Student Research Days 2026 Awardees

EXPLORE

Poster Presentations

• First Place: Kianna Bannerman and Olivia Boyd
  Project: Unpacking Students’ Thinking About Mutation: Insights for Teaching Undergraduate Biology
  Mentor: Jennifer Momsen, PhD
• Second Place: Cora Larson and Hannah Johnson
  Project: The Relationship Between Social Support, Strain, and Anxiety in Undergraduate Students
  Mentor: Anna Finley, PhD
• Third Place: Zubin Park
  Project: Polyaniline-Graphene Oxide Coating Primer for Automotive Applications
  Mentor: Eugene Caldona, PhD
• Honorable Mention: Andrea Clarisse Corrales
  Project: Improving Tobacco Etch Virus NIa Protease for Improved Fusion Protein Cleavage Efficiency
  Mentor: Christopher Colbert, PhD

Oral Presentations

• First Place: Madison Patterson
  Project: The Replication Factor A (RFA) complex participates in a unique pathway that while promoting cell growth, also leads to increased frequency of DNA mutation
  Mentor: Stuart Haring, PhD
• Second Place: Jack Leone
  Project: How Microplastics Make Their Way into Your Cup of Coffee
  Mentor: Syeed Iskander, PhD
• Third Place: Nora Daub
  Project: In Vitro Characterization of Fluorescent Biosensors in Nitrogen-Fixing Bacteria
  Mentor: Barney Geddes, PhD

Graduate

Graduate Student Council Poster

• First Place: Bright Mensah
  Doctoral Student, Agriculture and Biosystems Engineering
  Detection of Insect-Damaged Sunflower Seeds Using Near-Infrared Hyperspectral Imaging
  Advisor: Xin "Rex" Sun, Ph.D., Endowed Chair and Director of the Peltier Institute
• Second Place: Vishesh Mishra
  Doctoral Student, Coatings and Polymeric Materials Surface Self-Segregation in Moisture-Curable Hybrid Urea-Siloxane Coatings for Durable Large-Scale Ice Shedding properties
  Advisor: Dean Webster, Ph.D., Coatings and Polymeric Materials
• Third Place: Jacob Fanno
  Doctoral Student, Health, Nutrition, and Exercise Sciences
  Test-Retest Reliability and Least Significant Change of Bioelectrical Impedance Metrics
  Advisor: Kyle Hackney, Ph.D., Health, Nutrition and Exercise Sciences

Graduate Student Council Oral Presentation

• First Place: Hunter Gallagher
  Master's Student, Horticulture and Urban Agriculture
  Intercropping Cabbage and Onion as a Pest Management Strategy
  Advisor: Harlene Hatterman-Valenti, Ph.D., Plant Sciences
• Second Place: Matheus Belin
  Doctoral Student, Pharmaceutical Sciences
  Intranasal Spray as a Treatment for Alzheimer’s Disease
  Advisor: Jagdish Singh, Ph.D., Chair/University Distinguished Professor, Pharmaceutical Sciences
• Third Place: Emily Hackerson
  Doctoral Student, Biological Sciences
  ‘Here We Go, Another Professor with Their Special Way of Doing Their Things’: Promoting Social Metacognition in a CURE using a Modified Scrum Framework
  Advisor: Jenni Momsen, Ph.D., Professor Biological Sciences and DBER Director

Gamma Sigma Delta Poster Presentations

• First Place: Gayathri Senanayake
  Doctoral Student, Microbiological Sciences
  Characterising the role of accessory genes within the Mesorhizobium japonicum Integrative Conjugative Element (ICE) in mediating competitive symbiosis with Lotus japonicus GAYATHRI SENANAYAKE
  Advisor: Barney Geddes, Ph.D., Assistant Professor and Richard and Linda Offerdahl Faculty Fellow
• Second Place: Mairene Souza
  Master's Student, Natural Resource Science
  Optimizing Nitrogen Inputs in Malting Barley Production
  Advisor: Brady Goettl, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Soil Sciences

Gamma Sigma Delta Oral Presentations

• First Place: Edward Cedrick Fernandez
  Doctoral Student, Genomics, Phenomics & Bioinformatics
  Understanding photosynthetic stress responses to improve crop resilience in barley
  Advisor: Zhikai Liang, Ph.D., Assistant Professor Omics and Predictive Modeling Appl. Plant Breeding
• Second Place: Privillege Muleya
  Master's Student, Plant Sciences
  Companion crops suppress weeds during pollinator plant species establishment
  Advisor: Marisol Berti, Ph.D., Plant Sciences