Francesco Chiappelli ’75 graduated with a BS from the Biology Department. But, as the department “evolved” over the years, from Department of Biology in the 1970s, to the departments of Molecular, Cell, and Developmental Biology (MCDB) and of Biology in the 1980’s, to MCDB and the dept of Organismic Biology, Ecology, and Evolution in the 1990s, he kinda always “saw” himself as an alumnus of MCDB – “perhaps because eventually I ended up in Dr. Fahey’s lab for my post-doc in fundamental & clinical immunology. Be that as it may, I am happy and proud to be considered ‘one of yours’!”
“Well, a lot has happened over the past four decades, but I can say – equally proudly – that for me at least, everything noteworthy that happened to me professionally happened at UCLA: MA (’81), PhD (’86), post-docs (’87-’90), research faculty first at Harbor-UCLA (’90-’92), then with my first NIH grant: set up my first lab on the grounds of the West LA VA with an appointment in what used to be Anatomy & Cell Biology (’92-’94), then recruitment by the UCLA School of Dentistry, where I have been ever since – now for several years Full Professor, tenured.
Most recent developments and updates that you might be interested in are: becoming AAAS Fellow in 2011, becoming a Fulbrightalumnus last year (2012), and presently being the President of the Fulbright Association, Greater Los Angeles Chapter.
UCLA has been good to me, starting with the Department of Biology that I loved! Indeed, I came to UCLA (and to the US in fact) in September 1972, and have been associated directly with UCLA ever since: this is my 41st academic year on our campus.
Three profs, while I was a student in your/our department, to whom I will for ever be thankful:
- Dr. Crescitelli, who taught me about scientific rigor, the scientific process, and scientific writing (I now have written close to 200 papers & book chapters, and several books published by Springer-Verlag and other noteworthy publishing houses),
- Dr. Fessler, who first understood my gargantuan difficulties as I had just arrived from Europe, with no or little understanding of English, of the US university system, and of anything academic really, and took the time to listen to me, to guide me and to mentor me – he, really, taught me HOW to be a mentor by his own example, and
- Dr. Clark, in whose lab I did my first 199 in cellular immunology, which opened up my mind to the beauty of cell biology in general and of cellular immune surveillance mechanisms in the context systems biology in particular.
My dream was always to be able, one day, to serve my “mother department”, if I may refer to Biology by such affectionate terms. The closest I ever came was to be on the Graduate Review.”