A researcher who battles cancer in the lab and fights for the rights of stem cell research in the press headlines this year's commencement ceremonies for the graduating class of 2011 at Stanford's School of Medicine.
Nobel Prize-winning molecular biologist Elizabeth Blackburn, PhD, will be the keynote speaker at the medical school graduation 2 p.m. June 11 on the Alumni Lawn, the new green in front of the Li Ka Shing Center for Learning and Knowledge.
A professor at UC San Francisco, Blackburn became a "cause célèbre" among medical researchers, according to USA Today in 2004, when her strong public support of human embryonic stem cell research led to the Bush administration’s removing her from the President’s Council on Bioethics "I don't feel martyred," she said at the time. "I wear it as a badge of honor."
