Greetings,

We welcome 150 medical students to the BUSM community. On Aug. 2, we celebrated a milestone in their career, the White Coat Ceremony. It was a beautiful summer day with tents pitched on Talbot Green and a subtle buzz of earnestness. The atmosphere of this in- person gathering with incoming students and their families, faculty, and staff created a long-awaited giddiness that we have not felt in a while. A short video of the event is available here. To celebrate this day, we created an online words of wisdom book that shares memories from BUSM alumni to the entering class. We encourage you to flip through it and consider adding your submission for next year.

Another important step in a student’s career is receiving a stethoscope during Medical Equipment Day. Each stethoscope costs $150 and we have almost met our goal to provide one for each student! With only 23 to go we ask that you make a donation here. Each student will have the thrill of opening the box and receiving a card with the alumnus/a who donated their stethoscope and helped them on their journey to becoming a doctor.

Katherine Sargent, MD, (MED’77), is our Alumni Spotlight. She shares fondly of past professors, Dr. Ernest Lowe and Dr. Kenneth Edelin. They were “an inspiration to me in my choice of specialties.” Professors make a lasting impact on the lives of many BUSM students.

Paul O’Bryan, PhD, Emeritus Professor of Physiology & Biophysics, touched many of us during our training at BUSM through his teaching and advising. For 41 years he mentored generations of BUSM medical and graduate students. In honor of him and his commitment to the BUSM community, BUSM has established the Paul O’Bryan, PhD Memorial Scholarship. This fund has already reached $50K of the $100K needed and will provide annual need-based awards to BUSM medical students.

Alumni Weekend 2021 is quickly approaching with plans for a hybrid celebration this year. We will keep you posted and encourage reunion classes to consider hosting a virtual gathering. If interested, please contact us at alumbusm@bu.edu.

Wishing you the best,

Heather Miselis, MD, MPH (MED'00'04 SPH'00)

Assistant Dean for Alumni Affairs

Boston University School of Medicine

BUSM Alumni E-News

August 2021

SPOTLIGHT

Alumni Spotlight

Katherine Sargent, MD, (MED'77)

ALUMNI NEWS

Tim Chu, MD, (MED'13) Helps Save Girl after Crash

Returning home from a few Saturday morning errands, Chu answered his phone to a frantic neighbor telling him “you have to come over right away.”

Chu said he ran.

New York Times Honors BU Alum Rebecca Lee Crumpler, MD, (MED 1864), with Obituary—126 Years after Her Death

For an ongoing series called Overlooked, the New York Times publishes obituaries about “remarkable people whose deaths, beginning in 1851, went unreported in The Times.”

CAMPUS NEWS

White Coat Ceremony Welcomes Entering Class of 2021

Drawn from a pool of nearly 12,000 candidates through six different entry pathways and 84 undergraduate institutions, this class is 60 percent women and 16 percent from groups underrepresented in medicine. More than 20 percent hold a graduate degree at the master’s level or above.

White Coat Ceremony: Watch

View a short video summarizing White Coat Ceremony 2021.

Watch video ...

We work with dangerous pathogens in a downtown Boston biocontainment lab – here’s why you can feel safe about our research

Microbiologist Ronald Corley has gone to work every day throughout the pandemic as director of the National Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratories. He answers some of the most frequently asked questions about this kind of biosecure lab and the work researchers do inside it.

A New Partnership

Boston University and Steward Health Care’s St. Elizabeth’s Medical Center (SEMC) held a ribbon-cutting marking the new five-year affiliation between BU and SEMC, which went into effect July 1.

Spotlight: BUSM Student Affairs Office

Advocating for medical students, providing career guidance and seeking ways to boost mental and emotional health are just some of the ways that the 13-member team in the BUSM Student Affairs Office (SAO) supports medical students to ensure each receives the assistance they need to succeed.