Photos: John Abbott/Weill Cornell Medicine (Harrington); others submitted.
UMass Chan Medical School will celebrate the accomplishments of the Classes of 2026 at Commencement on Sunday, May 31, and will honor three accomplished and inspiring individuals: Gerald Chan, venture capitalist, scientist and philanthropist responsible for the $175 million transformational gift to UMass Chan in 2021; Monica M. Bertagnolli, MD, incoming president of the National Academy of Medicine; and Robert A. Harrington, MD, dean of Weill Cornell Medicine. Chan will deliver the Commencement address.
In 2021, the charitable foundation of Chan’s family, The Morningside Foundation, made a $175 million gift, the largest donation in UMass history. In recognition of the gift, UMass Medical School was renamed UMass Chan Medical School, and its three graduate schools were renamed the T.H. Chan School of Medicine, the Tan Chingfen Graduate School of Nursing, and the Morningside Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences.
Chan is co-founder of the investment firm Morningside, chairman of Apellis Pharmaceuticals, a trustee of the Scripps Research Institute and a member of the Dean’s Board of Advisors at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. He has a master’s degree in medical radiological physics and a Doctor of Science degree in radiation biology from Harvard University.
Dr. Bertagnolli is the first woman elected to serve as president of the National Academy of Medicine and will assume the role in July. She is a surgical oncologist and cancer researcher currently serving as the Richard E. Wilson Professor of Surgery Emerita at Harvard Medical School and a senior fellow in health care policy at the Harvard Kennedy School. She is former director of the National Institutes of Health and was a surgeon at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and a member of the Gastrointestinal Cancer Treatment and Sarcoma Centers at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Bertagnolli has a Bachelor of Science in engineering from Princeton University and received her medical degree from the University of Utah.
Dr. Harrington is a cardiologist and serves as the Stephen and Suzanne Weiss Dean of Weill Cornell Medicine, as well as provost for medical affairs of Cornell University. A native of Somerville, Massachusetts, he graduated magna cum laude from the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester. He earned his medical degree from Tufts University School of Medicine and served as chief resident during his internal medicine residency here at UMass Chan.
Commencement 2026 will take place on the campus green in front of the Medical School building, with more than 300 students expected to receive degrees. Guest seating will begin at 10:30 a.m., with the procession starting at 11:45 a.m. The ceremony will begin promptly at noon and will be available to watch live on Facebook and YouTube.
