GSBMS Celebrates Renaming and Welcomes New Students
The First Official Class Of The Graduate School Of Biomedical Sciences Kicks Off 2022-2023 Academic Year
A bright, sunny summer day ushered in the first official class of the newly renamed Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences (GSBMS) on August 11 with a celebration luncheon. NYMC leadership and faculty were on hand to greet the incoming class of M.S. and Ph.D. students including members of the clinical sciences laboratory, dental linker program and accelerated master’s program cohorts.
Marina Holz, Ph.D., dean of the GSBMS, professor of cell biology and anatomy and interim chair of biochemistry and molecular biology, welcomed the guests to the celebration and explained how the new nomenclature represents the variety of disciplines and range of academic and research activities that are the major focus of biomedical research and funding in the 21st century and represent the interests of modern graduate students. “It is exciting to note that the new name coincides with the 50th anniversary of the opening of the Basic Sciences Building in the spring of 1972, marking the first time that graduate degrees were offered in Westchester County,” she said.
Rabbi Moshe D. Krupka, M.S., executive vice president, Touro University, offered greetings and blessings on the occasion. “I welcome you here as we begin a new academic year and continue our mission of scholarship, education, training and service to humanity. I know that each and everyone of you will live up to your great potential to bring goodness, health, curing and holiness to this world as you prepare for your future career in service to humanity,” he told the new students.
“It is a great day to celebrate the renaming of the graduate school because it represents the grand problem of higher education—to adapt to the times while remaining true to your core values. Our new name does just that, respectful of our tradition but properly describes what we are and what we will be as a school of biomedical sciences,” said Edward C. Halperin, M.D., M.A., chancellor and chief executive officer. “The best way to predict the future of biomedical science is to invent it ourselves—that is our fundamental responsibility to make the future better than today by the generation of new knowledge.”
Special guest of the day, Edward J. Messina, Ph.D. '73, professor emeritus of physiology, gave closing remarks. Dr. Messina joined the NYMC community as a graduate student in 1967 and was one of the first Ph.D.’s to graduate from the Valhalla campus after the College moved from New York City. He devoted his lifelong career to the generation of knowledge in physiology and teaching generations of students until his retirement in 2019. Dr. Messina reflected on the rich history and faculty greats of the graduate school and left the new students this piece of advice: “Redundancy is the mother of education because it fosters retention and most importantly, recall.”
