IBiS Graduate Program at Northwestern University

10/09/2026

A big shout out to our three superstar 2026 IBiS Rapport Winners: Alana Caldwell, Janet Zhao, and Tim Kim! They were each awarded the Rappaport Award for demonstrating excellence in their current thesis research, and all 3 gave talks yesterday about their work. Congratulations on this well-deserved honor!

09/21/2026

A big shout out to the 2025-2026 IBiS student award winners: Janet, Maggie, and Liz!

Your hard work and contributions to IBiS and in teaching inspire us all! Thank you for all that you do!

09/15/2026

Our 2026 IBiS retreat was held at Lake Lawn Resort last week. This year’s theme was “different systems, shared curiosity.” Some highlights included excellent talks from the students and our alumni Amanda and Kyle, a student vs faculty family feud game, and the annual bonfire. Thanks to everyone who attended and made the retreat a success!

09/12/2026

Our IBiS class of 2026 is here and already thriving! A BIG welcome to our program and we're looking forward to getting to know you all!

08/18/2026

Congratulations to our one and only Dr. Ellie Degen who received an IBiS Outstanding Dissertation Award for her Ph.D. thesis in the Blythe lab entitled "Dynamical models for gene regulation in early embryogenesis." We're so proud of you!

Ellie is now headed to Princeton to start a new postdoc. We'll miss you in IBiS and we wish you all the best!

06/01/2026

Congratulations to IBiS Preceptor Dr. Keara Lane for receiving a prestigious NSF CAREER award!

Four Northwestern University assistant professors — James Gaynor, Junsoo Kim, Keara Lane and Jen Munson — have received the Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award from the National Science Foundation (NSF), the foundation’s most prestigious honor for junior faculty members.

05/04/2026

Our IBiS Director is on fire! Congrats to Dr. Sadie Wignall for also being awarded a 2026 Northwestern University Teaching Award!

Read more about Sadie's award here: https://news.northwestern.edu/stories/2026/4/northwestern-announces-university-teaching-awards

04/01/2026

Congratulations to IBiS Preceptor Dr. Carole LaBonne for being named as a 2025 Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science!

Read more about it here: https://news.northwestern.edu/stories/2026/03/aaas-honors-two-northwestern-researchers-as-lifetime-fellows

03/30/2026

Congratulations to Dr. Sadie Wignall, the Director of our IBiS Program, for winning the 2026 inaugural DGS Excellence Award from The Graduate School at Northwestern!

Sadie has been our steadfast leader over the last three years, and this honor is well-deserved! We are so lucky to have Sadie as our DGS!