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• “I’m very committed to trying to make sure that the neediest among us can get access to care. There are 47 million Americans who lack health insurance so they delay or forego care, and that’s an absolute tragedy.”

  Nancy Nielsen, MD ’76, PhD

  President, American Medical Association (AMA)

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  9/19: Nancy Nielson, UB senior associate dean of medical education and American Medical Association (AMA) president, presents the inaugural O.P. Jones Lecture with the 2008 Distinguished Medical Alumnus Dinner in her honor to follow. | Find out more

By Mary Cochrane

Published: September 11, 2008

Oliver P. “O.P.” Jones, MD, the distinguished professor who inspired awe and sometimes trepidation in generations of UB anatomy students, will be remembered in a lectureship created in his honor through the generosity of a former student, Daljit S. Sarkaria, MD ’57, and his wife, Elaine Sarkaria, EdD.

The Sarkarias have given $200,000 to the School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences to create the Oliver P. “O.P.” Jones, MD, ’56, Endowed Lectureship in Medical Education. UB hopes to attract world-renowned speakers to address emerging trends in medical education through the series.

Nancy Nielsen, MD ’76, PhD, president of the American Medical Association and senior associate dean of medical education in the school, will deliver the inaugural lecture Friday, September 19, 2008, at the Adam’s Mark Hotel, 120 Church Street in Buffalo.

The Jones lectureship honors a medical pioneer who taught at UB for 30 years, during which time he headed the Department of Anatomy from 1943-1971 and served as assistant dean for admissions from 1946–1955.

Jones was widely recognized for his studies in morphological hematology and for his work in pernicious anemias, placental transfer of antianemic substances, and the classification of mechanisms of abnormalities of erythropoiesis, which have become classis in the field.

Daljit Sarkaria, who earned a doctorate in 1948 from Cornell University, hopes the lectureship will memorialize his former teacher while enhancing the medical education of UB students.

“Dr. Jones was one of my best teachers,” he says. “He was committed to teaching medicine on a personal level. We are happy to be able to create this lectureship in support of excellence in teaching, research and patient care.”

Following graduation from the UB medical school in 1957, Sarkaria entered residency training at UCLA Medical School. He served for 22 years with La Mirada Hospital as a pathologist and supervisor of clinical laboratories. He and his wife are retired and reside in Orange, California.

The Sarkarias have given generously to higher education and medicine, establishing endowed faculty chairs at Cornell University and UCLA and supporting the Mayo Clinic. Three of their five children have pursued careers in medicine.

“We are grateful to the Sarkarias for their generous gift to the medical school,” says Michael E. Cain, MD, dean of the UB School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences. “Dr. Jones believed in the value of education and its role in building purposeful lives. The Sarkarias’ gift recognizes and honors his role in creating a legacy of teaching and research that reflects the school’s past, present and future and helps UB to ensure that patient-centered teaching remains at the core of our programs.”

For more details about the inaugural lecture being given by Nancy Nielsen, MD, call or email Jennifer Lobaugh at 829-2773, jlobaugh@buffalo.edu.