On Thursday, February 23,  keynote speaker Dr. Robert Robbins gave a talk he called “A Personal Journey: From Mississippi to the Largest Medical Center in the World” at MUW’s II & C Symposium. Twenty MSMS students were allowed to attend this event, including the Human Infectious Diseases class. The event was packed with attendees, with some even having to go into an overflowed section in a room in Nissan.

The main focus of Dr. Robbins’s speech was his background in Mississippi that led to his success as the President and CEO of the Texas Medical Center (TMC). He spent his undergraduate years at Millsaps College, received a medical degree from the University of Mississippi, and then received a post doctorate at Stanford University. Most of his research is dedicated to cardiology.

Dr. Robbins expressed his opinions on the advancements in science that are happening at TMC. Technology is ever changing with the way the medical field works now. An advancement in medicine he talked about was the first heart transplant. Dr. Robbins’ mentors were a part of the team who took part in this historical operation. There was some rare footage of the transplant presented to those who went to the symposium.

Dr. Robbins emphasized that Mississippi is a place with great potential for giving individuals a great foundation for success and that the medical field is need of gender and regional diversity.

The lecture by Dr. Robbins was the event leading into the Mississippi University for Women’s research symposium with poster presentations. Five MSMS students (Jenny Nguyen, Sophia Ali, Tristan Daily, Samuel Patterson, and Baili Zhong) presented posters of their own research alongside MUW undergraduate posters. These events was held to showcase and promote the STEM field to students.