Keynote Speakers

"Cancer: Bioinformatics and the "N" of One Problem"

Presented by Franklyn G. Prendergast, M.D., Ph.D., Mayo Clinic Rochester

Franklyn Prendergast, M.D., Ph.D., professor of Pharmacology and Biochemistry/Molecular Biology, College of Medicine, Mayo Clinic and director, Mayo Clinic Center for Individualized Medicine.  Dr. Prendergast joined Mayo Clinic as a consultant and assistant professor in the Department of Pharmacology in 1978, and served as chair for the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from 1986 to 1989.  He became the Edmond and Marion Guggenheim Professor in 1988. 

His principal areas of research are protein chemistry and biophysics.  His current research centers on drug design and discovery and computational biology.  He served two terms on the Mayo Clinic Board of Governors and was a member of the Mayo Board of Trustees for 17 years.  He was past director of the Mayo Clinic Cancer Center.  Dr. Prendergast has received numerous academic honors, including Distinguished Graduate of the University of Minnesota and the University of the West Indies.  He is a member of several national boards, and has served the National Institutes of Health extensively over the past 20 years with roles on numerous advisory groups and boards.  Dr. Prendergast also serves on the scientific advisory boards of several prominent academic institutions and several biotechnology firms.

"US Graduate Education in a Globalized Marketplace"

Presented by Henning Schroeder, Ph.D., University of Minnesota  

U.S. graduate programs have long been considered among the best in the world in terms of instructional quality, focus on research and scholarship, and development of intellectual community. Over the past 10-15 years, however, Europe, Asia, Australia, and other world regions have moved away from their traditional master-apprenticeship model in graduate education and have begun to establish graduate schools and structured graduate programs. Many of these new schools and programs include a combination of taught elements and independent research or scholarly activities in which the responsibility for doctoral education no longer resides solely with individual professors but relies to a greater extent on institutional and government policies. In addition, national funding schemes and fellowship programs for master's and doctoral programs have been established at the national level in many European countries participating in the Bologna Process as well as in Canada and Australia. The coursework in many of these emerging doctoral programs focuses on transferable skills that prepare students for academic as well as non-academic careers. While such developments will clearly lead to more competition and potentially fewer applications from international and even U.S. students to U.S. graduate programs, the globalization of graduate education will benefit all students and faculty by opening up more opportunities for collaborative and interdisciplinary endeavors.

About the Presenter

Henning Schroeder was appointed to his current post in January 2010 to lead the implementation of the University’s plans to restructure and streamline graduate education. He served as an active member of the Committee on Graduate Education throughout its deliberations in spring 2009. Schroeder joined the University of Minnesota in 2007 as associate dean for research and graduate studies at the College of Pharmacy and still holds a faculty appointment as professor in the Department of Pharmaceutics.

From 2005 to 2007, Schroeder held an appointment as visiting professor at Stanford University. He was also a faculty member in the Martin Luther University School of Pharmacy in Halle, where he chaired the Department of Pharmacology for 12 years, and in the Medical School at Duesseldorf University, Germany.

Schroeder earned both his Ph.D. (1985) and professional pharmacy degree (1981) from Duesseldorf University. He was a postdoctoral fellow at Stanford University, where he worked in the group of Nobel laureate Ferid Murad. Schroeder’s ongoing research focuses on cardiovascular disease and the regulation of antioxidant genes. He has published more than 80 peer-reviewed articles and more than 60 review articles and book chapters. The work of his group and graduate students has been honored with numerous awards.