Dr. Marc Iravani Leads UCLA Fiat Lux Seminar

September 14, 2023

Marc Iravani, MD, Clinical Professor with subspecialization in pediatric anesthesiology, will be teaching a Fiat Lux seminar for UCLA undergraduate students called "Concepts of Cause and Effect in History of Medicine" during the Fall 2023 term. Fiat Lux seminars, typically capped at 20 students, are meant to "foster a sense of community and understanding." Taught on a pass/no pass basis, they allow UCLA students to explore topics of interest in a low-stakes environment. Enrollment in Dr. Iravani's seminar is already full.  

The course aims to take an inclusive view of medicine's long and fascinating story by tracing the evolution of the scientific method from antiquity to the modern era. In its ideal form, the scientific method consists of four distinct steps: observation, pattern recognition, hypothesis formation, and testing. This core concept of finding the cause of disease in order to administer the correct treatment has been true for millenia, from ancient times to present day. Dr. Iravani's seminar uses an integrated approach to learning the history of medicine that not only encompasses major discoveries and characters in the field, but also findings in other scientific disciplines and the humanities that have contributed to medical progress. The course is meant to benefit students interested in medicine, the sciences, philosophy, or critical thinking in general.

Dr. Iravani recently completed a three-month Bahari Visiting Fellowship, during which he studied early medieval Persian medical texts at the Bodleian Library of the University of Oxford (Oxford, United Kingdom).