Issue link: http://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/378739
dean's message i l l i n O i S M e d i C i n e | 1 dean's message n undergraduate student in the 20th century had to make a choice between becoming an engineer, a scientist, or a physician. How times have changed! the convergence of engineering and medicine has become an important aspect of medical education, biomedical research and healthcare services. We have been aligning these two disciplines through investment and innovative collaborations as demonstrated by the newly named richard and Loan Hill department of Bioengineering (see page 11), proposed research commercialization hubs, and advanced partnerships with existing programs in simulation and regenerative medicine on the Peoria, rockford and urbana campuses. the most recent issue of UIC Engineering was dedicated to bioengineering, and this issue of Illinois Medicine includes a special feature on bioengineering and the convergence of medicine and engineering at the College of Medicine and how it showcases strength across disciplines and at each of our four campuses (see page 12). the COM with its sites in Chicago, urbana-Champaign, Peoria and rockford has been dedicated to excellence in medical education through its diverse programs across all four sites. Previous issues of Illinois Medicine have focused on our Md/Phd and MstP programs, rural (r-Med) and urban health (u-Med) programs, and global medicine (g-Med) program. this issue focuses on our education programs for engineering and medicine and our plans for the future of integrating innovation (I-Med) engineering (eng-Med) throughout the COM education and training programs. these programs are thriving because of our talented faculty, medical educators and physician-scientists who have succeeded as authentic and passionate mentors for our students. In this issue, we profile four COM professors who were chosen for golden apple awards for 2013, although there is a longer list of equally deserving awardees provided alongside that article. the golden apple winners embody what College of Medicine students value now—and what they will continue to value. What students learn in the classroom—or in the biomedical and engineering research environments—can be augmented through what they learn in the community in a variety of service-oriented roles. as busy as Illinois medical students are with their schoolwork, many of them prioritize service alongside academics and give back to their wider communities. this issue profiles Paven aujla, who recently completed her M2 year as part of the Md/Phd Medical scholar program in urbana; Joshua Lawrenz, a recent graduate from rockford; nigerian native and current M4 ayodele Oke; and angelo Perino, a new graduate from Peoria. these student leaders already have gotten a head start on the kind of community leadership that is a virtue of our alumni. emerging leaders on the College of Medicine's faculty get that same rush from having an impact on the knowledge and understanding of their students. alongside our accomplished golden apple winners, you will read about some of our college's future faculty leaders from across all four COM sites.. Lastly, the College of Medicine would not be the world class institution it is without the support of our legions of alumni. scheduled for sept. 19-20, Homecoming 2014 is your opportunity to reconnect with classmates and celebrate our community at the College of Medicine gala on saturday. I also look forward to meeting you on my next trip to your area. A dimitri t. azar, Md, MBa Dean, University of Illinois College of Medicine B.A. Field Endowed Chair of Ophthalmologic Research Distinguished Professor of Ophthalmology, Bioengineering and Pharmacology P h o t o : R o b e R ta D u P u i s - D e v l i n