By ARLENE NISSON LASSIN CHRONICLE CORRESPONDENT
(January 21, 2009) - After a distinguished 38-year career as a teacher at the University of Texas Medical School at Houston, 6431 Fannin, Henry Strobel received the Distinguished Medical Educator Award from the Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association - College Retirement Equities Fund.
Strobel was presented with a $10,000 check at a ceremony on Dec. 9, 2008, at L’Colombe d’ Or, 3410 Montrose Blvd. In addition, the association will award 20 scholarships in his name to Houston’s John P. McGovern Museum of Health and Medical Science, 1515 Hermann Drive.
“Dr. Strobel is a multi-faceted educator who has trained many knowledgeable and caring doctors,” said Dr. L. Maximilian Buja, executive vice president for academic affairs and teaching professor at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston.
“He is an excellent classroom teacher who is innovative and focused on the development of the student as a whole person.”
Demands are many
Strobel, 65, is a resident of Old Braeswood and the father of two grown children.
He spends about 65 percent of his time teaching and leading students through research as a biochemistry professor in the department of biochemistry and molecular biology. Strobel is also associate dean for faculty affairs.
For the past several years his research has focused on studying inflammation in brain disease.
“It is my role to help the students focus on what they are seeing,” Strobel said.
He established several important programs at the medical school, including the freshman retreat, which is organized yearly by second-year medical students and is now known as the Henry Strobel Student Retreat.
Strobel is also responsible for many of the school’s international electives in countries such as Malaysia, Thailand, Chile, and Vietnam.
The most important international program he initiated is an annual one-month student trip to Beijing, China.
“I started this in 1986, and we have brought a group of medical students every April since then,” Strobel said.
“They rotate through six hospitals affiliated with Capital Medical University, and this gives them a look at much greater medical issues. With the large population in China, they have very different medical needs. They have the opportunity to look at the treatment of diseases that are rare for here, that aren’t rare there in a population of 1.3 billion people.”
Strobel received a bachelor of science degree from the College of Charleston in South Carolina in 1964 and a doctorate in biochemistry from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1969.
After a two-year appointment at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, he came to the University of Texas Medical School at Houston in 1972.
Starting as an assistant professor, he received tenure in 1978 and became an associate professor in 1977. He was promoted to professor in 1982, and has been a visiting professor for the Capital Institute of Medicine in Beijing since 1986.
In 1991, he was appointed assistant dean for student affairs and continues in that role. Strobel was given additional responsibilities as associate dean for faculty affairs in 1995.
Aside from being a frequent recipient of the UT Dean’s Teaching Excellence Awards, he was awarded the John P. McGovern Outstanding Teacher Award from the University of Texas Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences at Houston in 2002, and the 2006 President’s Scholar Award for Excellence in Teaching from the UT Health Science Center at Houston.
Strobel feels humbled by the honor of winning the TIAA-CREF award.
”When I was called about a month ago by the chair of the selection committee, I couldn’t believe it,” Strobel said.
“The people who have won it before, such as Denton Cooley, are my heroes. I can’t believe the wonderful company I am together with in winning this award.”
