The Graduate Division extends hearty congratulations to the following current PhD students, PhD alumni, and UCSF postdocs who are among this year's recipients of prestigious fellowships from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI).
HHMI Gilliam Fellowship for Advanced Study
This year, a total of 51 graduate students conducting outstanding research in their respective scientific fields are joining the Gilliam Fellowship community, along with their advisers who are committed to building a more inclusive scientific ecosystem. The goals of the Gilliam program are to ensure that students from groups historically excluded from and underrepresented in science are prepared to assume leadership roles in science and science education, and to foster the development of a healthier, more inclusive academic scientific ecosystem by partnering with faculty and institutions committed to advancing diversity and inclusion in the sciences.
Each adviser-student pair will receive an annual award totaling $53,000 for up to three years. Read more about the HHMI Gilliam Fellowships.
The 2022 cohort includes these UCSF PhD students:
Miguel Guardado
Third-year student
Biological and Medical Informatics PhD program
Thesis Adviser: Ryan Hernandez
Maya Lopez-Ichikawa
Third-year student
Biomedical Sciences PhD program
Thesis Adviser: Matthew Spitzer
Guardado and Lopez-Ichikawa join these previously-appointed Gilliam Fellows currently pursuing PhDs at UCSF:
Roberto Efraín Díaz (Tetrad program; adviser James Fraser)
Ulises Diaz (Tetrad program; adviser Wallace Marshall)
Kelly Montgomery (Chemistry and Chemical Biology program; adviser Jason Gestwicki)
Priscila Muñoz-Sandoval (Biomedical Sciences program; adviser Mark Ansel)
HHMI Hanna H. Gray Fellowship
A total of 25 exceptional early career scientists were named Hanna Gray Fellows recently. The goal of the Hanna H. Gray Fellows Program is to recruit and retain individuals from gender, racial, ethnic, and other groups underrepresented in the life sciences, including those individuals from disadvantaged backgrounds. Fellows receive funding to support their postdoctoral training and may continue to receive funding during their early career years as independent faculty. Through their successful careers, HHMI Hanna Gray Fellows will become leaders in academic research and inspire future generations of scientists. Learn more about the Hanna Gray Fellowship.
Alain Bonny, PhD '20
Dr. Bonny is a 2020 PhD graduate of the UCSF Biophysics PhD program. He is currently a postdoctoral scholar at The Rockefeller University, working with mentor Elaine Fuchs, PhD, toward understanding how diverse cell types within a tissue coordinate actions to carry out complex behaviors.
Johnathan Maza, PhD
Dr. Maza is a UCSF postdoc working with mentor Jim Wells, PhD. A doctoral graduate of UC Berkeley, Maza is interested in developing new chemical biology tools to study poorly understood protein post-translational modifications. Studying these modifications may potentially shed new light on their role in biology and disease.
Ngoc-Han Tran, PhD '20
Dr. Tran is a 2020 graduate of UCSF's Tetrad PhD program. She is currently a postdoctoral scholar at the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, working with mentor Ruth Lehmann, PhD. Tran is studying the endoplasmic reticulum – a cellular compartment that varies in size and shape and performs a wide range of essential functions – throughout its dynamic partitioning in the ovary.
Bonny, Maza, and Tran join previously-appointed Hanna Gray Fellows including UCSF postdocs Biafra Ahanonu, PhD, Willow Coyote-Maestas, PhD, Jess Sheu-Gruttadauria, PhD, and Wendy Yue, PhD; postdoc alum James Nuñez, PhD (now on faculty at UC Berkeley); and UCSF PhD alumni D'Juan Farmer, PhD, now a postdoc at University of Southern California, Shan Meltzer, a postdoc at Harvard Medical School, and Florentine Rutaganira, PhD, a postdoc at UC Berkeley.
Applications for the 2023 Hanna H. Gray Fellowship are being accepted through December 7, 2022.
