Meghan Kirksey, Biological Sciences ’99
Meghan Kirksey transferred to UMBC from Simon’s Rock College of the Bard in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. She was a Meyerhoff and MARC U*STAR scholar as well as a member of the UMBC Honors College. Meghan presented at the 1999 Undergraduate Research and Creative Achievement Day, describing her research into the special tuning mechanism of rhodopsin. This research was conducted in the laboratory of, and under the guidance of, Dr. Phyllis Robinson.
Meghan graduated from UMBC magna cum laude, with honors, and as a member of Phi Beta Kappa. She then entered the Cornell/Rockefeller/Sloan-Kettering Tri-institutional M.D.-Ph,D, program in New York City. Meghan completed her first two years of medical school in 2001 and began her Ph.D. work in the laboratory of John McKinney at The Rockefeller University. This summer, she will defend her Ph.D. research on host-pathogen interactions during Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection. Meghan will graduate with her M.D. from Cornell (Weill) Medical College and Ph.D. from The Rockefeller University in May 2008.
Mark Tyler, History ’99
Mark Tyler arrived at UMBC from the Eastern Shore, graduating from Pokomoke High School in Worcester County. He was a humanities Scholar, majoring in History and Secondary education. As a senior, he presented at Undergraduate Research and Creative Achievement Day, speaking on “A Developing Two Party Maryland: Republican Growth (1960-Present).” His advisor was Dr. John Jeffries.
Mark graduated summa cum laude and as a member of Phi Beta Kappa. He then enrolled in the College of William and Mary’s Thomas Jefferson Program in Public Policy where he graduated with his Masters of Public Policy. Finally, Mark received his Juris Doctor with honors from the University of Maryland, School of Law. Since being admitted to the Maryland Bar, Mark clerked for Judge Wilner on the Maryland Courts of Appeals, and has been Assistant State’s Attorney for Anne Arundel County, prosecuting criminal cases.