Welcome to our new PhD Candidates!
September 4, 2013
By Tom Tomp
The Division of Biological Sciences welcomes our newest class of doctoral candidates. 28 students began their graduate experience on Tuesday, August 27. Three more students will join their colleagues on Tuesday, Sept. 3. The class includes 14 international students, one of the largest groups of international students the program has attracted in one class. The 17 other students come from all across the U.S. including California, Florida, Massachusetts, Colorado and New Hampshire.
The class has started on a high note. Their first day started with a welcome from Bill McGinnis, the Dean of Biological Sciences and several other faculty. Their Biological Sciences Boot Camp started Wednesday morning and the first day of Boot Camp concluded with dinner at the SIO Martin Johnson House with their Peer Mentors. After completing their required laboratory safety training on Thursday, they ventured to the UCSD Challenge Course for some team-building exercises and high-wire walking.
Boot Camp continues on Tuesday, September 3 with lectures, laboratory projects, faculty talks and the students’ own lunchtime “Chalk Talks” on the lawn outside of Pacific Hall. At the conclusion of Boot Camp, the class will meet up with about 150 other researchers (faculty, postdocs and other grad students) for the Annual Division of Biological Sciences Science Retreat which is being held at the UCLA Conference Center in Lake Arrowhead, CA on September 15-17.
Top (L to R): Kyle Begovich, Will Schreiner, Matt Flagg, Leo Baumgart, Eammon Riley, Sachin Sethi, Nandkishore Prakash
Second Row: Hyeseon Kang, Varoth Lilascharoen, Maria Giribaldi, Mai Tran, Yi-Jou Huang, Taha Rakhshandehroo, Danielle Hagstrom, Pragya Sidhwani;
Third Row: Jacy Humphries, John Lubin, Shelly Wanamaker, Mizuho Ota, Marika Schulhof;
Bottom: Ipshita Zutshi, Tin Ki Tsang, Elizabeth Hetherington, Amanda Scholl, Meiyan Wang, Thanutra Zhang, Katrina Nguyen, Yea-ra Jo
Not pictured: Siavash Ahmadi, Amritha Balakrishnan, Jared Broddrick