Kapikian and Szeto Receive Alumni Honors
New York, NY (May 24, 2001) — Eighty-eight M.D.'s (including eight M.D.-Ph.D.'s), 33 Ph.D.'s, and five M.S.'s will receive their degrees today at 3 p.m., in Avery Fisher Hall, at the commencement exercises of the Joan and Sanford I. Weill Medical College and Graduate School of Medical Sciences of Cornell University. The graduating class represents an extraordinarily diverse cross-section of the best and brightest in medical education.
Following custom, Hunter R. Rawlings III, President of Cornell University, will be the principal speaker.
Albert Z. Kapikian, M.D. '56, and Hazel H. Szeto, M.D., Ph.D. '77, will receive the Alumni Awards of Distinction from the Medical College and Graduate School, respectively.
Two graduating students have been selected to speak at the ceremony: Michael E. Stern from the Medical College and Joan E. Adamo from the Graduate School.
Dean Antonio M. Gotto, Jr., of the Medical College and Dean David P. Hajjar of the Graduate School will present the degrees. Dean Gotto will administer the Hippocratic Oath.
Fifty-three percent of the new M.D.'s are women, and 14% are underrepresented minorities. About 80% of the new M.D.'s have obtained one of their top three choices of postgraduate residencies. As for the new Ph.D.'s, 80% will pursue postdoctoral research at leading national institutions.
Albert Z. Kapikian, M.D. '56
Dr. Kapikian completed his internship at Meadowbrook Hospital in Hempstead, N.Y., and medical courses at both Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health and the Medical School at the University of London in England. He served the National Institutes of Health (NIH) from 1957 to his retirement in 1988 as a commissioned officer in the United States Public Health Service. He has also served the NIH since 1988 in the U.S. Public Health Civil Service System. He was appointed Head of the Epidemiology Section and Assistant Chief of the Laboratory of Infectious Diseases (LID) of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) in 1967, and he still holds these positions. He is Research Professor of Child Health and Development, George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Services.
In 1972, Dr. Kapikian discovered and identified the Norwalk virus, and in 1973, with two colleagues, he was the first to visualize and identify the virus that causes hepatitis A. He is best known for developing a rotavirus vaccine (licensed by the FDA in 1998) that will have a major impact on reducing the incidence of extreme abdominal distress and death in children in developing countries. He has received numerous accolades for his 30 years of research into gastroenteritis.
Hazel H. Szeto, M.D., Ph.D. '77
Dr. Szeto received her M.D. and Ph.D. from Cornell with a special concentration in pharmacology. As a faculty member of the Medical College, she has distinguished herself as a scientist and an educator. She has an international reputation in fetal development, winning a number of grants and awards, most recently a Merit Award from the National Institute on Drug Abuse. She has served on many advisory and editorial boards, including the editorial board of the Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics. At the Graduate School and Medical College, she has served on committees that established curriculum, reviewed policies on ethics, improved living conditions for students and postdoctorals, and maintained relations with alumni. She has been honored with a Teacher-Scientist Award by the Andrew Mellon Foundation and a Teaching Award from the Medical College.
Michael E. Stern, M.D. '01
Mr. Stern, following his graduation from Brown University, established a successful career as an artist, and in 1992, he had a sold-out exhibition in New York. At Weill Cornell Medical College, he is held in high regard by both classmates and faculty. He was asked to serve on the Medicine, Patients, and Society Course Design Group and on the Humanities and Medicine Series Advisory Committee. He was awarded the Mark F. Hughes Scholarship from the Joseph Collins Foundation and elected to Alpha Omega Alpha, the prestigious medical honor society. At Convocation, he will receive the Richard N. Kohl Prize for Excellence in Psychiatry. Following graduation, he will begin his residency in emergency medicine at Bellevue/New York University Medical Center.
Joan E. Adamo, Ph.D. '01
Ms. Adamo received her bachelor’s degree in biochemistry from the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Cornell University. At the Graduate School, she has excelled in classes and served on the Graduate Student Executive Council, representing the Cell Biology and Genetics Program. As a volunteer in the Cornell Science Challenge program, she mentored seventh-graders in a scientific research project. She pursued research in the laboratory of Dr. Patrick Brennwald, where she discovered a novel role for Rho3 and Cdc42 GTPases in post-Golgi exocytosis. Her work has resulted in publications and presentations at several national meetings. In 1999, she won a du Vigneaud Award for Excellence for her presentation at the Graduate School's Vincent du Vigneaud Student Research Symposium.
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