Osler Award for Outstanding Teaching in Medicine

Hershey Warshawsky

Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology

This award, coming 10 years after receiving the Leo Yaffe Award, climaxes my teaching career in two faculties at McGill. As a student at Sir George Williams University and later at McGill, a handful of professors stood out because they could explain complex ideas in words, pictures and gestures that I understood and could remember. I began teaching as a laboratory demonstrator in histology (microscopic anatomy) while still a PhD student in the Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology at McGill. Working with first year medical and dental students, my lab talks in histology were directed at my peers in age and background -- and I explained things to them so that I would understand them myself. During the past 39 years, I have taught histology and cell biology at all levels of our program. I attempt to capture and hold the attention of my students and I speak to them as individuals. I judge success when I get nods of understanding and expressions of awe at the artistic beauty of biological structure. The appreciation of a work of art lasts forever.