Notes from the Director, Summer 2024

Dear QBioS Community,

I hope you are having a wonderful start to your summer. We’ve had a great year in QBioS, marked by significant growth in our community: seven new faculty members have joined us, we have seven new alumni, and a record-breaking thirteen students will be joining us this fall.

I’d like to extend a warm welcome to our new program faculty members: Lynn Kamerlin (Chemistry and Biochemistry), Peter Kasson (Chemistry and Biochemistry), Abigail Lind (Biological Sciences), Andrew McShan (Chemistry and Biochemistry), Ratan Murty (Psychology), and Audrey Sederberg (Psychology). We are fortunate to have them join our community, and I look forward to years of collaboration.

Speaking of our growing community, I am proud to announce that we now have a total of 22 alumni from the QBioS PhD program. Our alumni are demonstrating the versatility and value of the quantitative and interdisciplinary training they received in QBioS, with positions ranging from academic postdocs and tenure-track faculty, to data scientists in industry and government. Please visit our website (https://qbios.gatech.edu/alumni) to learn more about the post-graduation careers of our alumni. A special congratulations to our most recent graduates: Sarah Sundius, Rogelio Rodriguez-Gonzales, Rozenn Pineau, Andreea Magalie, Danny Lauer and Pablo Bravo. We wish them all the best in their future endeavors!

Looking ahead, I am thrilled to announce that we will be welcoming an exceptionally large and diverse cohort of 13 new PhD students this fall. This record-breaking group hails from a wide range of disciplines and institutions, and I have no doubt that these talented students will make significant contributions to our community.

I also want to take a moment to recognize the outstanding achievements of our current students. Join me in congratulating Katie MacGillivray, Athulya Ram, Rozenn Pineau, Pablo Bravo, and Ethan Wold for receiving Best/Outstanding Paper Awards at the 2023 QBioS Winter Party. I’d like to give a special mention to Cassie Shriver, who received the QBioS Community Outreach and Service Award for her instrumental role in organizing the highly successful "Biomechanics Day: Animals in Motion" event at Zoo Atlanta. This event not only broke attendance records, but also provided a significant platform for science communication and inspiration for the next generation of biomechanics researchers. Additionally, I want to express my gratitude to this year’s QBioS Student Government Association, Emma Bingham, Chris Zhang, Sayantan Datta, Ray Copeland, Alfie Brownless, and Elisa Rheaume, for their unwavering dedication to fostering an inclusive academic community within our program.

This month, we had the privilege of hosting the 2024 Hands-On Modeling workshop on using AlphaFold2 to predict protein structures and complexes. The event, organized by the first-year QBioS student cohort and Prof. JC Gumbart, was supported by the Burroughs Wellcome Foundation and featured lectures by QBioS program faculty Andrew McShan and Jeffrey Skolnick. With 61 attendees representing nine universities, colleges and government institutions in attendance, it was a resounding success.

I wish you all an excellent summer filled with exciting research, rejuvenating breaks, and meaningful connections. I look forward to reconnecting with you in the fall as we welcome the 2024 cohort to campus!

Best,
Will Ratcliff 
Director, QBioS PhD Program