End of the Decade
Vanderbilt MSTP students and leadership share what they’ve accomplished in the last decade!
Ayaka Sugiura (G4): “10 years ago, I had my first lab internship and graduated high school. Now, I’m a 6th year MD-PhD student and just welcomed my baby boy into this world with my wonderful partner.”
Ambra Pozzi, PhD (MSTP Associate Director): “In the past ten years I have been promoted to full professor and I have had the honor to be the Associate Director of our favorite MSTP for the past 4 years. In 2013 I started running as an anti-stress antidote and since then I have run 4 marathons (2 of them under 4 hours) and 10 half marathons (all of them under 2 hours) and I want to keep the ‘under 2 hours’ tradition going for the next decade.”
Ravi Atreya, PhD (M3): “I was a part of the M2 class in 2010, and I am a part of the M2 class in 2020 (a curriculum change, PhD, and startup later)”
Chris Williams, MD, PhD (MSTP Director): “1) Director of Harrison Society to Director of MSTP (learned a ton… and still learning more!) 2) Assistant to Associate to full Professor and Associate Dean, 3) Trained or training 7 graduate students, 4) Probably performed several thousand colonoscopies, 5) 2 kids in college (sort of) and 1 done with 2 more to go!”
Abin Abraham (G3): “The end of a decade marks one of my most fulfilling one so far. Notably, I moved across four cities (Chicago, Ann Arbor, Atlanta, and Nashville), finished a research fellowship, and started my training as a physician-scientist. The biggest and best surprise of this decade was the camaraderie of my colleagues and the friendships I have made from my those in my MSTP class. They are all truly inspiring individuals and spectacular future physician-scientists.”
Rachel Brown (G3):“Graduated high school; went to the University of Maryland, College Park; spent a lot of nights monitoring bacterial cultures in lab; graduated college, moved to Nashville and matriculated into the Vanderbilt MSTP over the course of 2 weeks; met the love of my life; adopted 2 guinea pigs and 2 cats; got my first NIH grant; celebrated when my experiments worked; cried when my experiments failed; met a bunch of brilliant, talented people; wrote 4,500 postcards to voters; lived with my sister and fiance and our total 6 pets in one house for a year; rescued 12 feral cats; lost a cat in the HVAC system; got a cat out of the HVAC system; got engaged and started wedding planning!”