Exciting News for Our Students

Jasmine Baclig is a Chemistry major, emphasizing in both ACS Certified Professional and ACS Certified Biochemistry. She is also earning a Computer Science minor and a Certificate in Intermediate Spanish.

Jasmine’s career goal is to go on to earn a Ph.D. in Biomolecular Science and explore novel ways nucleic acids can be utilized in drug discovery to provide long-lasting and curative therapy for various diseases.

Sevio Stanton is a triple major: Chemistry with an emphasis in Biochemistry, Biology with an emphasis in Cellular, Molecular, and Biomedical Sciences, and Physics with double emphases in Astrophysics and Biophysics. He’s also earning a minor in Applied Mathematics.

He has conducted research here in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry with Drs. Cornell and McClain, and Drs. Jackson and Fologea in the Department of Physics. This past summer, he worked at MIT in experimental particle physics.

Sevio plans to pursue a Ph.D. in Physics at University of Colorado Boulder, and is committed to improving the accessibility of science education and contributing to a “culture of academia that uplifts and equips all students with the requisite skills to pursue their intellectual interests.”

Jocelyn Stephens is a Chemistry major with an emphasis in Biochemistry. She’s been recognized for her leadership and dedication in both academics and athletics. A captain for the Women’s Soccer team, she’s a two-time Mountain West First Team Defender and has been named Boise State Defensive MVP three times.

She was our winner of the Excellence in Physical Chemistry award in 2023. Researching under Ken Cornell, her work with CAP in combating pathogens earned her the Dr. Ralph Jones Pre-Medical Research Fellowship.

Jocelyn plans to pursue a career in medicine, exploring research while specializing in sports medicine.

Dalton Miller, a graduate student working in the Cornell Lab, will graduate this summer from Boise State with his Master’s of Science in Chemistry. He’ll be going on to the MD/PhD program at University of Texas Southwestern in Dallas, Texas.

For the MD portion of the program, Dalton is considering studying oncology, although he is staying open to the possibility of pursuing other interests after gaining more medical experience. He anticipates studying biomolecular condensates for the PhD portion, specifically using biophysical calculations coupled with machine learning methods to assess mechanisms of formation and dysregulation. His hope is that he’ll be able to study how dysregulation of these condensates in cancer cells can be used to develop novel drugs that would be more cancer-specific that current therapeutics.

Caleb Leach, a graduate student working in the Cornell Lab, will be graduating this summer with his Master’s of Science in chemistry. He’ll be getting married on July 8th, then he and his new wife will be moving in August to Wisconsin.

Caleb has accepted an offer to join the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s PhD program. The Integrated Program in Biochemistry, or IPiB, is the joint graduate training program of the University of Wisconsin–Madison’s Department of Biochemistry and Department of Biomolecular Chemistry. The unique merged program engages in important and broad approaches to science and medicine, tackling problems in biochemistry from multiple angles. UW-Madison research and education in biochemistry ranks 8th in the nation in U.S. News & World Report’s “Best Graduate Schools.”