MBPCC and Dr. Charles M. Smith Honored at Luncheon
Combined Gifts Provide for One Million Medical Physics Endowed Chair
*Change Year to 2006
Representatives from Louisiana State University (LSU) gathered at a luncheon at LSU's Faculty Club on December 5 to honor Mary Bird Perkins Cancer Center (MBPCC) and Dr. Charles M. Smith for their combined gifts providing for the establishment of an endowed chair in medical physics at LSU.
A physician and graduate of LSU, Smith made a generous contribution to the LSU Foundation to establish the chair. Contributors to a recent capital fund drive conducted by MBPCC made it possible for the center to match Dr. Smith's donation. Together, these donations qualified for $400K in matching dollars from the Louisiana board of Regents Support Fund to provide a $1 million endowment.
"This chair is key to ensuring the long-term success of the LSU - MBPCC partnership," said Smith. "I know what a difference it will make. The partnership will drive significant cancer research and help train clinical medical physicists - both leading to improved care for cancer patients."
"This was the last piece of the Capital Campaign that needed to come to fruition and we are delighted it has," said Louis D. Curet, co-chairman of the MPBCC 2004 Capital Campaign that raised more than $2 million from hundreds of community donors. "The establishment of this chair continues to illustrate the community's and Mary Bird Perkins Cancer Center's commitment to research and academic excellence in cancer care."
LSU Chancellor Sean O'Keefe, Dean Kevin Carman of the College of Basic Sciences, and Mary Bird Perkins' CEO Todd Stevens also praised Smith for his foresight in helping to build the medical physics program through the creation of the endowed chair.
Following the luncheon, Smith and representatives of MBPCC toured the facilities of the LSU Medical Physics and Health Physics Program - on tap to become the 11th accredited medical physics graduate education program in the country. Dr. Smith visited with many of the 18 medical physics students from across the nation enrolled in this premier program.
The new endowed chair in medical physics at LSU is one of just a few in the nation and the only one in Louisiana. For more detailed information about the creation of the Dr. Charles M. Smith Chair of Medical Physics, please www.phys.lsu.edu and click on "graduate programs."
Photo caps:
LSU-MBP:
Front row (l to r): Lynn Weill, MBPCC Chief Development Officer; Dr. Mary Lou Applewhite, College of Basic Sciences Campaign Chairwoman; Dr. Charles M. Smith, MD; Louis D. Curet, Co-Chair, MPBCC Whatever It Takes Campaign; John W. Barton Jr., Co-Chair, MBPCC Whatever It Takes Campaign; Robert S. Greer Jr., Chairman, MBPCC Board of Directors; Ann Marie Marmande, Director of Development, LSU Foundation/College of Basic Sciences.
Back row (l to r): Dr. Harold Silverman, Interim Provost and Dean of the Graduate School; Todd Stevens, MBPCC President and CEO; Dr. Kenneth Hogstrom, Director, LSU Medical and Health Physics; Dr. Kevin Carman, Dean, College of Basic Sciences; Sean O'Keefe, Chancellor, LSU; Roger McNeil, Chair, LSU Department of Physics & Astronomy; Paul R. Nowacki, MBPCC Chief Financial Officer; Dr. John P. Gibbons Jr., MPBCC Chief of Clinical Physics.
Dr. Smith:
Dr. Charles M. Smith, MD, (front row, center) visits with LSU Medical Physics graduate students following a tour of the university's Medical Physics and Health Physics Program facilities.