Carolina F. Henriques, Ph.D. Biology ’24, was a passionate, kind-hearted, and beyond extraordinary person. There were so many aspects of Carolina that were contagious – not just her laugh and smile, but also her deep curiosity, her friendship, her drive to travel, to learn and teach, and her unwavering dedication to public education and to becoming the best scientist she could be.
Carolina grew up in Portugal, completing her undergraduate training in Biology with a Bachelor of Science from the University of Lisbon in 2014. She then pursued neuroscience training in different settings, including in the Netherlands, France and Japan for her Master's degree and in the United States for her PhD. Carolina was always interested in comparing how science was taught and practiced throughout the world, and how combining different practices can improve education.
What really caught on to colleagues and friends was Carolina’s dedication to justice. What stood out the most to us was that Carolina could not sit down and stay silent when she saw something wrong. She made sure people knew what was going on and worked tirelessly to make things better within the program.
As she worked towards earning her PhD in Biology/Neuroscience at the City University of New York Graduate Center + Hunter College, Carolina dedicated much of her “free time” to fighting injustice in the CUNY system. She believed change had to come from the students – even if she would not necessarily benefit from these changes herself.
Carolina was elected as one of two student representatives to the Neuroscience Program and was an active member of the CUNY Union. She served in these roles for two years. In both, she advocated for graduate students in closed-door meetings with faculty and university leadership. She did all of this while teaching full-time, taking on a summer teaching opportunity at Columbia University, conducting her Ph.D. research in Dr. Ekaterina Likhtik’s laboratory, and presenting at conferences out of state.
Her passion for teaching continued even after she graduated with her Ph.D. from CUNY. She accepted a position at the Berkeley Carroll School as a Science Research and Design Program Coordinator – a role she was excited to begin before her life was tragically cut short on August 23, 2024 by an unexpected complication of a medical condition.
Carolina’s light lives on in all of us who were lucky enough to know her. And we believe that light should continue to burn within the CUNY community as well.
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