Dean's Message - November 13, 2023

Dear Members of the GSBS Community, 

November is native American heritage month, and I recently had the pleasure of attending the Society for Advancement of Chicano/Hispanic and Native Americans in Science National Diversity in STEM Conference, to recruit members of these communities to GSBS. I was assisted by our Tufts SACNAS chapter leaders, Ivan Albino Flores and Iris Montes, who also gave a talk. Turnout was high, and we ran out of materials by the end of the conference, particularly the Jumbo squeeze toys. We are hoping that many of the students that we met will apply to one of our programs. 

Applications are now open, MD-PhD admissions are in full swing, and we are gearing up for the next PhD and Masters admissions cycle. I would like to thank Laura Felch for working with the University General Counsel’s office and other admissions officers to develop appropriate policies and procedures for the current admissions cycle that are compliant with the recent SCOTUS ruling but preserve the GSBS commitment to both excellence and diversity. 

I would also like to introduce you to Natasha Don, the newly hired Executive Assistant in the GSBS Dean’s Office, whose job will be to help me with the administration of GSBS and event planning duties. 

I am pleased to announce that the University has approved a new two-year Master’s Program in Biomedical Research, where students will pursue didactic classes and lab rotations in one of the four basic science programs (GMCB, IMM, MMB and Neuro) and then spend 1.5 years in a thesis lab. Applications will open December 1. Thanks to Peter Juo, who worked tirelessly to develop the program and shepherd it through the University approval process. We expect that these students will add to our scientific community and productivity. 

In other news, congratulations to Chantal Aaron and Sydney Grob for receiving Schimmel Fellowships, to augment their scientific training with training in general business management competencies. I would also like to congratulate all of our GSBS Charlton Poster Award winners, Chantal Aaron, Hanan Bloomer, Samantha Bottom-Tanzer, Maria Brouard, Kimberly Carroll, Regina Chen, Jacqueline Garcia, Jinglin Ji, Jamie Leiriao, Samantha Moores, Mei-An Nolan, Meadow Parrish, Natalia Quirk, Nicole Traugh, Colin Trepicchio and Frank Zamudio, who as a group dominated the competition. 

As Thanksgiving approaches later this month, I hope that all of you will be able to reconnect with family and friends, enjoy good food, and have a healthy, relaxing and well-deserved holiday. 

Mike Chin, MD, PhD, Dean ad interim