Congratulations to these graduate students for successfully defending their dissertations during the Summer 2026 semester! Student names are listed in alphabetical order by last name. Photos are included at the bottom. 

Ashley Goll, Ph.D.
Ph.D. in Cell and Developmental Biology
Dissertation Title: “Defining the role of prostaglandin signaling in controlling the nucleoskeleton during collective cell migration in Drosophila oogenesis”
Faculty Mentor: Tina Tootle, Ph.D.

Joseph Oberlitner, Ph.D.
Ph.D. in Genetics 
Dissertation Title: " Dissecting crossover and non-crossover DSB repair: from tagging RAD-51 to post-synaptic regulation"
Faculty Mentor: Sarit Smolikove, Ph.D. 

Hui (Thea) Tian, Ph.D.
Ph.D. in Integrated Biology
Dissertation Title: “Early vs. late DNA double-strand breaks repair in C. elegans: timing of pathway switch and resection”
Faculty Mentor: Sarit Smolikove, Ph.D. 

Pictured from left to right are: Ashley Goll and Tina Tootle, Joseph Oberlitner and Sarit Smolikove, and Hui (Thea) Tian and Sarit Smolikove.