Alumni News
Fourth-year University of Arizona College of Medicine – Tucson medical students gathered at Old Main before learning where they’ll launch their careers as new physicians. At the March 17 Match Day ceremony, the University of Arizona College of Medicine – Tucson Class of 2023 learned where they will spend the next three to seven years of their...
At Match Day 2022, fourth-year medical students pick up bags containing envelopes revealing where they have been matched for residency programs. Photography by University of Arizona Health Sciences Communications, Kris Hanning. At this year’s Match Day ceremony, to be held Friday, March 17, on the west side of the Old Main Building on the...
Mark A. Nelson, PhD (right), works with research scientist Marc Oshiro, PhD, who performs DNA amplification in a Thomas D. Boyer Liver Institute laboratory. When Mark A. Nelson, PhD, came to the University of Arizona College of Medicine – Tucson in 1993, he was just launching his career. Now, he’s launching a startup. He says his life’s work...
Todd Vanderah, PhD, professor and department head of the University of Arizona College of Medicine – Tucson’s Department of Pharmacology, was named an Alumni of the Year for 2023 by the University of Arizona Alumni Foundation. Dr. Vanderah is also the director of the University of Arizona Health Sciences Comprehensive Pain and Addiction Center (...
On February 15, 2023, the University of Arizona College of Medicine – Tucson lost a founding member of its faculty, noted geriatrician John Thomas “Jack” Boyer, MD. Dr. Boyer, 93, died peacefully at home following a slow decline over many years. “Sliding into dementia was a surprise,” he wrote. “That I was bright enough to know it was both...
Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine Josie Acuña, MD ('13), has accepted the position of assistant dean for clinical competency in the Curricular Affairs Office at the University of Arizona College of Medicine – Tucson. She steps into this role effective February 6. In her new role, Dr. Acuña will be overseeing the clinical education portion...
According to the U.S. Census, the national median age is rising, as is the diversity of the population. At the same time, there is a shortage of scientists and health care providers trained in the issues affecting older adults. For example, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services projects the demand for geriatricians soon will exceed...
Image adapted from Nature Biotechnology (Nat Biotechnol) ISSN 1546-1696 (online) ISSN 1087-0156 (print) Healing is a biological process that’s easily taken for granted; you get a blister, scrape a knee or burn a finger, and after cleaning and bandaging the wound, the body takes over and starts the healing process. For some, however, the wound...
John G. Purdy, PhD (left), associate professor of immunobiology, with Yuecheng Xi, PhD, then a postdoctoral researcher with the Purdy Lab, which investigates the inner workings of a common virus. John Purdy, PhD, peers into the private lives of viruses, watching them hijack our cellular machinery to pump out the previously undiscovered raw...
With great sadness, we announce that Frank Marcus, MD, professor emeritus who dedicated more than 50 years to the Division of Cardiology at the University of Arizona College of Medicine – Tucson and the Sarver Heart Center, passed away at the age of 94. Dr. Marcus was born on March 23, 1928, in Haverstraw, New York, to Samuel and Edith Marcus....
Three MedCat alumni have been recently selected to leadership positions within Student Affairs. Richard Amini, MD, has been named the associate dean for student affairs, Daniel C. Butler, MD, will join COM-T as an assistant dean of student affairs and will serve as the new house dean for the Tortolita House, and Elaine H. Situ-LaCasse, MD, has...
The Steele Foundation gift will create the Daniel Cracchiolo Institute for Pediatric Autoimmune Disease Research at the Steele Children’s Research Center (SCRC) and provide financial support for graduate students, postdoctoral researchers and faculty members.
Careers in medicine can be generational choices, with children following in their parents’ footsteps to become physicians or medical researchers. A 2020 Stanford University study found that people born in the 1980s were three times more likely to follow in a parent’s footsteps and become a doctor than those born in the 1950s. At the University of...
When events at the University of Arizona Health Sciences begin, Carlos Gonzales, MD, a University of Arizona College of Medicine – Tucson associate professor of family and community medicine, can often be seen with an abalone shell filled with smoking sage and cedar to offer a ceremonial Native American blessing. That’s only one of many hats he...
On the occasion of his 90th birthday earlier this year, John Racy’s daughter Sumayya Granger bestowed him with an irreplaceable gift – a collection of warm, kind, and loving sentiments that mirrored Dr. Racy’s shining spirit as an exceptional human, professor, psychiatrist, colleague, and mentor. The assemblage of touching and humorous memories...
Bruce Byrd (left) meets future physicians at the Class of 2026 White Coat Ceremony. For Bruce Byrd, 1979 was packed with milestones — most of them good. “I graduated from college, got married — and found out that I had kidney disease,” he says. Just weeks after marrying his wife, Patty, and graduating from Western Colorado University, Byrd...
