GSBS recognizes 52 graduate students as they embark on dissertation research

Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences Dean Mary Ellen Lane, PhD, welcomed and congratulated 52 graduate students entering the transformative years of their doctoral research during the GSBS Qualifying Exam Recognition Ceremony on Tuesday, Sept. 18.

“The qualifying exam can be a crucible experience, where working through the real possibility of high-stakes failure makes you stronger, and more prepared to face the ups and downs of dissertation research ahead of you,” Dr. Lane told the students. “You have come through something that few have the opportunity to experience.”

In their second year of study, students take the QE, which, upon passage, marks the beginning of doctoral research as the students leave the classroom behind and fully enter the lab. Through the process, many life lessons are learned, Lane said.

“Some of you had to learn, perhaps for the first time in your lives, the art of graceful failure. You had to overcome shock and humiliation—and keep your composure long enough to take in the helpful advice and clarification of expectation, and then go through it all again. But you did, and you passed, and you’re here,” the dean said.

The students are embarking on their research that will result in their dissertations at a time when students should be increasingly optimistic about careers as biomedical research scientists, said Terence R. Flotte, MD, the Celia and Isaac Haidak Professor of Medical Education, provost, executive deputy chancellor and dean of the School of Medicine.

Dean Flotte listed his annual ‘top ten’ list of reasons for his optimism, highlighting advances in medical research and investment, replete with pop culture references, including the possibility of a new Star Trek movie. Ultimately, Flotte said, one of the primary reasons to be optimistic is that the world needs intellectuals more than ever before and that this class of PhD candidates represents the future.

“The health of our society depends on the active engagement of well-educated people like yourselves . . . individuals who think rationally, argue convincingly, and care enough to participate in the public discourse,” he said.

In addition to recognizing the students’ accomplishments, Lane introduced Nandhitha Uma Naresh, third-year PhD candidate in the Cole Haynes lab, as the Zelda Haidak Memorial Scholarship recipient. The Haidak scholarship is named in honor of Zelda S. Haidak, the wife of long-time faculty member Gerald L. Haidak, MD, to support female trainees working in the area of cell biology.

The students who were admitted to doctoral candidacy in the academic year 2017-18 and recognized during the ceremony are: