Meet Our Fellows
Black In Genetics is proud to offer our first ever Fellowship program. We selected two fellows, one undergraduate and one graduate student, who each exhibit a passion for both their science and their community. Get to know each of them, as well as our honorable mention, in the profiles below!
Morgan Murff, Undergraduate Fellow
Morgan is an undergraduate student in Purdue University's College of Agriculture studying plant science. She uses the Moringa oleifera plant to answer questions about growth genetics and secondary metabolite production. Morgan aspires to become a professor and is passionate about community outreach.
Scientific Interests: Plant genetics & cell biology, ethnobotany
Outside the lab: Music, cooking, traveling, and hiking
Chibuikem Nwizu, Graduate Fellow
Chibuikem is an MD/PhD student at Brown University in the Center for Computational Molecular Biology. He has a longstanding history of community involvement and is passionate about minimizing barriers for minoritized communities to participate in STEM fields. In the long term, he hopes to understand the molecular determinants of cellular plasticity in cancer and stem cells using computational tools with the hopes that it helps us develop safer cancer therapies that have lower incidences of failure & relapse. He hopes that his work will better facilitate the translation of insight and innovation from the computational bench, to the patient bedside, into patient communities, and back!
Scientific Interests: Science Outreach & Science Communication; Statistical Methods Development; Understanding Phenotypic Plasticity in Cancer and Stem Cells; Predicting Phenotypic Evolution
Outside the lab: Animation, Videography, Photography, Working Out, Spending Time with Family & Friends, and Connecting with Other Self-identifying Black Nerds to Talk about Anime/Manga, Comics, and General Nerd Culture for the Culture!
Avia Sutton, Honorable Mention
Avia is pursuing her master's degree in Genetic Counseling at the University of North Carolina Greensboro. She graduated in graduated last year from Tuskegee University with her master’s in Public Health. She is from the USVI and hopes to bring genetic counseling service back home. Her research interests are Neurogenetics, and reproductive advocacy, and she is the current LEND trainee for the Class of 2024.
Interests: Neurogenetics & reproductive advocacy
Outside the lab: Cooking, finding cool restaurants to eat at, going to the beach, reading, watching anime