Video Tag: Graduate Program

Celebrate the journey: Graduation Day 2026

Hear from 3 of our newest PhD recipients as they reflect on their experience as students in Scripps Research’s Skaggs Graduate School. The students are among the 49 who were awarded doctoral degrees at the institute’s May 15th Commencement.

Skaggs Graduate School at Scripps Research | 34th Annual Commencement Ceremony

The Skaggs Graduate School of Chemical and Biological Sciences at Scripps Research is pleased to present our 2026 Commencement, celebrating our 49 newest doctoral degree recipients who comprise Scripps Research’s 34th graduating class. Held on Friday, May 15, 2026, the event featured remarks by Keary Engle, the John and Susan Diekman Dean of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies; Pete Schultz, Scripps Research President/CEO and the L.S. “Sam” Skaggs Presidential Chair; and a special address by Peter Dervan, the Bren Professor Emeritus of Chemistry at the California Institute of Technology. Graduating students were introduced by their faculty mentors, each recognizing their student’s academic achievements and scientific accomplishments. The event concluded with honorary doctorates being awarded to Dervan as well as Ian Wilson, the Hansen Professor of Structural Biology and one of the founders of Scripps Research’s graduate program and the mentor of its first graduate.

Inspiring the next generation of scientific leaders

Ranked by the Nature Index among the world's top five most innovative institutes, we empower scientists to pursue high-risk, high-reward ideas that transform our understanding of the world around us and lead to new technologies that shape that world. Through our Skaggs Graduate School of Chemical and Biological Sciences we’re inspiring and training the next generation of scientific leaders, ensuring the continued trajectory of scientific excellence for generations to come.

How donations empower future scientists | The Skaggs family’s impact

Why are donations important in empowering the future leaders of science? As a nonprofit organization, Scripps Research relies on generous contributions from individuals, foundations and corporations to support our many biomedical research and educational programs, including our top-10 ranked doctoral program. The most impactful and enduring of these contributions came from the Skaggs family, who have a long and storied history of supporting nonprofit biomedical research and education programs across the western United States. In 2018, Scripps Research announced that the Skaggs family made a lead gift through The ALSAM Foundation toward the institute’s $100 million campaign to establish endowed fellowships for students in its Graduate Program. In honor of this gift, the program was renamed the Skaggs Graduate School of Chemical and Biological Sciences.