Welcome Back!

Dear CBD Community,

Welcome to those of you new to Carnegie Mellon, and Welcome Back to everyone else!  New students will begin orientation on Monday August 19th and Fall classes will start for everyone on Monday, August 26th.  This academic year, we will be joined by quite a few new members of our community, including new classes of students in our BS in Computational Biology (BSCB), our MS in Computational Biology (MSCB), our MS in Automated Science (MSAS), and the CMU/Pitt Joint PhD Program in Computational Biology (CPCB).  We also welcome the first class of our new Integrated MS in Computational Biology, intended for students such as our own BSCB alumni who have previously completed substantial undergraduate work in computational biology at CMU.  We will also be welcoming three new faculty members in the coming academic year, Christian Cuba Samaniego, Richard Border, and Irene Kaplow (joint with Biological Sciences).  

We hope the new term will be a chance to see old friends and welcome new ones among our students and the rest of our community.  As in past years, CBD will be offering a variety of opportunities over the coming year to come together as a community, including our annual Thanksgiving feast, holiday party, ice cream social, Kennywood Fright Night outing, snow tubing (weather permitting), and department retreat, in addition to our weekly department teas.  We look forward to seeing all of you. 

As always, please take care of yourselves and do not hesitate to reach out for help and guidance when you need it.  The department’s faculty and staff are here to help and you should feel free to get in touch with any of us.  The university also offers many resources for those who could use assistance, including CMU’s Student Academic Success Center (SASC), Counseling and Psychological Services (CaPS) (412-268-2922), and the Center for Student Diversity and Inclusion (csdi@andrew.cmu.edu, or (412) 268-2150). 

We wish you all a happy and productive academic year!

Best,

Russell Schwartz
Head, Ray and Stephanie Lane Computational Biology Department