This newly established professorship at Harvard Medical School was celebrated on Nov. 4, 2024, in recognition of the benefactor’s generosity and the achievements of its inaugural incumbent.

By Randy Fox
Richard Platt, MD ’73, SM ’84, and Emily Oken, MD ’96, MPH ’03. Image: Gretchen Ertl

A celebration held Nov. 4 at HMS honored Richard Platt, MD ’73, SM ’84, and Emily Oken, MD ’96, MPH ’03, as the inaugural and current incumbents, respectively, of the Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute Professorship of Population Medicine.

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An appointment to an endowed professorship—the highest honor Harvard Medical School can bestow on a faculty member—recognizes extraordinary clinicians, researchers, and educators at HMS or one of its affiliate institutions.