Twenty-three graduates from the University of California, Riverside's UCR/UCLA Thomas Haider Program in Biomedical Sciences have learned which residency program they will enter for their training in medical specialties. These UC Riverside graduates are scheduled to receive their MD degrees from the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA in June.

Residency programs are carried out at hospitals or medical centers and can run from two to seven years after medical school. They are the means by which medical school graduates specialize, according to Craig Byus, interim dean of the UCR/UCLA Thomas Haider Program in Biomedical Sciences.

"Once again, our UCR graduates have achieved prestigious residencies in very competitive fields. These new physicians will continue the tradition of excellence of the graduates of the UCR/UCLA Program as we approach our 30th anniversary," Byus said.

UC Riverside students from any major may apply for one of the 24 seats each year in the University's joint program with the UCLA medical school.
Undergraduates who entered UCR either as freshmen or as transfer students and will have been at UC Riverside for at least two years (six continuous quarters prior to matriculation as a first year medical student) in the pursuit of a bachelor's degree may apply to the Haider Program, beginning in June 2005.

Students in the Haider Program receive their Bachelor's of Science degrees and attend the first two years of medical school at UC Riverside, then complete their medical school training at UCLA.

The students UCR/UCLA graduates are part of the more than 25,000 applicants nationwide in the 2004 National Resident Matching Program. The National Resident Matching Program (NRMP) is a private, nonprofit organization established in 1952 to provide an orderly and fair mechanism matching the preferences of applicants with the preferences of residency programs at U.S. teaching hospitals.

The Match was established, at the request of medical students, to provide a fair and impartial transition to the graduate medical education experience necessary for all physicians.

Following is a list of the students, the institutions where they will work and the program or specialty they are scheduled to pursue.

The University of California, Riverside is a major research institution and a national center for the humanities. Key areas of research include nanotechnology, genomics, environmental studies, digital arts and sustainable growth and development. With a current undergraduate and graduate enrollment of nearly 17,000, the campus is projected to grow to 21,000 students by 2010. Located in the heart of inland Southern California, the nearly 1,200-acre, park-like campus is at the center of the region's economic development.