Guru Gobind Singh Fellowship Recipient!
IIGB graduate student Divya Sain has been awarded the Guru Gobind Singh Fellowship for 2012-2013. The $30,000 award is given to a student of an Indian or Pakistani university who is committed to returning to her country of origin after receiving her doctoral degree at a UC campus.
Sain, who grew up in New Delhi, came to UC Riverside in 2007 to study plant pathology with Jason Stajich, an IIGB/CEPCEB assistant professor of plant pathology and microbiology. Specifically, Sain studies the fungal cell wall — an important feature that distinguishes fungi from the host plants and animals they infect.
Sain foresees her research will be an asset to the antifungal drug development industry in India and hopes to apply her knowledge to actively combat fungal diseases that are rampant in that country. She explained that India, like all major developing countries, is plagued by the menace of fungal infections in plants and humans. Sain believes her work at UCR will lead to the development of alternative targets for antifungal drugs against fungi, including those that cause athlete's foot, oral thrush or mucormycosis (a fungal infection of the sinuses, brain or lungs) in humans.
The Guru Gobind Singh Fellowship is awarded each year after a UC systemwide competition. In 1988, UC Santa Cruz received a bequest from the late Mr. Karam Singh Maughan to establish an endowment to support graduate fellowships named for Guru Gobind Singh, a Sikh religious leader. Only one student is selected among all the UCs for the fellowship, with preference given to students who hold a master's degree and are at the dissertation stage of their doctoral degree program.