Hopkins neuroscientist and neurosurgeon Alfredo Quiñones-Hinojosa will speak at graduation on Thursday, May 23.
Quiñones-Hinojosa is currently the director of the pituitary surgery program at the Hopkins Hospital, director of Bayview’s brain tumor surgery program and a professor of neurological surgery, oncology, neuroscience and cellular and molecular medicine. He also conducts brain cancer research through NIH and was a part of the Peabody Award-winning ABC News documentary series “Hopkins.”
“How Quiñones-Hinojosa got to Johns Hopkins – a story of perseverance against the odds – is sure to be a source of inspiration for the class of 2013,” states a University press release.
Quiñones-Hinojosa moved to the U.S. from Mexico at the age of 19, knowing no English. He picked cotton to pay for his education at San Joaquin Community College, transferred to the University of California, Berkeley and graduated from Harvard Medical School with honors. He has been at Hopkins since 2005.
The Commencement speakers are chosen by President Daniels’s committee and then endorsed by the Board of Trustees.
“The President, along with a committee who advises on speakers and honorary degree recipients, accepts nominations from the University community,” Events Officer Jill Williams wrote in an email to The News-Letter. “A speaker, whose story will resonate with the graduates from across Johns Hopkins, is then selected.”
