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19 February 2025
Meet the Faculty: Randal Halfmann, Ph.D., on the 'freedom to explore’ your curiosity
Stowers Associate Investigator Randal Halfmann, Ph.D., puts it simply: “Stowers offers an opportunity unlike any other program.”
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Meet the Faculty: SaraH Zanders, Ph.D., explains why now is an exciting time to pursue a Ph.D. in Biology
The Stowers Institute’s inherent collaborative nature, combined with access to cutting-edge technologies and mentorship from Stowers Technology Center experts, allows students to approach biological questions from multiple angles.
Stowers Associate Investigator and Vice Dean of the Graduate School SaraH Zanders, Ph.D., is emphatic about what makes the Stowers Graduate School a premier place to earn a doctoral degree. The Stowers Institute’s inherent collaborative nature, combined with access to cutting-edge technologies and mentorship from Stowers Technology Center experts, allows students to approach biological questions from multiple angles.
Zanders highlights the rapid expansion of technology and data collection as a defining feature of modern graduate research, making this an exciting time to pursue a Ph.D. in biology—particularly at the Stowers Graduate School.
“Predocs can ask and answer far more questions than I ever dreamed of being able to do when I was a graduate student,” said Zanders. “Rather than chisel away at a question using one approach, students here have a broad range of methods, along with expert training and guidance, available to them.”
One notable success story is María Angélica Bravo Núñez, Ph.D., one of Zanders’ first graduate students at the Institute. After earning her Ph.D. from the Graduate School and completing a postdoctoral fellowship, she is now a faculty member at Cornell University. Witnessing and fostering a scientist’s maturation, from the time they enter the program to their thesis defense and beyond, is extremely rewarding for Zanders.
“I really get to see their growth—from reading their applications, seeing their interviews, and watching them defend their thesis—and now get to see them again as independent faculty at scientific meetings,” said Zanders. “That is one of the most satisfying parts of my job.”
Zanders’ research focuses on sexual reproduction and the causes of infertility using yeast species. She studies “selfish genes” that “cheat” during reproductive cell division to bias their own transmission to the next generation. Learn more about the Zanders Lab here.
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08 July 2024
Celebrating a milestone for the 2023 class of the Stowers Graduate School
The 2023 class of predoctoral researchers were honored in an inaugural Lab Coat Ceremony after choosing their thesis labs
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04 June 2024
The 2024 class of Stowers Summer Scholars
Nineteen talented students, selected from universities around the world, are spending the summer immersed in groundbreaking research within Principal Investigator labs and Technology Centers at the Stowers Institute.
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