Author: C. Rose Kennedy

A warm welcome to incoming PhD student, Ryan Pohorenec, who is joining the Kennedy Lab for the PhD portion of his MD/PhD studies.

Congratulations to PhD student Manana Tsiskarishvili, whose collaborative work with the Lutz group at St. Lawrence University has now been published. Read the paper at: https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.joc.6c00848

Welcome to Jodie Challis, currently a student at Monroe Community College, who is spending the summer with the Kennedy Lab with support from the NSF (CHE-2339235).

Congratulations to PhD student Manana Tsiskarishvili for securing an internship at Septerna – wishing her an amazing summer exploring the pharmaceutical industry in San Francisco!

A big round of congratulations to Kennedy Lab undergraduates:

• Recent graduate, Matthew Gleason (BS, 2026), who will be starting in the University of Chicago Chemistry PhD program this fall
• 👨‍🔬Rising senior, Zachary Paine, who earned a highly competitive research internship at Vividion Therapeutics this summer
• 👩‍🔬Rising senior, Annapurna Chakraborty, who will be off to Germany for a summer internship through the DAAD RISE program.
• 👩‍🔬Rising junior, Sophie Anderson, who earned a Schwartz Discover Grant from the University of Rochester Office for Undergraduate Research to pursue full-time research in the Kennedy Lab this summer.

A huge congratulations to Abraham Ellenbogen, who successfully defended his MS thesis as part of the integrated BS/MS program! Abe will be headed off to medical school at Emory University in the fall. We’ll miss you, Abe!

Congratulations to junior undergraduate Zachary Paine for receiving the Goldwater Scholarship! We are incredibly proud of you and the accomplishments this fellowship highlights. Read more at https://www.rochester.edu/college/studentfellowships/news-events/goldwater.html

We are excited to welcome to first-year graduate students Jessica Navarro Vega, Abhishek Singh, and Robert Suber as official Kennedy Lab members!

Congratulations to PhD student Hailemariam Mitiku for securing an internship at the Fraunhofer Insitute for Environmental, Safety and Energy Technology though the highly competitive DAAD RISE Professional program! Enjoy the next 3 months in Germany!

A huge congratulations to Dr. Medina Afandiyeva, who successfully defended her dissertation, becoming Kennedy Lab PhD #2! Medina will be starting her independent career at Eli Lilly in Indianapolis!