Hudson Hoagland Society celebrates 30 years

Annual Meeting features talks by Munson, Freeman

The Hudson Hoagland Society celebrated a milestone anniversary at its 30th Annual Meeting on May 12, 2015: three decades of philanthropic support for scientific research. Thoru Pederson, PhD, the Vitold Arnett Professor of Cell Biology, professor of biochemistry & molecular pharmacology and scientific director of the Worcester Foundation for Biomedical Research (WFBR) when it merged with UMass Chan Medical School in 1997, reminded the audience of HHS members, faculty, students and WFBR research grant recipients that the giving society’s origins were based on the understanding that biomedical research would lead scientists—and society—in unexpected directions, and that support for pioneering research was a necessity.

Dr. Pederson highlighted several early members of the HHS and the WFBR in photographs from previous annual meetings, including Warner Fletcher (recipient of the WFBR’s Hudson Hoagland Award in 2014), WFBR scientist M.C. Chang and Bob Cushman, who originally proposed the idea of an annual giving society to support the scientific work of minds like Chang, whose discoveries were precursors to the development of in vitro fertilization and oral contraceptives.

The annual meeting also featured talks by Chancellor Michael F. Collins; Mary Munson, PhD, associate professor of biochemistry & molecular pharmacology, recipient of the inaugural WFBR Bassick Family Foundation Award; and Marc R. Freeman, PhD, Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator and vice chair and professor of neurobiology, a 2005 Worcester Foundation Grant recipient.

The Hudson Hoagland Society was founded in 1985 and continues to build upon now three decades of discovery and extraordinary advancements. Named in honor of the co-founder of the WFBR, the Hudson Hoagland Society supports basic scientific research that enables UMass Chan Medical School scientists to make advances that have the potential to improve treatments and to speed the discovery of new medicines for countless diseases and afflictions. u

For more information about the Hudson Hoagland Society, visit www.umassmed.edu/hhs.

PDF version