Discover Rackham
Alumni Spotlight: Esther Chae
“U-M was my first love and first grad school experience,” Esther says when sharing her journey from an undergraduate student in Seoul, Korea to the vastly different world she found in the Midwest. She describes, “I consider myself a quasi-overseas citizen. I was U.S....
Student Spotlight: Shweta Ramdas
Shweta is from India and completed her undergraduate degree in nearby Singapore. “It was close to home and a great school for science. I knew I wanted to go to grad school and study genetics, and I was reading papers from researchers at Michigan. It made sense to come...
Student Spotlight: Colin Zarzycki
Colin has been interested in hurricanes and cyclones since he was a kid. When it came time for graduate school, he knew he wanted to study weather and cyclones. While his department represents only one third of the Atmospheric, Oceanic and Space Sciences program, this...
Student Spotlight: Jacki Antonovich
As we walk through the building to find a quiet place to talk, Jackie reminisces about time spent in Rackham as a part of the Summer Institute before officially beginning her graduate studies. “I spent a lot of time on the fourth floor that summer. This building is so...
Meet Our Bloggers: Elina Salminen
The Parthenon. Greetings from Athens! As the picture has hopefully clued you in, I am in Athens, Greece – not Georgia. How did I end up from Ann Arbor to Athens? In a way, it is a return home; in other ways, an adventure. I was born in Finland, somewhere in the center...
A Guide to Moving Cross Country
Moving cross country is a very singular experience. Typically there are two paths that one can take. They can choose to pack up everything they have and find a way to get it to their new destination. Generally this plan takes a good amount of money for moving trucks...
Collaborating Toward Research Goals with HHMI Support
Looking back at my time before graduate school at University of Michigan, no one would believe that I am now this far in my academic career and fully involved in chemistry research. In 2011, I was diagnosed with an eye tumor in my left eye socket right before my first...
Student Spotlight: Sherri Cook
Sherri’s dissertation examines the fields of waste management and water management, using environmental biotechnology models to answer important questions. Specifically, one aspect of her research focuses on how to best dispose of unused pharmaceuticals, examining the...
Student Spotlight: Yilan Zhang
“U.S. bridges were designed to serve for 50 years. Most of them were built 50-60 years ago.” Uh oh. Since many of the bridges are passing their useable service time, Yilan’s research on how we can effectively monitor the structural health of bridges is particularly...
Meet Our Bloggers: Douglas Brunton
I am a Caribbean. I have always been the ‘Other’ a different point of view, not a differing one. This is not an assumed role but rather, one inherited. Being multiracial in a multiracial society one does not ‘fit’. If one is the multiracial offspring of multiracial...