Julia Barske ’13 graduated with a PhD in Biology. She has recently written a paper titled “Energetics of the acrobatic courtship in male golden-collared manakins (Manacus vitellinus)” in Proceedings of the Royal Society B December 18th.
Category Archives: Research (non-academic)
Brain Teng ’12
Brian Teng ’12 graduated with a BS in Ecology, Behavior and Evolution. He has just started a new job at the University of San Diego. He is the Project Assistant for a 5-year NSF-funded research project on climate change education for key influentials. His responsibilities include website design and maintenance, social media strategy, event planning, and administrative activities. More on the project is available here (http://www.sandiego.edu/climate/).
Gina Lovasi (Schellenbaum) ’01
Gina Schellenbaum (now Lovasi) ’01 graduated with a BS in Ecology, Behavior and Evolution. “Dr. Lovasi awarded Calderone prize Dr. Gina Lovasi, assistant professor of epidemiology, has been awarded the Frank A. Calderone Junior Faculty Prize, which gives $25,000 to support her research efforts on the project “Neighborhood commercial resources and sudden cardiac arrest.” The prize was established by the Calderone family in 1986 to honor Dr. Calderone’s distinguished career and life-long commitment to the health of the public.”
Clark F. Ford ’75
Clark F. Ford ’75, at left, is an Associate Professor of Food Science and Human Nutrition at Iowa State University. His research involves genetic engineering of glucoamylase; the structure/function relationships of cloned gene products; and the recovery and purification of fusion proteins. He can be contacted at cfford@iastate.edu.
Susanne Marczak ’08
Susanne Marczak ’08 is in her second year as a Research Technician at the San Diego Zoo Institute for Conservation Research, Applied Animal Ecology Division, where she participates in a variety of research projects and assists with the administration of the Cocha Cashu Biological Station in the Peruvian Amazon. Her primary research focus concerns a local western burrowing owl habitat restoration program utilizing California ground squirrels as ecosystem engineers to help restore and maintain grassland environments that serve as habitat for burrowing owls.
Ross Durham ’62, PhD ’68
Ross Durham ’62, PhD ’68 retired in 2005 from his position as full professor with University of Tennessee Biology Department, where he had served since 1971. Early in his career, Dr. Durham had the privilege to work as a project biologist for the NASA Biosatellite Project (Biosatellite III) at the UCLA Space Biology Laboratories. His team’s vehicle orbited the Earth for 8 days in the spring of 1969, just prior to the launch of the famous Apollo 11 mission.
Bilquees Akhtar ’06
Bilquees Akhtar ’06 is Manager of Regulatory Affairs at Puma Biotechnology, Inc., in the Los Angeles area. She has received a Master’s in Public Health from CSU Northridge this spring. After graduating from UCLA, Bilquees started working for Cougar Biotechnology, Inc. She was working in the Regulatory Affairs department for a submission of late stage drugs for the treatment of prostate cancer. In July 2009, J&J acquired Cougar. She continues to manage and compile submissions of the New Drug Application for prostate cancer that was approved by the FDA in April 2010.
Thuy Nguyen ’02
Thuy Nguyen ’02, JD (Santa Clara), is currently an attorney at NASA Ames Research Center. As a research center, NASA Ames has a heavy focus on science and is the host of the NASA Astrobiology Institute and NASA Lunar Science Institute.
Lauren Gehman ’03, PhD ’11
Lauren Gehman ’03, PhD ’11, is a Research Consultant at Deallus Group, a biotechnology consulting firm in West Los Angeles.
Maddalena (Hamner) Bearzi ’03 PhD
Maddalena (Hamner) Bearzi ’03 PhD has written a new book that has just been released, Dolphin Confidential: Confessions of a Field Biologist. The book is published by the Chicago University Press. Dr. Bearzi is also the co-author of Beautiful Minds: The Parallel Lives of Great Apes and Dolphins.
Jonathan Corren ’79
Jonathan Corren ’79 received an MD from UC San Diego in 1983. Following his residency in Internal Medicine at UC Davis, he received fellowship training in Allergy and Clinical Immunology at the National Jewish Medical and Research Center in Denver, Colorado. Dr. Corren accepted a faculty position as staff physician and research associate at National Jewish until returning to Los Angeles in 1991. His research interests currently focus on new treatments for allergies and asthma and the role of food and exercise in improving allergic diseases. He has authored approximately 150 articles, book chapters and research abstracts, edited two books about allergies, and recently authored a book for patients, 100 Questions & Answers about Allergies.
Gwen Noda ’99
Gwen Noda ’99 (Marine Biology), MA ’06 is the co-Director at UCLA for COSEE-West, one of a network of COSEE (Centers for Ocean Sciences Education Excellence) Centers around the United States that is funded by the National Science Foundation. Gwen has worked and volunteered in a variety of field and lab science research positions as well as in informal and formal education settings, including shipboard instruction and summer outdoor science camp in the Sierra Nevada. Her current volunteer efforts are dedicated to diving in the Kelp Forest exhibit in the new Ecosystems wing at the California Science Center.
Arye Lipman ’08
Arye Lipman ’08 is a Project Manager and Head of Pre-Clinical Development at ImaginAb Inc., a biotechnology company in the Los Angeles area. His research is focused on the use of antibody fragments for target specific imaging, utilizing modalities such as PET and SPECT. In the next few months, several fragments he helped to engineer will be heading into clinical trials.
Joanna Camba-Colon ’93
Joanna Camba-Colon ’93 writes: “I worked as a lab helper as an undergrad. I received a stipend from CARE (Center for Academic and Research Excellence) at UCLA and worked on an independent project with Dr. O’Lague and his postdoc, Dr. Kalman. This experience got me hooked on science. My first real job right out of college was as a staff research associate (SRA) in Dr. Bryson’s lab at UCLA. Our work focused on understanding the vertical transmission of HIV from mother to baby. With the encouragement of my husband, Nicholas, and the many scientists and researchers I worked with, I went back to graduate school. In 2009, I completed my Ph.D. in Cell, Molecular, and Developmental Biology (CMDB) at the University of California Riverside. I then worked as a postdoctoral research fellow at City of Hope. I am currently a staff research scientist at Calimmune Inc. I am happy to say that my husband and I will be celebrating 22 years of marriage this year (2010). We are also the proud parents of Alexandria, Cameron, and Katrina, who keep us on our toes as we guide them through college, middle school, and elementary school. It’s been a busy and fulfilling 17 years since graduating from UCLA, and I look forward to exciting years ahead.”
Vinay Keshav Pathak ’79
Vinay Keshav Pathak ’79 received a PhD at UC Davis in 1988 and is the Head of the Viral Mutation Section of the HIV Drug Resistance Program at the National Cancer Institute. In 1991, Dr. Pathak became an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biochemistry and the Mary Babb Randolph! Cancer Center at West Virginia University. He was promoted to Associate Professor with tenure in 1998. He joined the National Cancer Institute in 1999 as Senior Investigator and Head of the Viral Mutation Section in the HIV Drug Resistance Program. Dr. Pathak was appointed as Guest Editor for the HIV Drug Resistance special issue of Viruses, published in October 2009. He is also an Adjunct Professor at West Virginia University.