India Education & Career

Six new graduate students have chosen the Scripps Florida campus as the place to pursue their doctoral degrees.

“Like last year, the level of excellence and accomplishment for these students is exceptional,” said William R. Roush, Jupiter-based associate dean of the Kellogg School of Science and Technology, which operates graduate programs on both Scripps Research Institute campuses; Roush is also executive director of the Translational Research Institute Medical Chemistry Division, and professor in the Department of Chemistry at The Scripps Research Institute. “We continue to work very hard to recruit top-notch candidates and that’s what we’ve got. They are all first-rate and will make terrific scientists by the time they graduate.”

Of the six new students (who include three transferring to Scripps Florida with their advisors), two have strong Florida connections. One received an undergraduate degree from the University of Central Florida; a second attended public school in Wellington, Florida, before receiving an undergraduate degree from Vanderbilt University in Nashville (Tennessee). Of the 24 students currently enrolled in the Scripps Florida graduate program, about a quarter have some connection to Florida.

The Scripps Florida graduate program is part of the Scripps Research Kellogg School of Science and Technology, which currently has about 250 students on both the La Jolla, California and Jupiter, Florida campuses. The quality of the Scripps Research graduate program has been widely recognized by independent sources. For one, U.S. News & World Report has ranked Scripps Research program among the top ten in the country in its fields, specifically seventh in the biological sciences and sixth in chemistry.

So far, four students have completed their Ph.D. degrees at Scripps Florida.

In addition to the graduate program, Scripps Florida and neighboring Florida Atlantic University (FAU) have a Joint Education agreement to promote education and research between the two institutions in areas involving biomedical science and related fields, including collaborations in postdoctoral training, undergraduate education, internships, and community outreach activities. From July 1, 2008 to June 30, 2009, 15 FAU undergraduates performed research at Scripps Florida as interns.