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Remarks by Reed Pyeritz, William Smilow Professor of Medicine and Genetics, chief of Division of Medical Genetics, Perelman School of Medicine; and Incoming Chair of the Faculty Senate.
Welcoming Uncertainty
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Reed Pyeritz |
President Gutmann, Provost Price, members of the Board of Trustees, colleagues, parents, relatives and friends, and most importantly, Graduates! Five days ago, I became the Chair of the Faculty Senate of the University of Pennsylvania. I note with pride that Penn is one of only three of our peer Ivy institutions to support an independent senate representative of the entire university. So, on behalf of the 4,555 members of this faculty, give or take a dozen, I begin by quoting the name of the ship that in 1682 brought William Penn to the American Colonies: “Welcome”!
In addition to educating and mentoring you this academic year, Penn Faculty have employed gene therapy to cure hereditary forms of human blindness, developed a topological insulator that may one day lead to a quantum computer, discovered even more cancers that can be treated effectively with chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy, won a MacArthur ‘genius’ award, won several Guggenheim Fellowships and expanded the horizons of Penn to Beijing and beyond.
Tradition demands that I accomplish three tasks as quickly as possible: first, cite the number of faculty members; second, mention Benjamin Franklin, and third, bestow some advice on the graduates. Having accomplished the first two requirements, let me move to the most important.
Today all of you graduates should be full of optimism, likely tinged with a bit of uncertainty about your futures, which is perfectly acceptable. I urge you to maintain that optimism and make it a self-fulfilling prophecy. Many of you perhaps believe that you have surmounted uncertainty: you have a job; you know where you will live (even with Mom and Dad); and, you have established friendships that you believe will last a lifetime (some personal wisdom interjected here—some will, and you will be glad that some will not). Attaining what you think you want, especially early on, seemingly eliminates uncertainty. You have learned what it feels like to achieve success, like the day you received the fat envelope from Penn Admissions. And today you receive something even more important from Penn.
I mention uncertainty with some personal, professional interest, as that concept is a focus of my own research. I am a medical geneticist, and I have been struck by the irony that, as we are able to scrutinize our individual genetic codes in ever more precise ways, down to one nucleotide change out of 6.4 billion possibilities, we have more and more difficulty interpreting any given variation. This irony gives me and my genetic counselors considerable heartburn, but is typical of the health sciences today. This may sound antithetical to your parents’ expectations; we faculty were expected to teach the truth and rid you of uncertainties. However, we are notorious for telling our first-year medical students that one-half of what we will teach will be viewed as incorrect in ten years; unfortunately, we just do not know which half. I have no doubt that you, like most humans, have an affinity for certainty. But if you permit me to quote Oliver Wendell Holmes, a graduate of the Penn of the North, ‘…certainty generally is illusion, and repose is not the destiny of man.’ I can literally point to one such illusion. Gaze over the south wall of this stadium and you will see Penn Tower. Next year at this time it will be gone, eventually to be replaced by a new bed tower for the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. Nonetheless, I trust that you have learned and accepted that many certainties do exist: evolution happens; the climate is changing; the universe expands; the Higgs boson exists; vaccines are good; and regardless of who wrote them, there are Shakespearean plays and sonnets. It is also certain that you, as graduates of this great University, can confront countless substantial and important issues in the years ahead.
Among the nearly 300,000 living Penn alumni, whom you will soon join, some achieved extraordinary success within the past few months: publishing an acclaimed book on the sinking of the Lusitania; being elected president of a Federal Reserve Bank; winning an Academy Award; and being named dean of our School of Nursing. While these types of accomplishments may seem out of reach at the moment, take small steps along a selected path. If things do not evolve as you initially hoped, you can always change your plan, but only if you have one. Moreover, if you ever consider underestimating yourself, seek help. In conclusion, the faculty members of Penn offer our sincerest congratulations on your many successes.
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| Photograph by Marguerite F. Miller |
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