Melissa Lowder recently completed her Ph.D. work in molecular biophysics and biochemistry at Yale University.

Her thesis studies focused on the activation mechanisms of the dysregulated epidermal growth factor receptor, a cellular protein implicated in lung cancer. She will be starting a career in health care consulting in the Boston area later this summer.

Lowder is a graduate of Nansemond-Suffolk Academy and the University of Virginia and is the daughter of Charles and Mary Elizabeth Lowder and the granddaughter of Marie Rhodes of Suffolk.