Dr. Arturo Casadevall to Deliver Jacobs School’s Biomedical Sciences Commencement Address

Excitement is in the air as graduation approaches. Our Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences students are diligently completing their final courses before they the walk the stage this spring.

I am thrilled to share that during this year's Biomedical Sciences Commencement Ceremony, we'll hear from Arturo Casadevall, MD, PhD, as the keynote speaker.

A Bloomberg Distinguished Professor of molecular microbiology and immunology and infectious diseases at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and School of Medicine, Dr. Casadevall was a leading proponent of convalescent plasma during the COVID-19 pandemic, pointing to the treatment's past successes countering epidemics like measles and the mumps.

As co-author in a study on the subject, he was integral in the U.S. Food & Drug Administration reaching its 2020 decision to authorize emergency in-patient use of convalescent plasma treatment, which extracts antibodies from the blood of recovered COVID-19 patients to boost the immunity of those at risk.

A native of Cuba, Dr. Casadevall came to the United States when he was 11. He received both his medical and doctoral degrees from New York University. Subsequently, he completed his internship and residency in internal medicine at Bellevue Hospital in New York. He then completed subspecialty training in infectious diseases at Montefiore Medical Center and Albert Einstein College of Medicine.

An author of over 900 papers, books and chapters, Dr. Casadevall’s major research interests are defense mechanisms, how fungi cause disease, and in the development of antibody-based therapies for infectious diseases. Dr. Casadevall was elected to the National Academy of Medicine in 2014, and to the National Academy of Sciences in 2022.

We are extraordinarily excited to be hosting this innovative scientist, an authority on biosecurity and important commentator on practicing science effectively. A highly regarded teacher and mentor, Dr. Casadevall's dedication to medicine and the pursuit of scientific knowledge is an exemplar for all of our graduates.

Our Biomedical Sciences Commencement Ceremony will be held on May 21, 2023, at 9:30 am. at the Center for the Arts at UB’s North Campus in Amherst, NY.  To learn more about this year’s Medical School Commencement Ceremony, go to https://bit.ly/3XTcR8k. 

Sincerely, 

Allison Brashear, MD, MBA
Vice President for Health Sciences
Dean, Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences
University at Buffalo