Congratulations to our MCB PhD and BA Class of 2024 graduates!
The MCB Department is proud of our newest graduates and all that they have accomplished! Please help us celebrate the 2024 MCB Commencement Honors awardees (below) as well as the success of our Senior Gift Campaign which raised funds to support undergraduate student research stipends and travel grants for the 2024-2025 academic year.
2024 MCB PhD Commencement Honors
The following are the recipients of our annual graduate awards for research, academic, and community achievement.
| Cris Alvaro Memorial Prize The Cris Alvaro Memorial Prize honors MCB graduate student Cris Alvaro, who identified as a trans and non-binary person, using the preferred pronouns they/them/their. This award was established after Cris's untimely death in 2018 at age 29 and is presented annually to MCB Ph.D. students who embody excellence in research and commitment to diversity, inclusion, tolerance, acceptance, and sense of community that Cris Alvaro epitomized. |
Valeria King (Glaunsinger Lab) |
| Nicholas Cozzarelli Prize The Nicholas Cozzarelli Prize was established in honor of Professor Nick Cozzarelli after his passing in 2006. It is presented annually to a graduating MCB student for excellent Ph.D. research. |
Lucas Ferguson (Collins & Ingolia Labs) |
| Alan Bearden Book Award The Book Award in honor of emeritus professor Alan Bearden was established after his death in 1999 and is presented to graduates who have performed outstanding research in the area of Biophysics. |
Hayley Bounds (Neuroscience PhD; Adesnik Lab) and Jacob Jodan (Biophysics PhD; Williams Lab) |
| Award for Exemplary Leadership in Promoting DEIB at the Graduate Level The MCB awards for Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging were established this year to honor the efforts that our graduate students are doing to help create a departmental environment where everyone belongs and thrives. Many of our graduate students work together along with staff and faculty to integrate DEIB into all aspects of our department, from the classroom to the research labs, and at the undergraduate and graduate levels. |
Vinson Fan (Darzacq & Tjian Labs) |
| Award for Exemplary Leadership in Promoting DEIB at the Undergraduate Level The MCB awards for Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging were established this year to honor the efforts that our graduate students are doing to help create a departmental environment where everyone belongs and thrives. Many of our graduate students work together along with staff and faculty to integrate DEIB into all aspects of our department, from the classroom to the research labs, and at the undergraduate and graduate levels. |
Santi Yori Restrepo (Martin Lab) |
2024 MCB Undergraduate Commencement Honors
The following are the recipients of our annual undergraduate awards for research and academic achievement.
For more details about each award, click here.
| Departmental Citation Awarded for the highest achievement each year by a graduating senior in MCB. |
Nikhit Kambdur |
| Outstanding Scholars Awarded for the second-highest achievement of a graduating senior in MCB. |
Michael Jiang, Eugene Liang, Josephine Tamsil, and Jenny Zu |
 DIVISION OF BIOCHEMISTRY, BIOPHYSICS & STRUCTURAL BIOLOGY |
|
| Grace Fimognari Memorial Prize Awarded to the graduating senior in the BMB emphasis, based on the same criteria as the Departmental Citation. |
Sinead de Cleir |
| Kazuo Gerald Yanaba & Ting Jung Memorial Prize This award is based on the students' oral presentation of their research at the annual BMB Undergraduate Honors Research Symposium and by their honors theses. |
Aasha Turner |
| Jesse Rabinowitz Memorial Prize Awarded to an outstanding junior in the BMB emphasis, based on academic achievement in MCB courses and faculty recommendation. |
Aasha Turner |
| Richard Calendar Memorial Prize This award is given annually to the outstanding junior MCB major in Biochemistry, Biophysics & Structural Biology. A stipend is given to support the student's research during the summer between junior and senior years. |
Arushi Lahiri |
| Jeremy Thorner Research Prize This award is given annually to the outstanding junior MCB major in Biochemistry, Biophysics & Structural Biology. A stipend is given to support the student's research during the summer between junior and senior years. |
Michael Ni |
| BBS Outstanding Scholar This award goes to the graduating senior in the Biochemistry, Biophysics and Structural Biology emphasis with high academic achievement, in terms of overall grade point average, major course work, and quality of research. |
Michael Ni |
| Award for the Best BBS Research Poster This award goes to the honors student in BBS who presented the best research poster at the annual MCB Honors Research Conference. |
Minyi He |
 DIVISION OF CELL BIOLOGY, DEVELOPMENT & PHYSIOLOGY |
|
| Forte Memorial Prize In recognition of outstanding academic achievement in molecular physiology |
Maggie Cheng |
| Evans Memorial Award This award goes to the graduating senior in recognition of outstanding academic achievement and excellence in Molecular Physiology or Anatomy. |
Richard Nathan Levy |
| Paola S. Timiras Memorial Prize Awarded to the top graduating senior in the Cell & Developmental Biology emphasis for high academic achievement and excellence of research in an honors project. |
Jenny Zu |
| I.L. Chaikoff Award in Cell & Developmental Biology Awarded in recognition of outstanding achievement and excellence in the Cell & Developmental Biology and Neurobiology emphases. |
Lucy Jiwu, Allison Kim, Richard Nathan Levy, Hazen Stribling, Jon Sulit, Christine Man Ting Lin, Nicholette Touserkani, Akshara Vykunta, Hank Wang, Joshua Wong, James Wu and Michelle Zhao |
 DIVISION OF GENETICS, GENOMICS, EVOLUTION, AND DEVELOPMENT |
|
| Edward M. Blount Award Awarded to the student with the highest academic achievement in Genetics, Genomics, and Development. |
Songlin Cai and Josephine Tamsil |
| Spencer W. Brown Award Awarded to a graduating senior who has most distinguished themselves in genetics research. |
Songlin Cai, Rebecca Ferreira Alves, Vidhish Jain, Xueyang Jiang, Sanjana Kotha, and Josephine Tamsil |
 DIVISION OF IMMUNOLOGY AND MOLECULAR MEDICINE |
|
| The Nilabh Shastri Memorial Award for Outstanding Immunologist Awarded for the highest academic achievement in the Immunology and Pathogenesis emphasis. |
Ellen Zuo |
| Award for Academic Excellence in Immunology Awarded to the graduating senior in the Immunology and Pathogenesis emphasis for the high academic achievement in all MCB required courses. |
Katie Fang, Andrew Li, and Xinyi Liu |
| Award for Excellence in Research in Immunology Awarded to the graduating senior in the Immunology and Pathogenesis emphasis for exceptional research performance in an honors research project. |
Xinyi Feng, Ophelia Lee, Joshua Mao, and Xiokun Yang |
 DIVISION OF MOLECULAR THERAPEUTICS |
|
| Molecular Therapeutics Excellence in Research Award This award is presented to the student who has distinguished themselves in research in Molecular Therapeutics. |
Jerry Roberts |
| Molecular Therapeutics Business and Entrepreneurship This award is given to a senior in MTX who has demonstrated excellence in biotech, business, and/or entrepreneurship. |
Audrey Cui |
 DIVISION OF NEUROBIOLOGY |
|
| Jeffery A. Winer Memorial Prize Awarded to the top graduating senior in the Neurobiology emphasis for high academic achievement and excellence of research in an honors project. |
Jessica Co |
| I.L. Chaikoff Award in Neurobiology Awarded in recognition of outstanding achievement and excellence in the Cell & Developmental Biology and Neurobiology emphases. |
Sara Ashan, Rahul Deshmane, Ashvin Irrinki, Grace Jiang, Katarina Kaimaktchiev, Thomas La, Kiarra Ning, Vitto Resnick, Rachel Shon, Tanirika Singh, Katrina Wong, and Yutong Zhang |
 |
 |
| Our senior gift campaign was a tremendous success! Thanks to the generosity of our community of students, families, alumni, friends, faculty and staff we met our $5,000 campaign goal to support undergraduate research stipends and travel grant awards for the 2024-2025 academic year. The MCB Department will be matching these gifts to bring the total support for students to $10,000. A special thanks to: David Bilder, Marla Feller, Bazilco Marveen Jean Simon, Mark Jenkinson, Roland Saekow, Raghavan Sarathy, Sum Ying Wu and all our anonymous donors. Go Bears! |
Photo credits: Banner and Empowering the Next Generation images courtesy Noah Berger. Homepage thumbnail courtesy Brittany Hosea-Small. UC Berkeley.