The Marshall University Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine will award 61 Doctor of Medicine degrees at the school’s annual investiture ceremony at 5 p.m. Friday, May 6, at the Keith-Albee Performing Arts Center. Admission is by invitation only.
The doctoral investiture and medical school commencement ceremony is a time-honored tradition in academia that honors scholarly achievement. The School of Medicine ceremony features the conferring of the students’ degrees by Marshall University President Jerome A. Gilbert, Ph.D.; the hooding of new graduates; and recitation of The Oath of Hippocrates.
This year’s special guest speaker for the investiture is Myron E. “Max” Essex, D.V.M., Ph.D., chair of the Harvard AIDS Initiative (HAI), the Mary Woodard Lasker Professor of Health Sciences at Harvard University, and chair of the Botswana Harvard AIDS Institute Partnership (BHP).
As one of the world’s leading AIDS researchers, Essex has published more than 600 scholarly papers, edited 12 books and trained 35 doctoral research students and 80 postdoctoral fellows. Essex has received nine honorary degrees and countless awards. He will be awarded an honorary Doctor of Science degree at the Marshall ceremony.
Graduates of the Class of 2016 include five students who have maintained perfect 4.0 GPAs during their medical school years. This class features students who have matched into highly competitive residency specialties, like orthopaedics, emergency medicine, radiology, ophthalmology and urology, as well as students paired into prestigious primary care programs across the country.
The investiture will be streamed live at www.marshall.edu/it/livestream. The ceremony also includes recognition of graduates from Marshall’s Biomedical Sciences program and the announcement of the School of Medicine Alumni Association’s Honorary Alumnus for 2016.
Media are welcome to arrive at 4:15 p.m. Friday to interview students and faculty prior to the ceremony. This year’s line-up will occur at The Galleria, 945 Fourth Ave., near the Keith-Albee Performing Arts Center.
Other graduation week activities include the following:
Monday, May 2, 5:30 p.m. – Senior Awards Banquet, Byrd Clinical Center Auditorium
Tuesday, May 3, 11 a.m. – 18th Annual School of Medicine Golf Classic, Silo Golf Course, Lavalette
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Photo: Dr. Max Essex, chair of the Harvard AIDS Initiative, the Mary Woodard Lasker Professor of Health Sciences at Harvard University, and chair of the Botswana Harvard AIDS Institute Partnership, will speak at the investiture ceremony for those graduating this spring from Marshall University’s Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine.