Congratulations Maya Overton of Herr Lab, winner of Best Poster at the Single Cell Proteomics Conference (SCP2026)!
Two new CEND Fellows
Congratulations to Augusta Uwamanzu-Nna and Maria Astolfi, both named to the 2026-27 cohort of CEND Fellows. The UC Berkeley Wheeler Center for Emerging and Neglected Diseases provides funding to graduate students working on solutions for infectious diseases that affect marginalized or underserved communities.
Drew Ramos named Nucleate Venture Fellow
PhD Candidate Drew Ramos, a member of Adam Abate’s lab, has been named to the 2026 class of Berkeley Life Sciences Entrepreneurship Center – Nucleate Venture Fellows!
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.
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.
Torres and Brener receive UCSF Mentoring Awards
Congratulations to awardee Alonso Torres and Honorable Mention Stephanie Brener, recognized in the 2026 Dean’s Awards for Excellence in Mentoring for Graduate Students and Postdoctoral Scholars at UCSF!
Gu and O’Connell receive PECASE awards
Berkeley engineering faculty Grace Gu and Grace O’Connell were awarded the 2025 Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE), the highest honor bestowed by the U.S. government to scientists and engineers in the early stages of their careers.
Kapil named SJSU ME Alumna of the Year
Congratulations to BioE PhD alumna Monica Kapil, the first woman ever named Alumna of the Year by the SJSU Mechanical Engineering Department!
Bowman receives Hertz Fellowship
Congratulations to first-year PhD student Chance Bowman, awarded one of only nineteen 2025 Hertz Foundation Fellowships! The highly prestigious Hertz Fellowship is among the oldest and most coveted awards in science and engineering graduate studies.
Landry Awarded 2025 Guggenheim Fellowship
The Guggenheim, one of the most prestigious fellowships in the country, provides unrestricted funding to pursue cutting-edge creative research. Landry plans to study how compounds extracted from plants used in Indigenous Bolivian medicine might have potential as treatments for nervous system disorders.
Congratulations new NSF Fellows!
Congratulations to our new NSF Graduate Research Fellows! Among the winners are current PhD students Ashley Qin and incoming PhD students Erin Ahern and Steven Robles Blasini. Well done!
Messersmith, Christman, Lam named AAAS Fellows
UC Berkeley Professor Phillip Messersmith, Chair of the Department of Bioengineering, has been named to the 2024 class of fellows elected to the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). Also named this year were PhD Alumni Karen Christman, Professor at UC San Diego, and Wilbur Lam, Professor at Emory University / Georgia Institute […]
Congratulations 2025 Siebel Scholars
Three Bioengineering PhD students have been named Siebel Scholars of the class of 2025: Claire Hilburger, Eric Markley and Sakshi Shah. The Siebel Scholars program annually recognizes top students at the world’s leading graduate schools of bioengineering, business, computer science and energy science.
Tang wins Shortliffe Doctoral Dissertation Award
MD/PhD student Alice Tang has achieved first place in the 2024 AMIA Edward H. Shortliffe Doctoral Dissertation Awards, a prestigious honor for top doctoral dissertations that contribute to the science of informatics in any biomedical application domain. Tang’s work is on “Leveraging Clinical Data and Knowledge Networks to Derive Insights Into Alzheimer’s Disease.”
Congratulations UCSF Merit Awardees
Congratulations to bioengineering students Devan Shah and Serena Tang, awarded 2024 Achievement Rewards for College Scientists Scholarships!
Congratulations Ilina Bhaya-Grossman, UCSF Grad Slam Winner!
Congratulations to Ilina Bhaya-Grossman for winning the UCSF Grad Slam on April 3, 2024! The annual Grad Slam competition challenges PhD students to present a compelling presentation of their dissertation research in three minutes or less, using language that not only their peers but also non-specialists will understand. Each campus holds their own Grad Slam and send the winner to compete in a UC-wide Slam on May 3. You can check out her presentation online>>
Khanna receives Sloan Research Fellowship
Professor Preeya Khanna, member of the Bioengineering Graduate Program, is one of nine Berkeley faculty named 2024 Sloan Research Fellows, the largest number from any institution. The fellowship is among the most competitive and prestigious awards available to early-career scholars in North America.
Alumna Tejal Desai named to NAE
Bioengineering PhD alumna Tejal Desai, former UCSF Professor of Bioengineering & Therapeutic Sciences and Co-Chair of the Graduate Program in Bioengineering, has been named to the National Academy of Engineering. Desai is now the Sorensen Family Dean of Engineering at Brown University.
Tsuchida and Vasic in 30 Under 30
PhD alumni Connor Tsuchida and Ivana Vasic have both been named to the annual Forbes 30 Under 30 list for their achievements in Healthcare! Tsuchida has founded Crispr delivery startup Azalea Therapeutics, and Vasic is developing therapies to support the next generation of in vitro fertilization as founder of Vitra Labs.
Two alumni innovations named to Time 2023 Best Inventions
Two Bioengineering PhD alumni have innovations named to the Time Magazine 200 Best Inventions of 2023 list. The Cala kIQ, developed by Cala Health, founded by alumna Kate Rosenbluth, is a wearable, rechargeable device that sends electrical impulses from the wrist to the brain, to assist patients with Essential Tremor and Parkinson’s. Proven 40 OS is a fertilizer using naturally occurring microbes that live on a plant’s root system and release nitrogen to reduce emissions and pollution while producing higher crop yields – developed by Pivot Bio, founded by alumnus Karsten Temme.