Cheves Smythe Distinguished Lecture
University of Southern California
Cheves Smythe, M.D.
The Cheves Smythe Distinguished Lecture was established in 2006 to honor Dr. Cheves Smythe, our first dean of McGovern Medical School from 1970 – 1975. Dr. Smythe skillfully guided the School through its early years with his long-standing commitment to the fields of geriatrics and education and his exemplary standards of leadership.
Dr. Smythe was born and raised in Charleston, South Carolina, educated at Yale, and graduated from the Harvard Medical School in 1947. He was trained in internal medicine at the Boston City Hospital in Boston and Bellevue and Presbyterian Hospitals in New York. Research fellowships in the study of hepatic and renal physiology followed. During the Korean War, he was assigned to the Naval Medical Field Research Laboratory, Camp Lejeune, in North Carolina, and was responsible for a variety of applied research ventures relative to military medicine. After 11 years on the faculty at the Medical College of South Carolina and three years as Dean, he became Associate Director of the Association of American Medical Colleges.
He was then asked to organize McGovern Medical School at Houston in 1970 where he served until November 2011. During leaves of absence, he also served as Dean, Professor of Medicine and Chairman of the Department of Medicine at the Aga Khan University of Health Sciences in Karachi, Pakistan.
He is certified in both Internal Medicine and Geriatrics. He has been recognized as a devoted and appreciated teacher of clinical medicine, strengthening medical teaching at Lyndon Baines Johnson Hospital as well as assisting in the development of the geriatric medicine program.
An endowment has been established in Dr. Smythe’s name. Contributions should be made to :
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Past Speakers
2025
Fred Gage (external link)
The Salk Institute for Biological Studies
Gage Recording (external link)
2024
George Kuchel, M.D (external link).
UConn Health
Kuchel Recording (external link)
2023
Supriya Mohile, M.D., MS (external link)
University of Rochester
2021
Louise Aronson, M.D., MFA (external link)
University of California, San Francisco
2020
Judith Campisi, Ph.D. (external link)
The Buck Institute for Research on Aging
2019
Gerard Karsenty, M.D., Ph.D. (external link)
Columbia University
2018
Helen Blau, Ph.D. (external link)
Stanford University
Baxter Laboratory for Stem Cell Biology
2017
Lennart Mucke, M.D. (external link)
University of California, San Francisco
Gladstone Institute of Neurological Disease
2016
Linda Fried, M.D. (external link)
Columbia University
Mailman School of Public Health
2015
Carol Barnes, Ph.D. (external link)
University of Arizona
Evelyn F. McKnight Brain Institute
2014
Luis Miguel Gutierrez-Robledo, M.D., Ph.D. (external link)
Autonomous University
National Institute of Geriatrics, Mexico
2013
Thomas Rando, M.D., Ph.D. (external link)
Stanford University
Paul F. Glenn Laboratory for the Biology of Aging
2012
Charles Reynolds III, M.D. (external link)
University of Pittsburgh Medical Center
Geriatric Psychiatry
2011
David Sinclair, Ph.D. (external link)
Harvard Medical School
Paul F. Glenn Laboratories for the Biological Mechanisms of Aging
2010
Cynthia Kenyon, Ph.D. (external link)
Calico
Aging Research
2009
Douglas Mann, M.D., F.A.C.C. (external link)
Washington University
Internal Medicine, Cardiovascular Division
2008
John Morley, MB., B.CH.
Saint Louis University, St. Louis
Gateway Geriatric Center
2007
Jeffrey Cummings, M.D., (external link)
University of Nevada, Las Vegas