Where Our Students Go

Our Biology Ph.D.s go on to have successful careers in and out of academia. Below is a sampling of our doctoral alumni from the past 10 years and their current positions:

The Graduate School also compiles career outcome statistics for our Ph.D. alumni.

Bryan Piatkowski, Ph.D. (2021), Liane Russell Distinguished Staff Fellow, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, TN - USA

Cullen Roth, Ph.D. (2020), Research Scientist, Duke, NC - USA

Daniel Keeley, Ph.D. (2019), Research Associate, UNC Neuroscience Center, NC - USA

Jonathan Motley, Ph.D. (2019), Technology Transfer Fellow , National Cancer Institute, MD - USA

Cari Ficken, Ph.D. (2018), Research Assistant Professor of Geology, University at Buffalo, NY - USA

Joanna Blaszczak, Ph.D. (2018), Assistant Professor, University of Nevada, Reno, NV - USA

Colleen Drapek, Ph.D. (2018), Research Associate, University of Cambridge - England

Eleanor Caves, Ph.D. (2018), Assistant Professor, University of California - Santa Barbara - CA, USA

Katherine Toll, Ph.D. (2018), Research Associate, Michigan State University - MI, USA

Patrick Green, Ph.D. (2018), Research Associate, University of California - Santa Barbara - CA, USA

Richard Mortensen, Ph.D. (2018), Adjunct Instructor, Utah Valley University - UT, USA

Erin McKenney, Ph.D. (2017), Assistant Professor, North Carolina State University - NC, USA

Jessica Nelson, Ph.D. (2017), Lecturer, Maastricht University - Netherlands

Mercy Y Akinyi, Ph.D. (2017), Research Scientist, Institute of Primate Research - Kenya

Ning Sui, Ph.D. (2016), Assistant professor, University of Central Florida - FL, USA

Alejandro G Pietrek, Ph.D. (2015), Research Associate, Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Cientifícas y Técnicas - Argentina

David S Steinberg, Ph.D. (2015), Lecturer, University of New Hampshire - NC, USA

Fay-Wei Li, Ph.D. (2015), Assistant Professor, Boyce Thompson Research Institute - NY, USA

Liana Burghardt, Ph.D. (2015), Assistant Professor, Pennsylvania State University - MN, USA

Michael Rosario, Ph.D. (2015), Assistant Professor, Westchester University of Pennsylvania - PA, USA

Qingyun Li, Ph.D. (2015), Assistant Professor, Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis - CA, USA

Amanda L Grusz, Ph.D. (2014), Assistant Professor, University of Minnesota - Duluth - MN, USA

David Rasmussen, Ph.D. (2014), Assistant Professor, NC State - NC, USA

Erin Sigel, Ph.D. (2014), Assistant Professor, University of Louisiana - Lafayette - LA, USA

Gwendolyn C. Williams, Ph.D. (2014), Visiting Assistant Professor, Bucknell University - PA, USA

José Eduardo Meireles, Ph.D. (2014), Assistant Professor, University of Maine - MN, USA

Kathleen Gray Ferris, Ph.D. (2014), Assistant Professor, Tulane University - LA, USA

Alexander Gunderson, Ph.D. (2013), Assistant Professor, Tulane University - CA, USA

Carrie F. Olson-Manning, Ph.D. (2013), Assistant Professor, Augustana University - SD, USA

Charles George Willis, Ph.D. (2013), Teaching Assistant Professor, University of Minnesota - Twin Cities - MN, USA

Cheng-Ruei Lee, Ph.D. (2013), Assistant Professor, National Taiwan University, Taiwan

Cynthia A Tedore, Ph.D. (2013), Research Associate, University of Hamburg, Germany

Matthew G Johnson, Ph.D. (2013), Assistant Professor, Texas Tech University - TX, USA

Carl Rothfels, Ph.D. (2012), Assistant Professor and Herbarium curator, University of California - Berkeley - CA, USA

Courtney Lyn Fitzpatrick, Ph.D. (2012), Research Associate, Indiana University - IN, USA

Daniel Runcie, Ph.D. (2012), Assistant Professor, University of California - Davis - CA, USA

David McCandlish, Ph.D. (2012), Assistant Professor, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory - NY, USA

Ginger Hunter, Ph.D. (2012), Assistant Professor, Clarkson University - NY, USA

Lisa Pang, Ph.D. (2012), Biology Instructor, Evergreen Valley College - CA, USA

Mark Chee, Ph.D. (2012), Assistant Professor, Martin Methodist College - TN, USA

Wei Wang, Ph.D. (2012), Assistant Professor, Iowa State University - IA, USA

Carl F. Salk, Ph.D. (2011), Assistant Professor, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences - Sweden

Dylan Burge, Ph.D. (2011), Postdoctoral Researcher, University of British Columbia - Canada

Hannah Reynolds, Ph.D. (2011), Assistant Professor, Western Connecticut State University - CT, USA

Laurie S. Stevison, Ph.D. (2011), Assistant Professor, Auburn University - AL, USA

Tami R McDonald, Ph.D. (2011), Associate Professor, St. Catherine University - MN, USA

Niba Nirmal, M.Sc. (2020), Multimedia Science Communicator

Nadeesha Perera, Ph.D. (2020), Instructor of Biology, Duke, NC - USA

Amanda Cox, Ph.D. (2019), Associate Medical Writer, Ashfield, part of UDG Healthcare plc, PA - USA

George Greene, Ph.D. (2020), Chief Scientific Officer,  Upstream Biotechnology Inc, NC - USA

Ariana Eily, Ph.D. (2019), Instructor of Biology, North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics, NC - USA

Rebecca Dalton, Ph.D. (2019), Ecologist, Environmental Protection Agency, NC - USA

Lindsay Leverett, Ph.D. (2018), Academic Editor, Research Square Company, NC - USA

Allie Castillo, M.Sc. (2018), 8th and 9th grade Biology teacher, Excelsior Classical academy, NC - USA

Sasha Makohon-Moore, Ph.D. (2018), Bioinformatics Analyst, The Henry M. Jackson Foundation for the Advancement of Military Medicine, DC - USA

Qinglong Zeng, Ph.D. (2018), Machine Learning Engineer, Pinterest, CA - USA

Ashley Troth, Ph.D. (2018), Extension Agent Agriculture - Consumer and Commercial Ornamental Horticulture, N.C. Cooperative Extension - NC, USA

Qinglong Zeng, Ph.D. (2018), Software Engineer, Pinterest - California, USA

Yuantong Ding, Ph.D. (2018), Computational Biologist, BGI Genomics, China

Ashley Elizabeth Sobel, Ph.D. (2016), Medical Resident, Seattle Children's Hospital - WA, USA

Colin Maxwell, Ph.D. (2016), Scientist II, Zymergen - CA, USA

Sheena L Faherty, Ph.D. (2016), Science Writer/Editor, National Institutes of Health - DC, USA

Yuanjie Jin, Ph.D. (2015), Software Engineer, Google - NY, USA

Inderpreet Singh Jalli, Ph.D. (2014), Senior Load Forecast Analyst, NRG Energy - TX, USA

Irene Liu, Ph.D. (2014), Story Researcher/Associate Producer, Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology - MD, USA

Paul Alexander Pinette Durst, Ph.D. (2014), Assistant Director, STEM Education at the Council on Science and Technology, Princeton University - NC, USA

Xiaoyu Zheng, Ph.D. (2014), Bioinformatics Engineer Advisor, General Dynamics Information Technology - GA, USA

Yutao Chen, Ph.D. (2014), Medical Advisor, Sanofi, China

Cristina Pokorny Montero, Ph.D. (2012), Bioinformatician, Centre for Plant Biotechnology and Genomic, Spain

Jennifer Modliszewski, Ph.D. (2012), Bioinformatician, Duke University - NC, USA

Lindsay R Saunders, Ph.D. (2012), Lab Administrator, Duke University - NC, USA

Andrea Stewart, Ph.D. (2011), Physical Therapist, Duke Health - NC, USA

Brendan P Hodkinson, Ph.D. (2011), Senior Scientist, The Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson - PA, USA

David Garfield, Ph.D. (2011), Junior Group Leader, Humboldt University of Berlin, Germany

Ho Kyung Rho, Ph.D. (2011), Student, Law School, South Korea

Joshua Ziel, Ph.D. (2011), Executive Vice-President, Cadent Medical Communications - NY, USA

Viviane Callier, Ph.D. (2011), Science Writer, Freelancer - DC, USA