Image credit: Mark Von Holden / AP Images for HHMI
The Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) has named UCLA’s Giancarlo Noe Bruni, PhD, a 2022 Hanna H. Gray Fellow. Bruni, a postdoctoral scientist in the Kruglyak Lab, studies cellular membrane potential and ultimately hopes to understand how it impacts biological variation and health outcomes. The HHMI fellowship—which provides funding, professional development, mentorship, and networking opportunities—will empower him to continue shaping the future of biomedical science.
“I felt an array of emotions when I received news that I was selected for the Hanna H. Gray Fellowship Program,” Bruni says. “The strongest and most persistent feeling I have is gratitude for the support of my family, my scientific community, and my UCLA community.”
Bruni praises the UCLA research community for being engaged and open to discussions that improve individual and collective bodies of scientific work. He’s found career-changing inspiration through collaboration and mentorship and feels especially grateful to have Kruglyak Lab principal investigator (PI), Leonid Kruglyak, PhD, as his primary mentor.
With such a supportive network behind him, Bruni feels poised to embrace the opportunities that come with being a Hannah H. Gray Fellow.
“I’m overwhelmed by the outsized strides HHMI—through the Gilliam Fellowship, the Hanna H. Gray Fellowship, and the future Freeman Hrabowski Scholars—is taking to increase representation in the sciences. I feel a need to rise to this occasion,” Bruni says, recognizing a chance to not only enhance his own work but also to further diversity and representation, and therefore discovery, across the entire field.
“I’m inspired by the thought that I’m a part of something that will shape our world for the better in ways I cannot predict.”
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About the HHMI Hannah Gray Fellows Program
HHMI’s Hannah Gray Fellows Program aims to build a healthier United States research culture by supporting early-career leaders in academic research who come from disadvantaged backgrounds or from groups traditionally underrepresented in the life sciences. Fellows receive up to $1.4 million in funding over eight years.
Meet the other 2022 Hannah Gray Fellows
