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View the Biomedical Engineering Student Association (BESA) Newsletter for November 2020.

View the Biomedical Engineering Student Association (BESA) Newsletter for October 2020.

Nkechinyere Chidi-Ogbolu, Ph.D. Candidate in BMEGG, recently completed her term as a member of the Chancellor’s Graduate & Professional Student Advisory Board. Nkechi shares, “The board as a whole forms subcommittees to tackle different issues faced by graduate students on campus. Those issue then get related back to the Chancellor and with our suggested solutions. We get feedback from the Chancellor on the most feasible options and then start to work on implementation.

Shahin Shams has been selected as the winner of the 2020 BMEGG Outstanding Graduate Student Award.  This award recognizes a student for outstanding: success in the class room, achievements in research, mentoring, engagement in BMEGG activities, community outreach and any other noteworthy activities.

The Biomedical Engineering Graduate Group hosted our first virtual student organized BMEGG Student Research Symposium on May 29, 2020.  Thank you to our keynote, Dr. Joan Greve (NIBIB) for the excellent talk on "Creating a Vision Statement for your Life", as well as your participation on our Career Panel. Thank you to our other insightful Career Panelists, Dr. Ella Jones (UCSF), Dr. Zidong Li (Verily Life Sciences), and Dr. Debika Mitra (Profusa). Congratulations to Abby Niesen (Best Student Research Presentation) and Jun Zhu (Best Rapid-Fire Presentation) and to all other presenters.

Jun Zhu has been awarded a 2020 Optics and Photonics Education Scholarship by SPIE, the international society for optics and photonics, for her potential contributions to the field of optics, photonics or related field. Jun is a fourth-year PhD Candidate in the Neurophotonics Lab led by Professor Vivek Srinivasan. The Neurophotonics Lab develops new light-based technologies for in vivo imaging and sensing of the brain and eye.

Jacklyn (Jackie) Woods (née Whitehead) has been selected as the winner of the 2019 BMEGG Outstanding Graduate Student Award.  This award recognizes a student for outstanding: success in the class room, achievements in research, mentoring, engagement in BMEGG activities, community outreach and any other noteworthy activities.

Caitlin Banks, a Ph.D. student in Biomedical Engineering under the mentorship of Dr. Carolynn Patten, was recently awarded a Ruth L. Kirschstein NRSA Predoctoral Fellowship to Promote Diversity in Health-Related Research. Her fellowship is co-sponsored by Dr. Carolynn Patten and Dr. Monica Perez.

The 8th annual BMEGG Student Research Symposium was held on Friday, April 26th. Professor Elliot Botvinivk from UC Irvine delivered the Keynote address. The students provided 8 podium presentations and 24 poster presentations. We added an Industry Panel with 5 guests from the Bay Area. There was lively discussion among the students, faculty and visitors during the poster sessions and during the various breaks. We congratulate all students for an excellent job their high-quality presentations. The following students were voted to receive special recognition for their presentations:

UC Davis BMEGG Ph.D. Students Brent Weyers, Amy Becker, Oybek Kholiqov, Justin Migacz, and Xiangnan Zhou journeyed with UC Davis colleagues to Jena, Germany to participate in a Summer School on Clinical Biophotonics.  The trip was funded under a grant that Dr. Laura Marcu and Dr. Juergen Popp (Leibniz Institute of Photonic Technology) co-wrote to promote collaboration in clinical biophotonics between UC Davis and the Leibniz Institute of Photonic Technology.

Dovin Kiernan, BME Ph.D. Student under the mentorship of Professor David Hawkins, was recently accepted into the UC Davis Professors for the Future Program for 2018-2019. 

The Professors for the Future program enhances graduate education and postdoctoral training in several ways:

Noah Pacifici, a 1st year Ph.D. student in Biomedical Engineering under the mentorship of Dr. Jamal Lewis, was recently selected for the 2018 NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program.

Zidong Li was recently announced as the recipient of the BMEGG Outstanding Gradate Student Award for 2018.  This award recognizes a student for outstanding: success in the class room, achievements in research, mentoring, engagement in BMEGG activities, community outreach and any other noteworthy activities.  Zidong is not only a productive researcher with multiple first author publications, he is also an inspiring leader in the international student community and a dynamic teacher.  He demonstrates the rare ability to connect in a genuine and productive way with many audience

Emmet Francis, a 1st year Ph.D. student in Biomedical Engineering under the mentorship of Dr. Volkmar Heinrich, was recently selected for the 2018 NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program.

The 7th annual BMEGG Student Research Symposium was held on Friday, May 4th.  Professor Jason Zara from George Washington University delivered the Keynote address. The students provided 8 podium presentations and 27 poster presentations.  There was lively discussion among the students, faculty and visitors during the poster sessions and during the various breaks.  We congratulate all students for an excellent job their high-quality presentations.  The following students were voted to receive special recognition for their presentations: