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Johns Hopkins School of Medicine

M.D. Program

Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
White Coat Ceremony

The School of Medicine and the Colleges Advisory Program actively support students in their transformational journey to becoming physicians, and the White Coat Ceremony marks an important milestone on this path. The presentation and cloaking of the white coat – a symbolic mantle of the medical profession – confers a commitment to the cherished values of being a physician: humanism, compassion, altruism, leadership, excellence and devotion to the well-being of others.

Class of 2029 White Coat Ceremony

April 24, 2026, 1:45 – 3:30 pm
 Turner Auditorium, Miller Research Building, 720 Rutland Avenue, Baltimore, MD

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Class of 2029 White Coat Ceremony Guest Speaker


 

Panagis Galiatsatos, MD, MHS

Panagis Galiatsatos, M.D., M.H.S., is an associate professor of medicine and oncology at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and a physician in the Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine and the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center.  

He is the co-director of Medicine for the Greater Good, an initiative aimed at teaching physicians the science of community engagement while training community health workers and lay health educators to promote health equity strategies. He is the director of the Tobacco Treatment and Cancer Screening Clinic, Maryland’s largest clinic devoted to smoking cessation and cancer screenings. Additionally, he is part of the Community Outreach and Engagement team at the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center. Through that, he oversees a phase I trial for solid tumors.

Galiatsatos graduated from the University of Maryland School of Medicine, completed a residency in internal medicine at the Johns Hopkins, and a fellowship in pulmonary and critical care medicine at Johns Hopkins and the National Institutes of Health. 

In addition, he is the co-author of the book series, Building Health Communities through Medical-Religious Partnerships (with the fourth edition due out in 2027), and over 100 research articles on community engagement and its impact on health and health equity. His new book, Medicine for the Greater Good, due out in April 2026, focuses on creating physician-citizens and reaffirming medicine as a public trust.

Galiatsatos was born and raised in Baltimore City to Greek immigrant parents and has devoted his career to investing in people and community.

 

Panagis Galiatsatos

Past Ceremonies

History of the White Coat

Today, the long white laboratory coat is an international symbol of the biomedical community. A century ago, the medical service changed drastically when leading physicians were expected to be both researchers and scientists. White coats were adopted to emphasize cleanliness and professionalism. The white coat was first worn by a new generation of physician-scientists.

The scientific revolution in medicine was a founding principle of the Johns Hopkins Hospital. William Welch, the first Chief of Pathology at the Johns Hopkins Hospital, insisted that his trainees follow the scientific method in their research. At the same time, Sir William Osler, the first Physician-in-Chief, emphasized cleanliness in his historic textbook The Principles and Practice of Medicine.

A collection of white coats on hangers.