From left, Rachel Henry, Ph.D., Lauren Manderfield, Ph.D., and Brenna Simmons, Ph.D., at the Graduate School ceremony. (photo by Susan Urmy)
Graduation 2009: Ph.D.s set to head down new paths
Brenna Simons, Ph.D., who celebrated her doctoral degree at last week's commencement ceremony, laughs about how her daily commute has changed since she completed her training at Vanderbilt and started a new job last month in Anchorage, Alaska.
“There is an occasional moose on the path,” she said of her bike ride to work.
Simons, now a research program coordinator with the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium, was one of 260 individuals to earn a Ph.D. degree from Vanderbilt this year. About 80 of the graduates completed their studies in Medical Center departments or programs.
Joe Deweese, right, who received his Ph.D. in Biochemistry, talks with mentor Neil Osheroff, Ph.D., at the Graduate School ceremony. (photo by Susan Urmy)
The biomedical Ph.D. graduates are an accomplished group, said Kim Petrie, Ph.D., director of Career Development in the Office of Biomedical Research Education and Training at Vanderbilt.
Every student published at least one first-author paper, with 47 percent of the group publishing two or more first-author papers.
“During their training, our students have published in premier journals including Science, Cell, PNAS, Development and others,” Petrie said.
Forty-two percent of the students wrote a book chapter or review while in graduate school, and 90 percent presented their research at one or more national and international conferences. More than 20 percent of the students had an individual grant or fellowship that supported their research or training.
Kimberly Norman is all smiles at the Graduate School ceremony. (photo by Susan Urmy)
Most of the newly minted Ph.D. graduates — 83 percent — are continuing their training with postdoctoral fellowships, Petrie said. These include traditional positions in academic research laboratories as well as non-traditional industry, government and clinical fellowships. Of the students taking a non-fellowship path, one is continuing on to law school and the others have accepted positions as industry scientists, pharmacy professors and research managers.
Simons, whose dissertation research focused on the host immune response to HIV (her Ph.D. is in Microbiology & Immunology), opted for the latter route. Her new position as a research program coordinator “brought together everything I was interested in pursuing,” she said.
She will spend part of her time conducting research that focuses on the diversity and evolution of the hepatitis B and C viruses in the Alaskan Native communities. The rest of the time, she will help develop and teach a curriculum for STI/HIV prevention education — an activity she pursued as a volunteer during graduate school — for the overall Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium.
Kristen Herring talks with Richard Caprioli, Ph.D., at the Graduate School ceremony. (photo by Susan Urmy)
Simons feels well prepared by her graduate training for the challenges she faces.
“I would encourage all graduate students to pursue what they love, no matter what 'alternative path' it is,” she said. “You've been given the tools; you can make it happen.”
Kristen Herring, Ph.D., who celebrated her degree in Biochemistry last Friday, is completing a non-traditional postdoctoral fellowship. With an interest in science policy, Herring entered a two-year Presidential Management Fellows program in Washington D.C.
She has been working this year at the Defense Threat Reduction Agency managing the medical chemical diagnostics portfolio.
“My work at DTRA has allowed me to still be intellectually engaged in research but deal more with the business side of science, one that as students we are seldom aware of,” Herring said. The experience has been “completely new and exciting to me and also extremely rewarding and fulfilling knowing that the work I am doing will ultimately protect the warfighter.”
Most of the biomedical science Ph.D. graduates began their studies in either the Interdisciplinary Graduate Program (IGP) or the Chemical & Physical Biology Program (CPB) at the Medical Center.
Both graduate programs organize the training — intensive coursework and laboratory rotations — of students during their first year at Vanderbilt. At the end of the first year, students choose mentors and home departments or programs where they complete their coursework and doctoral dissertation research.
IGP mentors include faculty members in the seven basic science departments of the Medical Center, the Neuroscience graduate program, the program in Human Genetics, and the Department of Biological Sciences in the College of Arts and Science. The CPB program includes a subset of IGP faculty interested in structural and chemical biology as well as members of the departments of Chemistry, Mathematics and Physics.