Good morning. My name is Charles Huskins and I am the Associate Director for Educational Resources in the Mayo Center for Translational Science Activities.

It is my pleasure to introduce Dr. David Morrison who will lead today's workshop “Writing for Biomedical Publication.”

Dr. Morrison has had an extremely distinguished academic career, which I would like to take a moment to review

He completed his Ph.D. in molecular biology and physics at Yale University and postdoctoral fellowships at the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases and at the Scripps Research Institute.

He rose through the academic ranks at Scripps before moving to Emory University where he became a Professor and the Director of Graduate Studies in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology.

Dr. Morrison then moved to the University of Kansas where was a Professor and Chair of the Department of Microbiology, held the Kansas Masons Endowed Chair, and was Associate Director for Research at the Cancer Center .

He then moved to the University of Missouri Kansas City School of Medicine where he was a Professor of Basic Medical Research, held the Sosland Endowed Chair, and was the Director of Medical Research at Saint Luke's Hospital of Kansas City .

Dr. Morrison has made outstanding contributions to our understanding of the effects of endotoxin in animal models and the molecular pathobiology of sepsis in humans. He has had a continuous record of funding from the NIH throughout his research career and was the recipient of an NIH MERIT award from 1990-2000. This award is NIH's mechanism for recognizing and supporting the very top tier of biomedical researchers.

Dr. Morrison has written countless original articles, reviews, and book chapters and has edited several books. He has served on editorial boards for a host of journals and was the editor for Infection and Immunity and the founder and Editor in Chief of the Journal of Endotoxin Research.

Drawing on all of this experience, Dr. Morrison leads two workshops offered as a part of the clinical and translational research training program here at Mayo: today's workshop, Writing for Biomedical Publication, and another workshop, Write Winning Grants, offered in the fall.

Dr. Morrison, we are honored and deeply thankful for your contributions to our educational program here at Mayo.

In fact, we are so thankful that we are going to delay the workshop for a few minutes so that we can give you an award.

Dr. Morrison, we would like to honor your contributions to our program by giving you the first ever Faculty Service Award from the Mayo Center for Translational Sciences Activities.

The Faculty Service Award is an award bestowed by various schools at Mayo, including the Mayo Medical School , the Mayo Graduate School , and the Mayo Graduate School of Continuing Education, for highly meritorious and distinguished service.

Dr. Morrison certainly deserves this award. He has led these two workshops at Mayo every year since 2002. Over 500 scholars have participated in each of these workshops.

Let me read a few of the written comments we have received from people who have attended these workshops in the past.

First about the grant writing workshop…

“This was a great workshop! I learned a lot about the strategy for grant writing.” “Dr. Morrison is simply outstanding.”

Here are two additional quotes that I found very exceptional. “The speaker was extremely engaging and managed to masterfully take a topic which would have been intolerable and made it very interesting .” “I took this [workshop] a few years ago and found it very valuable and enjoyable both times.”

Second about today's workshop…

Dr. Morrison was a “stellar presenter, clearly an expert on the topic.” “I think the information…will be invaluable in my future publications.” “Dr. Morrison was a superb speaker…at true expert in the field and a pleasure to listen to all day.”

Finally, I want to point out that the sketch on the award plaque and shown on the screen is a picture of the doors to the Plummer Building . The Plummer Building will be the location of all of the CTSA offices in the future and will therefore represent the academic “home” for clinical and translational research at Mayo.

These doors are open to all who wish to teach and learn how to design, conduct and report clinical and translational research at Mayo Clinic.

Dr. Morrison, the doors to this home will always be open to you.

Again, thank you very much for all you have done for us at Mayo Clinic.