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Rockefeller University

Alumni & Student Profiles

Our students and alumni share their experience at Rockefeller in their own words.
Photo of Josue

Josue Regalado

Fourth-year student
Graduate Program in Bioscience

“You can leave a tremendous impact as a Rockefeller student. The graduate program encourages you to ask big-picture questions and become a champion for diversity and inclusion.”

“You can leave a tremendous impact as a Rockefeller student. The graduate program encourages you to ask big-picture questions and become a champion for diversity and inclusion.”

Photo of Josue

Josue Regalado

Fourth-year student

Graduate Program in Bioscience

Josue Regalado is fascinated by brain processes that support flexibility in cognition. A fourth-year student in Priya Rajasethupathy’s laboratory, he is innovating new approaches and techniques to study the interconnections between brain circuits as animals modify their behavior. He leads a student organization that brings together Rockefeller scientists committed to advancing diversity and inclusion in science.
Photo of Dani

Danielle Keahi

Fifth-year student
Graduate Program in Bioscience

“At Rockefeller you have the freedom to be collaborative—you don’t have to follow a predetermined model, and logistical issues don’t get in the way of doing science.”

“At Rockefeller you have the freedom to be collaborative—you don’t have to follow a predetermined model, and logistical issues don’t get in the way of doing science.”

Photo of Dani

Danielle Keahi

Fifth-year student

Graduate Program in Bioscience

Danielle Keahi is examining the role of DNA repair in pediatric brain cancer patients. As a fifth-year student, with mentorship from both Mary E. Hatten and Agata Smogorzewska, she is combining neuroscience and cancer biology: asking how, in healthy individuals, tumor growth is suppressed at the cellular level, and likewise how genetic mutations lead to disease.
Nicole Creanza

Nicole Creanza

Assistant Professor of Biological Sciences, Vanderbilt University
Alumna, Graduate Program in Bioscience

Nicole Creanza

Nicole Creanza

Assistant Professor of Biological Sciences, Vanderbilt University

Alumna, Graduate Program in Bioscience

Nicole Creanza (2011 graduate), assistant professor at Vanderbilt University, is continuing the path she charted at Rockefeller, studying how the complex process of cultural evolution interacts with genetic evolution. Her favorite part of the job so far: mentoring graduate and undergraduate students as they forge independent research projects.
Maryam Zaringhalam

Maryam Zaringhalam

Data Science and Open Science Officer at the National Library of Medicine,
Alumna, Graduate Program in Bioscience

Maryam Zaringhalam

Maryam Zaringhalam

Data Science and Open Science Officer at the National Library of Medicine,

Alumna, Graduate Program in Bioscience

During graduate school, Maryam Zaringhalam ’17 determined she wanted to focus on science communication and advocacy. Currently, as Data Science and Open Science Officer at the National Library of Medicine, she is engaged in policy development in areas such as open access science, collaboration, and result reproducibility. Maryam is also a producer for The Story Collider’s podcast and has written for outlets including Slate, Scientific American, and Quartz.
Jingyi Chi

Jingyi Chi

Sixth-year student
Graduate Program in Bioscience

“Rockefeller's unique strength is its emphasis on bringing multiple perspectives to bear on a single biological problem.“

“Rockefeller's unique strength is its emphasis on bringing multiple perspectives to bear on a single biological problem.“

Jingyi Chi

Jingyi Chi

Sixth-year student

Graduate Program in Bioscience

Jingyi Chi, a sixth-year student in Paul Cohen’s laboratory, uses molecular and genetic techniques to investigate the difference between white, beige, and brown fat cells, and to probe their ability to burn fat and dissipate heat.
Photo of Cameron

Cameron Bess

Project Officer and Biologist at U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
Alumnus, Graduate Program in Bioscience

“What really attracted me to Rockefeller was the freedom to chart your own course.”

“What really attracted me to Rockefeller was the freedom to chart your own course.”

Photo of Cameron

Cameron Bess

Project Officer and Biologist at U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

Alumnus, Graduate Program in Bioscience

Cameron Bess '09 spent his time at Rockefeller working on viruses that infect millions of people. Now, Project Officer and Biologist at U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), he’s working to build the capacity of researchers in developing countries to tackle their own scientific challenges by connecting them with federally funded US scientists studying issues such as food security, disaster mitigation, child health, and infectious disease.
Hockemeyer and Bateup

Dirk Hockemeyer & Helen Bateup

Assistant Professor of Neurobiology and Assistant Professor of Cell Developmental Biology, University of California, Berkeley
Alumni, Graduate Program in Bioscience

"I think we both learned that to be a good role model, you have to work as hard as you expect the people in your lab to work. Rockefeller opened our eyes to how science could and should be done."

"I think we both learned that to be a good role model, you have to work as hard as you expect the people in your lab to work. Rockefeller opened our eyes to how science could and should be done."

Hockemeyer and Bateup

Dirk Hockemeyer & Helen Bateup

Assistant Professor of Neurobiology and Assistant Professor of Cell Developmental Biology, University of California, Berkeley

Alumni, Graduate Program in Bioscience

Dirk Hockemeyer (2007 graduate) and Helen Bateup (2008 graduate) who met at Rockefeller, both accepted faculty positions at UC Berkeley. Dirk works on telomeres—repetitive DNA sequences that protect chromosome ends—and Helen is interested in mutations associated with neurodevelopmental disorders.
Stefano Di Talia

Stefano Di Talia

Assistant Professor of Cell Biology, Duke University
Alumnus, Graduate Program in Bioscience

“At Rockefeller, I was encouraged to be bold, to venture into unknown territories, to just go for it.”

“At Rockefeller, I was encouraged to be bold, to venture into unknown territories, to just go for it.”

Stefano Di Talia

Stefano Di Talia

Assistant Professor of Cell Biology, Duke University

Alumnus, Graduate Program in Bioscience

Alumnus Stefano Di Talia (2009 graduate) chose a challenging research topic: How do growing cells sense when they are big enough to start dividing? Building on his background in physics, Stefano explored how imaging, data analysis, and mathematical modeling could yield answers. Today, he is on the faculty at Duke University studying a new, but equally interdisciplinary, question: How do cells keep time?
Marianna Agudelo

Marianna Agudelo

Fifth-year student
Graduate Program in Bioscience

“Rockefeller labs don’t straddle the boundaries between fields. They dive into those spaces headfirst.”

“Rockefeller labs don’t straddle the boundaries between fields. They dive into those spaces headfirst.”

Marianna Agudelo

Marianna Agudelo

Fifth-year student

Graduate Program in Bioscience

Marianna Agudelo spent her first months rotating through labs that work on virus immunity. Now a fi ft h-year student, she is in Michel Nussenzweig’s group focusing on the flaviviruses Zika and dengue. She’s working to understand how these viruses exploit the human immune system, instigating responses that enhance rather than fight infection, and how to best circumvent this problem.

More resources

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Alumni time to degree and completion rates

Career development support and assistance

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Alumni outcomes

Convocation 2017
Our PhD program has an 89% completion rate over the past 14 years, and alumni go on to a variety of careers in academia, industry and biotech, education, government, and beyond.