Van Liere Convocation and Research Day

The E.J. Van Liere Memorial Research Convocation and Research Day are held each April. All graduate and professional students in a Health Sciences degree program are invited to submit an abstract, and those chosen present orally at the Van Liere Convocation. The next day all abstracts are presented as posters (129 presented in 2009) at the Research Poster Day. Both oral and student poster presentations are judged for awards. Awards for oral presentations are: $500 1st place, $400 2nd place, and $300 3rd place. An additional travel award is given to the 1st and 2nd place winners. All students selected to give oral presentations receive a $100 award. Research Day posters are grouped into categories for judging, such as Basic Science, Clinical Research, Population-based Research and Health Services and Outcomes Research. Awards for the poster presentations are: $500 1st place and $250 2nd place for each judging category. A distinguished scientist is invited each year to our two-day research celebration to give a plenary lecture. In addition, these scientists meet and discuss science with our graduate students on Poster Day. The following is the list of invited scientists from 2008 to 2003.

Edward J. Van Liere, M.D. was the “Father of the WVU Medical Center.” He received his M.D. from Harvard Medical School and his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago. He was Professor and Chair of Physiology before he became Dean of the School of Medicine in 1937 – his reign lasted until 1960. Dr. Van Liere developed the two-year medical school into a four-year accredited program. After WWII, he instituted an accelerated medical curriculum in response to the country’s need for physicians. He was also a consultant to Surgeon General of the United States.

Dr. Van Liere’s life-long love was research. He was a pioneer in altitude physiology, studying the effects of low oxygen pressure (hypoxia) on the body. Two publications highlight his research career and are considered seminal papers:

• Anoxia, Its Effect on the Body, published by the University of Chicago Press in 1942
• Hypoxia, published by the University of Chicago Press in 1963

Dr. Van Liere insisted on academic excellence fostered by scientific research and firmly believed in repeated, repeated, repeated observations. Below, are two of his famous quotes:

• “Special attention must be called to research in any treatise dealing with medical education.”
• “What is the evidence that leads you to that conclusion.”

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