Einstein Celebrates Its 59th Commencement

May 24, 2017—(BRONX, NY)—Yesterday, Albert Einstein College of Medicine celebrated its 59th commencement at David Geffen Hall at Lincoln Center, conferring 178 M.D. and 24 Ph.D. degrees on the graduates. In addition, eight graduates of Einstein’s Medical Scientist Training Program received both an M.D. and a Ph.D. degree.

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This year’s commencement speaker was Tom Frieden, M.D., M.P.H., former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and former commissioner of the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. Steven M. Safyer, M.D., president and CEO of Montefiore Medicine, introduced Dr. Frieden, whose father was a distinguished Montefiore-Einstein cardiologist.

During the event, five individuals were honored with awards from Einstein’s Alumni Association:

• Dominick P. Purpura Distinguished Alumnus Award: Joshua Miller, M.D., ’61, professor emeritus of surgery, division of organ transplantation, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine; director, Immune Monitoring Core Laboratory and Tolerance Studies Comprehensive Transplant Center, Feinberg
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  M.D. Class of 2017 (Click here to enlarge)Distinguished Ph.D. Alumnus Award: Sankar Ghosh, Ph.D., ’88, Silverstein and Hutt Family Professor of Microbiology and Immunology and chair of microbiology and immunology, Columbia University
• Distinguished Alumnus/Clinical Practitioner Award: Chaim Charytan, M.D., ’64, clinical professor of medicine, Weill Cornell Medical College; chief of the renal division and director of the dialysis units, New York-Presbyterian Medical Center of Queens
• Lifetime Achievement Award: Liise-anne Pirofski, M.D., ’82, Selma and Dr. Jacques Mitrani Chair in Biomedical Research, Einstein; professor of medicine and of microbiology and immunology, Einstein; chief of the division of infection diseases, Einstein and Montefiore Health System
• Lifetime Service Award: Martha S. Grayson, M.D., ’79, professor of clinical medicine and senior associate dean for medical education, Einstein

The graduation ceremony also honored several Einstein faculty members for teaching or research excellence:

• Samuel M. Rosen Award for Outstanding Teaching–Pre-Clinical (selected by the students): Patrick D. Herron, D.Be., assistant professor of clinical family and social medicine; associate, Montefiore-Einstein Center for Bioethics
• 
  Ph.D. Graduates (Click here to enlarge)Samuel M. Rosen Award for Outstanding Teaching–Clinical (selected by the students): Danit Arad, M.D., assistant professor of medicine (hospital medicine); director, Teaching Hospitalist Program, Montefiore Medical Center (Moses campus)
• Harry Eagle Award for Outstanding Basic Science Teaching: Stephen G. Baum, M.D., professor of medicine and of microbiology & immunology; senior associate dean for students
• Harry H. Gordon Award for Outstanding Clinical Teaching: Melvin Stone, Jr., M.D., associate professor of surgery; medical director, surgical intensive care unit and associate director, trauma and critical-care services, Jacobi Medical Center
• Lifetime Achievement Award for Excellence in Teaching: Martha S. Grayson, M.D., '79, professor of clinical medicine and senior associate dean for medical education, Einstein
• LaDonne H. Schulman Award for Excellence in Teaching: Jessica C. Mar, Ph.D., assistant professor of  systems & computational biology and of epidemiology & population health
• Saul R. Korey Award in Translational Science and Medicine: Aristea S. Galanopoulou, M.D., Ph.D., professor, Saul R. Korey Department of Neurology and the Dominick P. Purpura Department of Neuroscience; director, Einstein Laboratory of Developmental Epilepsy; research director, Tri-State Rett Syndrome Center, Children’s Hospital at Montefiore

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Edited: March 8, 2018