Forum Award Winners
In 2024, we are recognized 24 projects with $500 awards. Please check back after April 11 for the 2025 award winner.
1. CNS Award for Excellence in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Presenters: Evelyn Allsup
Title: Measuring Star Formation Rates Using Paschen Alpha for Galaxies 1
Supervised by: Dr. Steve Finkelstein
2. CNS Award for Excellence in Biochemistry
Presenter: Arnav Patil
Title: Discovery of novel Allosteric Inhibitors of 3-Oxoacyl ACP Reductase in Plasmodium falciparum
Supervised by: Dr. Josh Beckham
3. CNS Award for Excellence in Biochemistry
Presenter: Tanisha Jasani
Title: Examining Effects of Twist1 Inhibition with Small Molecules for the Prevention and Treatment of Cutaneous Squamous Cell Carninoma
Supervised by: Dr. John DiGiovanni
4. CNS Award for Excellence in Biochemistry
Presenter: Nicholas Bastia
Title: Renal PEPCK-C downregulation correlates with lowered systemic glucose homeostasis in mice
Supervised by: Dr. Toshiharu Onodera
5. CNS Award for Excellence in Chemistry
Presenters: Emma Kalokowski
Title: A guide to electrocatalyst stability using lab scale alkaline water electrolyzers
Supervised by: Dr. Raul Marquez-Montes
6. CNS Award for Excellence in Chemistry
Presenters: Sofia Mauri, Berkeley Ho, Rohan Patel, Panhapich Chea
Title: Characterization of brown seaweeds via differential sensing and untargeted LC/MS metabolomics
Supervised by: Dr. Diana Zamora-Olivares
7. CNS Award for Excellence in Computer Science & Computer Engineering
Presenters: Zayaan Rahman, Siddhi Bansal, Phillip Phan
Title: Enhancing Stellar Temperature Estimation Through Machine Learning and Multifaceted Data Exploration
Supervised by: Dr. Shyamal Mitra
8. Thermo Fisher Scientific Award for Excellence in STEM Outreach & Education
Presenter: Alec Weigel
Title: Closing the endless frontier: Developments in post-2014 Brazilian science policy
Supervised by: Dr. Eugenio Arima
9. CNS Award for Excellence in Human Development, Family Sciences, & Psychology
Presenter: Jessica Villarreal
Title: The moderating role of age of adolescent’ brokering onset in language brokering experiences and working memory in Mexican-origin adolescents
Supervised by: Dr. Su Yeong Kim
10. CNS Award for Excellence in Human Development, Family Sciences, & Psychology
Presenters: Cara Tao and Rachel Chiang
Title: The impact of screen time on the behavioral health of toddlers and preschoolers
Supervised by: Dr. Amy Bryan
11. CNS Award for Excellence in Integrative Biology & Environmental Science
Presenter: Alan Vuong
Title: The neurogenic mechanisms underlying the relationship between learning and behavior in a species with complex mating systems
Supervised by: Dr. Molly Cummings
12. CNS Award for Excellence in Integrative Biology & Environmental Science
Presenter: Abigail Beman
Title: Shared neural transcriptomic patterns underlie the repeated evolution of mutualistic cleaning behavior in Labridae wrasses
Supervised by: Dr. Rebecca Young
13. CNS Award for Excellence in Integrative Biology & Environmental Science
Presenter: Liz Reed
Title: Characterizing the gut microbiomes of damselflies and mayflies
Supervised by: Dr. Jo-Anne Holley
14. CNS Award for Excellence in Integrative Biology & Environmental Science
Presenter: Tharani Waduwara
Title: Population Genetics of Lettuce Coral in St. Croix, US Virgin Islands
Supervised by: Dr. Pedro Metola
15. CNS Award for Excellence in Clinical & Medical Research
Presenter: Sriya Dommaraju
Title: Direct RNA biomarker validation in inflammatory breast cancer plasma
Supervised by: Dr. Alan Lambowitz
16. Thermo Fisher Scientific Award for Excellence in Molecular Biology
Presenter: Jeffrey You
Title: Interrogating the senescence associated secretory phenotype (SASP) and its dependence on the ATM interacting protein (ATMIN)
Supervised by: Dr. Tanya Paull
17. Thermo Fisher Scientific Award for Excellence in Molecular Biology
Presenter: Bailey de Jesus
Title: Utilizing the auxin-inducible degron to study cell polarity dynamics in C. elegans and mouse embryonic stem cells
Supervised by: Dr. Daniel Dickinson
18. Thermo Fisher Scientific Award for Excellence in Molecular Biology
Presenter: Kristen Holladay
Title: Unconventional regulators of vertebrate axis elongation
Supervised by: Dr. John Wallingford
19. Thermo Fisher Scientific Award for Excellence in Molecular Biology
Presenter: Reiko Tachibana
Title: Exploring Ribosome Pausing: A Nucleotide-Resolution Analysis with Ribosome Profiling
Supervised by: Dr. Can Cenik
20. CNS Award for Excellence in Neuroscience
Presenter: April Ju
Title: Modeling Delayed Probabilistic Punishment in Risk-based Decision Making
Supervised by: Dr. Caitlin A. Orsini
21. CNS Award for Excellence in Neuroscience
Presenter: Dhruv Aggarwal
Title: Investigating the neural circuitry of hyperarousal using a novel mouse model of Stress-Induced Fear Sensitization
Supervised by: Dr. Michael R. Drew
22. CNS Award for Excellence in Public Health & Nutrition
Presenter: Kishore Botla
Title: Investigating the effects of acute shift work exposure on circadian rhythmicity and the stress response within murine hearts
Supervised by: Dr. Molly Bray
23. CNS Award for Excellence in Physics
Presenter: Angel Martinez
Title: Characterizing the Bond-Percolation Metal-Insulator Transition in La1-xRxNiO3 Nickelates (R = Y, Nd)
Supervised by: Dr. John T. Markert
24. CNS Award for Excellence in Statistics, Data Science, & Mathematics
Presenter: Shankar Padmanabhan
Title: Understanding and Validating Grokking in Neural Networks
Supervised by: Dr. Richard Tsai
