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Two universities, one mission
We award a Ph.D. in Bioengineering jointly from UC Berkeley and UC San Francisco, among the top public universities in the world in health sciences and engineering. Drawing on the strengths of both campuses, our program trains future leaders and innovators in bioengineering.
Recent News
Congratulations new NSF Fellows!
We are very proud to announce that seven of our current students are receiving NSF Graduate Research Fellowships this year – one of the most competitive and prestigious awards for early-career PhD students. Congratulations to Taylor Elliot, Julia Jamieson, Samantha Lydon, Joyce Mo, Uma Paithankar, Vi Nguyen and Margaret Zhang.
Outstanding work!
James Pai named Soros Fellow!
PhD student James Pai is one of only 30 outstanding graduate students in the US who received a 2026 Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowships for New Americans, a highly competitive award is for immigrants and children of immigrants who are poised to make significant contributions to American society. James is a member of Iain Clark’s lab, where he is developing scalable ways to measure how genetic and chemical changes reshape cell state.
Congratulations Kavita and Nadja
Congratulations to all of our 2026 Grad Slam finalists! Nadja Michelle Maldonada Luna took 3rd place at UCSF on April 7, and Kavita Parekh and Grace Hu competed at Berkeley on April 8, with Kavita winning the People’s Choice prize. Amazing work showcasing a passion for their research!
Outstanding Graduate Peer Mentor Awards for Leen and Carlos
Congratulations Leen Arnaout and Carlos Ng Pitti, winners of UC Berkeley’s 2026 Outstanding Graduate Peer Mentor Award! Peer-to-peer mentoring is a critical part of graduate education — we appreciate our fantastic student guides.
Tejal Desai named AAAS Fellow
PhD alumna Tejal Desai, now Dean of the Brown University School of Engineering, has been elected as a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, one of the world’s most prestigious general scientific societies.
Three bioengineers are Grad Slam finalists
Grad Slam challenges PhD students to present their research in three-minute talks. Grace Hu and Kavita Parekh are finalists in the UC Berkeley slam (April 8), and Nadja Michelle Maldonado Luna at UCSF (April 7)! The winners from each campus will compete in the UC-wide Slam on April 22.
Conolly receives Distinguished Graduate Student Mentoring Award
Congratulations to Professor Steve Conolly for his well-deserved receipt of the 2026 Carol D. Soc Distinguished Graduate Student Mentoring Award at UC Berkeley. This award recognizes his many years of advising literally hundreds of students with a sympathetic ear, constructive criticism/feedback, and sound advice rooted in experience.
Scientists Build ‘Speed Scanner’ to Test Thousands of Plant Gene Switches at Once
PhD student Lucas Waldburger is co-lead author on a paper describing their new tool which promises to vastly accelerate plant engineering. ENTRAP-seq can simultaneously screen thousands of transcription regulators for plants, and shrinks experiments that previously required a whole plant or whole leaf down to a single cell.
