Associate Dean's Message - May 31, 2022

Congratulations for our graduates and our award recipients! And a big GSBS welcome to our summer BDBS students.
Sackler building entrance

Dear GSBS,

Congratulations to all our 2022 graduates! We had had a total of 38 students graduate this year – 8 Masters of Science, 26 PhD and 4 MD/PhD – many of whom survived a hot and steamy Commencement ceremony on May 22.

At the ceremony, Judi Hollander – a CMDB graduate from the Zeng lab and GSBS’s student speaker – gave a heartfelt set of remarks reflecting on the impact COVID had on her and her shifting ideas of work-life balance. Not being able to go into the lab during the pandemic changed her definition of being a “real scientist”. I encourage all, students, faculty and staff, to read her speech and take her advice to heart.

A few days prior to Commencement, we held our annual Awards Reception. In addition to honoring all those students who have received awards throughout the year, we announced the winners of our three year-end awards. They are:

  • The Krinsky Excellence in Basic Science Teaching Award, which is presented to the graduate student(s) who has shown sustained teaching excellence while at GSBS, went to Lea Gaucherand and David Giacalone, both from Microbiology.
  • The Lasagna Award for Translational Research honors a GSBS student who has published the strongest paper in translational research in the previous 12-month period. This year the winner is Carolyn Hsu from the Clinical and Translational Science program.
  • The Dean’s Award, for a degree candidate who has exhibited distinction in research as demonstrated by submission of an outstanding PhD thesis, was awarded to Robert Cerulli, a CMDB MD/PhD graduate.

Congratulations to all our award winners! Thank you for making GSBS an outstanding educational organization for everyone.

Today we welcome 19 BDBS undergrad summer research students who will be learning in our labs for the next 10 weeks. I hope you have the opportunity meet them and encourage you to attend the Inaugural Summer Symposium for Pipeline Programs on August 4. In the meantime, please enjoy the summer and take the opportunity to take some time off as we gear up for the start of a new year.

Dan Volchok, Associate Dean