The 2026 UConn Health Commencement Speaker and honorary degree recipient will be Gerald Chan, a scientist and venture capitalist who has forged transformative changes across many fields in medicine and healthcare.
Chan will be receiving an honorary doctorate of science degree from UConn and will deliver his commencement address on May 11, 2026 at UConn Health’s 55th Commencement at the Jorgensen Center for the Performing Arts in Storrs to the hundreds of future physicians, dentists, and scientists graduating from UConn School of Medicine, School of Dental Medicine, and UConn Graduate School programs of UConn Health. UConn is the state’s No. 1 producer of the healthcare workforce.
Chan is a co-founder of Morningside, a venture investment enterprise that starts and builds science and technology-based companies. Working with academic scientists, he has started over two dozen biotech companies across diverse therapeutic areas. Some of these companies have opened up entirely new fields of medicine.
“UConn is ecstatic to have Gerald Chan join us for our special 55th UConn Health Commencement, and for inspiring us with his great scientific career success stories and words of wisdom with all our graduates who are excited to enter the healthcare workforce of Connecticut and the nation to be changemakers just like Gerald,” shared Dr. Bruce T. Liang, dean of UConn School of Medicine.
Chan’s successes include for example, building over 20 years Stealth BioTherapeutics which developed the first FDA approved drug for mitochondrial dysfunction. Over 15 years, he built Apellis Pharmaceuticals which developed a drug that inhibits the complement cascade of the innate immune system for treating autoimmune kidney diseases and for slowing progression of age-related macular degeneration. In neurology, he spun technologies out of MIT and built two companies —Cognito Therapeutics which is developing non-invasive neurostimulation to slow the progression of Alzheimer’s Disease, and Encora which has an FDA approved neuromodulation device for stopping essential tremor.
He has also launched a number of companies that use artificial intelligence to improve the quality and access to healthcare. These companies include Linus Health which uses AI to measure cognitive impairment with sub-clinical sensitivity, Cognoa which utilizes AI to render fast and accurate diagnosis for children on the autism spectrum, and Ieso which uses AI agents to deliver cognitive behavioral therapy.
Chan received his undergraduate and master’s degrees in engineering from UCLA, a master’s degree in medical radiological physics and a Doctor of Science degree in radiation biology from Harvard University. He received his postdoctoral training at the Laboratory of Biochemical Pharmacology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. He has received eight honorary degrees and is a Distinguished Fellow of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. He is Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the British Academy of Social Sciences. In 2026, he was the recipient of the Gordon and Llura Gund Leadership Award from Research!America for his advocacy for medical and public health research.
Tune-in on May 11, 2026 at 1:00 p.m. for UConn Health’s 55th Commencement.
