The UMass Chan Medical School community will officially start the 2025 academic year with its weeklong Convocation celebration taking place Sept. 5-11.
Most events will be held in the Albert Sherman Center Auditorium and do not require registration unless otherwise noted.
Festivities kick off on Friday, Sept. 5, with the T.H. Chan School of Medicine White Coat Ceremony, welcoming the new class of medical students into the medical community. The event emphasizes the importance of both scientific excellence and compassionate patient care. A white coat is placed on each student’s shoulders by two people: an individual significant in the student’s personal and/or professional development, chosen by the student, and the student’s Learning Community mentor, who represents the value system of the Medical School and the profession the students are about to enter. The ceremony takes place at 2 p.m. at the Hanover Theatre in Worcester.
Incoming T.H. Chan School of Medicine students were given tickets for their families and friends. Any other UMass Chan community member who wishes to attend can pick up tickets at the Office of Student Life.
On Monday, Sept. 8, the Tan Chingfen Graduate School of Nursing students in the Graduate Entry Pathway (GEP) program will be ceremonially presented with their nursing pins and welcomed into the nursing profession by campus leaders. The program begins at 5 p.m.
The GEP program, for individuals with baccalaureate degrees in fields other than nursing, leads first to registered nurse licensure and then to advanced nursing specialties. The pinning ceremony symbolizes completion of the courses required for taking the nursing licensure exam.
At noon on Tuesday, Sept. 9, the 13th annual LGBTQ+ Convocation Celebration, sponsored by the Diversity and Inclusion Office, will be held in the Faculty Conference Room on the first floor of the Medical School building. The keynote speaker is Kate Eshghi, senior vice president and general counsel for UMass Memorial Health.
Also on Sept. 9, second-year Doctor of Nursing Practice students from the Tan Chingfen Graduate School of Nursing who are entering their clinical years will be presented with their white coats during the Transition into Clinical Practice ceremony. The white coat is a symbol of humanism, collaboration and scientific excellence in health care. The event starts at 5 p.m.
On Wednesday, Sept. 10, the Morningside Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences community will recognize the accomplishments of its future colleagues. The Recognition Ceremony salutes students who have successfully completed their qualifying exam and are proceeding with thesis research in the lab of their faculty advisor, an important milestone in the educational and professional development of basic science and clinical research graduate students signifying the transition from classroom-based learning to candidacy for a doctoral degree. The Recognition Ceremony starts at 3 p.m.
On Thursday, Sept. 11, starting at 4 p.m., Chancellor Michael F. Collins will present his annual Convocation address to the UMass Chan community in a ceremony celebrating faculty. Chancellor’s Medals for Distinguished Teaching, Distinguished Scholarship, Distinguished Service and Distinguished Clinical Excellence will be presented.
At a glance |
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Following Convocation, the following faculty members will be honored and invested as named professors:
Richard I. Gregory, PhD, chair and professor of molecular, cell & cancer biology, has been appointed the Eleanor Eustis Farrington Chair in Cancer Research. Dr. Gregory joined UMass Chan in 2024. He is an accomplished investigator of molecular mechanisms of RNA regulation in embryonic stem cells and cancer.
Anne C. Larkin, MD, associate professor of surgery and vice provost and senior associate dean for educational affairs, has been appointed the Celia and Isaac Haidak Professor in Medical Education, established in 1988 to support the educational activities of a senior institutional leader. Dr. Larkin joined UMass Chan in 2001 and has dedicated her academic career to educational administration and leadership through which she has advanced the educational mission of the institution.
Stephenie C. Lemon, PhD, professor of population & quantitative health sciences and chief of the Division of Preventive and Behavioral Medicine, is the new holder of the Barbara Helen Smith Chair in Preventive and Behavioral Medicine. Dr. Lemon is a behavioral epidemiologist and applied public health researcher whose work promotes health equity using community-engaged approaches. As co-director of the Prevention Research Center and director of Community Engagement for the UMass Center for Clinical and Translational Science, she leads a program of research focused on chronic disease prevention and control, bringing together policy, community and social factors to achieve behavioral change in populations impacted by health disparities.
Craig L. Peterson, PhD, professor of molecular medicine, has been named the inaugural holder of the Elisabeth Chair I, established to support an academically distinguished member of the faculty. Dr. Peterson, who joined UMass Chan in 1992, is an internationally recognized leader in the field of gene regulation whose studies have illuminated the understanding of signal transduction and transcription factor binding in the context of chromosomal structure.
Oliver Rando, MD, PhD, professor of biochemistry & molecular biotechnology, is the inaugural holder of the Endowed Chair in Biochemistry and Molecular Biotechnology II. Dr. Rando’s lab investigates epigenetic inheritance—the inheritance of information beyond the DNA sequence that can influence how genes function. His group leverages their expertise in genomics and genetics, reproductive biology, microscopy, and biochemistry to explore the role of epigenetics in a broad range of biological processes.
Kenneth L. Rock, MD, chair and professor of pathology, has been named the inaugural holder of the UMass Chan Medical School Chair in Biomedical Research, established in 2024 to provide meaningful support to an academically distinguished member of the faculty. Dr. Rock is an internationally recognized leader in the field of molecular immunology who has made numerous important contributions to the understanding of molecular and cellular mechanisms underlying key aspects of the immune response to pathogens and cancer cells.
Christopher M. Sassetti, PhD, professor of microbiology, has been named the inaugural holder of the Elisabeth Chair II, established to support a UMass Chan faculty member whose ongoing scholarly contributions have brought great distinction and renown to the Medical School. Dr. Sassetti, who joined UMass Chan in 2004, is an internationally recognized leader in research on tuberculosis, a major global health challenge that is responsible for more than one million deaths annually.
Paul Thompson, PhD, professor of biochemistry & molecular biotechnology and director of the Program in Chemical Biology, is the inaugural holder of the Endowed Chair in Biochemistry and Molecular Biotechnology I. Dr. Thompson joined UMass Chan in 2014. The mission of his lab is to develop and test novel inhibitors for therapeutic applications across various diseases.
All events will be live streamed on the UMass Chan Facebook and YouTube pages and recordings will remain available after the events.
