2019-2020 Graduation

Congratulations Masters and PhD Program Graduates!

The Department of Molecular, Cellular & Developmental Biology at the University of California Santa Barbara celebrates our 2019-2020 Masters and PhD Program Graduates!

Although the Graduate Division ceremony has been canceled, we look forward to celebrating in person with these accomplished scientists in the future. Congratulations and best wishes to all.

A Message from the Graduate Dean - June 17, 2020

Dear UC Santa Barbara Graduate Degree Filers,

It is now our traditional mid-June commencement weekend, and I am saddened to be sitting in my home, rather than meeting you on the stage, where I could congratulate you in person, acknowledge all that you have accomplished, and symbolically confer upon you the degree which you have so richly earned. You are warmly invited back to Santa Barbara to celebrate with us when we can safely come together in person. I hope you will take part. In the meantime, I write to congratulate you, to thank you for your many contributions to the campus community, and to wish you great success in all you put your hands, heart, and mind to in the future.

It has been such a difficult year. Moments like this – global peril, dizzying socioeconomic change, a national moment confronting our deepest faults – underscore the need for an educated populace and especially for skilled researchers, teachers, and leaders shaped by graduate education. When I think about this year’s class, I know that our programs have produced graduates who can evaluate data, understand complexity and nuance, apply knowledge and theory to create solutions, and communicate with a wide range of stakeholders. Graduates who will teach others to think and reason, analyze and discern. Graduates who will write and advocate, work in partnership with communities, and advance social justice. Because of you, I have hope for the future. I know you have finished your degree at a remarkably inopportune moment, but I also know that you have already demonstrated determination and persistence, and that in the end you will be successful. This too shall pass, and your intelligence, education, and skillsets will be needed to take us forward to a better place.

You may have heard that this is my last year as Graduate Dean at UC Santa Barbara. This position has been a tremendous pleasure, but the greatest joy has been the ability to get to know students from across the academic spectrum. You and your cohort are have inspired me and have given me faith. With you in the lead, the world will brighten again.

Congratulations! Thank you for all you have done and will do. I look forward to hearing of your successes long into the future.

Yours truly, Carol Genetti
Anne and Michael Towbes Graduate Dean
(Soon to be Professor and Dean Emerita)