April 15, 2009
Bowling
Green, Ky. - Western Kentucky University biology student Joseph Chavarria-Smith has accepted an 
offer to join the doctoral program at the University of California-Berkeley and has received a graduate fellowship award from the National Science Foundation.
Chavarria-Smith, a senior from Belton, will graduate next month with a major in recombinant gene technology and a minor in chemistry. This fall he will start a doctoral program in UC-Berkeley’s Department of Molecular and Cell Biology.
At WKU, he has been conducting research with Dr. Nancy Rice on the gene expression of a metabolic enzyme called Phosphorylase Kinase (PhK) in humans and in mice. “The role of this enzyme in the human body is to break down stored carbohydrates in the form of glycogen in the liver and muscle,” he said. “Studying this is important because there are people who have PhK deficiencies which results in a disease called Glycogen Storage Disease type IX.”
Chavarria-Smith, who received a prestigious Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship in 2007, also had been accepted into doctoral programs at Stanford, UC-San Francisco and Colorado.
“At the end I have chosen UC-Berkeley not only because it is ranked second in biological sciences and fifth in molecular biology according to U.S. News rankings, but because it is friendly, collaborative and has a high energy environment,” said Chavarria-Smith, a native of Costa Rica who attended high school in Bowling Green.
UC-Berkeley has awarded him a Chancellors Fellowship for Graduate Study that includes financial support as well as insurance benefits. Chavarria-Smith also has received a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship that includes a stipend and tuition support.
“Altogether I am getting five years of guaranteed funding. This gives me a lot of freedom to choose a research adviser,” he said. “The program is set up so that I get to do three research lab rotations during the first year. After the first year I choose which lab I want to begin doing research for my dissertation project.”
Chavarria-Smith said his success wouldn’t have been possible without the education, encouragement and experience he gained at WKU. “I am very grateful for all the support all of the faculty in the Biology Department and the Office of Scholar Development at WKU have provided, especially Dr. Rice for being my mentor for almost four years now. This would not have been possible without her.”
Dr. Rice said she will miss Chavarria-Smith in the research lab, but “I have every confidence that he will be successful in all his future pursuits as a result of the strong foundation he has received at WKU.”
“Joe's success has come from hard-work, intrinsic ability and taking advantage of every opportunity WKU has provided for him. I am so proud of him,” she said. “Winning a highly competitive pre-doctoral award from NSF is a fabulous testament to his ability and potential. I think that it is likely a first for WKU as well.”
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For information, contact Biology Department at (270) 745-3696.
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