[img_inline align=”right” src=”http://padnws01.mcmaster.ca/images/springgradscropped.jpg”]Two hundred and seventy-nine students in the Faculty of Health Sciences will receive their degrees this afternoon (Friday, May 16)at the 496th McMaster Convocation held at Hamilton Place.

Degrees to be conferred are: Doctor of Philosophy (5), Master of Science (22), Doctor of Medicine (113), Bachelor of Science in Nursing (95), Bachelor of Health Science (2), Bachelor of Health Science  Midwifery (14), Graduate Diploma in Advanced Neonatal Nursing (1), Diploma in Occupational Health and Safety (11), Diploma in Child Life Studies (11), and Diploma in Environmental Health (6).

Honorary degrees will be presented to Michael Bliss and C. Barber Mueller. Bliss will give the Convocation address.

Michael Bliss, Doctor of Letters

Prolific author and distinguished Canadian historian Michael Bliss is a University Professor at the University of Toronto. He has written several well-known books on the histories of business, medicine and politics in Canada: A Canadian Millionaire, Plague, The Discovery of Insulin, Banting, and Right Honourable Men.

Bliss's first love is literature and he sees himself a writing historian rather than an academic. Two of his books, Plague and William Osler: A Life in Medicine, were shortlisted for the Governor General's Award/Non Fiction (1992 and 1999). His book Northern Enterprise: Five Centuries of Canadian Business, published in 1987, received the National Business Book Award.

He has also won the Canadian Historical Association's Ferguson Prize for his book on William Osler.

The well-known intellectual, who is considered to be the pre-eminent medical historian of his generation, has written for newspapers and magazines, and has appeared regularly on both radio and television, speaking on Canadian heritage and history, business, and medicine.

Bliss is a member of the Order of Canada and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. In 1987 he received the society's Tyrrell Medal for his outstanding work in the history of Canada. The society also twice honoured him with its Jason Hannah Medal.

He is currently writing a book about Harvey Cushing, William Osler's first biographer and the founder of neurosurgery.

Barber Mueller, Doctor of Science

C. Barber Mueller is well known at McMaster and in the Faculty of Health Sciences. The professor emeritus of surgery joined McMaster's medical school in 1967, serving as department chair for the next five years. He has been on faculty in the Department of Medicine ever since.

In the early years of his career he studied the cause and treatment of acute post-traumatic renal failure, later studying the epidemiology and survival of breast cancer patients.

He is a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada and a member of the American College of Surgeons and the Canadian Medical Association.

His career has been filled with many honours including the Favourite Son Award from the Illinois State Medical Society, a Distinguished Service Award from the Association for Academic Surgery, the McGraw Medal from the Detroit Surgical Association and a Students' Teaching Excellence Award from McMaster University.