Bioengineering graduate student Gabriela Lomeli interviewed five scientists who have pivoted their research during COVID-19 to write decontamination guidelines for personal protective equipment.
Congratulations UCSF Fellowship winners
Congratulations to our students awarded 2020-21 UCSF Graduate Division Fellowships! Jake Bieber – Achievement Award for College Scientists (ARCS) Scholarship Hecong Qin – Fletcher Jones Fellowship Alonso Torres – NIGMS Initiative for Maximizing Student Development (IMSD) Fellowship
Congratulations new NSF Graduate Fellows
Congratulations to incoming and current PhD students who have been awarded new NSF Graduate Research Fellowships!
Congratulations to current PhD students Joann Gu, Melod Mehdipour, and Hannah Schmitz; and incoming doctoral students Ilina Bhaya-Grossman, Jessica Herrera, Nicholas Higgins, Claire Hilburger, Kevin Joslin, and Lucas Waldburger.
Bioengineers donate masks to UCSF
BioE graduate students & alumni organized a donation drive of Personal Protective Equipment for healthcare workers at UCSF. Anjali Gopal and Julea Vlassakis collected over 60 masks and protective gear in less than two days.
Gopal takes 3rd place poster at FACSS annual meeting
BioE graduate student Anjali Gopal of Prof Amy Herr’s lab took 3rd place this weekend at the Federation of Analytical Chemistry and Spectroscopy Societies SciX meeting.
Congratulations 2020 Siebel Scholars
We’re proud to announce five new PhD students named 2020 Siebel Scholars: Roberto Falcon-Banchs, Christina Fuentes, Ari Joffe, Sally Winkler, and Kayla Wolf! The Siebel Scholars program annually recognizes top students at the world’s leading graduate schools of bioengineering, business, computer science and energy science and provides funding to pursue high-risk, high-reward research.
Grad student chairs Gordon Research Seminar
Bioengineering PhD student Louise Hansen, of Amy Herr’s lab, has been named co-chair of the 2021 Gordon Research Seminar on The Physics & Chemistry of Microfluidics. Chairing a prestigious Gordon Research Seminar is a major honor for a graduate student, and Louise is the third Berkeley student to do so. She follows Julea Vlassakis, who chaired in 2017, and Marc Chooljian in 2019.
Congratulations Louise!
Muncie presents at UCSF Page Symposium
2016 UCSF Discovery Fellow Jon Muncie, of Professor Valerie Weaver’s lab, was selected to present at the 2019 Michael Page, PhD Research Symposium. The symposium showcases the research of basic science PhD students, and celebrates six years of igniting scientific curiosity through the Discovery Fellows Program.
Creasey takes 2nd at UCSF Grad Slam
Bioengineer Olivia Creasey took second place in this year’s UCSF Grad Slam, which challenges students to give a compelling presentation of their research in 3 minutes or less. Creasey presented “An Instruction Manual for Islet Assembly”.
Three Bioengineers finalists at UCSF Grad Slam
Lindsey Osimiri, Olivia Creasey, and Hardik Kothare are all finalists in the UCSF Grad Slam, which challenges students to give a compelling presentation of their research in 3 minutes or less
Athena Award for Winkler and Wolf
BioE PhD students Sally Winkler and Kayla Wolf are receiving a 2018 Women In Technology Initiative Athena Award for Next Generation Engagement, for Double Shelix, their podcast all about women in STEM, the grad school grind, and inclusive science.
Rao wins UCSF Shark Tank Pitch Competition
PhD student Adam Rao won the UCSF Shark Tank 2018 competition with his ongoing project, Tabla: Acoustic Pneumonia Detection Device. Six Surgical Innovations Accelerator finalists pitched their devices to a panel of experts, with Tabla winning the $50k in seed funding prize.
5 students named 2019 Siebel Scholars
Andrew Bremer, Marc Steven Chooljian, Phillip Kang, Stacey Lee, and Nicole Anne Repina have been named the 2019 UC Berkeley Siebel Scholars in Bioengineering by the Siebel Foundation.
Kwasi Amofa receives LBNL Bridge Fellowship
First-year PhD student Kwasi Amofa has been awarded a summer 2019 Bridge Fellowship by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. The Bridge Fellowship program immerses graduate students into Berkeley Lab research with a paid summer internship partnered with a laboratory researcher.
CRISPR diversifies: Cut, paste, on, off, and now– evolve!
Researchers led by BioE PhD student Shakked Halperin, working in the laboratories of David Schaffer and John Dueber at UC Berkeley, have described yet another creative application for CRISPR: a platform to spur evolution of specific genes inside cells.
Thomas Carey – Using Saliva For Cancer Diagnostics
Learn more about Thomas Carey’s work developing a microfluidic-based platform to detect the presence of biomarkers present in virtually every fluid, particularly saliva. Carey won the 2018 Early Innovator Award at the Molecular Medicine Tri Conference for this research.
Yiqi Cao takes second at UC GradSlam
Congratulations Yiqi Cao, who took second place at the 2018 UC System-wide GradSlam! Yiqi represented all of UCSF against students from across the UC system, competing to do the best 3-minute explanation of their PhD thesis.
2018 Outstanding GSIs
Congratulations to Nicole Repina, Kayla Wolf, Albert You, and Xinyi Zhou, 2017-2018 Outstanding Graduate Student Instructors at UC Berkeley. These GSIs were nominated by their instructor for excellent teaching and mentoring as GSIs in a bioengineering class. Congratulations!
Ayad named Schlumberger Faculty for the Future
BioE PhD student Nadia Ayad has been awarded a 2018-19 Faculty for the Future fellowship. The Schlumberger Foundation selected the most recent Faculty for the Future women in STEM from emerging and developing countries engaged in post-graduate studies at various universities around the world.
Congratulations NSF Fellows!
Prestigious National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowships have been awarded to four continuing and three incoming Berkeley-UCSF graduate students!
You do Belong in Science – a podcast event by BioE PhD students
You do belong in science – even if it doesn’t always feel that way. The Double Shelix podcast, hosted by UC Berkeley Bioengineering PhD Candidates Sally Winkler and Kayla Wolf, launches on April 3 with a series of 7 episodes on the the theme of belonging in STEM. Every Tuesday, they’ll bring conversations with experts in science, education, and inclusion in conversation about how we can create STEM communities where all feel belonging.
Outstanding student poster at Microtechnologies in Medicine and Biology (MMB)
BioE PhD student Alison Su, in Professor Amy Herr’s lab, won the Outstanding Student Poster award at this year’s International Conference on Microtechnologies in Medicine and Biology.
BioE Ph.D. student learns how to tug at federal purse strings
BioE PhD student Andrew Bremer attended the Catalyzing Advocacy in Science and Engineering (CASE) workshop, held by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in Washington DC. CASE educates STEM students on science policy matters – including in-depth learning about the mechanisms of federal research spending and how to engage with policymakers as scientists.
BioE sweeps UCSF Grad Slam
PhD student Yiqi Cao took first place and the People’s Choice award at the 2018 UCSF Grad Slam competition, which challenges students to give a compelling presentation of their research in 3 minutes or less. Cao will now go on to compete in the UC system-wide Grad Slam event. Student Inez Raharjo took 2nd place, landing BioE in all of the top spots. Go BioE!