Abir Rahman was recognized with the Outstanding International Student Scholar Award at the International Graduation Celebration on December 12, 2018. Abir received his Ph.D in Biomolecular Sciences on December 15. His research focused on investigating autophagy dysfunction induced by a Parkinson’s Disease-causing mutation in VPS35.
The award was presented by Dr. Brad Morrison the assistant professor in the Department of Biological Sciences, who said “I was very pleased to recruit him and retain him. He was certainly well liked among the other labs he rotated through.”
In 2008, Abir obtained his Undergraduate Degree in Molecular Biosciences at Arizona State and a Masters at Georgia State in Neurobiology and Behavior. In 2014, he joined the Biomolecular Ph.D program at Boise State and later joined Dr. Morrison’s team.
Abir has published a number of papers and won multiple awards. He won an award his first year which included a fellowship for a one year research assistantship at the Biomolecular Center on campus. He won the Western’s State Regional Conference Travel Award, which paid for his travel to a conference and once there he second place for his presentation. In 2017, he won the Audience Choice Award for his poster presentation at the Graduate Student Showcase.
Abir has also presented work at numerous locations including the Western States Regional Conference, twice and the Society for Neuroscience National Conference and the Grand Challenges of Parkinson’s Disease Conference. Abir has published three research papers, two as first author, and has another review paper as first author that is ready for resubmission. His thesis will be his fifth publication and third first authorship.
Abir has been involved in many clubs. He co-founded the Bangladeshi Student Association, and helped in the creation of the Biomolecular Science Graduate Student Association.