GSBS awards ceremony recognizes student achievements

At the annual student achievement awards ceremony for the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, Dean Mary Ellen Lane encouraged students to seek happiness through love, meaningful work and hope for the future, following in the steps of Joseph Addison, an English playwright and politician.

“Seeking to perfectly balance work and life leads to unhappiness because it is simply impossible to achieve, and it is not always appropriate,” Dean Lane told the audience on Thursday, May 30, in the Cube at the Albert Sherman Center.

The three-pillared approach creates a more stable base and one that allows for fluctuating priorities, such as working toward an important career goal, caring for a newborn or nurturing your own self, she said. The approach also allows both the optimist and the pessimist to embrace hope. Hope requires the optimist to “acknowledge the possibility, even the probability of failure and hardship, and actively work to create the best possible outcome.” For the pessimist, hope encourages the understanding that the education and life experiences have obligated them to be agents of their own happiness and success.

With hope, Lane challenged her audience to “think about what you can create in your life, in your work, and in your world to live happily, and well, and successfully no matter what life throws at you.”

Prior to the dean’s address, Terence R. Flotte, MD, the Celia and Isaac Haidak Professor in Medical Education, executive deputy chancellor, provost and dean of the School of Medicine, told the graduates that in the current political and social environment their role as scientists is of the utmost importance to the health of our society.

“We know that you will have success in your future careers in academia, industry or government, but we also trust that you will keep in mind that social responsibility and make us proud,” Dean Flotte said.

Chancellor Michael F. Collins awarded the 2019 Chancellor’s Award to Julie Alterman. She was praised for outstanding research that provided an important step toward realizing the promise that small interfering RNAs hold for treating genetically defined diseases and which has the potential to transform the field of RNAi therapeutics for neurodegenerative disease.

Chancellor Collins also congratulated all of the 16 scientists, including some of whom will earn degrees at UMass Medical School’s 46th Commencement on Sunday, June 2, who were recognized for academic achievement, mentoring, service and scholarship.

The award winners include:

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