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impassioned donors, 18 exceptional students from across the country spent 11 weeks working in Gates Center members’ labs and our final day featured the students’ projects and guest speaker CBS medical correspondent Max Gomez, Ph.D. Among the accolades the program received, one student described it as “a fantastic program,” and added, “One of the best decisions I’ve made in college was to join.”
Above all, we are grateful for the many people who believe in Charles Gates’ vision of a future in regenerative medicine and who are working to achieve it. This includes our members, our staff, the Gates Center Advisory Board (which added Yvette Pita Frampton and Geoff “Duffy” Solich to its midst in 2016), our campus leadership and colleagues, and our donors, volunteers and friends. It was our great pleasure to host the first annual “Charlie’s Picnic” in August to thank them.
As I look back over the first ten years of the Gates Center and my tenure on the Anschutz Medical Campus, I must thank Diane Gates Wallach, whom we were so proud to nominate for an honorary degree in recognition of her unsurpassed commitment to the Gates Center and the Anschutz Medical Campus. Her father liked to say “no one does their best work alone.” I want her to know that we could never have come so far without Charlie’s vision and her unwavering commitment and support for our cause.
Sincerely,
Dennis R. Roop, Ph.D.
Director, Gates Center for Regenerative Medicine
Charles C. Gates Endowed Chair in Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Biology
May 28, 2016
Dennis and the entire Gates Center team:
I want to thank you for your kind nomination of me for an honorary doctorate. It was a surprise and quite an honor, and I don’t believe I ever expressed my thanks.
Since I chose the latest possible date to receive the degree—yesterday—almost two years have passed. Time does fly, but it has been a pleasure and inspiration to see how far the center and collaboration across campus have come, even in the last year alone. You are an amazing group!
The future is bright and there is no rest for the weary. All ahead full as we start delivering real outcomes for patients and building on what is now a very solid foundation from the bench to bedsides.
Thank you for all your positive energy and hard work. Charlie is definitely happy, looking down from above. Interestingly, yesterday was his birthday.
Best, Diane
On May 27, 2016, CU President Bruce Benson awarded Diane Gates Wallach the Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree in recognition of her unsurpassed commitment to the Gates Center and the Anschutz Medical Campus.
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