Student Research Day 2023 Awardees

ORAL PRESENTATIONS

FIRST PLACE – Ryan Anderson, Civil Construction and Environmental Engineering
Project: Quantification of Nanoplastics in Landfill Leachate Using Pyrolysis Gas Chromatography and Mass Spectrometry
Faculty Mentor: Syeed Iskander
SECOND PLACE – Ashley Goetzfried, Environmental Engineering
Project: Efficient Removal of Organic Micropollutants from Municipal and Agricultural Wastewater by KrCI* Excimer Lamps
Faculty Mentor: Jiale Xu
THIRD PLACE – Kira Eliason, Environmental Engineering
Project: Rare Earth Elements in Sands Collected from Southern California Sea Beaches
Faculty Mentor: Syeed Iskander
HONORABLE MENTION – Shane Corbett, Psychology
Project: Geographic and General Trends in Sleep Manipulation Research: A Bibliometric Analysis
Faculty Mentor: Leah Irish

POSTER PRESENTATIONS

FIRST PLACE – Madison Christenson and Danielle Wright, Microbiology
Project: The Effectiveness of chlorine Dioxide as a Sporicidal Agent against Paenibacillus larvae
Faculty Mentor: Birgit Pruess, Microbiological Sciences
SECOND PLACE (TIE) – Brooke Kohler, Biological Sciences
Project: Effects of Flonicamid on the Locomotion of the Alfalfa Leafcutting Bee
Faculty Mentor: Jacob Pithan, Biological Sciences
SECOND PLACE (TIE) – Koby Pearson-Bortle, Biological Sciences
Project: Wing damage propagation in alfalfa leafcutting bee
Faculty Mentor: Jacob Pithan, Biological Sciences
THIRD PLACE - Drew Jordahl, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
Project: Expanding the “Library” of Metal-Organic Frameworks for Enzyme Biomineralization
Faculty Mentor: Zhongyu Yang, Chemistry and Biochemistry

HONORABLE MENTION – Garrett Honzay, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
Project: Effect of Surface Mutations on Reactivity of Coproheme Decarboxylase with Hydrogen Peroxide
Faculty Mentor: Kenton Rodgers, Chemistry and Biochemistry
HONORABLE MENTION – Zoe Muccatira, Earth, Environmental, and Geospatial Sciences
Project: Environmental Controls on Morphological Diversity: A Case Study on the Late Triassic Monotis
Faculty Mentor: Lydia Tackett, Earth, Environmental, and Geospatial Sciences

POSTERS

FIRST PLACE - Heather North - Biological Sciences
Faculty Mentor: Julia Bowsher
Title: Concomitant pesticides in bumble bees: the effects of thiamethoxam and glyphosate on circadian rhythmicity and activity in the Bumblebee, Bombus impatiens
SECOND PLACE - Komila Rasuleva - Biomedical Engineering
Faculty Mentor: Dali Sun
Title: β-sheet Richness of Extracellular Vesicles for Pancreatic Cancer Screening
THIRD PLACE - Muhammad Shahid Iqbal - Environmental and Conservation Science
Faculty Mentor: Stephanie S. Day
Title: Riverbank Instability Analysis of the Red River in Fargo, North Dakota.
FOURTH PLACE - Mankanwal Goraya - Plant Pathology
Faculty Mentor: Guiping Yan
Title: Development of a recombinase polymerase amplification assay for rapid detection of the stubby root nematode, Paratrichodorus allius.

ORAL PRESENTATIONS

FIRST PLACE - Justin Clarke - Natural Resources Management
Faculty Mentor: Torre Hovick
Title: Avian Nest Survival in a Heterogeneity-based Rotation Grazing System
SECOND PLACE - Harkamal Kaur - Plant Pathology
Faculty Mentor: Guiping Yan
Title: Reproduction of soybean cyst nematode on commercial cultivars and breeding lines of dry edible bean
THIRD PLACE - Jose Figueroa-Cerna - Plant Sciences
Faculty Mentor: Juan Osorno
Title: Dry Beans: Genomic prediction for resistance to white mold
FOURTH PLACE - Mohammad Irshad Reza - Pharmaceutical Sciences
Faculty Mentor: Sathish Venkatachalem
Title: Arylhydrocarbon Receptor in Airway Smooth Muscle

UNDERGRADUATE POSTER

FIRST PLACE - Mia Haugan, Microbiology and Biotechnology
Title: Using a Genomically Diverse Rhizobium leguminosarum Library to Identify Elite Strains for Biological Nitrogen Fixation in Pisum sativum
Advised by Barney Geddes
SECOND PLACE - Mercedes Morin, Biotechnology
Title: Advancing Health Targeted Foods for Glycemic Control and Cognitive Functions from Indigenous Food Systems
Advised by Kalidas Shetty
THIRD PLACE - Natalie Visich, Microbiology and Biotechnology
Title: Characterization and Collection of Rhizobium leguminosarum Strains from North Dakota Soils
Advised by Barney Geddes
HONORABLE MENTION - Ashton Esco, Biotechnology
Title: Prevalence of seedborne transmission of fungal pathogens in commercial sugar beet lots.
Advised by Nathan Wyatt

GRADUATE POSTER

FIRST PLACE - TM Shaikh, Plant Sciences
Title: Homozygosity Mapping Identified Loci and Candidate Genes Responsible for Freezing Tolerance in Camelina sativa
Advised by Mukhlesur Rahman
SECOND PLACE - Gagandeep Brar, Biological Sciences
Title: Do pollen-borne microbes benefit juvenile growth and survival in the solitary bee, Megachile rotundata?
Advised by Julia Bowsher
THIRD PLACE - Amanda Pease, Microbiological Sciences
Title: Chemotactic Differences Between Strains of Rhizobium leguminosarum bv. viciae
Advised by Birgit Pruess and Barney Geddes

UNDERGRADUATE ORAL

FIRST PLACE - Savannah Rivers, Equine Science and Animal Science
Title: You don’t have to be a work horse to know your horse: A look into the validity of equine personality assessments.
Advised by Carrie Hammer
SECOND PLACE - Katlyn Balstad, Crop and Weed Sciences and Management Communication
Title: Advancing Great Plains Food Crops to Evaluate Glycemic Control and Cognitive Functional Bioactive Compounds
Advised by Kalidas Shetty
THIRD PLACE - Carly George, Biotechnology and Crop and Weed Sciences
Title: Functional Anaylsis of Gene PtrV1_06931 using Crispr-Cas9 Technique
Advised by Zhaohui Liu

GRADUATE ORAL

FIRST PLACE - Shivreet Kaur, Plant Pathology
Title: Tapping global wheat diversity for identifying novel sources of genetic resistance against the cereal killer, wheat rust
Advised by Upinder Gill
SECOND PLACE - Grady Gullickson, Animal Science
Title: The effects of replacing dried distillers grains with solubles with a heat-treated soybean meal in forage-based growing cattle diets
Advised by Zachary Carlson
THIRD PLACE - Md Zahangir Alam, Plant Sciences
Title: Resistance of Canola (Brassica napus L.) to Leptoshaeria maculans Infection
Advised by Mukhlesur Rahman