Investigator Appointed to Lead the UC Berkeley-UCSF Graduate Program in Bioengineering

Gladstone Senior Investigator Todd McDevitt, PhD, was recently appointed to two new positions within the joint Graduate Program in Bioengineering (BioE) from UC Berkeley (Berkeley) and UC San Francisco (UCSF). He was selected as the new program director and elected to co-chair the executive committee.

As program director, McDevitt is now the faculty lead for all matters related to the graduate program. He is responsible for a variety of duties, such as overseeing the curriculum, writing annual fellowship nomination letters, determining student funding packages, and representing the BioE program at Graduate Division program directors’ meetings.

“Since the beginning of my career as a faculty member, I’ve been passionate about advancing graduate education, so I’m very pleased to have this opportunity to mentor up-and-coming researchers,” said McDevitt, who is also a professor in the Department of Bioengineering and Therapeutic Sciences at UCSF. “I’m grateful for the confidence of the UCSF and Berkeley faculty to elect me to these positions, and I look forward to contributing to the ongoing success of this leading international graduate program.”

In addition, McDevitt will join John Dueber from Berkeley to lead the 2017–2018 executive committee, which consists of faculty, staff, and student representatives. The committee is responsible for overseeing a group of over 120 active faculty members and 165 students from the graduate program, on both the UCSF and Berkeley campuses.

“The committee ensures a diversity of voices to train the next generation of leaders in bioengineering by drawing on the complementary research strengths offered by the two campuses,” said Dueber, current chair of the committee and associate professor in the Department of Bioengineering at Berkeley. “In addition to his highly-recognized research achievements, Todd brings a thoughtful and experienced perspective to the committee, and a sincere desire to advance graduate student education.”

After serving a 2-year term as co-chair, McDevitt will rotate to the role of committee chair for an additional 2 years.

“I am thrilled to have Todd bring his experience and passion for graduate education to the executive committee of our unique multicampus graduate program,” added Tejal Desai, ex-officio member of the executive committee and chair of the UCSF Department of Bioengineering and Therapeutic Sciences. 

The executive committee’s main responsibilities include fostering the development of the graduate program in bioengineering, reviewing faculty membership, nominating graduate advisors on each campus to oversee the programs of individual students, appointing the admissions committee, and representing the program in official matters, both within and outside the university.

The BioE joint program is a unique intercampus, interdisciplinary graduate program that combines the strength of the biomedical sciences and engineering at UCSF with the outstanding engineering, physical, and life sciences research at Berkeley.