Congratulations Dr. Nuzhat!!

Congrats to Nafisa! A much overdue post announcing the successful dissertation defense and hooding of Dr. Nafisa Nuzhat. Nafisa defended her dissertation titled “CEP162 deficiency causes human retinal degeneration and reveals a dual role in ciliogenesis and neurogenesis” in September 2023. Nafisa’s PhD journey was a true detective story as she followed the data to understand how a human mutation in a distal-end centriolar protein could impact the light-sensing photoreceptor cells of the retina. Nafisa loves plants, traveling, coffee, board games, and photography (also producing beautiful microscopy images).  Along with all the adventures she had in the lab, we also went on two memorable conference trips to Arizona and the south of Spain. She is a fabulous travel buddy and tour guide. She is now off to new adventures as a postdoc with Andrew Kodani at HudsonAlpha. We wish her luck and great success.  Many thanks to her sister-in-law for capturing the moment of hooding live.