Tune in here on February 10 to see the GEPA 2026 Candidacy Ceremony!
2026 Candidacy Ceremony
UCSF Division of Graduate Education and Postdoctoral Affairs
Mission Bay Conference Center | UCSF Mission Bay Campus
Tuesday, February 10, 2026 | 3 p.m. PT
At the UCSF GEPA Candidacy Ceremony on February 10, we will celebrate PhD students who advanced to candidacy in the past year in order to mark this significant milepost in their academic journey.
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Event Details
Welcome
Nicquet Blake, PhD
Vice Provost and Dean
Graduate Education and Postdoctoral Affairs
Candidacy Speaker
Martin Kampmann, PhD
Dorothy Bronson Professor
Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics
Institute for Neurodegenerative Diseases
UCSF
Coating of PhD Candidates
PhD candidates will be coated by program:
Bioengineering
- Leen Arnaout
- Samantha Brosler
- Krisco Cheung
- Xinyi Fu
- Aditya R. Jangid
- Brendan Alan Mitchell
- Drew Mitchell Ramos
- Luis R. Sandoval
- Caleb Tuan-Thinh Tong
- Marcus AC Williams
- Hongyi Yan
- Qiming Zhang
Biological and Medical Informatics
- Prathamesh Chati
- Yaen Chen
- Yeifei Chen
- Bryson Choy
- Wanjun Gu
- Beniamin Krupkin
- Siddharth Mahesh
- Ashvin Ravi
- Sara Smith
- Yujie (York) Zhang
Biomedical Sciences
- Gary Kwan Leung Chan
- Karla DeLucas
- Celeste Garza
- Claire Havig
- Nikhita Kirthivasan
- Clara Kochendoerfer
- Julia McBride
- Joy Okoro
- Andrew Pan
- Trishna Patel
- Rachel Prorok
- Sangeetha Ramachandran
- Mackenzie Roberts
- Haolin (Charles) Shen
- Tasha Tsao
- Harnoor Kaur Virk
- Monet Yuan
- Lily Zemelko
Biophysics
- Gyasu Bajracharya
- Karson Chrispens
- Amy Flis
- David Gomez Siu
- Divya Kranthi
- Angelica Lam
- Ashley Lasko
- Minh Le
- Zack Mawaldi
- Valerie Myers
- Ever O'Donnell
Chemistry and Chemical Biology
- Hunter William Carrell
- Zoey Dingman
- Haoyu Fan
- Katie Hansen
- Katie Holland
- Kyrellos Ibrahim
- Javarcia Davon Ivory
- Luke Jaskowski
- Jasmine Keyes
- Sruthi Raguveer
- Kamyar Yazdani
- Jeffrey Zheng
Computation and Precision Health
- Li-Ching Chen
Developmental and Stem Cell Biology
- Mikaela Matera-Vatnick
- Miriam Minsk
- Nicole Suren
Epidemiology and Translational Science
- Aimee Jolene Lansdale
- Rachel Murro
- Mary Thoma
- Whitney Wells
Neuroscience
- Leah DeFlitch
- Naomi Donovan
- Alexander Enos
- Jose F Figueroa
- Michael Andres Flores
- Eric Garcia
- Anna Grigsby-Brown
- Anna Hakimi
- Alina Hebling
- Lucille Johnston
- Jane Oberhauser
- Ike Ogbonna
- Harsha Peesapati
- Zoe Platow
- Christina Roca
- Saheli Singh
- Amanda Stark
- Ashley Starnes
- Moritz Stingl
- Àlex Tudoras Miravet
- Nina Vishwakarma
- Brenda Wu
- Xinyang Yi
Nursing
- Laura Cox
Oral and Craniofacial Sciences
- Jake Jia-Rui Ngu
- Jessica Pacheco
- Rozana Shemirani
- Hannah Takasuka
Pharmaceutical Sciences and Pharmacogenomics
- Victor Alcala-Kellogg
- Sarina Garcia
- Jared Khan
- Tracie Luu
- Jake Oxendine
- Thu Vu Minh Pham
- Stefanie Danielle Piña Escudero
- Connie Silva Gutierrez
- Nanase Toda
Sociology
- Esperanza Padilla
- Díana G. Poncé
Tetrad
- Kevin Boardman
- Rudra Bose
- Daniel Darling
- Sarina Ehteshamzadeh
- Can Goksal
- Emily Graham
- Michelle Grunberg
- Julianne Lim
- Chang Liu
- Miaoxi Liu
- Brigitte Meyer
- Megan Ostrowski
- Rafaella T Shima
- Zhidong Tan
- Urvashi Thopte
PhD Creed
Recitation of the PhD creed by PhD candidates.
I, _______, have joined a distinguished community of scholars at the University of California, San Francisco, united in pursuit of new knowledge and advancing scientific discovery. As a graduate student at UCSF, I embrace my responsibility to contribute to the ethical, all-encompassing, and innovative spirit that defines this academic institution.
I declare the following:
Commitment to Discovery: In pursuit of new knowledge, I dedicate my intellect, curiosity, and perseverance to the advancement of knowledge, embracing the rigor and resilience required to complete the scholarly work I begin.
Integrity in Science and Scholarship: I vow to conduct my research with honesty, transparency, and ethical responsibility, never to allow external pressures to compromise the integrity of my work.
Impact for the Greater Good: I recognize that my research discoveries have the power to transform lives. I will rely on my individual mental effort to pursue knowledge and create knowledge for the greater good, but never to the detriment of colleagues, supervisors, research subjects or the international community of scholars of which I am now a member.
By pronouncing this Candidate’s Creed, I affirm my accountability to these principles and my unwavering commitment to the ethical, rigorous, and collaborative professional conduct set by the policies of the University of California.
I vow to uphold the university’s mission of driving innovation for the benefit of humanity.
Closing Remarks
Nicquet Blake, PhD
Reception
Light refreshments