This year’s Graduate Studies honors convocation and subsequent UNMC commencement were unlike any other. The ceremonies were held on a single day and in a single, online virtual session, due to health and safety measures during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
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Saswati Karmakar, Ph.D. |
“I am elated at the thought of each of us all together in this moment, even as we are at least six feet apart,” said UNMC Chancellor Jeffrey P. Gold, M.D., in his commencement address.
Thirty-three individuals were conferred M.S. degrees and 25 graduated with Ph.D. doctorates at the May 8 event. While they could not be hooded by mentors, many chose to be hooded by loved ones, as they watched online at various locations.
“The fact that we are not here together, face to face, due to COVID-19, does not diminish the effort you have put into getting to today,” said Dele Davies, M.D., senior vice chancellor for academic affairs and dean for graduate studies.
Student speaker Saswati Karmakar, Ph.D., shared her journey of at first being unsure in a new country, to earning the privilege of addressing her fellow graduates. It was not easy, she said.
“At one point, even going to class seemed like a gigantic task,” Dr. Karmakar said. “But as time passed, I began to love my new home in this foreign land. What had changed? Was it my exciting research, the friends I made or my new-found independence? What made this whole journey wonderful were the experiences I accumulated over the years, the friends I made and the lessons I learnt. Most importantly, what lay at the core of this transformation was the appreciation of why I had embarked on this journey in the first place. My ‘why’ contributed to my academic success and my ‘why’ is the reason I am at this podium today.”
Dr. Karmakar earned the prestigious Praesto Award as Graduate Studies’ most outstanding graduate in recognition of exceptional accomplishments spanning multiple areas — academics, research, leadership, service and outreach.
This year’s winner of the Thomas Jefferson Ingenuity Award was Alex Wiesman, a Ph.D. graduate in the Interdisciplinary Graduate Program in Biomedical Sciences-neuroscience. His dissertation research was performed under the mentorship of Tony Wilson, Ph.D. The Thomas Jefferson Ingenuity Award was established in 1994 by Manuchair Ebadi, Ph.D., to recognize a student who has exhibited unmatched creativity and ingenuity in completing the research requirements for the Doctor of Philosophy degree.