Programs & Awards

UFHCC PREDOCTORAL AWARDS

The UF Health Cancer Center Predoctoral Awards are given annually to up to five graduate students who are within 15 months of having passed their Ph.D. qualifying exams. These awards recognize and support outstanding predoctoral candidates conducting innovative research focused on cancer. The 2019 Predoctoral Awardees are:

Bayli DiVita Dean
Biomedical Sciences Program – Immunology & Microbiology

Abdelrahman Elsayed
Clinical Pharmaceutical Sciences Program

Adaixa Padron
Clinical Health Psychology Program

Mai Tanaka
Biomedical Sciences Program – Cancer Biology

Kartika Venugopal
Biomedical Sciences Program – Cancer Biology

UFHCC UNIVERSITY SCHOLARS PROGRAM

The University Scholars Program, a competitive two-semester program for UF undergraduates, provides students with cancer research experience in basic, clinical or population sciences. Scholars complete research projects, present their findings at a research symposium, and publish in a peer-reviewed journal. Current graduate students and postdoctoral trainees serve as student mentors and teach monthly seminars that include laboratory demonstrations and career development lectures. The first cohort completed the program in May 2019, and the second cohort began in September 2019.

ADVANCED CONCENTRATION IN CANCER BIOLOGY

The mission of the Cancer Biology Concentration of the UF College of Medicine’s Graduate Program in Biomedical Sciences, established by Dietmar Siemann, Ph.D., in 2015 and now co-directed with Maria Zajac-Kaye, Ph.D., is to train the next generation of cancer biologists to make significant contributions to basic and translational research in cancer prevention and diagnosis, cancer epidemiology, novel therapy discovery and cancer treatment. It currently boasts 27 UFHCC faculty mentors and 21 students. The first cohort of students have now earned their Ph.D.s and have moved on to new positions.

Mam Mboge, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Scholar
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

Varsha Sundaresan, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Fellow
University of Southern California

Amani Harrandah, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Umm Al-Qura University

Yue Jiang, Ph.D.
Scientist
BeiGene Pharmaceuticals

Vindhya Vijay, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Fellow
Harvard University

Julia Bray, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Fellow
MD Anderson Cancer Center

Rachel Nosacka, Ph.D.
Actively pursuing new position

Cancer policy internship program

Initiated in 2019, the Cancer Policy Internship Program is a four-month internship at the UF Office of Federal Relations in Washington, D.C., provides an immersive experience for UF graduate students to better understand processes associated with health care policy and implementation science. Interns develop a cancer-related project aligned with legislative policies and UF policies.