rice.edu
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Barney S. Graham and William C. "Bill" Gruber met in 1971 as Rice freshmen. Graham, a farm boy from Kansas, and Gruber, from what was then the outskirts of Houston, became podmates and fast friends in Will Rice College before graduating in 1975.
Over the next half-century, both earned medical degrees and became physician-researchers focused on infectious diseases with careers that tracked with science and serendipity. Despite decades as emblems of excellence — working in elite arenas on difficult problems — both now find themselves sharing what may be the most urgent challenge of their professional lives: COVID-19, the global public health crisis.
