grad life

Halfway to Doctor

Halfway to Doctor

Congratulations to our authors Rachel and Blaide for passing their doctoral qualifying exams! In life science PhD programs, the second year usually culminates with some form of written and oral exam to test your understanding of course material and mastery of your specific project. For the written exam, both Rachel and Blaide were required to write National Institute of Health-style grants that focused on their current project. For the oral exam, Rachel and Blaide gave presentations on their project to a committee comprised of senior scientists, each assigned the task of making sure the student understood the fundamental science behind their project as well as the tiny little details. 

It’s often said that this is one of the most stressful parts of graduate school, so kudos to Rachel and Blaide for clearing this hurdle and good luck with your research!

A RARE gem

A RARE gem

Recently, PassioInventa’s co-founder and resident StairMaster enthusiast Blaide was awarded an AWESOME scholarship from BioMarin Pharmaceutics, a pharmaceutical company that specializes in creating therapies for people with rare genetic disorders. The RARE Scholar Award is in its second year and awards $5,000 to carefully selected undergraduate and graduate students excelling in their studies and extracurriculars, all the while managing a rare genetic disorder. The Columbus Dispatch (Blaide’s hometown newspaper) wrote a great article on his award that features an interview with Blaide about his genetic disorder, and can be found here. Way to go, guy!

At an Elasmobranch conference, the shark jokes quickly wear fin

At an Elasmobranch conference, the shark jokes quickly wear fin

Sharks… in the mountains??

This week, our writer Elana had the opportunity to represent her lab - the Shark Research and Conservation program at the University of Miami - at the Conference of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists in Snowbird, Utah, held by the American Elasmobranch Society. This magical meeting of shark and reptile enthusiasts brought together a suite of researchers all focusing on cartilaginous fish: aka sharks, skates, and rays. Needless to say, Elana was in heaven!

At the conference, Elana proudly presented part of her masters’ research, and the talk was a huge success; she even got a collaborator out of it. It’s always nice to feel “in your element,” especially in the sciences, where you are normally surrounded by things you don’t know. Congratulations, and glad you had fun!!

On the road to candidacy

On the road to candidacy

Big congrats to Jenna, our resident microbiologist, who passed her Written qualifying exams this week! In finishing these, she is officially halfway to making the transition from a PhD student to a PhD candidate. In the grad school world, this is huge. It means you have spent enough years in the program (usually 2-3) and amassed enough knowledge to pass some really tough exams (written and oral) and propose a plan for the project you’ll complete during the rest of your PhD.

Having milestones to accomplish is critical to maintaining optimism and a healthy level of obsession for your work in graduate school. We’re proud of you, Jenna!