UPDATES FROM DR. AMY WINKLER

Dear Anna Maria Matteucci,

Thank you for your beautiful note!  ARCS helped me financially when I needed it and I want to pay that forward as I become more financially capable.  As mentioned in your note, here's an update about what I've been up to and a current photo is attached.

I graduated from The University of Arizona back in May 2010 as my class valedictorian in the College of Optical Sciences.  I am now working as a postdoctoral researcher at Washington University in St. Louis.  My lab is dedicated to pushing a new biomedical imaging tool called photoacoustic microscopy to the limit.  Photoacoustic microscopy combines optical imaging with ultrasound to see deeper into the body noninvasively and to see more detailed structures.  This is useful for many applications, such as cancer detection and treatment of chronic pain.  This technology has started coming into its own in the past 5 years and our goal is to explore all the new biomedical applications enabled by this technology.

Postdoctoral researchers are notorious short-timers.  In fact, the maximum amount of time one can be a postdoc here is 5 years.  So, it seems like every other day someone asks me what am I doing here? and what's my goal for the future?  Well, I'm here because I think it's the best place for me to learn to become a better scientist, doing meaningful research.  I'm working with very capable and intelligent researchers who challenge me to become more productive.  My goal for the future is to continue to branch out, challenge myself, and work towards expanding our knowledge of how to become and keep ourselves HEALTHY.

From my perspective as an ARCS alumna, ARCS is in the business of promoting students in research.  After spending hours in the lab or at my computer, I feel the need to reconnect with the reason I'm doing what I'm doing.  The people who participate in ARCS are so good at providing that affirmation through their active interest and their generosity.  I received the ARCS award for 3 years starting from my second year in graduate school, and I'm so grateful to have had that support.  I wish ARCS continued success in promoting and affirming students in research.

Best Regards,
Amy Winkler
Ph.D. Optical Sciences 

UPDATES FROM DR. DAN FARRELL

Dear Diane and Tom,

Thank you so much for coming to my dissertation defense presentation last September! And thanks so much for your gift! You guys are the greatest. It meant a lot to have you there and I was so glad you could hear about my research.

I'm living in New York now, where I am doing my post-doc at Stony Brook University.  My post-doc adviser, Ken Dill, is the director of a new center forphysical and quantitative biology here at SBU.  My research is developing cell-level models of protein 

creation, folding, degradation, and aggregation.  Understanding how cells keep all these activities properly banlanced is critical for understanding soituations like cncer and aging, where these processes become corrupted.  I'm working with new colaborators at Scripps (San Diego) and U Mass.  It's an exciting time. Miss you and hope our paths cross again someday!!

Dan Farrell