Former Astronaut to Give Commencement Address

WHAT: Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center (TTUHSC) President Tedd L. Mitchell, M.D., and Steven L. Berk, M.D., TTUHSC executive vice president, provost and dean of the School of Medicine, will preside over the school’s commencement ceremony with 135 students receiving their medical doctor degrees.

 WHEN: 1 p.m. Monday (May 19)

WHERE: Civic Center Theatre, 1501 Mac Davis Lane

EVENT: Bernard A. Harris Jr., M.D., astronaut, entrepreneur and president of the Harris Foundation, will give the commencement address. Harris, a graduate of the TTUHSC School of Medicine, was at NASA for 10 years. Harris was a mission specialist on the Space Shuttle Columbia STS-55/Spacelab D-2 in 1993. As payload commander on Space Shuttle Discovery STS-63 in 1995, he served on the first flight of the joint Russian-American Space Program, becoming the first African American to walk in Space. As a veteran astronaut, he has logged more than 438 hours and traveled more than 7.2 million miles in space.

Harris is the chief executive officer and managing partner of Vesalius Ventures Inc., a venture capital firm, that invest in early to mid-stage health care technologies and companies. He also is the founder of the Harris Foundation, a non profit organization that supports math/science education and crime prevention programs for America's youth.

A live stream of the commencement ceremony will be available at  www.ttu.edu/livestream.

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