Dean's Message - July 1, 2024

Dear GSBS Community,

June has rapidly come and gone and I hope everyone had a good month as we celebrated PRIDE and also Juneteenth. More information about PRIDE Month is found here. A good summary of the history of Juneteenth is found here. We also have some recent student awards to celebrate. Abe Bayer was the recipient of the American Society of Investigative Pathology Experimental Pathologist in Graduate Training Merit Award, presented at their recent national meeting. We also have four winners of the Charlton Student Research Award, based solely on research accomplishments during a student’s graduate career at Tufts, for eligible students in the third or fourth year of their GSBS PhD program. Congratulations to Alec Stepanian, Natalia Quirk, Samantha Moores and Yishak Woldetsadik, the recipients of this year’s award.

July brings us Independence Day and is the month for relays, sponsored by our wonderful GSC. Proceeds from this event support the Student Enrichment Fund, which is used to fund travel awards for students. The GSC has already posted the Academic Points Leaderboard and will have the contests of strength and skill on Friday, July 19. It’s a great opportunity to get some exercise, wear some fashionable team shirts, win some raffle prizes and connect with old and new colleagues. For those who wish to donate in support of the relays and the Student Enrichment Fund, the link is here.

This month also marks a personal milestone. I have served as the interim dean for 1 year, and I am pleased to have the honor to continue to serve. I would like to extend my gratitude to the numerous students, faculty and staff who have kept GSBS moving onward and upward. I look forward to working with all of you and our many collaborators in TUSM, the Tufts University community and in our global biomedical science community, as we try to introduce some innovative new programming centered on graduate student professional development in the coming year. I hope that you all enjoy the summer.

Michael Chin, MD, PhD, Dean ad interim