The MCB department had several outstanding candidates for the Danny Brower Memorial Scholarship.  Two scholarhips were awarded in December and both exemplify the criteria set forth for the Scholarship.

Dr. Oscar Peña, (MCB 1995, UCLA School of Dentistry School, 1999) enjoys his work as an endodontist; he enjoys the satisfaction of helping people who are in pain and getting his patients back to better oral health. He appreciates living in Tucson and owning his own business.

Jordan is busy these days juggling 19 units and working in the lab, as well as a waiter at Kingfisher Restaurant but he still finds time for his interests, including hiking, backpacking, camping, demostrating gardening can be done in small spaces and playing online video games.

When Alexandria Lau, PhD, entered her undergraduate degree program at the University of Arizona, she didn’t envision a career in ensuring people were consuming safe food and beverages.

Ayumi Pottenger has been in science labs at the UA since her freshmen year when she worked for Dr. Nadja Anderson, Director of the BIOTECH Project.

When asked for his one piece of advice for incoming MCB students, Dr. Alok Patel (MCB 2007, UA College of Medicine 2012) didn’t hesitate – he wants students to continue to pursue their passions, hobbies and interests while they pursue their degree.

Professor Horton has been a Biochemistry faculty at the University of Arizona for 17 years, and joined MCB in the summer of 2018. Her laboratory is interested in the structures and mechanisms of proteins that act upon DNA and RNA, and their consequences to human health.

Emma’s interest in science was sparked when she was assigned a research project on Rachel Carson in the eighth grade. Emma was intrigued by the work Rachael Carson did and was the impetus for Emma taking chemistry and biology classes in high school.

Tucson native Eli Soyfer has known about Dr. Danny Brower for a while. When Brower, former MCB Department Head, died unexpectedly in 2007, there was a story in the paper, Soyfer recalls.

MCB’s Outstanding Graduate Student in Teaching for 2018, Johan Martinez-Fuentes, is inspiring students to have a “dendrite moment.”