Monday, July 28, 2014

Camacho visit

Homero Camacho (Ph.D. 2009) is on break from the Ponce Medical School in Puerto Rico where he is currently a student.  Last week, he stopped by to visit UCR.  Below is a photo of Homero in his old lab.  We wish him the best of success in his studies.


Tuesday, July 8, 2014

William's work on e-Cigarettes spotlighted on Al Jazeera America


Monique Williams is an Environmental Toxicology graduate student working with Dr. Prue Talbot and is studying the components and cytotoxicity of electronic cigarettes.  She was recently interviewed and her research spotlighted on a show produced by Al Jazeera America.  A video clip of the segment that features Monique can be found here.  Our congratulations to Monique and Prue for this nice recognition of their research. 

Project Manager Position within the Environment, Health and Safety Division of the OECD

There is an opening for a program manager in the  Environment, Health and Safety Division at the OECD (located in Paris, France, I believe).  The responsibilities involve working on the assessment of chemicals and pesticides.  They are looking for someone with practical experience in hazard assessment of chemicals and/or risk management of pesticides.  If you are interested more information can be found here. The deadline for applications is Aug.8, 2014. 

Alumni news - James Adams

James Adams (M.S., 1994) is a project manager for the Army Corps of Engineers in Portland, Oregon.  Below is a picture of him receiving the Project Delivery Team of the Year award in 2013 as the Project Manager for the Westmoreland Park Ecosystem Restoration Project. On the left is Brigadier General Anthony Funkhouser (Northwestern Division Commander) and on his right is Colonel John Eisenhauer (Portland District Commander).  Our congratulations to James for this nice recognition. 


Alumni news - Kelly Thrippleton-Hunter

Kelly Thrippleton-Hunter (Ph.D. 2009) sent her best wishes to the students participating in the annual student symposium.  She continues to work at Western Governors University where she team teaches Integrated Natural Science and Introduction to Biology. She and her husband recently welcomed a new addition to their family – Ryan Kenneth. Ryan joins a very excited big sister Ainsley May, who just turned 2 this May.  She sent along the following picture of her two cute children. 


Annual student symposium

The annual student symposium took place on June 20, 2014.  I was unable to attend but am told that it was very successful.  There were 37 student presentations and 6 individuals were selected for recognition.  The awardees and the titles of their presentations are listed below. 


T. Roy Fukuto Outstanding Student Presentation
Pengcheng Wang, “In vivo Replication Studies of O 2-alkyl Thymidine Adducts”
Honorable mention
Shuo Liu, “LC-MS/MS for the Detection of β-Glucosyl-hydroxymethyluracil (Base J) in Genomic DNA of Trypanosoma brucei
Honorable mention
Nicole Sparks, “Tobacco Induces ROS Accumulation and Osteogenic Dysfunction”
Honorable mention
Samuel Hinman, “Rational Design of Metallic Nanomaterials for Surface-Enhanced Biological Assays“
Best presentation by a 1st year student
Lauren Walker, “Embryonic Stem Cell Test Revised: Use of Human Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells to Test for Cardiac Developmental Toxicity”
Best presentation by a 1st year student
Kennedy Vu, “Real-time Ambient Aerosol Composition and Extinction Measurements in Mira Loma, California”
My thanks to Dawn Loyola who sent the following pictures from the event. 



 The award winners with Drs. Wang, zur Nieden and Gill in the back.

Program Director Yinsheng Wang and former Director Sarjeet Gill