Harold Varmus (left) talks with Gerstner Sloan-Kettering students, including Shannon Yu (right).

A week of orientation activities for the second incoming class of students of the Gerstner Sloan-Kettering Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences included a personal welcome from Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center President Harold Varmus.

The 13 students who matriculated in the second class of the Gerstner Sloan-Kettering School -- 11 women and two men -- are more than double the six students in the first class, admitted in 2006. They come to Gerstner Sloan-Kettering from academic institutions that range from Bilkent University, in Turkey; Nagpur University, in India; and Vietnam National University; to the University of Utah; Wellesley College; the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; the University of California, San Diego; Smith College; California State University, Northridge; Duke University; Wesleyan University; the University of Texas at Austin; and the University of Georgia.

The Gerstner Sloan-Kettering students arrived on July 30, started their first laboratory rotations on August 6, and began their classes on September 4.