Evan Rees, a first-year pharmaceutical sciences graduate student in the laboratory of Jason Kwan, assistant professor in the Pharmaceutical Sciences Division, was recently awarded a multiple-year traineeship from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Biotechnology Training Program (BTP).

Established in 1988 the goal of the biotechnology training grant program was to produce broadly trained investigators who have the facility and orientation to combine basic and applied research. The training supported by these grants provides predoctoral students substantial technical and intellectual skills in areas such as microbiology, molecular genetics, biochemistry, biochemical engineering, plant and animal cell culture technologies, metabolic engineering, biomaterials, macromolecular structure analysis, hybridoma technology, tissue engineering and separation technologies.

The initial appointment includes a monetary stipend, coverage of tuition and fees, health insurance, and a travel allowance. Rees will begin the NIH BioTech Training Program in January 2017.

A native of Ohio, Rees earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemistry working under Nicholas H. Oberlies in the Natural Products and Drug Discovery Center with minors in mathematics and German from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, in 2016. He has studied abroad at the Goethe Institut, Mannheim, Germany, and researched under Antoine Buchard at the Centre for Sustainable Chemical Technologies at the University of Bath, Bath, United Kingdom. In fall 2016 Rees was awarded a Lachman Graduate Fellowship for spring 2017.