The Pritzker School of Medicine celebrated the arrival of its 100th class of MD candidates at the University of Chicago on Sunday, welcoming 100 new students to the field of medicine in the 38th White Coat Ceremony.
With family and friends looking on from the pews inside historic Rockefeller Memorial Chapel, the entering class of 2026 received their first short white coats—symbolic of professionalism and the responsibility inherent in becoming a physician—adorned with a pin celebrating Pritzker’s centennial anniversary.
In the ceremony’s keynote address, Elbert Huang, MD, MPH, invited students to consider the practice of medicine as a form of time travel, first highlighting the ways doctors can learn about the past from their patients’ history of care and personal stories.
“Each person embodies historical changes in medical care but also broader historical changes in social and political life,” Huang said. “You will get the opportunity to experience this intergenerational exchange that benefits you but also benefits the patients.”
Huang, the Director of the Center for Chronic Disease Research and Policy and Associate Director of the Chicago Center for Diabetes Translation Research at the University of Chicago, posited further that research provides physicians a window into the future as they apply what has been learned to predict and reshape what lies ahead. Recounting his own research on diabetes, he challenged the new students to take on “big hairy problems” that might seem unsolvable.
“Pursuing an unsolved problem will give you purpose every day,” Huang said. “It is important to have eye on the destination even if the path may take you in unexpected directions.”
Traveling with them into the past or future, Huang continued, is a ‘social convoy,’ a network of close and more distant relationships providing emotional, practical, and informational support.
“One of the best pieces of advice that I have for you is to move together as a medical class into the future,” Huang said. “You are about to form some of the closest friendships of your life while studying anatomy and biochemistry, rotating through different clinical services, passing Step 1, and surviving the stress of the match.”
Now a rite of passage held at medical schools across the country, the White Coat Ceremony traces its origins to the University of Chicago in 1989. Norma Wagoner, PhD, Pritzker’s Dean of Students at the time, envisioned the ceremony as a means of emphasizing professionalism as the most important part of transitioning to medical school. Holly Humphrey, MD, who would later become Pritzker’s Dean for Medical Education, delivered the first keynote address.
The new class includes 80 MD candidates, 19 MD/PhD candidates in the Medical Scientist Training Program, and one MD/PhD candidate in the program in Medicine, Social Sciences, and Humanities (MeSH).
The Pritzker School of Medicine is grateful for the support of the Bucksbaum-Siegler Institute for Clinical Excellence for the stethoscopes the students received, the Arnold P. Gold Foundation for the pins that were provided on the white coat to symbolize humanism in medicine, and the Medical Biological Sciences Alumni Association for their support of the White Coat Ceremony.