Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute (SBP) is proud to announce that its Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences has received accreditation by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC). This is an important milestone for the Graduate School, a distinction that assures the public that our school has the resources, policies, and practices in place to achieve its educational goals.
The SBP Graduate Program began in 2006. Today, we have 25 students with a unique opportunity to carry out their studies in an environment of collaborative research, with access to the most-sophisticated minds and technologies in biomedical sciences. The Program gives graduate students fluency in biology, chemistry, bioinformatics, and engineering to integrate research into meaningful applications that will advance medicine. Their education comes at a time when research has never been more intellectually exciting and critically important to society.
The effort was led by Guy Salvesen, PhD, dean of the Graduate School, who has been dedicated to providing the best learning opportunities for SBP students to become the next-generation of pioneers in biomedical research. Dr. Salveson has overseen the recruitment of talented students from around the world—Europe, Asia, Australia and the United States—and engaged our faculty to teach, train and mentor. He has been accountable to WASC during an eight year systematic process of scrutiny that left no stone unturned. At the same time, he has managed his own research laboratory of staff scientists, postdocs, graduate students and interns, exploring the principles of proteolysis in humans.
In addition to Dr. Salveson, Malene Hansen, PhD, associate dean of Student Affairs; Alessandra Sacco, PhD, associate dean of Curriculum; Robert Rickert, PhD, associate dean of Admissions, and Stacey Smith, manager of the Graduate Program, have helped achieve the goal through their passion for education, and creating an environment that supports the highest-quality learning in biomedical research.
Many congratulations to everyone at SBP that works to support the Graduate School, including the faculty, staff, and the students, for creating and fostering a program that is now officially recognized for its excellence.