“I remember our first workshop in Budapest; we actually had no idea what to expect,” Dr. Kārlis Rācenis, a participant from Lativa, shared his first impressions. “My biggest fear was coding, I could already imagine sitting in the nights, trying to code some statistics. But then Jamie Robertson, one of the program directors, came, answering our simplest questions and showing us that everything will be just fine,” the nephrologist from Riga recalled. “What I loved most about this course was that high-profile researchers were willing to share their experiences and to be honest. All of this showed that you can learn and improve from your failures. Another thing that inspired me was the teaching approach. Even though the topics were very complex, the faculty members made them easy to understand. I found some subjects I had previously shown little interest to be excellent,” Dr. Kārlis Rācenis summarized his experiences at the closing ceremony of the workshop.
The young researcher is one from a second cohort of postdoctoral fellows, recent graduates, PhD students, early-career clinicians, and residents who received their certificates from Harvard Medical School’s Clinical Science Scholars program at Semmelweis University on March 20 in Boston. The ceremony marked the end of the third workshop of the nine-month program, which also included professional lectures and practical sessions. In the academic year 2024-2025, a total of 71 participants completed the program, 42 of whom came from Semmelweis University, and 29 from the medical schools of Pécs, Debrecen, and Szeged, Bulgaria, China, the Czech Republic, Greece, Latvia, Romania, Serbia, and Turkey.
The ten best capstone projects submitted during the program, in which participants were required to develop proposals for research funding, were presented at the Boston workshop. This year’s top three submissions by Tamás Fazekas, Eszter Ágnes Szalai, and Dorottya Fésü were announced at the closing ceremony.
Dr. Béla Merkely, Rector of Semmelweis University, pointed out that based on the experience of the first two years, this unique postgraduate training program had lived up to expectations, as the program faculty had already met many talented, hard-working, and motivated students.
Our program is an excellent opportunity to build the cross-border links essential for progress in our profession. I am sure the training has given you opportunities for future projects and cooperation. I ask you to keep your diligence and curiosity alive and never forget: No matter which field of medical and health sciences you work in, the most important thing is always to cure our patients and protect people’s health. This is what our program and profession are about and what we have dedicated our lives to. – Dr. Béla Merkely
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Dr. David Roberts, Dean for External Education at Harvard Medical School, referenced former HMS Dean Daniel Federman when describing the program: “If you take amazing people like the program attendees and amazing faculty, and put them together with really complicated questions, just magic happens.” He stressed that the training was both informative – i.e. participants were not only enriched with knowledge and tools – and transformative, encouraging them to adopt a mindset to challenge assumptions and improve public health. “I believe that with this program, we have brought together the best of our institutions to create something greater than just each of us individually,” said Dr. David Roberts, evaluating the program.
Harvard Medical School’s Clinical Science Scholars program at Semmelweis University will be launched for the last time in the 2025-2026 academic year. Applications for the program are open on Harvard Medical School’s website, where prospective participants can submit their CV, cover letter, and letter of recommendation. Applications close on May 19, 2025. Again this year, the Foundation for National Health Care and Medical Education is calling for scholarship applications.
For further questions, please contact learn@hms.harvard.edu (program specifics) or scholarship@semmelweis.hu (tuition reduction).
Judit Szabados-Dőtsch
Photos by Liesl Clark
