2012-2016 Executive Committees
2012-2013 Executive Committee
President: Vinal Patel, PhD; Molecular and Cellular Pharmacology, 2014
Vice President: Tomasz Bakowski, PhD; Biomedical Engineering, 2015
Treasurer: Burak Derkunt, PhD; Chemistry, 2016
Secretary: Ansa varughese, MS; Journalism, 2012
2013-2014 Executive Committee
President: Tomasz Bakowski, PhD; Biomedical Engineering, 2015
Vice President: Vinal Patel, PhD; Molecular and Cellular Pharmacology, 2014
Treasurer: Burak Derkunt, PhD; Chemistry, 2016
Secretary: Samanthan Olson, MS, Journalism, 2013
2014-2015 Executive Committee
President: Brittany Carroll is a Ph.D candidate in the laboratory of Dr. Lina Obeid in the Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology. For her undergraduate studies, Brittany attended East Carolina University where she received her Bachelor’s of Science degree in Biology. Currently, in Dr. Obeid’s laboratory, Brittany works on a family of bioactive lipids known as sphingolipids. Her dissertation research aims to understand the role sphingolipids play in cancer manifestation and progression by deciphering how the enzymes that produce these bioactive lipids are regulated. Brittany is very interested in the clinical aspects of research and plans to apply for a fellowship in Clinical Chemistry; although her work with the Graduate Career Association has educated her about jobs in other fields such as industry which she hopes to explore as well, along with educating other graduate students about the endless possibilities for Ph.D’s.
Vice President: Tiffany Victor is working towards her PhD (Chemistry) under the guidance of Dr. Lisa Miller. Her current research uses infrared imaging to understand the nutrient distribution of the Aspen rhizosphere when grown under different nutrient and micro-organism conditions. In the future, she hopes to characterize transporter proteins responsible for the nutrient uptake of phosphate and nitrate that limit biomass production. Her overall goal is to optimize bioenergy production by regulating the growth of biomass. She is considering a career in synchrotron science or chemistry education & programming. She joined the GCA to strengthen its resources for SBU graduate students.
Treasurer: Sitapriya Moorthi is in the Genetics program. She works in the lab of Dr. Chiara Luberto. Her research focuses on understanding the transcriptional and translational regulatory mechanisms that influence gene expression that drives Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia. In the future she wishes to be involved in bridging the gap between scientists and physicians, as she believes a collaborative effort is the need of the hour in biomedical research. Her inspiration to join the GCA stems from the fact that graduate students have innumerable career options but unfortunately there is a lack of a useful and convenient resource that allows them to effectively explore these alternatives. She hopes to help change this through the GCA.
Secretary: Nadia Jaber is working on her PhD in Molecular and Cellular Biology in the lab of Dr. Wei-Xing Zong. Her research focuses on how our cells sort and delete protein signals received from outside of the cell, called endocytosis. Early on in her PhD training she realized that academia was not for her. After spending much time soul searching and Google searching, she found her passion in the field of science and health communications. She joined the GCA to increase the ease and efficiency of non-academic career exploration for Stony Brook students. Contact Nadia for all things cell biology, health communications, scheduling meetings and the Career Development blog. www.linkedin.com/in/njaber/
2015-2016 Executive Committee
President: Sitapriya Moorthi is in the Genetics program. She works in the lab of Dr. Chiara Luberto. Her research focuses on understanding the transcriptional and translational regulatory mechanisms that influence gene expression that drives Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia. In the future she wishes to be involved in bridging the gap between scientists and physicians, as she believes a collaborative effort is the need of the hour in biomedical research. Her inspiration to join the GCA stems from the fact that graduate students have innumerable career options but unfortunately there is a lack of a useful and convenient resource that allows them to effectively explore these alternatives. She hopes to help change this through the GCA.
Vice President: Pratik Kumar is in the Chemistry department. He is working on how to utilize larval zebrafish’s ability to smell for understanding the way human brain is wired. Additionally, he is the PR officer for Graduate Chemical Society (GCS) and senator at GSO for department of Chemistry. As part of GCA, Pratik is trying to bring up programs to cater the needs of graduate students from different departments to provide them with alternative career options.
Treasurer: Jinelle Wint is working on her PhD in Molecular and Cellular Biology in the lab of Dr. Howard Sirotkin. Her research focuses on understanding the mechanisms of Parkinson’s disease using a model organism called zebrafish. She is really early in her PhD career and would like to thoroughly explore all of the options available to her upon completion of the PhD. She believes in the mission that GCA has put forth and would like to help spread the word of career opportunities to the Stony Brook campus.
Secretary: Prajna Shanbhogue is a doctoral candidate in the Biochemistry and Structural Biology program, under the supervision of Dr. Yusuf Hannun. Her research is focused on the regulation of sphingolipid-metabolizing enzymes involved in cancer pathogenesis. Through her work with the Graduate Career Association, she hopes to aid her fellow graduate students in discovering their ideal career path.
Website Coordinator: Yang Liu is a PhD student in the Molecular and Cellular Biology program. Her research work is focused on the molecular mechanism of Krüppel-like factor 5-mediated maintenance of intestinal barrier function. Her role in GCA is to maintain and manage the GCA website.