TheUTMB Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences awarded 33 degrees during its 44th commencement ceremony in Levin Hall. Interim executive vice president, provost and GSBS dean Cary Cooper conferred the degrees and presided over the convocation.
During the ceremony, Cooper presented the Dean’s Award for Academic Excellence to medical humanities student Margaret Wardlaw, who earned her degree in the combined MD/PhD program. The Graduate Student Organization presented its Distinguished Teaching Award to Assistant Professor José Barral.
Professor Daniel Traber, director of the Investigational Intensive Care Unit, received the Distinguished Faculty Research Award, and Professor Regino Perez-Polo, chairman of the Biochemistry & Molecular Biology Department, was honored with the Distinguished Faculty Service Award.
The commencement speaker was Michael Droge, president of Park University in Parkland, Mo., and the 2012 recipient of the GSBS Distinguished Alumnus Award. Droge received his doctorate in physiology and biophysics from the graduate school in 1982.
Including students not attending the commencement, in the 2012 academic year the graduate school awarded 37 doctoral degrees, fifteen master’s degrees and five MD/PhD degrees.