Public health alumna, McGill University innovator to speak at University Day
| September 14, 2010 | |
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The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill community will celebrate its history as the nation’s first public university during University Day on Oct. 12, 2010.
Dr. Heather Munroe-Blum
The theme of this year’s University Day convocation will be innovation and entrepreneurship. The featured speaker, Heather Munroe-Blum, PhD, is a highly regarded innovator in higher education, a Carolina alumna and the principal and vice-chancellor of McGill University in Montreal. The free, public convocation will begin at 11 a.m. in Memorial Hall. Classes will be canceled from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Chancellor Holden Thorp will preside. University Day marks the laying of the cornerstone of Old East, the nation’s first state university building, in 1793 and the beginning of public higher education in the United States. The campus first celebrated University Day in 1877.
Munroe-Blum is the 16th person to serve in a post equal to president at McGill. She earned a doctorate with distinction in epidemiology from Carolina in 1983. She also was awarded an honorary doctor of science degree at Carolina’s Commencement in 2008.
She has dedicated her career to the advancement of higher education, science and innovation in Canada and internationally, advising governments and other organizations on the roles universities, research and highly qualified talent play in advancing international competitiveness and enriching societies.
A member of McGill’s faculty of medicine and professor in the epidemiology and biostatistics department, Munroe-Blum specializes in psychiatric epidemiology. She has led large epidemiological investigations of the distribution, prevention, course and treatment of top psychiatric disorders and has had a major influence on the development of mental health policies and practices.
In conjunction with University Day, the Chancellor’s Innovation Circle will issue its roadmap for innovation and entrepreneurship at Carolina. Last November, Thorp appointed the Innovation Circle, chaired by alumnus Lowry Caudill and led by special assistant Judith Cone. Members include alumni and friends with extensive experience leading innovation in science, business, medicine, nonprofits and academia. Their efforts have been supported by a faculty and staff working group and a student team.
The Innovation Circle’s work builds on a major priority Thorp has emphasized since becoming chancellor in 2008 — finding new ways for the University to enhance the impact of its teaching, research and service through innovation and entrepreneurship.
Other University Day convocation highlights will include the presentation of Distinguished Alumna and Alumnus Awards, a practice begun by the faculty in 1971 to recognize Tar Heels who have made outstanding contributions to humanity.
This year’s recipients are James Larry Jameson III, MD, PhD, dean of Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine, of Chicago; Harry Louis Jones Sr., Mecklenburg County manager, of Charlotte; Harry Corpening Martin, a retired justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court, of Asheville; Alane Salierno Mason, a vice president and senior editor at W.W. Norton & Co. and founder and president of Words Without Borders, of New York City; and Charles Milton Shaffer Jr., vice president for institutional advancement at the Westminster Schools of Atlanta.
In keeping with a tradition of celebrating milestones on University Day, Carolina will dedicate Venable Hall and Murray Hall, which opened this semester in the second phase of the Carolina Physical Science Complex, the largest construction project in the University’s history. That ceremony will be held at 3:30 p.m. at the new buildings, located next to the complex’s first phase and the Max C. Chapman Jr. Hall, the W. Lowry and Susan S. Caudill Laboratories and Fred Brooks Hall in the College of Arts and Sciences.
The original Venable Hall, home to the chemistry department since 1925, was demolished in late 2007 and early 2008. The new Venable and Murray halls house the William R. Kenan Jr. Chemistry Library along with department of chemistry classrooms, lecture halls, conference rooms and the department of marine sciences.
Francis P. Venable was a chemistry professor from 1880 to 1930 and president of the University from 1900 to 1914. The original Venable Hall was dedicated on University Day in 1925. Royce W. Murray, Kenan Professor of Chemistry, has mentored more than 155 graduate and post-doctoral students and written numerous research articles and four books. He headed an effort that led to construction of Kenan Laboratories.
For more information about University Day, see www.unc.edu/universityday.
UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health contact: Ramona DuBose, director of communications, (919) 966-7467 or ramona_dubose@unc.edu.
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