UH Cancer Center dedicates lānai to Barry and Virginia Weinman

The University of Hawaiʻi Cancer Center dedicated a second-floor lānai to Barry and Virginia Weinman in recognition of their longtime generous support that brings world-class scientists to Honolulu to meet and interact with UH faculty, researchers and students.

Virginia Weinman passed away on July 31, 2023, but her husband, Barry, and several family members were at the Cancer Center on Jan. 26 for the dedication of the lānai on the final day of the 15^th annual Barry & Virginia Weinman Symposium, an international conference that brings prominent experts in science and medicine together to discuss cancer research.

Barry and Virginia Weinman co-founded the Weinman Symposium in 2010 with UH Cancer Center researcher Michele Carbone. The Weinmans for many years have been active champions not only of the Cancer Center but also the UH Mānoa John A. Burns School of Medicine next door.

UH President David Lassner shared a memory that illustrated what an early, vocal advocate Virginia Weinman was for the establishment of the Cancer Center.

“When the Cancer Center was at a particularly challenging moment within the university, Virginia standing up in front of the Board of Regents and announcing the importance of their support for this cancer center and ongoing private support as well,” Lassner said. “It was a really important moment in our history and our ability to be doing what we’re doing here today.”

From left, William G. Kaelin Jr., who won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2019; Gov. Josh Green and Bruce A. Beutler, who won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2011, with Barry Weinman.

Hawaiʻi Gov. Josh Green expressed gratitude for the synergy the Weinmans brought to establishing the Cancer Center.

“As everyone knows, Virginia was the heart of so much of this activity,” Green said at the dedication.

Also attending the dedication were Cancer Center Director Naoto Ueno, Carbone and several dozen esteemed researchers who took part in the symposium, including two Nobel laureates:  Bruce A. Beutler, who won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2011, and William G. Kaelin Jr., who won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2019.

Peter K. Vogt, professor of molecular medicine at the Scripps Research Institute, was presented with the XV Weinman Award. Vogt transformed cancer research with the discovery of the first oncogene, SRC, and whose mutational analysis of Rous sarcoma virus established the genetic map of retroviruses.