Global Health Sciences

Areas of Concentration

Director
Thomas Novotny

AoC Scholars
Rafaela Ferreira
Bethann Hromatka

Rafaela Salgado Ferreira
Chemistry and Chemical Biology Graduate Program, University of California, San Francisco
Global Health Sciences Scholar Fall-2005
B.S. Pharmacy, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Brazil 2001-2005
B.S. Pharamcy- Student Exchange Program, University of Texas at Austin

Rafaela Salgado Ferreira, 22, has been selected to be the first graduate student in Chemistry and Chemical Biology to be offered a scholarship in the area of concentration in Global Health Sciences.

A native of Brazil, Ferreira developed a passion for Chemistry and Biology in high school. While at school and throughout college, Ferreira was able to apply her enthusiasm towards Chemistry by working on tropical diseases with the Rene Rachou Research Center-Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (FIOCRUZ)- Ministry of Health, Brazil.

Primarily interested in structure-based drug development, she believes the CCB program at UCSF offers an interdisciplinary environment in which there are people working in different stages giving her the opportunity to get more information about the entire drug development process.

The weakness to develop drugs in Brazil for tropical diseases is one of the important aspects that brought her to the United States. Ferreira is inspired and motivated to work on these diseases because she feels they are neglected. She hopes to be part of a team that works towards building development in this area.

Bethann Susan Hromatka
Biomedical Sciences Graduate Program, University of California, San Francisco
Global Health Sciences Scholar Fall-2005
B.A. Biology and Spanish, Minor in Chemistry, University of Oregon, Eugene, 2000
Foreign Exchange Student at the University Austral, Chile, 1998
Coursework towards a B.A. at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, 1995-1996

Bethann Hromatka, 28, is the first graduate student in Biomedical Sciences to be the recipient of a scholarship in the area of concentration in Global Health Sciences. She is excited to be involved from the beginning of what she considers an innovative and integrative program bringing together a host of disciplines at UCSF.

Hromatka was encouraged by her mother to explore, travel, and be independent. This led her to live abroad in Chile, South America for one year as a foreign exchange student. It was at this juncture in her life that she became interested in global health and becoming a scientist.

Living and traveling abroad she was witness to the prevalence of untreated chronic and infectious diseases that are unheard of in developed nations. Hromatka became personally committed to global health when she herself became ill in a developing country.

After receiving her B.A. in Biology and Spanish, she worked as a research associate at UCSF for four years before applying for her PhD. Hromatka is interested in the Biomedical Sciences Graduate Program at UCSF as she believes in its goal to teach students how to apply molecular and biochemical techniques to studying human disease.