UMDNJ - ROBERT WOOD JOHNSON MEDICAL SCHOOL
DEPARTMENT OF PATHOLOGY AND LABORATORY MEDICINE

ANNUAL PATHOLOGY DEPARTMENT GRADUATION DINNER
June 26, 2003

Held on Thursday, June 26, 2003 at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in New Brunswick, the annual departmental graduation dinner was preceded with a special guest lecture by Dr. Emanuel Rubin, Professor and Chairman of Pathology at Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia. Pennsylvania.

Dr. Rubin spoke on "Pathology Education: From fin de siecle to the New Millennium" . His talk addressed the effectiveness of varying instructional  methodologies in the teaching of Pathology and stirred lively discussion amongst the participants.

The hyperlink below will take you to a photo gallery of the dinner which followed his talk.

Pictures of the Pathology Graduation Dinner

The purpose of this annual gathering is to acknowledge the accomplishments of our students from medical to departmental, from undergraduate to post-graduate.

Hosting the evening was Dr. Addy Kendler, Director of the Residency Program. Dr. Kendler singled out two of our residents, Gratian Salaru, M.D., PGY-4 and Chief Resident who will remain at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital completing his fifth year as a Surgical Pathology fellow and Dr. Olga Dvorzhinskiy, PGY-4 who will be completing her fifth year as a Surgical Pathology fellow at St. Barnabas.

We have recently begun a tradition of acknowledging the top five students in Pathology in the current medical school class. This year the five honorees include: Karen Fritchie, Lauren Stern, Neel Shah, Svetlana Yablok and Matthew Wasnitzer. Ms. Stern, and Mssrs. Shah and Wasnitzer were able to join us for dinner and received Certificates from Dr. David Weissmann, the Second Year Pathology Course Director.

 While noting that there were no new graduates amongst our graduate students this year, Dr. Peter Yurchenco, Vice-Chairman and Chief of the Research Division, took a few moments to review the current status of the renovation efforts on the Piscataway campus or as he called it, the "left bank" of the Raritan.

Dr. Peter Amenta, Chairman of the Department then spent a few moments thanking Mr. Ralph Vorhees, benefactor and long-time friend of the Department and of Douglas W. Smith, M.D. the former Chief of Service and Chief of Staff at Robert Wood Johnson Hospital for his many contributions to the Pathology Resident Library Fund and to Robert Wood Johnson Hospital. Mr. Vorhees was joined at the celebration by both his daughter, Jane Blitz and his grandson, Gary Blitz.