NYU School of Medicine held its graduation ceremony on Wednesday, May 16, at Alice Tully Hall, celebrating the accomplishments and success of 149 new physicians. Professor of philosophy and law, Kwame Anthony Appiah, PhD, gave the keynote address to those gathered. His remarks to the graduates focused on the challenges in medicine and the frontiers of medical knowledge. Walter W. Buckley Jr., founder and president of Buckley Muething Capital Management and trustee of NYU Langone Health, was recognized as the honorary alumnus.

About the Class of 2018

The Class of 2018 is comprised of 149 students, all receiving Doctor of Medicine degrees. The class included 19 students graduating from the three-year MD pathway.

The three-year MD pathway was developed as a key initiative of NYU School of Medicine’s Curriculum for the 21st Century. This initiative allows medical students an accelerated pathway to medical education, providing early access to faculty mentors, opportunities to conduct research, and conditional acceptance into any 1 of our 20 residency programs.

Additionally, 27 students received dual degrees, including:

• three dual Doctor of Medicine/Master of Science degrees
• 14 dual Doctor of Medicine/Master of Business Administration degrees
• 10 Doctor of Medicine and Doctor of Philosophy (MD/PhD) degrees through the MD/PhD training program
• three degrees were conferred with honors, and 25 members of the class were inducted to Alpha Omega Alpha, the national medical honor society

About Kwame Anthony Appiah, PhD

Kwame Anthony Appiah was born in England and raised in Ghana. He studied medicine and philosophy at Cambridge University as an undergraduate and completed a doctoral degree in philosophy there in 1982. Since then he has taught at Yale, Cornell, Duke, Harvard, and Princeton, before coming to NYU to be professor of philosophy and law in 2013.

He has written widely in philosophy, especially in ethics and political philosophy, and in African and African American studies, and lectured on these subjects in Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Americas. Dr. Appiah is the author of Cosmopolitanism, The Honor Code, and The Lies That Bind, and more than a dozen other philosophical works, three novels, and hundreds of articles and reviews. He writes the weekly Ethicist column in The New York Times.

Dr. Appiah has received honorary degrees from 15 universities, most recently Occidental College (2012), Harvard University (2012), the University of Pennsylvania (2013), Edinburgh University (2013), and Wesleyan University (2016). He has been president of the Eastern Division of the American Philosophical Association, the PEN American Center, and the Modern Language Association, and chaired the Board of the American Council of Learned Societies. He currently sits on the boards of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the New York Public Theater, and the New York Public Library. In 2012 President Obama presented him with the National Humanities Medal. In 2017 he was elected to the Royal Society of Literature.

About the Ceremony

Following the procession and introductions by Anthony J. Grieco, MD, associate dean for alumni relations and academic events, Kyle Pires, MD, delivered the student address. Kenneth G. Langone, chair of the Board of Trustees at NYU Langone, and William R. Berkley, chair of the NYU Board of Trustees, greeted the graduates. Next, Andrew Hamilton, president of NYU, welcomed and congratulated the students, commending them on their accomplishments. Robert I. Grossman, MD, the Saul J. Farber Dean and CEO of NYU Langone, then addressed the class, reflecting on the lessons learned by being underestimated and how it’s important to recognize self-worth. The conferring of degrees by Dean Grossman and Linda R. Tewksbury, MD, associate dean for student affairs at NYU School of Medicine, took place directly after Dr. Appiah delivered the keynote address. Dr. Grossman then administered the Hippocratic Oath, concluding the graduation ceremony.

View the 2018 graduation ceremony program.

Media Inquiries

Kate Malenczak
Phone: 212-404-7367
kate.malenczak@nyumc.org