Ph.D. candidate in Pharmaceutical Sciences Youwen Zhang has been recognized as a 2022 Breakthrough Graduate Scholar by the University of South Carolina Office of the Vice President for Research, honoring outstanding researchers and scholars.
Zhang, who is also a prior recipient of a SPARC grant, studies under the guidance of Hippokratis Kiaris, Ph.D., in the Drug Discovery and Biomedical Sciences department. His research is focused on exploring how genetic diversity in deer mice integrates with feeding preference and development of metabolic pathologies.
In his nomination of Zhang for the award, Kiaris acknowledged Zhang as an outstanding young scientist who has already authored more than ten publications and has a manuscript under review as a corresponding author.
Youwen is extremely innovative while navigating across and along different scientific disciplines.
Hippokratis Kiaris, Ph.D. Professor, Drug Discovery & Biomedical Sciences
“Youwen is extremely innovative while navigating across and along different scientific disciplines. I am sure that he will achieve great things in the future, and he will make his mentors, including myself, proud for his accomplishments,” says Kiaris.
“I am so grateful that the pharmaceutical sciences graduate program provides me with a collaborative and supportive learning environment. We work together and learn from each other in this program,” Zhang says.” We have many academic exchange activities which help broaden my mind and give me new ideas.”
Zhang will defend his dissertation this spring. After graduation, he has been offered a post-doctoral position with Massachusetts General Hospital, investigating the role of the membrane-cytoskeleton interface in receptor tyrosine kinase signaling, tissue morphogenesis and tumorigenesis.
Topics: Graduate Programs, Research