News & Updates

Dr. Cheryl Dreyfus, a distinguished professor and chair of the Department of Neuroscience and Cell Biology at Rutgers-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, has been awarded the 2023 Weill Cornell Graduate School Alumni Award of Distinction.

The Weill Cornell Graduate School of Medical Sciences has been recognizing alumni with this award since 1997 in honor of their outstanding contributions to biomedical research in education, focusing on science and scholarship, leadership, mentoring...

Dr. Margaret “Peggy” Bia, M.D. ’72, professor emeritus of internal medicine at Yale School of Medicine, has been awarded the Weill Cornell Medical College Alumni Association Award of Distinction.

The award, which was established in 1949, is presented each year to a Weill Cornell Medical College alumnus who has demonstrated outstanding achievement in research, education or patient care, and has brought acclaim to the institution. Dr. Bia was honored on May 17 at the alumni award of...

As a child, Chimsom Orakwue watched her father, a computer engineer, suffer a debilitating back injury that left him unable to work. Her family, having immigrated years earlier from Nigeria to California, couldn’t pay for the health care he needed, so her mother enrolled in nursing school, while an 8-year-old Chimsom pitched in to care for her younger siblings.

Orakwue, who will graduate from Weill Cornell Medical College on May 18 and start a residency this July...

Dr. Joel Blankson first learned about M.D.-Ph.D. programs as he was finishing college. Now a leading expert on HIV pathogenesis and a professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins Medicine, he found the opportunity to create his own educational odyssey, culminating in both degrees—one in medicine, one in a laboratory science—irresistible.

“I applied to the Cornell/Rockefeller program because of the focus on...

Chimsom Orakwue imagined life as a doctor for as long as she can remember. It is the thread that connected her childhood to high school to college and, four years ago, to Weill Cornell Medicine.

Now a graduating medical student, Orakwue on March 17 reached a milestone that brought her ever closer to attaining her goal: learning where she would complete her residency training. Unsealing an envelope that contained that news,...

More than 300 medical college alumni, representing classes spanning more than six decades, were warmly welcomed back to campus by Dr. Augustine M.K. Choi, the Stephen and Suzanne Weiss Dean of Weill Cornell Medicine, as Reunion 2022 kicked off the morning of Friday, Oct. 7 – the first in-person alumni reunion since 2018.

Thanks to the hard work of volunteer leadership – Alumni Association Board president Dr. Joseph Habboushe (M.D. ’06), reunion chair Dr. Kathleen Foley (M.D. ’69),...

Video of Overcoming the Odds: Rana Barghout's Journey to White Coat | Weill Cornell Medicine

WATCH the full Class of 2026 White Coat Ceremony on YouTube

Rana Barghout didn’t realize the power of her story until she shared it. It had been five years since she experienced homelessness, living in a car for months with her two younger siblings after a tragic house fire left her parents in the hospital. Her...

Dr. John Gallin ’69, the chief scientific officer for the National Institutes of Health Clinical Center, has been awarded the Weill Cornell Medical College Alumni Association Award of Distinction.

“This is a huge honor and really special,” said Dr. Gallin, who also serves as associate director for clinical research at NIH. “It was incredible to be able to go to medical school at Weill Cornell and be mentored to pursue a career of both patient care and research. And now to be recognized...

Weill Cornell Medicine honored a dozen faculty, trainees, students and staff April 25 for their outstanding service and leadership in promoting diversity at the academic medical institution.

The annual Diversity Awards, this year hosted virtually, honor exemplary contributions through research, clinical care, community service and advocacy to improve the health of populations that historically have had unequal access to care. They also recognize excellence in mentorship and fostering...

When Dr. Pradeep Ambrose, Ph.D. ’20, flew to Bermuda last fall to assist the island’s government in ramping up its COVID-19 testing, he had no idea his training at Weill Cornell Graduate School of Medical Sciences would play such a significant role in the fight against the pandemic.

Dr. Ambrose was enlisted to help out at Bermuda’s sole COVID-testing laboratory in September 2021 through a friend who was aware of the island’s dire need for scientists. His studies at Weill Cornell...

Dr. Dakotah Lane, M.D. '13, and Dr. Cristina Toledo-Cornell, M.D. '13, have spent the pandemic partnering to reduce the toll of COVID-19 in one Native American tribal community, their efforts helping to minimize hospitalization and death and encourage high vaccination rates among the Lummi Nation of Northwest Washington State.

Dr. Lane, director of the tribe’s health clinic, and Dr. Toledo-Cornell, public health director of the Lummi Tribal Health Center until...

Nursing homes acquired by private equity companies saw an increase in emergency room visits and hospitalizations among long-stay residents and an uptick in Medicare costs, according to a new study from Weill Cornell Medicine investigators. The findings, published Nov. 19 in JAMA Health Forum, suggest that quality of care declined when private equity firms took over the facilities. 

“Our findings indicate that private equity firm-owned facilities offer lower quality long-term care,”...

As a child, Noelle Desir, 23, suffered from severe eczema. She and her family tried everything to bring the skin condition under control, but without insurance, all they could do was visit the emergency room when she had a flare-up. Finally at age 12, her father, an immigrant from Haiti, secured health insurance for both of his daughters, making it possible for Noelle Desir to...

NEW YORK (June 17, 2021) — Building on a legacy of groundbreaking advances in medicine and science, Weill Cornell Medicine today launched an ambitious $1.5 billion campaign—with more than $750 million already raised—that will harness emerging biomedical innovations to bring exemplary care to patients and create enduring change in medicine.

The We’re Changing Medicine campaign is the...

For Rana Khan, earning a residency in obstetrics and gynecology at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center was more than just realizing a milestone in her medical education. Match Day was the culmination of a personal journey that transported Khan from medical student to cancer patient to future physician.

National Match Day is a milestone moment for graduating medical students, during which they learn where they will spend the next three to seven years completing their internship and residency training. And while the annual rite had a different tenor this year, the COVID-...

Weill Cornell Medicine scientists have built the first global database of clinical trials testing a rapidly expanding approach to cancer treatment that involves genetically modifying immune cells to recognize specific targets on a patient’s cancer cells and attack them. By analyzing the approach, called chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) therapies, the scientists designed a “therapeutic roadmap” that identifies all current therapies as well as additional cancers that can be treated with them....

Dr. Yoon Kang, an esteemed medical educator, has been appointed senior associate dean for medical education at Weill Cornell Medicine, effective Dec. 9.

Dr. Kang will lead Weill Cornell Medicine’s Office of Medical Education, driving new advances in the curriculum of the top-10 ranked institution to ensure that outstanding cadres of diverse, aspiring physicians receive the finest training. She will employ modern learning techniques and...

A new technology developed by Weill Cornell Medicine and Max Planck Institute for Medical Research scientists allows the controlled, on-and-off “switching” of neural receptors with unprecedented efficiency and precision. The technology is likely to be widely adopted for studying these receptors and their links to behavior, and potentially will enable the development of better drugs for treating depression,...

As chief of the Limb Lengthening and Complex Reconstruction Service at the Hospital for Special Surgery, Dr. S. Robert Rozbruch (MD '90) really gets to know his patients and their families. Treatment for their conditions often involves multiple surgeries and follow-up appointments over the course of several years. But his relationship with patient Amber Hamilton, WCM class of 2022, takes on new life as he mentors her through her orthopedic surgery residency.

Hamilton was born with X-...

Dr. Randy Longman, an accomplished physician-scientist, has been appointed director of the Jill Roberts Center for Inflammatory Bowel Disease at Weill Cornell Medicine and NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center.

Under Dr. Longman’s leadership, the Roberts Center is expanding its clinical services offered by Weill Cornell Medicine and NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center. The center’s physicians are continuing to...

In many ways, A.J. Henwood is a typical seven-year old. He loves his family, nurtures big dreams of playing professional baseball and has a penchant for bringing home stray animals. Aside from slightly imperfect vision and some occasional pain in his left leg, he has always led an ordinary life—which is why his diagnosis came as such a shock. During an eye exam in March 2018, an ophthalmologist saw a freckle-like spot on A.J.’s retina. That, combined with some irregular pigmentation on his...

Gary George just started his third year of medical school at Weill Cornell Medicine, but he’s already constantly on the go. When not in his clinical rotation, he’s meeting up with fellow classmates before setting aside time to get work done outside the hospital. He said he was always frustrated in past years by the lack of space dedicated to study groups, student activities or even a place to just grab a quick bite to eat in between. 

That’s why he was excited to be at the unveiling of...

Dr. Augustine M.K. Choi, the Stephen and Suzanne Weiss Dean of Weill Cornell Medicine, opened the first-ever National Conference on Medical Student Mental Health and Well-Being with a call to action.

“Arguably, medicine is the most noble profession, and we have to intervene so we’re not placing so much stress on our students and preventing them from becoming the best doctors they can be,” said Dr. Choi, as he stood in front of an audience of more than 350 medical school educators,...

Cornell Tech and Weill Cornell Medicine have been awarded a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) grant that will fund interdisciplinary research on the role of technology among home health aides caring for adults with heart failure.

The two-year $358,636 grant, is part of an RWJF initiative exploring how technology’s impact on infrastructure could help or hinder efforts to improve health equity in the United States.

Dr....

Medical conditions and health habits that affect blood flow in the brain—or cerebrovascular risk factors—are associated with a subsequent diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease, according to a new study from Weill Cornell Medicine and NewYork-Presbyterian investigators.

The findings, published Aug. 29 in the Annals of Neurology, opens the door to investigating whether better management of cerebrovascular risk factors...

Chemical modifications that appear on some RNA transcripts may have evolved in part to help cells repair themselves after damage, and may also be a key to understanding important human diseases, according to new research from scientists at Weill Cornell Medicine and Cornell’s Ithaca campus.

Modifications called N6–methyladenosine, or m6A marks, are made by enzymes on the RNA transcripts of some human genes under certain conditions, but the functions of these marks have been largely...

Dr. Ricardo Rosenkranz is a successful professional magician—but one of his greatest feats is giving medical students valuable insights into the doctor-patient relationship. For the past decade, Dr. Rosenkranz M.D. '90—a neonatologist and assistant professor of clinical pediatrics at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine—has tapped his prestidigitation skills to teach a course he designed entitled Medicine and Magic. Offered to first- and second-years and...

Dr. Katharine Hsu and Dr. Barbara Hempstead. Credit: Studio Brooke

Dr. Katharine Hsu, M.D. ’94, Ph.D. ’93, professor of medicine and attending physician at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, has been awarded the Weill Cornell Graduate School Alumni Award of Distinction.

Since 1997, graduate school alumni have been recognized with this award for their outstanding contributions to biomedical research in education, focusing on science and scholarship, leadership, mentoring and...

A recent scholarship endowment has been made in honor of Dr. Mervin G. Olinger (MD ’43). Dr. Olinger graduated from Cornell University in 1939 and was a member of the Phi Beta Kappa National Honor Society and an accomplished pole vaulter, earning his letter and participating in the Penn Relays. He received a medical degree from Weill Cornell Medical College in 1943, where he was a member of Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society.  

Dr. Mervin and Renee Olinger...

In Sight: Dr. Schwartz doing an exam at the main clinic in Riobamba, the capital of Ecuador’s Chimborazo Province. Photo provided.

Two years ago, in a remote region of Ecuador, ophthalmologist Dr. Elwin Schwartz, MD ’76, helped give a six-year-old girl the gift of sight. The child had been blind since birth because of a clouding in the lens of her eyes, known as congenital cataracts; Dr. Schwartz and a colleague performed a 15-minute surgery that reversed the condition. “Within a...

Dean Augustine M.K. Choi and Dr. Stuart Mushlin MD'73, president of the Weill Cornell Medicine Alumni Association, join Dr. Thomas Lee as he accepts his award on May 30. Photo credit: Studio Brooke 

Dr. Thomas Lee, MD ’79, chief medical officer of Press Ganey Associates Inc. and a member of the Weill Cornell Medicine Board of Overseers, has been awarded the Weill Cornell Medicine Alumni Association Award of Distinction.

Established in 1949, the accolade is presented annually in...

“When people ask me why I’ve stayed in the Cornell system as...

Dr. Joseph Heitman. Photo credit: Megan Mendenhall, Duke Photography

As a student in the Tri-Institutional MD-PhD program, Dr. Joseph Heitman, MD ’92,  was thrilled to be training as a physician-scientist—someone who would be, as he puts it, an “ambassador” to bridge the sometimes disparate worlds of medicine and basic research. Yet in 1989, with his...

Dr. Rees Pritchett, a consummate physician who spent seven decades at our medical center as a student, resident, and faculty member, died on March 27, 2017. He was 93.

Dr. Pritchett entered medical school in 1944 and remained strongly tied to what is now known as NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center for the rest of his life. After graduating from Weill Cornell Medical College in 1948, he became a cardiac resident at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, living in a small six-...

Dr. Augustine M.K. Choi, an internationally renowned physician-scientist in the field of lung disease, has been named the Stephen and Suzanne Weiss Dean of Weill Cornell Medicine and Cornell University’s provost for medical affairs. Choi has served as interim dean of Weill Cornell...

Patients with depression can be categorized into four unique subtypes defined by distinct patterns of abnormal connectivity in the brain, according to new research from Weill Cornell Medicine.

In a collaborative study published Dec. 5 in Nature Medicine, Conor Liston, MD '08, an assistant professor of neuroscience in the Feil Family Brain and Mind Institute and an assistant professor of psychiatry at Weill Cornell Medicine, has identified biomarkers in depression...

Natasha Leibel, MD ’98, looks back to her time at Weill Cornell Medicine with fondness – especially since that was where she met her husband, Harlan Levine, MD ’98.

When Dr. Leibel and Dr. Levine graduated from medical school, they were fortunate enough to not have to worry about paying off a tremendous amount of debt. But they knew that many aspiring doctors could not afford the same luxury, and so they decided to create the Harlan B. Levine, MD ’98 and Natasha I. Leibel, MD ’98...

For John Zebala, MD ’93, PhD ’92, the years he spent training to become a physician-scientist at Weill Cornell Medicine were some of the most enjoyable and transformative years of his life. “I had the freedom to find my life passions as an inventor and biomedical entrepreneur. All of the business and personal successes I have achieved today would never have been possible without the MD-PhD program,” Dr. Zebala says.

Dr. Zebala was inspired to make a $25,000 gift to the Olaf S. Andersen...

The Cornell University Board of Trustees today unanimously elected Martha E. Pollack, provost and executive vice president for academic affairs at the University of Michigan, Cornell’s 14th president. Pollack will assume the presidency April 17, 2017.

The board’s vote followed the selection of Pollack by a Presidential Search Committee that was formed in April 2016 following the death on March 6 of President Elizabeth Garrett....

As a star high school football player, Dr. Leonard Girardi considered a college athletic career. Instead, he chose to practice cardiothoracic surgery at Weill Cornell Medicine, where his team in the operating room must be on their game every day to ensure each patient's surgery is a success.

"Athletes love working in a team environment," said ...

Congratulations to Dr. Tony Rosen, MD ’10, who was recently awarded the Paul B. Beeson Emerging Leaders Career Development Award in Aging (K76) for his groundbreaking research to recognize elder abuse. Dr. Rosen completed medical school and his residency at Weill Cornell Medicine, and is now an Emergency Medicine faculty member.

The Paul B. Beeson Emerging Leaders Career Development Award in Aging is a competitive $800K grant sponsored by the National Institute on Aging intended to...

Read the full article on the New York Times website.

At Weill Cornell Medicine, people are the heart and soul of our institution. Our faculty and staff — the physicians, scientists, and administrators who work so hard every day to fulfill our mission to care for patients, discover innovative cures and treatments, and teach the next generation of physicians — make us who we are.

In the coming months, in words, photos and videos, we will celebrate this community and its...