Past Major Events

Attendees of BHESS'21
The BUILD team was proud to present our new Black Health Equity Speaker Series (BHESS) where speakers from disparate disciplines share their research and personal journey with BUILD trainees. This speaker series provides a unique opportunity to address health disparities and this year’s theme of promoting “racial health equity” at BUILD.

You can learn about each year's event by clicking these links.

Annual Research Symposium
During the Summer program, BUILD holds its Annual Summer Symposium. This gives new BUILD trainees an opportunity to practice presenting their research to both scientific and lay audiences. Families of the trainees are invited to learn about the BUILD program, as well as the research their student and their fellow trainees are conducting. Having the families on board with the program and supporting the trainees research education can be critical to BUILD Scholars and Fellows completing the program and moving on to earn their Ph.D.

You can learn about each year's event by clicking these links.

CSULB BUILD Class of 2017 proudly poses

BUILD trainees work hard to complete their research training progam. We celebrate their success each May, sending off another cohort of future Ph.D.s into the world. The first cohort of BUILD trainees was honored during the first annual Commencement held at the Scottish Rite Event Center. Later Commencement events were held in the USU Ballroom.

You can learn about each year's event by clicking these links.

  • 2017 (Full recap and photos)
  • 2018 (Facebook photos)
  • 2019 (Facebook photos)
  • 2020 (Full story and videos)
  • 2021 (Full story and videos)

BUILD Trainees Attending a Colloquium
Regular research colloquia inform BUILD trainees on a variety of topics and give them opportunities to network with others.

Fall 2020

  • October 16 - Dr. Ghaidaa Kashgari, Department of Medicine, UC Irvine 
  • November 6 - Dr. Breauna Spencer, Department of Sociology, UC Irvine

Spring 2020

  • February 28 - Dr. Tatiane Lima, Postdoctoral Scholar, Immunology, UC Irvine
  • March 27 - Alma Patricia Olaguez, PhD Candidate, Psychological Science, UC Irvine

Fall 2019

  • September 27 - Dr. Camila Uzcategui
  • November 8 - Dr. Richard Watanabe, Department of Preventive Medicine, Keck School of Medicine of USC

Spring 2019

  • March 8 - Dr. Alicia Izquierdo, Psychology, UCLA
  • March 29

Fall 2018

  • September 28 - Dr. Jacob Barrera, Harvard University
  • November 9 - Dr. Leonardo Leon, Postdoctoral Scholar, School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Science at UC San Diego

Spring 2018

  • March 10 - Dr. Carlos Bolános-Guzman, Behavioral & Cellular Neuroscience, Texas A&M
  • April 4 - Dr. Kim Barrett, Medicine, UC San Diego

Fall 2017

  • September 29 - Dr. Elisa Maldonado, Marine Biology, UC San Diego
  • November 17 - Dr. Adam Leventhal, Keck School of Medicine, USC

Spring 2017

  • March 10 - Carlos Bolaños-Guzmán, Texas A&M University
  • April 14 - Dr. Kim Barrett, UCSD

Fall 2016

  • September 30 - Martin Lee, Biostatistics, UCLA
  • November 4 - Dr. Brian Ruhe, VA Hospital

Spring 2016

  • January 29 - Dr. Ricky N. Bluthenthal, Keck School of Medicine, USC
  • February 26 - Dr. Christie D. Fowler, Neurobiology and Behavior, UC Irvine
  • March 25 - Dr. Roberta McKean-Cowdin, Keck School of Medicine, USC
  • April 29 - Dr. Marcelo Wood, Neurobiology and Behavior, UC Irvine

Fall 2015

  • October 2 - Dr. Lordes Baezconde-Garbanati, Keck School of Medicine, USC
  • November 9 - Dr. Elizabeth Jarvo, Chemistry, UC Irvine

Annual Research Symposium
During BUILD Phase 1, the program held its Annual Research Symposium during the Spring semester. This event featured a nationally recognized researcher engaged in NIH-funded research as keynote speaker, who would share his or her research journey, presentations by BUILD Faculty Mentors, research demonstrations, and a poster session where BUILD trainees could present their research.

You can learn about each of them by clicking the links below.

Recent Major Events

December 2022

video conference call

BUILD Alumni Virtual Night

Friday, December 2, 2022, 4 - 5pm
  On Friday, December 2nd, we will hold our BUILD Alumni Virtual Night which serves as an online reunion event for BUILD students and graduate mentor alumni. BUILD alums will catch up with each other and current BUILD faculty and staff. Don't miss our next online…

July 2022

2021 BUILD Research Symposium

2022 BUILD Research Symposium

Thursday, July 28, 2022, 5 - 8pm
The BUILD team was proud to host the annual CSULB BUILD Research Symposium on Thursday, July 28, 2022. New BUILD Scholars and Fellows concluded their eight-week SURGE summer research experience by presenting their research to their peers, family, BUILD mentors and BUILD staff in two separate poster sessions. This was a first and important step to their…

May 2022

Graduate smiling in mortarboard

2022 Commencement

Friday, May 6, 2022, 11am - 1pm
The BUILD program celebrated the success of trainees on Friday, May 6th, 2022 at the BUILD Commencement. This event was held at the USU to commemorate and recognize their accomplishments as we send another cohort of future Ph.D.s into the world. The event featured Dr. Carlos Gutierrez as its keynote speaker. Also included were addresses by BUILD TDs Jesse,…

December 2021

2021 BUILD Virtual Reunion Thumbnail

2021 BUILD Alumni Virtual Reunion & Trivia Night

Friday, December 3, 2021, 7 - 8am
On Friday December 3rd, 2021, we held our second BUILD Alumni Virtual Reunion & Trivia Night. Last year we had a blast catching up with our alumni, so we decided to do it again! Because alumni are across the states, we opted for a virtual event; we kicked off the event with a game of trivia using Kahoot!. Then went into a couple rounds of “speed…

September 2021

2021 BUILD Research Symposium

2021 BUILD Research Symposium

Friday, September 10, 2021, 9:30am - 12:15pm
The BUILD team was proud to host the annual CSULB BUILD Research Symposium on September 10, 2021. This year's Symposium was the first BUILD in-person event since campus closure in March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. New BUILD Scholars and Fellows concluded their eight week SURGE summer research experience by presenting their research to their…

August 2021

Week of Welcome Fall 2021

CSULB Week of Welcome

Monday, August 30, 2021, 5am - Wednesday, September 1, 2021, 9pm
Beach Pride Events is proud to present “Week of Welcome” at Long Beach State University (LBSU)! Every semester, Week of Welcome (WoW) helps students make connections, join clubs and organizations, learn about university resources and so much more. This year we are excited for WoW to return as an in-person event. During the event, general attendees do not…