At the luncheon celebrating the dedication of the Cornell Biodiversity Laboratory at Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, Dr. Mitchell Gaynor (left), medical director of Weill Cornell's Center for Complementary and Integrative Medicine (CCIM), speaks with the President of the Dominican Republic, Hipolito Mejia.
A tropical outpost for Weill Cornell's Center for Complementary and Integrative Medicine (CCIM) was formally dedicated on March 17 at Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic, where an audience of several hundred heard distinguished speakers praise the new Cornell Biodiversity Laboratory. Dominican President Hipolito Mejia and U.S. Congressman Charles Rangel were among those who foresaw great discoveries to come from the new Biodiversity Laboratory, which was made possible through the generosity of Cornell alumnus Theodore Kheel. The laboratory is located on a 1,555-acre ecological preserve, where tropical plants and other organisms can be studied for their potential benefits to human health.
Dr. Eloy Rodriguez, the James A. Perkins Professor of Environmental Studies at Cornell University in Ithaca and a leader of Weill Cornell's CCIM, will be the director of the laboratory. Also participating in the dedication ceremonies at Punta Cana were a delegation from Weill Cornell headed by Dr. Mary Charlson, the William T. Foley Distinguished Professor of Medicine, chief of the Division of General Internal Medicine, and executive director of the CCIM; Dr. Mitchell Gaynor, clinical assistant professor of medicine and medical director of the CCIM; and Dr. Lorraine Gudas, chairman of the Department of Pharmacology, who directs basic-science research for the CCIM. For more information about the Cornell Biodiversity Laboratory at Punta Cana, go to news.med.cornell.edu/wcmc/
wcmc_2001/03_17_01.shtml.
Dr. Eloy Rodriguez (right), director of the Cornell Biodiversity Laboratory, tours the lab with U.S. Congressman Charles Rangel. Dr. Rodriguez is the James A. Perkins Professor of Environmental Studies at Cornell University and a leader of Weill Cornell's CCIM.