Newswise — Decked out in caps and gowns, 1,800 University of Maryland, Baltimore graduates will receive their degrees at 1st Mariner Arena on Friday, May 16. Students from the schools of dentistry, law, medicine, nursing, pharmacy, and social work, from the Graduate School, and from programs in dental hygiene, medical and research technology, physical therapy and rehabilitation science, human genetics, and nursing practice will come together to celebrate their years of hard work.
The program begins at 3 p.m. Doors will open at 1 p.m. for graduates and guests. Tickets are not required for the two-hour ceremony.
Francis S. Collins, MD, PhD, director of the National Human Genome Research Institute, part of the National Institutes of Health, is the keynote speaker. Collins, a physician-geneticist, is noted for his landmark discoveries of disease genes and for his visionary leadership of the Human Genome Project. Collins, who will receive an honorary doctor of public service degree, also is known for his close attention to ethical and legal issues in genetics. He is a strong advocate for protecting the privacy of genetic information and, to this end, has served as a national leader in efforts to prohibit gene-based insurance discrimination.
Building on his own experiences as a physician volunteer in a rural missionary hospital in Nigeria, Collins also is interested in opening avenues for genome research benefiting the health of people living in developing nations.
Jessica O'Kane, president of the University Student Government Association and a graduating PharmD student at the School of Pharmacy, is the student remarker. Honorary marshals are Richard Meszler, PhD, associate professor emeritus of the Dental School's Department of Biomedical Sciences and a member of the School's faculty since 1971, and Michael Plaut, PhD, assistant dean for student affairs and associate professor of psychiatry at the School of Medicine. He joined the faculty in 1973.
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