Six Biology Graduate Students Awarded 2017 Goeddel Fellowships

December 1, 2017

By Mario C. Aguilera

Award winners (left to right): Amanda Davis, Daniel Johnson, Katrina Nguyen, Christopher Piggott, Chi Ren, José Waterton

Six graduate students in the Division of Biological Sciences have been named 2017 awardees of David V. Goeddel Graduate Fellowships at UC San Diego.

A UC San Diego alumnus and biotechnology pioneer, Goeddel established the endowment to support and foster the innovators and scientists of the future. His endowment, which is matched by the division, each year supports the research and scholarly activities of outstanding Biological Sciences graduate students.

Goeddel graduated from UC San Diego in 1972 with a degree in chemistry and went on to earn his doctorate from the University of Colorado, Boulder. In 1978, he became the first scientist hired by Genentech. While there, he successfully used genetic engineering to coax bacteria into creating synthetic human insulin, human growth hormone and human tissue plasminogen activator (tPA) for use in therapeutic medicine. A member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, he is a longtime supporter of the university and a current member of the Biological Sciences Dean’s Leadership Council.

This year’s Goeddel Chancellor’s Fellowship awardees (and advisors) are:

Amanda Davis (Dong-Er Zhang)
Katrina Nguyen (Joe Pogliano)

Goeddel Endowed Graduate Fellowship winners for 2017 are:

Daniel Johnson (Dong-Er Zhang)
Christopher Piggott (Yishi Jin)
Chi Ren (Takaki Komiyama)
José Waterton (Elsa Cleland)