McWilliams Day & President Kibbe's Listening Tour
Our entire School Community is invited to join us on Wednesday, December 17 for McWilliams Day & the Listening Tour for President Melina Kibbe, MD.
Dean Jiajie Zhang, PhD will present on the State of the School as we recognize our annual McWilliams Day. Afterward, President Kibbe will speak with our faculty, staff, and students.
This event is in-person only and will take place in the large McWilliams Classroom space on the 6th floor of 7000 Fannin Street. We look forward to seeing many of you at this special opportunity to hear from Dr. Kibbe.
McWilliams Bragging Points
Members of our McWilliams School of Biomedical Informatics Community have recently achieved noteworthy accomplishments. We want to recognize and applaud these individuals.
- We had three PhD Candidates successfully defend their dissertations from late October into early November. Join us in congratulating Wentao Li, Xiaotian Ma (in the black suit) and Dulin Wang (in the blue shirt) on completing their doctoral studies. All three students will graduate next month.
- DHI Student Fares Alahdab MD, MS co-authored an article that was recently published in the Journal of Nuclear Cardiology.
- Bingyu Mao, PhD ‘25 was named a 2nd place winner for the 2025 Knowledge Discovery & Data Mining (KDDM) Innovation Award. This annual award recognizes outstanding contributions in knowledge discovery, machine learning, and data-driven methods that advance biomedical and health informatics. Dr. Mao’s paper is titled “A Reinforcement Learning (RL)-Motivated Simulation Framework for Evaluating Vancomycin Dosing Strategies.”
MS and Certificate Program Advising
Do you need help with selecting your spring 2026 courses? Travis Crook is available to help plan for future courses and discuss any academic questions you might have. Schedule your appointment by using his booking link: go.uth.edu/TravisCrook.
Fall Poster Session on December 8
Join us at 4 PM (CT) on Monday, December 8 for the fall 2025 Poster Session and Mixer. Students, faculty, staff, and guests are invited to learn more about research taking place at McWilliams School of Biomedical Informatics while enjoying festive snacks and beverages. The event will be in the IMM Atrium (1825 Pressler Street), which is next door to our school’s building.
Spring 2026 Scholarship Application
McWilliams School of Biomedical Informatics is currently accepting spring 2026 scholarship applications. The deadline to apply is Friday, December 5 at 5 PM (CT).
Please apply via this link: https://uthealth.questionpro.com/scholarship2026Important VPN Reminder from IT
In case you missed the announcement in the Insider newsletter, UTHealth Houston is upgrading its virtual private network (VPN) to GlobalProtect. This new system will replace F5 Big-IP to improve remote access performance and reliability. This upgrade will enhance security and provide smoother, more consistent connections for all users. Read the Insider article here: New GlobalProtect VPN to offer enhanced reliability, secure access - News - Inside UTHealth Houston.
Third Annual TMC AI Summit
Taking place February 18–20, 2026, at the Jan and Dan Duncan Neurological Research Institute in Houston, Texas, this year’s summit marks an exciting collaboration between TEAM-AI at UTHealth Houston’s McWilliams School of Biomedical Informatics and Texas Children’s Hospital. For the first time, the TCH Symposium on AI in Healthcare and the TMC AI Summit are joining forces to create one powerful, unified event bringing together researchers, clinicians, and industry leaders to explore how AI is transforming medicine.
Registration is now open! We’re thrilled to announce our keynote speakers for the 2026 Summit. We’re excited to welcome Dr. Chris Mungall, Senior Scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, who will be speaking in the Foundation Track on Thursday, February 19th, at 8:10 AM.
We’re honored to feature Dr. Anant Madabhushi, Robert W. Woodruff Professor of Biomedical Engineering at Emory University, who will be speaking in the Opportunity Track on Thursday, February 19th, at 2:30 PM.
We’re delighted to highlight Cris Ross, former Chief Information Officer at Mayo Clinic and current Venture Partner at Aegis Ventures, who will be speaking in the Impact Track on Friday, February 20th, at 8:10 AM.
Join us and be part of this dynamic three-day gathering driving the future of AI in health.
8th Annual Glaser Proceeding Materials
If you missed the 8th Annual Glaser Proceeding events earlier this month, we have the materials from the event.
Unique Opportunities for McWilliams Students
Pfizer Summer 2026 Internship in AI/Machine Learning
Albert Schweitzer Fellowship Program
- This 12-week internship is designed for graduate students (MS and Doctoral) and will take place during the summer (May to September). It provides an immersive experience through a rich range of seminars, lectures, fireside chats, project work, and integration with other groups, offering a glimpse into life at a company dedicated to the mission of changing the lives of one billion patients every year.
- For more information on qualification requirements and application details, please visit the application webpage. The application deadline is January 30, 2026.
Albert Schweitzer Fellowship Program
- The Albert Schweitzer Fellowship is dedicated to training the next generation of professionals to serve and empower vulnerable people to build healthier communities and live healthier lives. The application for 2026-2025 will open this month and there are several upcoming workshops for prospective applicants.
- To learn more about this program’s requirements or to register for a workshop, visit the application webpage.
MARK YOUR CALENDAR
Upcoming Events Dates
| Dec. 8 | Fall Poster Session 4 - 6:30 PM in the IMM Atrium (1825 Pressler Street) |
| Dec. 17 | McWilliams Day & President Kibbe's Listening Tour 2:15 - 3:30 PM in the McWilliams Classrooms |
Important Dates
| Nov. 27-28 | Thanksgiving Holiday - University is closed |
| Dec. 5 | Last class day for fall 2025 |
| Dec. 5 | PhD - Last day to defend proposal |
| Dec. 8 | McWilliams Fall Poster Session |
| Dec. 8-12 | Final Exams/Evaluations |
| Dec. 16 | Faculty - Final grades due in myUTH |
| Dec. 17 | McWilliams Day & President Kibbe's Listening Tour |
| Dec. 18-19 | PhD Qualifying Exam |
| Dec. 24-26 | Holiday Break - University is closed |
| Dec. 29-31 | Skeleton Crew Days - Staff have limited schedule |
| Jan. 1 | New Year’s Day - University is closed |
| Jan. 2 | Skeleton Crew Day - Staff have limited schedule |
Visit our website for a full list of research seminar dates and access to recordings for past seminars.
Office of Academic Affairs
7000 Fannin, Ste. 650 Houston, TX
Phone: 713.500.3591
Email: [email protected]
7000 Fannin, Ste. 650 Houston, TX
Phone: 713.500.3591
Email: [email protected]
