West Virginia University’s Robert C. Byrd Health Sciences Center (HSC) will celebrate 100 years of health sciences education Friday and Saturday, April 2-3, with a series of activities.

The events mark the centennial of the first health sciences center degrees, which were awarded in medicine to WVU graduates Emmett Corbin and Boaz Cox. The degrees were given at the Baltimore College of Physicians and Surgeons in 1904, under the terms of an agreement between WVU and that school; Corbin and Cox completed two years of study at WVU , and then transferred to Baltimore for clinical study. The School of Pharmacy awarded its first degrees in 1917, followed by the School of Dentistry in 1961, and the School of Nursing in 1964.

“As we celebrate the end of the first century of health professions education at West Virginia University, our focus is firmly fixed on the next 100 yearshow we will meet the challenge of preparing new generations of physicians, nurses, dentists, pharmacists and other health specialists to meet the needs of the state and nation,”said Robert M. D’Alessandri, vice president for health sciences and dean.

Events scheduled for Friday, April 2, include a Continuing Education Conference, Quality and Accessibility of Health Care, 8 a.m.-noon, HSC Auditorium, telecast to WVU Charleston Division, Health Sciences Center, Charleston, and telecast to WVU Eastern Division at Harpers Ferry Family Medicine Center and City Hospital, Martinsburg. The program will include a review of the history of health professions education by Dr. D’Alessandri.

Charleston Division faculty, staff and students will cut and serve 100th birthday cake and hold a celebration luncheon at noon, on the 4th floor, WVU Building, Health Sciences Center, Charleston. Another birthday cake will be cut in Morgantown at 12:30 p.m., Pylons Lobby, Health Sciences Center. Tours of the Morgantown campus and health sciences buildings will be held from 1:30-4 p.m., starting at the Pylons Lobby, Health Sciences Center. The School of Pharmacy Ph.D. Program 25th anniversary is at 1-3:30 p.m. in the Hostler Auditorium; the School of Nursing Celebration,”Reflections on Mentoring,”is at 4 p.m., Hostler Auditorium.

The public is invited to an outdoor celebration scheduled for 1 p.m. Saturday, April 3, at the Pylons entrance area of the HSC in Morgantown. After a few brief speeches, students and faculty will place objects and documents in a time capsule that will be buried near the site of the new Health Sciences Learning Center. A reception will follow.

For more information visit:http://www.hsc.wvu.edu/main/100years.asp