BCMB Alumna Makes News – 2023
Former BCMB graduate student Amie Sankoh (PhD ’23) gave the commencement address for the Spring 2023 ceremony. Sankoh’s life story is one of determination and focus. She grew up Deaf during the civil war in Sierra Leone, where she had to overcome many barriers including communication.
Research and STEM opportunities are extremely rare for Deaf individuals, yet she earned a science degree at the Rochester Institute of Technology prior to entering the doctorate program in Biochemistry & Cellular and Molecular Biology at UT. Here she studied the role of hormones in plant-pathogen interactions in the lab of Tessa Burch-Smith. Last year, Sankoh made news when she became the first Deaf Black woman to earn a STEM doctorate.