On August 1, 2024, almost 80 new graduate students began their doctoral studies at Scripps Research’s Skaggs Graduate School of Chemical and Biological Sciences, continuing a steady growth trend since the program’s founding 35 years ago. While the student body today hovers around 400, back in the summer of 1989, it was just five pioneering graduate students who joined as the institute’s inaugural class.
The first of these students to graduate with a Scripps Research doctoral degree was a young scientist named Jairo Arevalo, who had been working in the lab of structural biologist Ian Wilson. Wilson had worked closely with then-president Richard Lerner, founding dean Norton B. Gilula and others to establish a graduate program at Scripps Research, and Wilson enthusiastically agreed to serve as one of its first faculty advisors.
“Not only was Jairo incredibly gifted, he was very collaborative, engaged, kind and generous,” says Wilson. “As the first graduate, he was the epitome of what we had hoped Scripps Research graduate students would be.”
Arevalo earned his PhD in 1993, a milestone for him and the young graduate program, which would finally receive accreditation.
Unlike doctoral programs at universities, the Scripps Research model eschewed disciplinary silos and swept away traditional departmental boundaries, preferring instead to provide its students with deeply interdisciplinary training. As word got out about this unique experiment in research education, more students joined, and the student population swelled.
“It was very different than anything else that existed anyplace else in the country,” recalls Wilson. “We had only two courses, one in molecular and cell biology and one in structural biology. The chemistry programs started a couple of years later, and we were fortunate that we recruited some really great students. These were students that we would not normally have recruited if we had a more conventional program because they were interested in working at the interface of chemistry and biology.
“As the program advanced, we expanded into different disciplines that we didn’t have before. For example, we added neurosciences and immunology, and recently, we’ve done much more in computation and AI.”
The growing diversity of research areas available for students to explore parallels the ever-expanding universe of career opportunities for doctoral degree recipients.
“I think at the beginning of the program, we expected that most of the students would continue with academic careers or go into industry or biotech,” says Wilson. “But now I see students go into different areas, whether they’re going into medical school, becoming lawyers, going into government or getting involved in policy. What’s really important is to pursue your passion and the things that really interest you, and to be able to use the knowledge and skills you’ve acquired to make major contributions in whatever you do. I think one would be surprised at the diversity of opportunities that one can pursue with a degree from Scripps Research.”
Keary Engle named new dean
In July 2024, Scripps Research appointed Professor Keary Engle to the role of Dean of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies. Engle now leads the institute’s Skaggs Graduate School of Chemical and Biological Sciences and other education and training programs after taking the baton from Professor Phil Dawson, who served as dean since 2017.
Engle, like Dawson before him, brings a personal perspective on graduate studies shaped by his experience as an alumnus of the program. Engle completed graduate studies at Scripps Research in 2013 under the mentorship of Professor Jin-Quan Yu. During this time, he was a participant in the institute’s joint Skaggs-Oxford program. After earning a PhD in Chemistry from Scripps Research and a DPhil in Biochemistry from Oxford, Engle completed an NIH Postdoctoral Fellowship at Caltech.
“I feel privileged for the opportunity to lead a graduate program that has had such an impact on my career and that of hundreds of scientists around the world,” says Engle, whose research interests lie at the interface of organometallic chemistry, organic synthesis and catalysis. “The Skaggs Graduate School continues to generate interdisciplinary researchers who impact the future with their advanced training, creativity, and bold, innovative ideas, and I look forward to carrying that forward and building on the stellar achievements of Dean Dawson.”
Summer interns bring energy to campus
Scripps Research labs were abuzz with interns this past summer. The Office of Graduate Studies and Scripps Research Translational Institute (SRTI) placed more than 50 undergraduate and high school interns in labs from June through August, in addition to several SRTI graduate and medical school interns.
While high school interns were from schools throughout the San Diego area, undergraduate interns hailed from universities near and far, ranging from CSU San Marcos, San Diego State University and UC San Diego to Duke, Cornell and Yale. Regardless of their assignments, all interns participated in a symposium in August. Held annually in the Hazen Courtyard outside the Graduate Office, the event is an opportunity for interns to showcase their hard work at an afternoon poster session—with posters they designed—while practicing their science communication skills and networking with Scripps Research faculty members, postdocs, graduate students and fellow interns.
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