, the Daniel D. Federman Distinguished Professor of Medicine and Medical Education, at the Reunion Volunteer Kickoff Reception in September. hms.harvard.edu/ca mpa i g n | 1

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thebenefactor EHC Member Spotlight: Bob Peterson, MD ’82 “It is hard to overstate the impact that HMS has had on my life and career. My Harvard degree gives me instant credibility and opens a lot of doors. I had wanted to give back to HMS, and the deferred charitable gift annuity made this an easier decision. You should give a gift annuity serious consideration if, like me, you want to support HMS but need to also plan for family and retirement.”

401 Park Drive Suite 505 Boston, MA 02215

JOIN US CALENDAR OF EVENTS

December 6

March 12

May 16

George W. Gay Lecture Join the Center for Bioethics at 5 p.m. in the Armenise Amphitheater for the annual George W. Gay Lecture, featuring Kwame Anthony Appiah, PhD, professor of philosophy and law at New York University and author of numerous books. Appiah's talk is titled "Ethics in a World of Strangers." For more information and to register, go to bioethics.hms.harvard.edu/gay-lecture.

Soma Weiss Student Research Day Medical and dental students will present their scholarly research and learn about the investigative work of their peers at this annual forum, held in the Tosteson Medical Education Center Atrium at 4 p.m. The event consists of a poster session and selected student oral presentations.

Ezekiel Hersey Council Dinner Members of Harvard Medical School’s Ezekiel Hersey Council are invited to attend a recognition dinner from 5:30 to 8 p.m. at the Hotel Commonwealth. The Council comprises more than 600 alumni and friends who have invested in HMS’s future by establishing life income gifts, naming HMS as a beneficiary of a retirement, investment, or bank account, or including HMS in their estate plans. Learn more about making a planned gift at hms.harvard.edu/giftplanning or call Kate Murphy at 617-384-8507.

March 28

May 16–18

Hollis L. Albright, MD ’31 Symposium Join us at 5 p.m. in the New Research Building for this annual symposium highlighting groundbreaking scientific initiatives at Harvard Medical School. An outstanding HMS student will receive the Hollis L. Albright, MD ’31 Award during the symposium. Contact Allie Keeler at 617-384-8596 or email albright@hms.harvard.edu for more information.

Medical Director Leadership Institute The Center for Primary Care presents an interactive three-day course in Waltham, Massachusetts, that will provide tools to help practice leaders navigate financial constraints, manage teams, and lead change. The institute is taught by course directors who have faced similar challenges and can provide firsthand guidance on strategies to succeed. For more information, contact Caroline Barnaby at caroline_barnaby@hms.harvard.edu or 617-432-3453.

February 22 Appreciation Dinner HMS volunteers and Dean’s Council members are invited to attend our annual appreciation dinner. This on-campus event will feature keynote speaker Richard M. Schwartzstein, MD ’79, director of educational scholarship at HMS and the Ellen and Melvin Gordon Professor of Medical Education at HMS and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. For more information, contact Elizabeth Chan at 617-384-8441 or elizabeth_chan@hms.harvard.edu.

March 7–8 Symposium Honoring Christopher T. Walsh A special symposium recognizing Professor Christopher T. Walsh’s decades of dedication to research and education will take place over two days in the New Research Building. This event will celebrate Walsh’s 75th birthday, his leadership as founding chairman of the Department of Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology at HMS, and his extraordinary career pioneering the interface between chemistry and biology. For more information, contact Kristen Parker at 617-432-5620 or email kristen_parker@hms.harvard.edu.

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