Congratulations to our 2016 recipients of departmental fellowships! Donor-funded fellowships are an important vehicle for supporting our outstanding students. Independent funding allows them to work on pioneering research not yet funded by faculty grants, and to pursue their interests and passions. Our heartfelt thanks to the generous donors who have endowed these fellowships!
Congratulations to 12 new NSF Fellows!
Prestigious National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowships have been awarded to seven continuing and five incoming Berkeley-UCSF graduate students!
Full and Keasling new AAAS members
Professors Robert Full and Jay Keasling, both of UC Berkeley, have been elected to membership in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences for 2016.
Lindsey Osimiri is new Soros Fellow
Congratulations to BioE PhD student Lindsey Osimiri, named a 2016 Soros Fellow! The Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowships for New Americans is a prestigious honor recognizing the contributions and promise of young people who are recent additions to the ranks of Americans.
Jenelle Feather receives DOE CSGF
Jenelle Feather, a first year PhD student in BioE, was selected for the Department of Energy Computational Science Graduate Fellowship (DOE CSGF), an award for students pursuing doctoral degrees in fields that use high-performance computing to solve complex science and engineering problems.
Ke Xu named Sloan Research Fellow
Ke Xu, UC Berkeley Chevron Professor of Chemistry, has been named a Sloan Research Fellow. The fellowships honor early-career scientists and scholars whose achievements and potential identify them as rising stars and the next generation of scientific leaders.
Di Carlo receives Materials Research Society’s Outstanding Young Investigator Award
Bioengineering alumnus Dino Di Carlo, (B.S. 2002, Ph.D. 2006), has been named the 2016 Outstanding Young Investigator by the Materials Research Society. He is currently a professor in the department of bioengineering at UCLA. His award winning research, Microstructured Materials for Cell Analysis and Regeneration, will be presented at the 2016 MRS Spring Meeting and Exhibit on Thursday, March 31 at UCLA.
Dumont receives CAREER and New Innovator Awards
Sophie Dumont, UCSF Assistant Professor of Cell and Tissue Biology, has been awarded the an NSF CAREER Award, and has also received an NIH New Innovator Award!
Herr receives 2016 AES Mid-Career Achievement Award
Professor Amy Herr is the 2016 recipient of the Mid-Career Achievement Award from the American Electrophoresis Society! This award is given for exceptional contributions to the field of electrophoresis, microfluidics, and related areas by an individual who is currently in the middle of their career. The award will be presented at the SciX Meeting this […]
Alumna Lee receives Air Force Young Investigator Award
PhD Alumna Somin Eunice Lee has received a Young Investigator Research Program award from the Air Force Office of Scientific Research. Lee, now an assistant professor in Electrical Engineering & Computer Science and Biomedical Engineering at the University of Michigan, was granted the award to fund her work on “Sub-Diffraction Temperature Mapping of Protein Interconversions.” Congratulations!
Dueber Lab runner-up for Breakthrough of the Year!
A breakthrough from John Dueber’s lab, led by BioE PhD William DeLoache, was a runner-up for Science magazine’s 2015 Breakthrough of the Year! They were recognized for creating an engineered yeast that can convert sugar into the makings of opioid painkillers.
Fletcher named a Leading Global Thinker of 2015
Professor Dan Fletcher, Chair of the Berkeley Department of Bioengineering, has been named one of the top 100 global thinkers of 2015 by Foreign Policy magazine. Fletcher was selected as a top Innovator for designing a diagnostic microscope on a cell phone platform.
Prof. Adam Abate honored by World Economic Forum
UCSF BioE graduate program faculty member Adam Abate was selected by the World Economic Forum (WEF) as one of 45 exceptional Young Scientists advancing the frontiers of science, engineering, or technology in areas of high societal impact.
Seung-Wuk Lee gets another R&D 100
Bioengineering professor Seung-Wuk Lee has been honored with his second R&D 100 Award, this year for his development of color-changing biosensors, assembled from benign viruses, that can detect volatile chemicals.
Keasling wins Prime Minister’s Prize for Innovation in Alternative Fuels for Transportation
Professor Jay Keasling has been one two 2015 winners of the Prize for Innovation in Alternative Fuels for Transportation, awarded by the Prime Minister of Israel. The prize is a $1 million award to the world’s top innovators in the alternative transportation sector.
Desai elected to National Academy of Medicine
Professor Tejal Desai, chair of the Department of Bioengineering and Therapeutic Sciences at UCSF and alumna of our Bioengineering Graduate Program, has been elected to the National Academy of Medicine.
Yartsev named 2015 Next Generation Leader
Assistant Professor Michael Yartsev has been named a 2015 Next Generation Leader by the Allen Institute for Brain Science. Yartsev is one of only six distinguished young researchers who will provide feedback in both formal and informal settings to young scientists at the Allen Institute. The program recognizes the outstanding and innovative contributions from emerging scientific leaders and fosters professional development by providing opportunities and informal training on how to serve as scientific advisors.
Tejal Desai Awarded Brown Engineering Alumni Medal
Tejal A. Desai, PhD alumna and professor and chair of the Department of the UCSF Bioengineering & Therapeutic Sciences, was awarded the 2015 Brown Engineering Alumni Medal (BEAM) from Brown University’s School of Engineering, in recognition of her career achievements in the field of engineering.
Ke Xu named 2015 Pew scholar
Ke Xu, assistant professor of chemistry and member of the bioengineering graduate program, has been named a Pew scholar, a program for investigators of outstanding promise in science relevant to the advancement of human health.
BioE grad students sweep prizes at AAPM Northern California
Bioengineers took all three top prizes at the Northern California American Association of Physicists in Medicine meeting this year, beating out a crowd of postdocs and grad students from UC Davis, UCSF, Stanford, LBNL, and Berkeley.
DeRisi new AAAS Fellow
Professor Joseph DeRisi, professor of biochemistry and biophysics at UCSF and member of the graduate program, has been elected a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, which recognizes the world’s most accomplished leaders in science, humanities, arts, business and public affairs.
Datta and Monteiro new NDSEG Fellows
Congratulations to BioE PhD students Esha Datta and David Monteiro, awarded 2015 National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate (NDSEG) Fellowships. The NDSEG Fellowship is sponsored and funded by the Department of Defense (DoD). NDSEG selections are made by the Air Force Research Laboratory/Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFRL/AFOSR), the Office of Naval Research (ONR), and the Army Research Office (ARO).
Neira wins Ford Foundation Fellowship
Congratulations to bioengineering PhD student Hector Neira, awarded a prestigious 2015 Ford Foundation Predoctoral Fellowship.
Congratulations new BioE NSF fellows
Prestigious National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowships have been awarded to five continuing Berkeley-UCSF graduate students: Nicole Repina, Suraj Makhija, Jennifer Hu, and Ben Hinton. Incoming students Yiqi Cao, Shakked Halperin, and James Lucas are also NSF recipients.