Events and Guest Speakers
SUNY Upstate regularly hosts special events with lectures by physicians, researchers and experts in a variety of medical fields. Our guests range from Nobel laureates (Sir Paul Nurse) to New York Times columnists (Jane Brody), and represent a wide range of interests and expertise.
Speakers have included Mary-Claire King, PhD, who discovered the hereditary breast cancer gene; research psychiatrist Mindy Fullilove, MD, author of "The House of Joshua: Meditations on Family and Place," and Neil Holtzman, MD MPH, a leading researcher involved in the Human Genome Project.
Some speakers come to SUNY Upstate as part of the Keating Global Health Lecture Series, established in memory of the dean of student affairs who died in 2006.
Others are invited to speak during events such as the annual Elizabeth Blackwell Day and Charles Ross Memorial Research Day presentations on campus.
Elizabeth Blackwell, in 1849, became the first woman in the United States to receive a medical degree. She graduated from Geneva Medical College, an institution that eventually became SUNY Upstate Medical University. Each year, the Blackwell celebration includes a keynote speaker, a woman who exemplifies her legacy of distinction, innovation and leadership in medicine.
Charles Ross was a dean and professor at SUNY Upstate for many years. The annual Student Research Day in his honor features a keynote speaker and presentations by students in the College of Medicine.