The event will take place in the Loosemore Auditorium on the first floor, near the Center's southeast entrance.
Tomatis became the founding president of the Van Andel Institute in 1995 after concluding a 30-year career as a cardiac surgeon at Butterworth Hospital in Grand Rapids. During that time he served as the hospital's chief of the Thoracic and Cardiovascular department and as a clinical professor of Surgery at Michigan State University.
Tomatis has published many scientific papers, lectures widely to professional audiences, and conducted research on surgical cost containment. In 1981, he became president of the Michigan Society of Thoracic Surgeons. In 1993, he was made Ciudadano Ilustre de la ciudad de Rosario (Illustrious Citizen) in his native Argentina, and in 1995 he was conferred a Doctor Honoris Causa honorary degree by the University of Rosario, Argentina.
Vande Woude, current director of the Van Andel Research Institute, previously served as director for the Division of Basic Sciences at the National Cancer Institute until 1999. From 1983 to 1998, he was director of the ABL-Basic Research Program at the National Cancer Institute's Frederick Cancer Research and Development Center.
Vande Woude is the author of over 240 scientific research articles and over 60 books or monographs. He has served as editor or editorial board member of numerous professional journals, such as Journal of Virology, Cell, Gene Analysis, Oncogene, Cancer Research, DNA, and the Japanese Journal of Cancer Research. He is the recipient of a Merit Award from the National Institutes of Health, the Robert J. and Claire Pasarow Foundation Award for Cancer Research, and a Lifetime Achievement Award in Technology Transfer from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
We are pleased to be honoring these two most distinguished scientists in our community, said Doug Kindschi, dean of Science and Mathematics at GVSU.
This is one more step in our growing relationship with the Van Andel Institute. Our faculty members already have several research projects underway with the Institute, and we look forward to many more as we move toward the opening our own health professions education center on the Spectrum Health Campus in 2003, Kindschi added.
