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Welcome to our new Ph.D. Candidates!

September 27, 2017

By Suzi Harlow

The UCSD-Salk Biological Sciences program welcomed a new class of doctoral candidates with 40 students beginning their graduate experience on Wednesday, September 6th. The class includes 11 international students, from China, Great Britain, Korea, Taiwan, and Turkey. Domestic students come from across the United States including California, Connecticut, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, and Pennsylvania.

Welcome Day began with remarks from Dean Bill McGinnis and an overview of the Ph.D. program from Graduate Committee Chair Jens Lykke-Andersen. Following a day of administrative informational sessions, the new students enjoyed dinner with their Peer Mentors overlooking the Pacific Ocean at the Martin Johnson House at Scripps Institution of Oceanography. Biological Sciences Boot Camp started the next day with laboratory safety training and an afternoon of team building on the UCSD Challenge Course, and continued for the next two weeks with lectures, laboratory group projects, faculty talks and the students’ own lunchtime chalk talks. At the conclusion of Boot Camp, the class traveled to the Lake Arrowhead Resort and Spa for the annual retreat which brings together nearly 200 faculty, postdocs and graduate students from the Division of Biological Sciences and the Salk Institute.

Welcome incoming doctoral candidates!