Scripps Research Recruiting Graduate Students in North Carolina

The Scripps Research Institute's Graduate Program, recently renamed the Skaggs Graduate School of Chemical and Biological Sciences, provides rigorous, interdisciplinary training in chemistry, chemical biology, biology, neurosciences, immunology, cell biology, chemical physiology, and biophysics. Students on both the institute's Jupiter, Florida campus and La Jolla, California campus have access to the full curriculum and entire faculty affiliated with the program regardless of the faculty member’s department or location. This approach allows students to be broadly trained and emphasizes the creation of basic knowledge in the biosciences.

Launched in 1989, Scripps Research’s Graduate Program is ranked among the top graduate schools in the country according to U.S. News & World Report. The publication now ranks our Graduate Program sixth overall in chemistry, fifth in the specialty of organic chemistry and second in the specialty of biochemistry. The program is also rated tenth overall in the biological sciences. Scripps Research can now boast more than 600 accomplished graduate alumni, who work in both academia and industry. 

Application deadline: 01 December 2019

Important Links

• Graduate Program Admissions
• Summer Undergraduate Research Opportunities
• Research Departments at Scripps
• Disease Areas our Scientists (and Students!) Study

Scripps Research hosts several dozen undergraduate students each summer as part of our Summer Undergraduate Research Fellows (SURF) program and two NSF-funded Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) programs. Students apply to the programs with a single application, where they can also choose to apply to either the La Jolla campus in California or the Jupiter campus in Florida.

Scripps Research's summer undergraduate research program is a 10-week experience that provides college students the opportunity to perform advanced biomedical research in one of the institute’s 250 laboratories, working side-by-side with faculty members and postdoctoral scientists, as well as doctoral students pursuing their degree in Scripps Research's top-rated graduate program. More than just an internship, Scripps Research's undergraduate program offers students a chance to work as a contributing member of a research laboratory and develop an understanding of how to make that future a reality for themselves.

Of particular benefit to students is the highly interdisciplinary nature of Scripps Research's laboratory environment, in which faculty members conduct cutting-edge research at the interface of biology and chemistry. This close collaboration between chemists and biologists accelerates innovation and discovery, while providing undergraduates with an invaluable training experience. Interdisciplinary training is the key to success in the workplace of the future, particularly in the Science, Technology, Engineering and Math fields (STEM).

About the Program

In addition to receiving mentored scientific training in the laboratory, Scripps Research's SURF/REU participants attend scientific seminars presented by faculty members, experience professional development in a classroom setting and receive specialized training in scientific presentation. Related program components include workshops presented by faculty and doctoral students on topics ranging from graduate school preparation to professional ethics in science.

The program also affords students an opportunity to present the culmination of their hard work at the end of the summer. Participants in California give research presentations open to the entire campus, while in Florida, students distill their research results into scientific posters, which they present at a two-hour competitive poster session. Both events are campus-wide celebrations of the students’ accomplishments while also serving a critical educational function: developing students’ abilities to effectively communicate their research.

Social activities arranged for SURF/REU participants provide opportunities, not only for building community, but for interaction with Scripps Research faculty and graduate students in a fun and relaxing environment. For example, students on the California campus took to the waves with surfing lessons, while on the Florida campus, SURF students join several faculty members to tour the nearby Loggerhead Marinelife Center, a conservation center and hospital for endangered sea turtles, and even observed turtles coming ashore at night to build nests and lay eggs.

Transportation to the campus and housing at nearby universities are provided for participants on both Scripps Research campuses and participants receive a stipend of $5000 to help cover basic expenses.

Eligibility and How to Apply 

Acceptance into Scripps Research's SURF/REU Program is awarded on a competitive basis to college students who are United States citizens or permanent residents, or international students who are enrolled in a US college, with a minimum grade point average of 3.2. International students studying abroad are not eligible. A special emphasis is placed on identifying and recruiting students who are historically underrepresented in the sciences (i.e., African-American, Hispanic, Native Pacific Islander, or Native American students or first-generation college students).

Applications can be submitted online and are due by February 15 each year. For more information and to submit an application, please visit https://education.scripps.edu/undergraduate/summer-research/.

Meet a few of the many Scripps Research faculty, graduate students and alumni with roots in North Carolina.

Kristen Baldwin, Ph.D.

Professor, Department of Neuroscience, Scripps Research (California campus)

Research Focus: The Baldwin lab is currently focused on multiple lines of investigation including: Advancing Stem Cell Technology to Study Genomes and the Brain; Generating Mice from iPS Cells; Control of genome stability during reprogramming and in iPSCs; Generating Cell Lines from Neurons; Modeling Neurological Disease Using Reprogramming; and Generating Neuronal Diversity and Connectivity in the Olfactory System.

Alumna, Duke University, 1991 (B.S. in Zoology and B.A. in Economics)

Jeffery Kelly, Ph.D.

Lita Annenberg Hazen Professor of Chemistry and Co-chair of the Department of Chemistry, Scripps Research (California campus)

Research Focus: A central focus of the Kelly lab's research is to understand the principles of protein folding and to comprehend the basis for misfolding and/or aggregation diseases such that we can develop novel therapeutic strategies using chemistry, biophysical and biological approaches.

Alumnus, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1986 (Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry)

Elizabeth Getzoff, Ph.D.

Professor, Department of Integrative Structural and Computational Biology, Scripps Research (California campus)

Research Focus: The Getzoff lab is studies functionally important protein conformational changes pertinent to protein recognition, interaction and catalysis to provide a detailed understanding of how proteins work. Major research areas include protein photosensing, enzymatic control of reactive oxygen species, the coupling of metal-site chemistry and electron transfer for catalysis, and metalloprotein design. They use multi-wavelength anomalous diffraction; time resolved Laue crystallography; ultra high-resolution protein crystallography; free trapping; femtosecond and nanosecond laser initiation; rapid single-crystal spectroscopy computational and computer graphics analysis; and protein design cycles to test and integrate results from x-ray crystallography, molecular biology, biochemistry, and spectroscopy..

Alumna, Duke University, 1976 and 1982 (B.S. in Chemistry and Ph.D. in Biochemistry)

Darina Spasova, Ph.D.

Graduate Alumna, Scripps Research class of 2017, laboratory of Professor Charles D. Surh.

Thesis Title:  Factors That Control Memory T Cell Generation

Alumna, Davidson College, 2010 (B.S. in Biology)

Currently: Spasova is a Infectious Disease Vaccines Lead at Synthetic Genomics in La Jolla, CA, where she oversees the company's infectious disease vaccine efforts.

J. Christopher Anderson, Ph.D.

Graduate Alumnus, Scripps Research class of 2003, laboratory of Professor Peter Schultz.

Thesis Title: Pathway Engineering of the Expanding Genetic Code

Alumnus, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1998 (B.S. in General Chemistry)

Currently: Anderson is an Associate Professor of Bioengineering at the University of California, Berkeley. The Anderson lab develops new applications and tools for the Synthetic Biology community.

Megan Trevathan, Ph.D.

Graduate Alumna, Scripps Research class of 2004, laboratory of Professor James R. Williamson

Thesis Title: The Assembly Landscape of the 30S Ribosomal Subunit Monitored with Mass Spectrometry

Alumna, Duke University, 1997 (B.S. in Chemistry)

Currently: Trevathan is a Senior Science Writer at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard. 

Paresma Patel, Ph.D.

Graduate Alumna, Scripps Reseach class of 2010, laboratory of Professor Dale Boger

Thesis Title: Intramolecular cycloaddition Reactions of Cyclopropenone Ketals

Alumna, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2003 (B.S. in Chemistry)

Currently: Patel is a chemistry reviewer at the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA). In this capacity, she works as a member of a multidisciplinary team evaluating drug applications submitted to the FDA for clinical trials and marketing.

Thomas Darlington, Ph.D.

Graduate Alumnus, Scripps Reseach class of 2000, laboratories of Professors James Whitton and Steve Kay

Thesis Title: Glow-in-the-Dark Flies and Feedback Loops: Understanding the Molecular Mechanism of the Circadian Clock on Drosophila

Alumnus, Duke University, 1994 (B.S. in Chemistry and Economics)

Currently: Darlington is Vice President of Operations and Chief Scientist at nanoComposix.