The path to earning a PhD is long, winding, and full of challenges. The Division of Graduate Education and Postdoctoral Affairs (GEPA) hosted a Candidacy Ceremony to mark and celebrate a major milestone in this journey, when students have passed their qualifying exams and advanced to a new phase of their PhD program in which they will focus on dissertation research.
Following the success of last year’s inaugural ceremony, the 2026 GEPA Candidacy Ceremony saw a significant increase in participation. Faculty mentors, friends, family, and staff members gathered at the Rutter Center at UCSF Mission Bay campus on Feb. 10 to formally congratulate 120 PhD students who advanced to candidacy in 2025.
Nicquet Blake, PhD, vice provost and dean of Graduate Education and Postdoctoral Affairs, hosted the ceremony. PhD program directors were also on hand to help congratulate candidates as they crossed the stage, as well as dozens of faculty advisers who coated their students. Associate Dean Jennifer Nazareno, PhD, and Assistant Dean D’Anne Duncan, PhD, served as name readers, and numerous staff volunteers ensured the event ran smoothly.
The ceremony featured a talk by Martin Kampmann, PhD, the Dorothy Bronson Professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics at UCSF. Kampmann offered sound advice from his own experience as a PhD student to help students keep their eye on their ”north star” during the circuitous and arduous journey to their goal of completing a PhD. See Dr. Kampmann’s address.
”Don’t go it alone. Even though your journey is really unique to you, you are surrounded by fellow travelers and also by people who have made similar journeys before you. So stay in touch with your classmates. Support each other. Build a team of mentors beyond your thesis adviser. ... It’s really our community that gives us strength to persevere."
Martin Kampmann, PhD
Dorothy Bronson Professor, Biochemistry and Biophysics
Candidacy Speaker
Akin in some ways to a white coat ceremony common in the professional schools, this event instead features each student being presented by a faculty member with a blue jacket emblazoned with the UCSF GEPA logo. After coating was complete, Todd Nystul, co-director of the Developmental and Stem Cell Biology PhD program, led students in reciting the PhD creed, which was developed in collaboration with PhD students. A reception with light refreshments and plenty of photo ops wrapped up the event.
⇒ Watch: Behind the scenes reel of Candidacy Ceremony
Watch a recording of the 2026 Candidacy Ceremony.