students

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>>

Five Bioengineering PhD students have been named Siebel Scholars of the class of 2024: Cindy Ayala, Ruiming Cao, Sita Srinivasan Chandrasekaran, Cameron Tadashi Kato, and Andre Lai. The Siebel Scholars program annually recognizes top students at the world’s leading graduate schools of bioengineering, business, computer science and energy science.

Congratulations to Nandini Periyapalayam Sekar, first year PhD student, named to the 2023 class of Quad Fellows! The Quad Fellowship is an initiative of the governments of Australia, India, Japan, and the United States, designed to build ties among the next generation of scientists and technologists. The program sponsors 100 exceptional master’s and doctoral students in STEM to study in the United States.

Five Bioengineering PhD students have been named Siebel Scholars of the class of 2023: Jordan Baker, Kelsey Gray DeFrates, Juan Eduardo Hurtado, Gabriela Lomeli, and Connor Tsuchida. The Siebel Scholars program annually recognizes top students at the world’s leading graduate schools of bioengineering, business, computer science and energy science.

Four bioengineers will be receiving 2022-23 UCSF Graduate Division PhD fellowships! Gauree Shriram Chendke receives the Achievement Reward for College Scientists (ARCS), Nadia Mohammed Elmassalami Ayad the Lloyd M. Kozloff Fellowship, Caleb Tong the Shurl and Kay Curci Foundation PhD Scholarship, and Diana Cruz Garcia the NIGMS Initiative for Maximizing Student Development (IMSD) Fellowship. Congratulations!

Congratulations Nadia Ayad, inaugural recipient of the Outstanding Student Leader of the Year award from UCSF Student Life. Nadia was recognized for her work leading the student group BE-STEM, as well as her work developing initiatives to apply justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion via the GRAD 210 course, and her phenomenal commitment to leadership in […]

Congratulations to bioengineers receiving new NSF Graduate Research Fellowships! Our winners are current PhD students Deniz Akpinaroglu, Joana Cabrera, Joy Chen, Benjamin Lesch, Alvince Pongos, Caleb Rux, Gabriel Sturm, and Jazmin Velazquez, and incoming PhD students Maple Chen, Russell Ro and Esther Sim. Great work!

Congratulations to Outstanding GSI Award Winners for 2021-22 from Berkeley BioE courses: Erin Akins, Gabriela Lomeli, Amanda Meriwether and Vivien Tran! The UC Berkeley Outstanding GSI Awards are given to the best GSIs of the year, nominated by the course instructor.

Five Bioengineering PhD students have been named Siebel Scholars of the class of 2022: Kristen Cotner, K.L. Barry Fung, Kazuomori Lewis, Alden Moss, and Soo Hyun Shin. The Siebel Scholars program annually recognizes top students at the world’s leading graduate schools of bioengineering, business, computer science and energy science.

Congratulations to PhD student Kwasi Amofa, named to the 2021 class of Gilliam Fellows by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Fellowships are awarded to pairs of graduate students and their advisors, who are conducting outstanding research in life science fields and committed to building a more inclusive scientific ecosystem. The program includes a year of training for the advisor on effective and culturally aware mentoring, support and community for the student, and significant research funding. Professor Sanjay Kumar is Amofa’s research advisor.

PhD student Anjali Gopal has been named to the Council on Strategic Risks (CSR) 2021-22 class of the Fellowship for Ending Bioweapons Programs. Gopal is a member of Professor Amy Herr’s lab, is actively interested in emerging technology policy, and aims to leverage her scientific training for pandemic preparedness and bioweapons prevention initiatives.

PhD candidate Nicolas Altemose, of Professor Aaron Streets’ lab, has been named a Hanna Gray Fellow by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. This prestigious fellowship grants eight full years of funding for exceptional early career scientists. Gray Fellows have the freedom to change their research focus and follow their curiosity for the duration of the award. Nicolas will begin his postdoctoral work with new mentor Gary Karpen, PhD, also at UC Berkeley, this summer.

Congratulations to five Berkeley-based bioengineers named to the 2021 class of Siebel Scholars! Nicolas Altemose is developing microfluidic and molecular tools for studying genome regulation in single cells; Tiffany Chien is building a flexible simulation framework for calcium neuron imaging, simulating the 3D physical sample and the lens-less imaging system; Anjali Gopal is investigating the progression and resistance mechanisms of HER2 isoforms in HER2+ breast cancer via simultaneous single-cell proteoform and RNA sequencing measurements; Marc Lim is studying the physiological transport of three-helix-micelle (3HM) nanocarriers in solid tumors; Zoë Steier has developed totalVI, a computational framework for the joint probabilistic analysis of paired transcriptome and proteome measurements in single cells; and Alison Su is designing and validating measurement tools and workflows for biomedical applications ranging from bench to bedside.