5. The Armand J. Guarino Award for Academic
Excellence gives special recognition to students
who have been recognized by the faculty for
outstanding scholarship, teaching and
community service. This award is named after
Armand J.
Guarino, founding Dean of the Graduate School
of Biomedical Sciences.
Armand Guarino Award for
Academic Excellence in
Doctoral Studies
8. The Robles Leadership Award is presented in
honor of General Joe Robles (USAF ret), and his
wife Patty. As such, this award will recognize a
graduate student (MS or PhD) in good academic
standing who demonstrates excellence
in leadership and service within the local and/or
at UT Health community.
Joe and Patty Robles Leadership
Award
10. The GSBS Senior Student of the Year award
recognizes a
graduate student who demonstrates the best
potential for research success and demonstrates
sustained
excellence in academics.
GSBS Senior Graduate Student
of the Year Award
12. The Heather Menzie Junior Student of the Year
is presented in honor of Ms. Heather Menzie,
a graduate student who was unexpectantly
taken from us on May 13, 2015. This award will
recognize a highly motivated, academically
successful, graduate student in the first 3 years
of their graduate work.
Heather Menzie
Junior Graduate Student of the
Year Award
14. The Debbie Canales Yrle Distinguished Service
Award was established by Dr. Bettie Sue
Masters in
memory of Debbie Yrle, to recognize
individuals
who provide outstanding support to the
education and research mission of the
Graduate School
of Biomedical Sciences.
Debbie Canales Yrle Award
15. Angie Watts, M.S.
Assistant Director
Integrated Biomedical Sciences
Sciences (IBMS) Program
UT Health San Antonio
20. Joel Agosto-Peña
Hometown: Manatí, Puerto Rico
Undergrad Institution: University of Puerto Rico Mayagüez
Graduate Program: Integrated Biomedical Sciences
Discipline: Cancer Biology
Mentor Name: Feng-Chun Yang, M.D., Ph.D.
“My greatest concern is not whether you have failed,
but whether you are content with your failure.”
– Abraham Lincoln
21. Noor Y. Al Obaidi
Hometown: Canton, Michigan
Undergrad Institution: University of Baghdad - School
of Medicine
Graduate Program: Translational Science
Mentor Name: Rodney K. Chan, M.D.
”A hero is an ordinary individual who finds strength
to persevere and endure despite overwhelming
obstacles."
– Christopher Reeve
22. Aida Badamchi
Hometown: Tehran, Iran
Undergrad Institution: Azad University of Tehran, School of
Pharmacy
Graduate Program: Integrated Biomedical Sciences
Discipline: Biochemical Mechanisms of Medicine
Mentor Name: Patrick Sung, Ph.D.
“You are not a drop in the ocean. You are the entire
ocean in a drop."
– Rumi (Persian poet)
23. Angie Jasper
Hometown: Muskego, Wisconsin
Undergrad Institution: University of Wisconsin
Graduate Program: Integrated Biomedical Sciences (MSTP)
Discipline: Cell Biology, Genetics, and Molecular Medicine
Mentor Name: Patrick Sung, Ph.D.
24. Jeffrey Katz
Hometown: Los Angeles, California
Undergrad Institution: The University of California - Los
Angeles
Graduate Program: Integrated Biomedical Sciences
Discipline: Biochemical Mechanisms in Medicine
Mentor Name: Patrick Sung, Ph.D.
"All life is an experiment. The more experiments you
make the better."
– Ralph Waldo Emerson
25. Adam Sacks
Hometown: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and Austin, Texas
Undergrad Institution: University of Texas
Graduate Program: Integrated Biomedical Sciences (MSTP)
Discipline: Biochemical Mechanisms of Medicine
Mentor Name: Patrick Sung, Ph.D.
“Scientists have a special responsibility, a moral
responsibility, in ensuring that science serves the
interests of humanity in the best possible way.”
– Dalai Lama XIV
26. Kathrin Bailey
Hometown: Bern, Switzerland
Undergrad Institution: University of Texas San Antonio
Graduate Program: Integrated Biomedical Sciences
Discipline: Molecular Immunology & Microbiology
Mentor Name: Tim Anderson, Ph.D.
“Natural selection will not remove
ignorance from future generations. "
– Richard Dawkins
27. Mukund Bhandari
Hometown: Kathmandu, Nepal
Undergrad Institution: Kathmandu University
Graduate Program: Integrated Biomedical Sciences
Discipline: Cell Biology, Genetics, and Molecular Medicine
Mentor Name: Siyuan Zheng, Ph.D.
"When there is harmony between the mind, heart and
resolution, then nothing is impossible."
– The Rig Veda
28. Christian Cervantes
Hometown: Cuidad Mante, Tamaulipas, Mexico
Undergrad Institution: University of Texas Rio Grande
Valley
Graduate Program: Integrated Biomedical Sciences
Discipline: Molecular Immunology & Microbiology
Mentor Name: Zhenming Xu, Ph.D.
“Don’t expect to be motivated every day to get out there
and make things happen. You won’t be. Don’t count on
motivation. Count on discipline.”
– Jocko Willink
29. Patrick “PJ” Conway
Hometown: Prospect, Connecticut
Undergrad Institution: Quinnipiac University, BS
Graduate Institution: Quinnipiac University, MHS
Graduate Program: Integrated Biomedical Sciences
Discipline: Molecular Immunology & Microbiology
Mentors Name: Daruka Mahadevan, M.D., Ph.D.
Patrick Sung, Ph.D.
“Can someone please send me the zoom link!?!"
– Every UT Health student,
every day... For the last year
30. Behnam Ebrahimi
Hometown: Shiraz, Iran
Undergrad Institution: University of Kerman
Graduate Program: Integrated Biomedical Sciences
Discipline: Cancer Biology
Mentor Name: Ratna Vadlamudi, Ph.D.
“Science knows no country because knowledge
belongs to humanity and is the
torch which illuminates the world.”
– Louis Pasteur
31. Ruby Anne Escobedo
Hometown: Brownsville, Texas
Undergrad Institution: Texas State University
Graduate Program: Integrated Biomedical Sciences
Discipline: Molecular Immunology & Microbiology
Mentor Name: Deepak Kaushal, Ph.D.
"Somewhere, something incredible
is waiting to be known."
– Carl Sagan
32. Shawn Flynn
Hometown: Hopewell Junction, New York
Undergrad Institution: Wake Forest University
Graduate Program: Integrated Biomedical Sciences
Discipline: Physiology and Pharmacology
Mentor Name: Charles France, Ph.D.
“The truth is, most of us discover where
we are heading when we arrive."
– Bill Watterson, Calvin and Hobbes
33. Hannah Kitten
Hometown: Boerne, Texas
Undergrad Institution: Colorado School of Mines
Graduate Program: Radiological Sciences
Track: Medical Physics
Mentor Name: Andrew J. Sampson, Ph.D.
“I will not choose despair,
as long as I have hands to do good.”
– Sharon McMahon
34. Eloise Lienert
Hometown: Brunswick, Maine
Undergrad Institution: Washington College
Graduate Program: Doctorate of Medical Physics
Mentor Name: Daniel Saenz, Ph.D., DABR
“Never tell me the odds!”
– Han Solo
35. Jimish Patel
Hometown: Houston, Texas
Undergrad Institution: University of Houston
Graduate Program: Doctorate of Medical Physics
Mentor Name: Neil Kirby, Ph.D.
“Do Not Try To Look Good, Just Be Good."
– Mahant Swami Maharaj
36. Karen Lindquist
Hometown: Torrance, California
Undergrad Institution: University of Texas at Dallas
Graduate Program: Integrated Biomedical Sciences
Discipline: Neuroscience
Mentors Names: Armen Akopian, Ph.D.
Alexei Tumanov, M.D., Ph.D.
Ph.D.
“We all just molecules and isotopes."
– Mac Miller
37. George Naratadam
Hometown: Gurnee, IL
Undergrad Institution: University of Illinois at Urbana-
Champaign
Graduate Program: Integrated Biomedical Sciences (MSTP)
Discipline: Physiology and Pharmacology
Mentor Name: Armen Akopian, Ph.D.
“The purpose of science is not to cure us of our
sense of mystery and wonder, but to constantly
reinvent and reinvigorate it.”
– Robert Sapolsky
38. Claudia McCown
Hometown: Tyler, Texas
Undergrad Institution: University of North Texas
Graduate Program: Integrated Biomedical Sciences
Discipline: Biochemical Mechanisms in Medicine
Mentor Name: Dmitri Ivanov, Ph.D.
“We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the
other things, not because they are easy, but because they
are hard”
– John F. Kennedy
39. Saif Nirzhor
Hometown: Dhaka, Bangladesh
Undergrad Institution: University of Minnesota, Twin Cities
Graduate Program: Integrated Biomedical Sciences
Discipline: Cancer Biology
Mentor Name: Manjeet Rao, Ph.D.
“The impediment to action advances action. What
stands in the way becomes the way.”
– Marcus Aurelius
40. Stephanie Nordmeyer
Hometown: Austin, Texas
Undergrad Institution: Texas State University
Graduate Program: Integrated Biomedical Sciences
Discipline: Molecular Immunology & Microbiology
Mentor Name: Tim Anderson, Ph.D.
“It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor
the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the
most adaptable to change.”
– Charles Darwin
41. Kristian Ödfalk
Hometown: Södertälje, Sweden
Undergrad Institution: University of Houston
Graduate Program: Integrated Biomedical Sciences
Discipline: Neuroscience
Mentor Name: Sarah C. Hopp, Ph.D.
“All outstanding work, in art as well as in science,
results from immense zeal applied to a great idea.”
– Santiago Ramón y Cajal
42. Angélica M. Olmo–Fontánez
Hometown: Carolina, Puerto Rico
Undergrad Institution: University of Puerto Rico Mayagüez
Graduate Program: Integrated Biomedical Sciences
Discipline: Cell Biology, Genetics, and Molecular Medicine
Mentor Name: Jordi B. Torrelles, Ph.D.
“An investment in yourself pays the best interest.”
– Benjamin Franklin
43. Alyssa Schami
Hometown: Leander, Texas
Undergrad Institution: University of North Texas
Graduate Program: Integrated Biomedical Sciences
Discipline: Cell Biology, Genetics, and Molecular Medicine
Mentor Name: Jordi B. Torrelles, Ph.D.
“There’s a woman I want to be and until I reach that
point, I have work to do.”
– Unknown
44. M. Sonia Razaqyar
Hometown: Tampa, Florida
Undergrad Institution: Mount Holyoke College
Graduate Program: Radiological Sciences (MSTP)
Track: Neuroimaging
Mentor Name: Peter Fox, M.D.
“Two there are who are never
satisfied -- the lover of the world
and the lover of knowledge.”
– Mawlana Jalal-al-Din Rumi
45. Jonathan Towne
Hometown: Washington D.C.
Undergrad Institution: Rice University
Graduate Program: Radiological Sciences (MSTP)
Track: Neuroscience Imaging
Mentor Name: Peter Fox, M.D.
“To paraphrase Descartes: ‘I think; therefore
I have no access to the level where I sum.’”
– Douglas R. Hofstadter
46. Stephanie D. Rowan
Hometown: Brookville, Pennsylvania
Undergrad Institution: Pennsylvania State University
Graduate Institution: University of Washington
Graduate Program: Translational Science
Mentor Name: Amelie G. Ramirez, Dr.P.H., M.P.H.
“It’s only after you’ve stepped outside your comfort zone
that you begin to change, grow, and transform.”
― Roy T. Bennett
47. Afaf Saliba
Hometown: Bteghrine, Lebanon
Undergrad Institution: Notre Dame University
Graduate Institutions: American University of Beirut;
Lebanese University
Graduate Program: Integrated Biomedical Sciences
Discipline: Cell Biology, Genetics, and Molecular Medicine
Mentor Name: Kumar Sharma, M.D., FAHA, FASN
“The most wonderful study of mankind is man.
Relieving human suffering and diffusing universal
knowledge is humanitarian.”
– Daniel Palmer
48. Noah Sanchez
Hometown: Murfreesboro, Tennessee
Undergrad Institution: Rhodes College
Graduate Program: Radiological Sciences
Track: Medical Physics
Mentor Name: Geoffrey Clarke, Ph.D.
“Nothing is in the intellect that was not first in the
senses, except the intellect itself.”
― Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz
49. Sruthi Sivabhaskar
Hometown: Houston, Texas
Undergrad Institution: Texas A&M University
Graduate Program: Radiological Sciences
Track: Medical Physics
Mentor Name: Niko Papanikolaou, Ph.D., MBA
“Action without intention is meaningless. And intention
without action is impact-less.”
– Jay Shetty
50. Saranya Srinivasan
Hometown: Chennai, India
Undergrad Institution: Anna University
Graduate Program: Integrated Biomedical Sciences
Discipline: Molecular Immunology & Microbiology
Mentor Name: Nu Zhang, Ph.D.
“Therefore encourage one another and build one
another up, just as you are doing.”
– 1 Thessalonians 5:11
51. Leila Takahashi-Ruiz
Hometown: Sendai, Japan
Undergrad Institution: Colorado State University
Graduate Program: Integrated Biomedical Sciences
Discipline: Cell Biology, Genetics, and Molecular Medicine
Mentor Name: April Risinger, Ph.D.
“Kulia i ka nu’u”
Strive to reach the highest.
52. Kate Tuite
Hometown: Frisco, Texas
Undergrad Institution: University of Texas
Graduate Program: Integrated Biomedical Sciences
Discipline: Neuroscience
Mentor Name: David Morilak, Ph.D.
“Never memorize anything that you can
look up.”
– Albert Einstein
53. Mackenna Wollet
Hometown: San Antonio, Texas
Undergrad Institution: Texas Tech University
Graduate Program: Integrated Biomedical Sciences
Discipline: Physiology and Pharmacology
Mentor Name: Jun Hee Kim, Ph.D.
“The philosophers have only
Interpreted the world, In various ways.
The point, however, is to change it.”
– Karl Marx
54. Cassandra Wolsh
Hometown: Clarksburg, Maryland
Undergrad Institution: Temple University
Graduate Program: Integrated Biomedical Sciences
Discipline: Neuroscience
Mentor Name: Jeffery Boychuk, Ph.D.
“The most important step a person can take is always
the next one.”
– Brandon Sanderson
55. Asa candidate,I,(stateyourname),committothefollowing:
I willconductmyresearchandprofessionalendeavorswithhonestyandobjectivity
I willapplythehigheststandardsofethics
I willalwaysconductmyselfwithintegrity,respect,anddignity
I willbean exampleforthenextgenerationofgraduatestudents
I willnurturemydreamsandkeepsightofmygoals,evenintimesofadversity
I willrepresentUTHealthSanAntoniowellandbean ambassadorfortheinstitution
I willaspiretolifelonglearningandusemy skillstoinspireandmentorfuturegenerations
This,I willdo.
Candidate Pledge
