Photo by: Paul Martens
Richard A. Haak
Professor of Microbiology and Immunology, School
of Medicine,
University Graduate School, IUPUI
| He has done more than any other person
to improve the quality of medical education in Indianapolis
as well as at our statewide Centers for Medical Education."
|
| —Robert
Harris, chair, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology,
IUSM |
|
With well over 1,000 faculty members at the IU School of Medicine,
it can be difficult to stand out. Microbiology and Immunology Professor
Richard A. Haak, however, has unquestionably made his mark on the
school. Haak's work has proved absolutely crucial to the health
and future of the school, and most important, to the quality of
the school's training of future doctors.
Haak has been selflessly serving IU and the School of Medicine since
his appointment in the early 1970s. Since 1998, he has served as
chair of the Microbiology and Immunology Graduate Student Recruitment
Committee and of the Academic Standards Committee for 12 years.
In 2000, to keep on top of management and organizational change
in the medical curriculum, he attended the Harvard Macy Institute
Program for Leaders in Medical Education.
Haak's colleagues speak gratefully about his role in the recent
national accreditation review from the Liaison Committee for Medical
Education (LCME). As vice chair of the LCME's Institutional
Self-Study Task Force Steering Committee, Haak took on this review
of the IU School of Medicine—a review required of all institutions
of medical education every seven years—which is no mean feat.
The results are a document that is approximately one and one-half
feet tall.
The boundaries of Haak's service extend well beyond Indiana.
Haak was one of four other scientists in the United States to serve
as an interviewer in Beijing for CUSBA, the China–U.S. Biochemistry
Admissions Program, which helps place Chinese applicants in Ph.D.
programs in the United States and Canada.
Hal Broxmeyer, scientific director of the Walther Oncology Center
and a professor in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology,
deems Haak "a shining example of the caliber of unselfish individual
who has done what is needed through his service to make our school
a better place for our students and faculty."
Perhaps those most grateful to Haak's service, however, are
the future patients who will be so expertly treated by the School
of Medicine's high-caliber graduates.
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