Meet Ren Dodge, our newest intern

Recipient of ‘Strong Workforce’ grant

The Department of Bioengineering and Therapeutic Sciences welcomes Ren Dodge as an intern in the Desai Lab.

Dodge was awarded the Strong Workforce Fellowship through the Biotechnology Program at Berkeley City College (BCC). “This is a very special opportunity to be involved with cutting-edge research at one of the world’s top research universities,” says Dodge. “I expect to learn some advanced skills which will help further my career in research.”

Dodge has an undergraduate degree in art and photography from San Francisco State University. “While I love photography and plan to continue making art, I also want to learn new things, continue my education, and get an advanced degree. Currently, I would consider myself an “intergrad”: I am taking classes at BCC and engaging in this internship in order to prepare myself for grad school. I plan to apply for PhD programs later this fall.”

Dodge says he has been interested in science since childhood, and recalls always being fascinated with how things work. “I remember looking at my hands and wondering ‘what am I made of?’ For a while, I wanted to be an astronaut, and I studied aerospace engineering. I would say that my fascination with the nature of things also led to an interest in art and photography. I think life is an amazing thing, and that is why I chose to really focus on the life sciences for now.

“I would like to see people living long, happy lives well into their hundreds, and becoming very wise. I think this is possible in our time. Humans have a tendency to value short-term rewards because our life spans are limited, but even a few very long-lived people could change that, by allowing us to see what matters in the big picture of time.”

Department Chair Tejal Desai, PhD, says she is delighted to welcome Dodge into her lab. “Ren is a creative thinker and a collaborative scientist. We very much look forward to working together during the course of his internship.”

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Department of Bioengineering and Therapeutic Sciences

About the School: The UCSF School of Pharmacy aims to solve the most pressing health care problems and strives to ensure that each patient receives the safest, most effective treatments. Our discoveries seed the development of novel therapies, and our researchers consistently lead the nation in NIH funding. The School’s doctor of pharmacy (PharmD) degree program, with its unique emphasis on scientific thinking, prepares students to be critical thinkers and leaders in their field.