The Ashbel Smith Distinguished Alumni (ASDA) Awards are the highest alumni honor bestowed by the university's School of Medicine Alumni Association. The award, recognizing outstanding service to the medical profession and to humanity, honors the memory of Dr. Ashbel Smith.
Born in 1805 in Hartford, Connecticut, Smith moved to Texas in 1837 after graduating from Yale Medical School. A prominent figure in Texas medicine, politics and education, Smith was considered the driving force behind establishing the University of Texas at Austin in 1881, and a medical department that would later be known as the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston in 1891.
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