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.