The MCB Excellence in Undergraduate Research Award is presented each spring to an MCB Senior who has demonstrated excellence in their undergraduate research. This year’s award winner, Alexa Nguyen, has been doing research since her freshmen year in college

Dr. Nancy Horton, Associate Professor, recently received two awards: the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) International Fellowship for Research and an award from the UA Commission on the Status of Women.

Brooke LaFlamme, Ph.D., is well positioned to advise scientists on maximizing the impact their work will have; she is the Chief Editor of Communications Biology a publication of Nature Research.

The STEM Outreach and Recruitment Team (SORT) is made up of students with various backgrounds in STEM-related fields. SORT’s purpose is to tackle the public stigma around STEM education, to spark interest in careers in STEM from an early age and to engage undergraduate students majoring in the life sciences in educational outreach.

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.