Story written by Lillian Miess
UT Health San Antonio’s Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences (GSBS) kicks off its 50th anniversary year with a convocation ceremony Aug. 19. The newest cohort of 141 graduate students will be welcomed into the UT Health San Antonio family when they join current students, faculty and staff to celebrate the start of the school’s 50th academic year.
“Convocation is a long-standing tradition in the GSBS where we welcome our new students, provide several prestigious awards to our existing students and recognize and honor our talented training faculty and program leadership across all 21 programs,” said GSBS Dean David Weiss, PhD. “This year we are especially excited that recently retired Dr. Keith Krolick, one of our more accomplished and pioneering members of the graduate faculty, returns as the keynote speaker.”
“For the past 40 years, it has been my great honor to contribute to the education of future generations of biomedical research scientists,” said Krolick, PhD. “I have considered myself a builder of bridges that allow our students to enter, properly prepared, into their careers. My main job has been to keep those bridges clearly marked and unobstructed. Of course, the actual act of crossing is the responsibility of each student.”
Weiss will open the celebration at 10 a.m. in the Holly Auditorium. The convocation ceremony will be followed by a student organization fair and picnic in the courtyard of the university’s Academic Learning and Teaching Center.
The GSBS has conferred 3,298 masters and doctoral degrees since its founding on Oct. 21, 1972. As the premier academic medical research center in the seventh-largest city in the country, GSBS students and faculty conduct interdisciplinary basic and clinical research that enhances scientific knowledge and advances medical technology.