DEAN JILL REICH: President Hansen, I am honored to present Eugene Braunwald.

At Bates, where we place independent research at the core of liberal learning, it is fitting to celebrate one of the world's leading research scientists, a person whose contributions to our knowledge of cardiovascular disease have revolutionized the treatment of heart attack.

Eugene Braunwald is the Distinguished Hersey Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, the faculty dean for academic programs at Brigham and Women's Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital, and chief academic officer of Partners HealthCare System. Throughout his long and distinguished career, Dr. Braunwald has been driven by insatiable curiosity and the desire to know more. Defining medical research as an act of unmitigated creativity, he has made elegant, revelatory discoveries about how the heart functions during and after a heart attack, and what treatments can prevent further damage or loss of life.

The range and depth of Dr. Braunwald's research is staggering, with over 1100 articles to his credit. In addition, he is the primary editor of the definitive texts on internal medicine and cardiology. A clinician of remarkable diagnostic skill, Dr. Braunwald has deftly interwoven scientific research with the practice of medicine. A demanding and masterful teacher, he has served as a mentor to generations of research physicians and clinicians.

Dr. Braunwald credits his parents with instilling in him a love of learning. He has taken this gift and never stopped—never stopped learning, never stopped asking the questions, never stopped contributing new knowledge. His passion has dramatically improved the survival and quality of life of heart attack victims.

For his inexhaustible intellect, for his dedication to the highest standards of excellence in research, and for his devotion to the alleviation of suffering, I present Eugene Braunwald for the degree Doctor of Science.

PRESIDENT ELAINE HANSEN: Eugene Braunwald, we honor you as a medical practitioner, exacting educator, pioneering researcher, prolific author, and one who has earned distinction as one of the premier cardiologists of our time. Fleeing Nazi-ruled Austria as a child, in this country you found your way to academic success and then pathbreaking professional achievement. Through your discovery that a heart attack is a progressive event, and your insight that timely medical intervention could significantly reduce heart injury, you opened the door to the entire field of heart attack treatment as we know it today.

Therefore, by the authority vested in me by the Board of Trustees, I hereby confer upon you the Degree of Doctor of Science, with all the rights, privileges, and responsibilities which here and everywhere pertain to this degree.