|
|
In 1920 a professor of biological chemistry at
the University of Texas Medical Branch asked the President of the University
of Texas at Austin to form a committee to develop graduate courses at UTMB
for a Master's degree program. The UTMB Dean supported this proposal because
he believed that graduate students could serve as research and teaching
assistants to the faculty, thereby easing the teaching burden and increasing
research productivity. In the spring of 1921, the Regents authorized the
departments of Biochemistry, Bacteriology and Preventive Medicine, and
Physiology to supervise the work of students who could earn master's degrees
awarded by the University of Texas at Austin; and graduate education at
UTMB began.
 The first graduate degree based on work done at
the Galveston campus was awarded in 1922. This was an important step in
institutionalizing research degree programs at UTMB, although only 10 more
students earned master's degrees between 1922 and 1941. Throughout the
1920's and 1930's, UTMB made steady increases in the number of preclinical
faculty with Ph.D. degrees, and in the provision of laboratory facilities
and equipment for the conduct of experimental studies. This period of steady growth in research at UTMB was
followed by the appointment in 1942 of Dr.
Chauncey Leake, an internationally known pharmacologist and philosopher as
Executive Vice President of UTMB.
Leake was a strong supporter of
research and spurred the expansion of academic programs on the campus.
Attracting new basic science and clinical faculty who needed laboratory space,
Leake was able to persuade the Regents to build a building specifically for
research. He encouraged faculty to apply for federal and private funds to
support research (which was quite successful). He was also strongly supportive
of the development of graduate programs in the basic sciences.
Between 1944 and 1948, administrators and faculty
developed guidelines for graduate study at UTMB and agreed on a list of
faculty who would be authorized to direct Ph.D. work in their
departments. However, the central administration at UT-Austin would not
approve graduate graduate
|
degree-granting authority for
UTMB. In the 1950's the faculty became more aggressive in recruiting graduate
students and expanded the areas of graduate study. By 1955, 35 graduate students
were working on advanced degrees in various basic science departments at UTMB,
although the degrees were still awarded by the University of Texas at Austin.
From 1942, the time at which Chauncey Leake became
UTMB Executive Vice President, until 1969, long after Dr. Leake's retirement,
the basic science departments at UTMB produced 124 Master's degrees and
77 Ph.D. degrees, all awarded by the Austin institution. In 1969 the University
of Texas Board of Regents adopted amendments to their Rules and Regulations
that permitted the establishment of a degree-granting
Graduate School of
Biomedical Sciences (GSBS) on the UTMB campus.
Since its establishment, the GSBS has had four
Deans, Dr. Edward J. Brandt, Jr., Dr. J. Palmer Saunders, Dr. K. Lemone
Yielding, and the current Dean,
Dr. Cary W. Cooper. The Graduate Faculty
has grown from 4 in 1922 to 35 in 1964 to 352 in 1997. The student body
has grown to 266, and the opportunities for research training have expanded
from 3 basic science departments to 12 graduate programs, 3 institutes,
and 7 research centers. GSBS graduates are currently found in prestigious
and influential positions in universities, government and industry in the U.S, and the world. The faculty are enthusiastic teachers and highly successful
researchers. From its humble beginnings the GSBS at UTMB has become one
of the leading institutions of higher education in the biomedical sciences
in the country.
 Today, the
GSBS is
addressing the challenges to graduate education. To respond to the demand
for more broadly trained biomedical scientists, the GSBS has initiated
a review of the graduate curriculum to consider a more integrated approach
to scientific education.
The GSBS is dedicated to training
the next generation of biomedical scientists and to maintaining U.S. leadership
in biomedical investigation.
Historical information taken from “A Brief History
of the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences at the University of Texas
Medical Branch at Galveston”, written by Chester R. Burns, MD, PhD, James
Wade Rockwell Professor of Medical History , Institute for the Medical
Humanities. This document was produced as a part of the 25th Anniversary
Celebration of the GSBS (1994-95). A full copy of this history is available
on
request.
|
