College of Medicine Dean Dimitri Azar traveled with the President of the Chicago Medical Society, Dr. Robert Panton, to strengthen Congressional support for graduate medical education (GME) funds, upon which our hospital and College of Medicine rely. While on Capitol Hill, they met with Senator Durbin and Rep. Aaron Schock (who is the architect of a House GME reform bill), as well as senior staff from the offices of Senator Kirk and Rep. Danny Davis. With several proposals being floated to reform GME, it was an opportune time for Dean Azar to sit down with these offices and emphasize the significance of investing in programs like GME that support training the next generation of physicians to deliver high-quality care. He also elevated our overall success as the nation’s largest medical school and in training tomorrow’s doctors in both urban and rural settings.
Dr. Gene Robinson, Professor in Entomology and Neuroscience in Urbana, and Director of the Institute for Genomic Biology, testified before the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee’s Research and Technology Subcommittee. Dr. Robinson was invited by Rep. Dan Lipinski, the Subcommittee's Ranking Member. The hearing, entitled “The Frontiers of Human Brain Research,” focused on developments in brain science research and more specifically, the implications of the Administration’s BRAIN initiative. In his testimony, Dr. Robinson spoke about the National Science Foundation’s unique role in the BRAIN initiative, the importance of taking an interdisciplinary and interagency approach to neuroscience, and the intrinsic value of basic science research. Dr. Robinson is featured in pictures that have been posted to a photo gallery from the hearing.