Congratulations To Our 2021 Graduates | Graduate School of Medical Sciences

WCGS celebrated our 69th Convocation and Commencement Ceremonies last week where we honored the 2021 graduating class. With over one thousand students and four hundred faculty members, WCGS provides a rich and diverse atmosphere that fosters superior scientific training. Although the 2021 graduating class came to Weill Cornell from different backgrounds, they all shared a desire to pursue their passions and test their creativity. They have produced outstanding scholarship in diverse disciplines, from fundamental biologic processes to potential advances in patient care.

It is our privilege to acknowledge the quality and impact of science performed by all of our students throughout their tenure at Weill Cornell. The graduating class of 2021 made significant advances in several scientific fields, including the areas of cancer detection and metastasis, the influence of the microbiome on immunity, precision therapies based on epigenomic signatures, and machine learning. Their work, a prolific 79 peer-reviewed first authored and 258 team authored articles, has been published in such world-renowned journals as Nature, Cell, and Science.

Once again, congratulations to all of the students in the 2021 graduating class! The following students and faculty received awards for their academic and scientific accomplishments at Convocation.

Distinguished Alumnus Award

Established in 1997, the Weill Cornell Graduate School Distinguished Alumnus Award is given in recognition of outstanding contributions to biomedical research and education.

Eric Huang, M.D. ’86, Ph.D. ’93
Professor of Pathology at the University of California San Francisco School of Medicine

Julian R. Rachele Prize

Named for a former Dean of the Graduate School, the Rachele Prize is the highest student award presented by the school. It is awarded to students who have published significant research in a scientific journal during the prior year. This year, two students received the Rachele Prize:

Gary Dixon, Ph.D. for “QSER1 protects DNA methylation valleys from de novo methylation”. Science 372, 9 April 2021. BCMB Program, PI Danwei Huangfu.

 Ke Xu, Ph.D. for “Glycolysis fuels phosphoinositide 3-kinase signaling to bolster T cell immunity”. Science 371,22 January 2021. IMP Program, PI Ming Li.

Student Diversity Award

Christopher Bourne, IMP Program, PI David Scheinberg
Spearheaded the creation of the Social Justice and Anti-Racism Taskforce (SJAR) at Weill Cornell Medicine. Also active in our ACCESS program, a graduate school pipeline program offered to students from underserved populations.

Student Outreach Award

Camir Ricketts, Ph.D., Tri-Institutional Computational Medicine Program, PBSB, PI Iman Hajirasouliha
Founder of “Minds Of Jamaica” a platform that connects underrepresented minority students with professionals in genomics and data science.

Student Service Award

Thomas Rossetti, Pharmacology Program, PI Lonny Levin and PI Jochen Buck
Kysta DiKun, Pharmacology Program, PI Lorraine Guda
Co-Chairs of the 40th Annual Vincent du Vigneaud Memorial Virtual Symposium

Distinguished Student Commencement Speaker Award

Jordana Thibado, Ph.D., PBSB Program, PI Joshua Levitz

Vincent du Vigneaud Symposium Awards

POSTER PRESENTATION AWARDS – FIRST YEAR

1st Place: Thasin Peyear, “The Time Course of Amphiphile Translocation Across Lipid Bilayers.”
PI Olaf Andersen.

2nd Place: Nicholas Bartelo, “Predicting Risk of Disease Progression for Pre-diabetic Patients.”
PI Olivier Elemento.

3rd Place: Tran Hoang, “Detecting EGFR Expression in Bladder Cancer Using [89Zr]Zr-DFO-Panitumumab immunoPET imaging.” PI Jason Lewis.

POSTER PRESENTATION AWARDS - SECOND YEAR AND ABOVE

1st Place: Anthony Antonelli, “Mycobacterium bovis BCG Induces CD4 T Cell-Dependent Tumor Immunity Against Bladder Cancer via Tumor-Intrinsic Interferon Gamma Signaling.” PI Michael Glickman.

2nd Place: Robert Myers, “A Single-Cell Multiomic Investigation of JAK2 V617F Mutant Myeloproliferative Neoplasms.” PI Dan-Avi Landau.

3rd Place: Katherine Lopez, “Maternal Postpartum Exercise Mitigates the Metabolic Cost of a Fat Rich Diet.” PI Miklos Toth.

3rd Place: Jessica Falci, “Novel Autophagy Activators for Aggregated Tau Degradation.” PI Yueming Li.

ORAL PRESENTATION AWARDS

1st Place: Bobbie Pelham-Webb, “The Molecular Resetting of Pluripotent Stem Cell Identity during Mitotic Exit.” PI Effie Apostolou.

2nd Place: Aleksandr Talishinsky, “Distinct Transcriptomic Signatures Predict Sexually Dimorphic Connectivity Changes in Depression.” PI Conor Liston.

3rd Place: Tomer Yaron,” Phosphorylation of SARS-CoV-2 Nucleocapsid Protein Selectively Regulates Viral and Host RNA-Protein Binding and is Essential for Viral Infection.” PI Olivier Elemento and PI Lewis Cantley.

3rd Place: Alexandra Miller, “A Novel Reporter System Identifies Iron Uptake Virulence Genes in Mycobacteria.” PI Sabine Ehrt.

Excellence in Teaching and Mentoring Award

Carl Nathan, M.D., R.A. Rees Pritchett Professor of Microbiology
Chairman, Department of Microbiology and Immunology
Professor of Microbiology and Immunology
Professor of Medicine

IMP Mentoring Award

Alexander “Sasha” Rudensky, Ph.D.
Chairman, Immunology Program, SKI
Director, Ludwig Center at MSK
Co-Chair, IMP Program

Neuroscience Mentoring Award

Anna Orr, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Neuroscience
Brain and Mind Research Institute

PBSB Mentoring Award

Lucy A Skrabanek, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Computational Biomedicine in Physiology and Biophysics

Faculty Diversity Award

Bjorn F Kafsack, Ph.D., MHS, M.S.  
Assistant Professor of Microbiology and Immunology

Monica Guzman, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Pharmacology in Medicine

Dr. Barbara Hempstead, M.D., Ph.D, Dean of Weill Cornell Medicine Graduate School of Medical Sciences, addresses the graduating class of 2021 at the Convocation Ceremony.