Chen Institute Diversity and Inclusion Awards 2023

The Chen Institute is delighted to announce the recipients of this year's Chen Institute Diversity and Inclusion Awards. These awards, for graduate students and postdoctoral scholars in neuroscience at Caltech, are intended to recognize active individuals for the uncompensated time and effort they are dedicating to achieve diversity and inclusion at Caltech, the wider community and in STEM education. Each recipient is highly deserving of this award, they are all committed leaders bringing awareness to diversity and inclusion, and promoting equal opportunities.

John Bostick
Postdoctoral Fellow, Mazmanian lab
John has a proven record of working to improve diversity, equity, and inclusion at Caltech, the wider community and in STEM. John has participated in a number of programs that provide STEM education to the wider community, including local libraries and elementary schools as well as mentoring Caltech undergraduate students. John is an active member of the Caltech Postdoctoral Association (CPA), as the Co-chair for Outreach he spearheaded a talk series that allowed graduate students and postdocs to share their work with the community through Explore Caltech, You Tube. In addition he has led CPA collaborations with other programs that focus on children and their families.

Jessica Griffiths
Graduate Student, Mazmanian lab
Jessica has contributed greatly to promote diversity, inclusion and equity at Caltech, the wider community and in STEM. As co-chair and co-founder of Women in BBE (WiBBE) at Caltech, Jessica is leading advocacy efforts to create sustainable institutional support for women and URM scientists. WiBBE is helping to put women at the forefront and provide role models for students at Caltech and in the wider community. In addition to her role in WiBBE Jessica is also a mentor to students in the Mazmanian lab.

Jieyu Zheng
Graduate Student, Meister lab
Jieyu is actively involved in promoting diversity, inclusion and equity at Caltech, the wider community and STEM education. As Academic Event co-chair of Neurotechers, a graduate student led organization for neuroscience, she extended events to be more inclusive by including visiting scholars, new faculty, WAVE fellows and undergraduate researchers. Jieyu is also an active member of the Caltech Community Association where she leads new-student orientations and hosts educational events for graduate students. She has also been an outreach representative for Caltech Neuroscience at the 2022 Los Angeles City of STEM Festival.