Graduate Lillian Murphy, right, spent plenty of time working in the lab run by Biology Professor Kimberly Mulligan, left, on her way to academic heights while a Sacramento State student. (Sacramento State/Andrea Price)
By Cynthia Hubert
Biology student Lillian Murphy applied to Harvard University’s graduate program “just to see what would happen,” she said. She got in.
Then, after much thought, she turned down the invitation to attend perhaps the nation’s most-storied university. Instead she chose another great institution, UC Berkeley, where beginning this fall she will continue to chase her dream of becoming a neurobiologist with a doctoral degree.
At Sacramento State, Murphy has shined as an academic star. In addition to mastering her courses and labs, according to her professors, she is a natural leader who as a Peer Assisted Learning facilitator has helped hundreds of struggling students succeed in their science studies.
Lillian Murphy. (Sacramento State/Andrea Price)Murphy said she simply enjoys helping others.
“For me, it’s really rewarding,” she said.
Murphy is the 2020 recipient of the President’s Medal, the University’s most prestigious student award.
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The road to success has been bumpy at times for Murphy, a Sacramento native who said she was “lost for a while” at Sac State, and suffered health challenges that in 2017 forced her to withdraw from college.
Her work during more than three years in Biology Professor Kim Mulligan’s lab, which uses fruit flies to study the genetic origins of brain abnormalities, helped define her life plan. There, she learned the skills that will propel her to a career in science that she hopes ultimately will help lead to better treatments for conditions such as chronic pain.
Since she was a child, Murphy has thought about attending medical school, she said. Her work in the Mulligan Lab opened her eyes to other possibilities.
“I want to improve the lives of others,” she said. “Initially, I thought I could only do that by being a physician. But now I realize there is so much more that I can do to achieve my goals.
“It’s fascinating to look at science at a molecular level and see how it can impact the lives of so many people.”
Murphy graduates summa cum laude and has built a record of academic achievement. In 2019 she won the Glenn Nagel Undergraduate Award, which honors the top student in the CSU. She has presented her lab findings at various research symposia, including the annual California State University Program for Education and Research in Biotechnology.
Beyond her research skills, Murphy is generous with her time, her professors said in a letter nominating her for the President’s Medal. Through her work in the PAL program, “Lilly has directly aided in the success of hundreds of Sac State students, a service to her community that few can claim,” said the letter, signed by Mulligan and professors Jennifer Lundmark and Kelly McDonald.
The professors called her “a wonderful person” who is the first to offer a helping hand or words of encouragement to others.
“She is kind, considerate, modest and selfless,” they wrote, “facing challenges with creativity and a sense of optimism.”
Murphy had a difficult choice to make when she learned that Harvard was an option for her graduate studies.
“It was a very hard decision, very stressful,” she said. Ultimately, she decided that the UC Berkeley program fit her better.
In recent months Murphy and other Sac State students have been finishing their studies online to help curb spread of the coronavirus. Murphy listened to lectures, finished papers and took her final exams from home, where she lives with her parents and Titan, her 13-year-old pet dachshund.
“It’s been challenging,” she said. Online learning “is not the same as face to face” instruction. “At times I didn’t have the motivation to go to class or study.” Titan, meanwhile, “requires a lot of attention and thinks I should be with him all day.”
But in typical Lilly Murphy fashion, she has persevered.
As she prepares to attend UC Berkeley, Murphy thinks about all the Sac State professors who motivated her and kept her on track toward graduation, which this year will be celebrated virtually Saturday, June 6.
“I have been so fortunate that Sac State has given me such great mentors,” she said.
Murphy also is thinking about her mother, who suffers from chronic pain. One of her goals is to contribute to better treatments for pain, now commonly treated with effective but addictive opiate drugs.
“My mom is a driving factor,” said Murphy. “She has had chronic pain her whole life. I would hope to help develop a treatment for others who suffer from it. I want to be the person who finds the solution and helps them recover.”