Associate Dean's Message - May 24, 2021

Yesterday was Tufts Commencement Day. While we could not hold an in-person ceremony this year, we produced a pre-recorded event where we combined our traditional awards reception with our PhD hooding and master’s recognition ceremony.

The awards ceremony recognizes all students who have received awards this year and also thanks those students who have been members of the Graduate Student Council. The graduation ceremony includes remarks from Dean Dan Jay and Liz Moss, the student speaker. Those PhD students who were able to attend the taping were hooded by their advisors, while Master’s students were congratulated by Dean Jay. The ceremony is available at this link.

As we conclude the 2020-21 academic year, I want to thank everyone - students, faculty and staff - for their resilience and perseverance through a very difficult year. We adjusted the academic calendar, matriculated our new students in January rather than September, modified lab density and revised expectations to accommodate a safe yet productive work and learning environment. My hope and expectation is that we will shortly make a return to something close to normalcy. It was great to see some students and faculty in person (with masks!) during the Commencement recording and I look forward to when we can all be in person once again.

Dan Volchok, Associate Dean