Meet Ralph...
 Hometown:
Wayland, Massachusetts
Entering Year: 2001
Undergrad: Haverford College, Haverford, Pennsylvania
Degree: B.A. Chemistry
Thesis Advisor: Pramod Srivastava, Ph.D.
Area of Concentration: Immunology
Email: vatner@student.uchc.edu
The M.D./Ph.D. program at UConn is great. It gives me the opportunity to study two things that deeply interest me, clinical medicine and basic biomedical research, and it affords me the
opportunity to pursue a career in almost any aspect of medical science. I applied to UConn in a broad sweep of Northeastern M.D./Ph.D. programs funded by an MSTP training grant. While I had
only twice previously set foot in Connecticut before this (once for a high school wrestling camp, and once for a college football game) I had deep ties to friends and family in nearby Boston
and New York. Upon learning more about UConn, I was pleasantly surprised.
As an undergraduate I studied physical chemistry at Haverford College with an interest in atmospheric chemistry and molecular spectroscopy. Even though I only had one summer school course
in biology, I decided to move away from physical science toward a research field more applicable to human health and disease. I was somewhat hesitant to apply to medical school after one too
many stories about pre-med students, but I found students here to be interesting, fun, and smart, yet down-to-earth and genuinely interested in medicine and research.
I am currently finishing up my thesis work in immunology, studying the role of molecular chaperones in priming the adaptive immune system against cancer and intracellular infections. I was
initially attracted to working in the Center for Immunotherapy of Cancer and Infectious Diseases, now a part of the Department of Immunology, when I found that I could study something that had
both fundamental implications in understanding the immune system at a basic level and direct applications to vaccines and immunotherapy for cancer and infectious pathogens.
When I am outside of the lab, you can find me running on the trails of the West Hartford Reservoir, cooking for my roommates, or enjoying a beer at one of the local hangouts. Email me if
you want to find out more about the program. I like talking to applicants and just about anyone else, and I am candid about the pros and cons of the UConn MSTP. |
