The 2024 Jefferson College of Life Sciences (JCLS) Class Day celebration was held on Tuesday, May 21st in Jefferson Alumni Hall. Class Day gives JCLS the opportunity to recognize outstanding achievements by students and faculty in advance of Commencement. Historically, the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and the Biochemistry, Structural and Molecular Biology (BSMB) training program have been well represented among Class Day awardees, and 2024 was no exception.

The ceremony began by recognizing outstanding academic achievement by students in JCLS MS programs. The winner from the MS program in Biomedical Sciences was Ida (Joely) Jacobs, who did her thesis work in the laboratory of Qiaoli Li. Frederick Rieders Family Foundation Graduate Student Recognition Awards were given to Dora Obiri-Yeboah, who also did her MS thesis work in the Li laboratory, and to Venkata Aparna Lakshmi Manchikalapudi, who did her MS thesis research in the laboratory of Emad and Teresa Alnemri.

An Alumni Thesis Prize was awarded to Stephano Iglesias from the Cingolani Laboratory for his original and impactful doctoral dissertation. Jordyn Karliner from the laboratory of Diane Merry was recognized with the Yun Yen, MD, PhD and Sophie Yen Thesis Prize for Distinguished Research in Pathobiology for the significance and clinical applicability of her dissertation research.

The evening closed with faculty awards. Diane Merry, PhD was recognized with the Yun Yen, MD, PhD and Sophie Yen Faculty Award for Distinguished Training in Translational Research, and Ya-Ming Hou was recognized with the Professor Frederic Rieders Faculty Prize in Graduate Education.