Month: May 2016

• Student Accomplishments – May 2016

Posted on May 31, 2016November 26, 2024 by Eskin, Jodi

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Please join us in congratulating the UConn undergraduates named below for their significant research and creative accomplishments in spring 2016. Students: if you have an accomplishment to share, please do so using this online form.

AWARDS

Congratulations to Quian Callender ’16 (BUS), the first undergraduate to be selected as a recipient of the GE Global Fellowship Award from the Center for International Business Education and Research (CIBER). Quian presented his research on international aspects of healthcare quality at the program’s annual event on April 15, 2016.

Brock Chimileski ’17 (CLAS) has been selected as the first Beckman Scholar at UConn. The Beckman Scholars program will support Brock’s independent research in Alexander Jackson’s laboratory in the Department of Physiology and Neurobiology for two summers and one academic year. Congratulations, Brock!

Sarah Mosure ’17 (CLAS) received a Founders Affiliate Undergraduate Student Summer Fellowship Award from the American Heart Association. She will be working under the supervision of Professor Li Wang in the Wang Lab this summer. Congratulations, Sarah!

Congratulations to Michael Cantara ’16 (CLAS), Alexander Choi ’16 (ENG), and Brendan Smalec ’16 (CLAS, SFA), undergraduate recipients of 2016 NSF Graduate Research Fellowships! They are among the 10 UConn students and alumni who won fellowships this year; 21 UConn students and alumni earned Honorable Mentions in this year’s competition.

PUBLICATIONS

Hannah Gerhard ’18 (CAHNR) was a co-author on a recent publication from the Luo Lab:

Hu, Q. Gerhard, H., Upadhyaya, I., Venkitanarayanan, K., & Luo, Y. (2016). Antimicrobial eugenol nanoemulsion prepared by gum arabic andlecithin and evaluation of drying technologies. International Journal of Biological Macromolecules, 87, 130-140. doi:10.1016/j.ijbiomac.2016.02.051.

Alyssa Mathiowetz ’17 (CLAS) was a co-author on a recent publication from the Campellone Lab, as were two past undergraduate researchers, Ashley Russo ’14 (CLAS) and Steven Hong ’14 (CLAS):

Russo, A.J., Mathiowetz, A.J., Hong, S., Welch, M.D., & Campellone, K.G. (2016). Rab1 recruits the actin nucleation machinery but limits filament assembly during membrane remodeling. Molecular Biology of the Cell, 27(6), 967-978. E15-07-0508.

Oghenfejiro Okifo ’16 (CLAS) was a co-author on a recent publication from the Teschke Lab:

Harprecht, C., Okifo, O., Robbins, K.J., Motwani, T., Alexandrescu, A.T., & Teschke, C.M. (2016). Contextual role of a salt-bridge in the phage P22 coat protein I-domain. The Journal of Biological Chemistry, 291, 11359-11372. doi: 10.1074/jbc.M116.716910

EXHIBITIONS

Spring 2016 included a series of incredible exhibitions by the following undergraduate students:

Christy Corey
Jasmine Jones
Ryan King

Christy Corey ’16 (SFA) – UConn IDEA Grant recipient
TODO MODO: Food and Recipe Illustrations

Jasmine Jones ’16 (SFA) – UConn IDEA Grant recipient
Voices, Volume 1: Ballroom

Ryan King ’16 (SFA) – UConn IDEA Grant recipient
Visual Meditation

Madeline Nicholson ’17 (SFA) – UConn IDEA Grant recipient
Whispers of Light: A Video and Sound Installation

Giorgina Paiella ’16 (CLAS) – UConn IDEA Grant recipient
Woman a Machine: Gender, Automation, and Created Beings

PRESENTATIONS

Eastern Psychological Association Annual Meeting – March 3-5, 2016 – New York, NY

William Chan ’16 (CLAS) & Henry Guo ’16 (CLAS) – OUR Travel Award recipients
Assessing public perceptions of recent epidemics in children

Nicole Gherlone ’16 (CLAS) – OUR Travel Award recipient
Associations between asthma and central obesity in children: A case-control study in a pediatric emergency department (PED)

Eastern Society for Pediatric Research Annual Meeting – March 11-13, 2016 – Philadelphia, PA

Lena Capozzi ’16 (CLAS), Eric Dunn ’16 (CLAS), & Morgan McKenna ’18 (CLAS) – OUR Travel Award recipients
Do women and men implicitly create cognitive maps within a virtual environment?

Stephen Friedland ’16 (CLAS) – OUR Travel Award recipient
The effects of estrogen on hippocampal-dependent spatial memory

National Conference of Black Political Scientists Annual Meeting – March 16-20, 2016 – Jackson, MS

Sydney Carr ’18 (CLAS) – OUR Travel Award recipient
How the public views black presidential candidates

Geological Society of America, South-Central Section, 50th Annual Meeting – March 21-22, 2016 – Baton Rouge, LA

Kezhen Wang ’17 (CAHNR) – OUR Travel Award recipient
A 2-D land-building model for suspended sediment in coastal diversions

Geological Society of America, Northeastern Section, 51st Annual Meeting – March 21-23, 2016 – Albany, NY

Chad Fagan ’16 (CLAS) – OUR Travel Award recipient
An organic molecular record of post-glacial climate and fire occurrence in a southern New England wetland core

Nathan Corcoran ’16 (CLAS) – OUR Travel Award recipient
Assessing coastal erosion hazard vulnerability in Connecticut

Society for Research on Adolescence Biennial Meeting – March 31-April 2, 2016 – Baltimore, MD

Samantha Lawrence ’17 (CLAS)
Justifying bullying: How previous experiences predict adolescent moral reasoning about exclusion used to bully in same-race and cross-race situations

Myroslava Veres ’16 (CLAS) – OUR Travel Award recipient
The relation between personal bullying experience with evaluations of various response strategies to exclusion bullying scenarios

Cognitive Neuroscience Society Annual Meeting – April 2-5, 2016 – New York, NY

Seng and Orvis at CNS — Kagnica Seng and Patrick Orvis presenting at CNS.

Courtney McQuade ’16 (CLAS) – OUR Travel Award recipient
The effects of nicotine on conditioning, extinction, and reinstatement

Patrick Orvis ’16 (CLAS) & Kagnica Seng ’16 (CLAS) – OUR Travel Award recipients
Body posture and the representation of “abstract” concepts

Northeast Writing Centers Association Conference – April 2-3, 2016 – Keene, NH

Alexandria Bottelsen ’16 (CLAS, ED)
Writing centers are great, just not for my students: The dilemma of high school writing centers

Noah Bukowski ’17 (CLAS)
The disabled body in the public sphere of the writing center

Rofina Johnkennedy ’16 (CLAS), Luke LaRosa ’16 (CLAS), Sindhu Mannava ’16 (CLAS), Yasemin Saplakoglum ’16 (ENG), & Nathan Wojtyna ’16 (CAHNR)
Writing with the disciplines: How fellows draw on ways of knowing from their majors to first-year composition discussion sections

Eastern Nursing Research Society, 28th Annual Scientific Sessions – April 13-15, 2016 – Pittsburgh, PA

Laura Mandell ’16 (NUR) – OUR Travel Award recipient
Predictors of persistent infant car seat challenge failure

Meaghan Sullivan ’16 (NUR) – OUR Travel Award recipient
Breast milk exposure and the incidence of necrotizing enterocolitis in very low birth weight pre-term infants

New England Political Science Association Annual Conference – April 21-23, 2016 – Newport, RI

Christian Caron ’16 (CLAS) – OUR Travel Award recipient
The transparency of single-candidate super PACs

Pediatric Academic Societies Meeting – April 30-May 3, 2016 – Baltimore, MD

Pavan Anant ’16 (CLAS) & Michael Powell ’16 (CLAS) – OUR Travel Award recipients
Parental perceptions of medical marijuana in an urban children’s medical center

• 2016 Mentorship Excellence Awards

Posted on May 11, 2016 by

In recognition of the pivotal role that mentors play in supporting undergraduate research and creative activity, the Office of Undergraduate Research is pleased to announce the recipents of the 2016 Mentorship Excellence Awards. These awards recognize two faculty members – one in a STEM field, and one in a non-STEM field – and one graduate student who exemplify the ways in which outstanding mentors challenge and support their students, enabling them to take intellectual risks and achieve milestones they might not have initially envisioned being able to reach.

The 2016 Mentorship Excellence Awards were presented to Dwight Codr, Etan Markus, and Samantha Yohn during the Frontiers in Undergraduate Research Poster Exhibition on Friday, April 8, 2016.

Dwight Codr, Associate Professor of English
Professor Codr’s award was presented by Giorgina Paiella ’16 (CLAS), who has completed several research grants and projects under his advisement. The following text is excerpted from Giorgina’s nomination and presentation remarks.

Dwight Codr and Giorgina Paiella — Mentorship Excellence Award winner Dwight Codr with Giorgina Paiella.

There are some people with whom you cross paths who end up having a tremendous impact on your life. Professor Dwight Codr is one of those individuals. I met him almost four years ago, when I was a freshman in his Introduction to Literary Studies course. That class was the first English course of my college career, and to this day, it is one of the best classes that I have taken at UConn. The course, more commonly known among English students as “the Frankenstein course,” is renowned in the department for being an engaging, creative approach to literary interpretation. He is unsurprisingly a favorite professor to many students of English.

Professor Codr has guided me through one class seminar, two independent studies to prepare me for my thesis work, a summer research paper, an exhibition that I curated in the Dodd Center, and my University Scholar project. This fall, I applied to graduate school. Professor Codr guided me through writing my personal statement and gathering my application materials. The application process would have been difficult were it not for Professor Codr’s constant support and encouragement of my promise as a student. He is a tireless mentor who responds to student emails late at night far beyond what is required of his duties as an instructor. He encourages office hour visits and calls in order to work through research questions and other inquiries, and he does this all out of a passion for student learning and growth. Professor Codr is an exceptional researcher, an engaging and passionate instructor, and at the same time humble and caring. It is rare to find these qualities combined in a person, and even rarer in a mentor.

I am happy to say that I will be pursuing a graduate degree in the fall. It is my goal to become a university professor, where I hope to pay forward the support that I have received at this university and aim for the exceptional mentorship standard that Professor Codr has set.

Etan Markus, Professor of Psychological Sciences
Professor Markus’ award was presented by Stephanie Vu ’16 (CLAS), one of many undergraduate researchers in the Markus lab. The following text is excerpted from Stephanie’s presentation remarks.

Dr. Markus takes a personal interest in the lives of his undergraduate researchers to ensure that we not only conduct exceptional research but enjoy doing so. He has cultivated a sense of community within the lab by hosting lab dinners, conducting weekly lab meetings, and most importantly, providing a constant supply of snacks and hot chocolate in the lounge so that we never go hungry after running hour-long experiments.

Clearly, this kind of care and commitment to his students also translates into the excellent mentorship he provides within the lab setting. Despite being a mentor for over 15 undergraduate researchers, Dr. Markus has never failed to inspire each and every one of us to pursue our future aspirations and to be confident in our academic and research abilities. He has encouraged us to pursue independent research, attend research conferences such as NEURON and Society for Neuroscience, and apply for research awards and fellowships. There have been countless times when Dr. Markus has come in on weekends to work with his students 1:1. He has even taken me on spontaneous field trips to the Depot Campus or the supply store to test out new experimental designs to improve my research project. His enthusiasm and passion has empowered us to push the limits of our undergraduate education and to engage in quality research.

These past four years I have been fortunate enough to learn from Dr. Markus’s research abilities and to have a mentor who is truly invested in his students’ successes. I can speak for the other students in his lab that working under Dr. Markus’s guidance has been one of the hallmarks of our college careers.

Samantha Yohn, Ph.D. Student, Behavioral Neuroscience, Salamone Laboratory
Dr. Yohn – who successfully defended her dissertation the day prior – was presented with her award by Giuseppe Tripodi ’16 (CLAS), one of many undergraduate researchers who works under her supervision in the Salamone lab. The following text is excerpted from Guiseppe’s presentation remarks.

Sam is a Psychology Ph.D. student in the Salamone Lab, and I have been privileged to work beside her since the beginning of my junior year. As a student with zero experience in the field of research, I felt nothing short of intimidated and overwhelmed. However, with Sam’s guidance and talent, she made me feel as if I had been a part of the lab for years.

With finesse, she explains difficult, unfamiliar concepts easily, as if it were second nature to her. Every day she teaches us novel concepts and techniques crucial for the lab to function properly, quizzing us out of the blue to make the information stick, and pushing us to practice under a watchful eye until our techniques are perfected.

Over countless hours working with her, my fellow undergraduate students and I began not just to trust one another but also to trust ourselves, to become self-reliant. In her rare absences we are able to act independently whenever the need arises, a skill many are not fortunate enough to be able to practice in the field of research, and for that, we are in her debt.

Lastly, Sam’s involvement has reached us not only on a professional level, but also a personal one. She is never hesitant to donate her time or effort to help her undergrads, whether we need it because of stress from school, family troubles, or fears of the future. Sam has truly established a second family here in the Salamone lab, and she will undoubtedly be missed as she leaves to further her career at Vanderbilt University.

Congratulations to the 2016 award recipients! The Office of Undergraduate Research thanks the undergraduate students who nominated their faculty and graduate student mentors as well as the Peer Research Ambassadors who served on this year’s selection committee.

Etan Markus and Stephanie Vu — Stephanie Vu presents Etan Markus with his Mentorship Excellence Award.

Salamone, Yohn, and Tripodi — Professor John Salamone, honoree Samantha Yohn, and Giuseppe Tripodi.

• Congratulations, Summer 2016 SURF Award Recipients!

Posted on May 2, 2016 by

Shaharyar Zuberi ’17 (CLAS), one of 44 recipients of a 2016 SURF Award in support of full-time summer research.

The Office of Undergraduate Research is pleased to announce the selection of 44 undergraduate students to receive SURF Awards in support of their summer undergraduate research projects. The faculty review committee was impressed by the extremely high caliber of the 60 applications submitted this year.

Click here to view the full list of Summer 2016 SURF award recipients.

Congratulations to the SURF awardees! Your academic achievements, curiosity, initiative, and motivation were evident in your applications. You have a challenging summer of deep engagement with the process of academic inquiry ahead of you. We look forward to hearing about all you learn!

We thank the faculty members who supported SURF applicants in a range of roles: mentors, letter writers, and faculty review committee members. SURF represents a collaborative effort between students and faculty. This program would simply not be possible without the support and participation of the UConn faculty!

OUR also extends thanks to SURF supporters in the UConn community. We are grateful to the Provost’s Office, the Office of the Vice President for Research, and to the Deans of the Schools and Colleges of Agriculture, Health and Natural Resources; Education; Engineering; Fine Arts; Nursing; and Pharmacy, who all contributed funding to the SURF competition this year. Alumni, parents, and friends of UConn also helped fund SURF awards. This collaborative funding effort ensures that SURF supports a diverse array of undergraduate research endeavors. We are grateful to all of our program partners for making intensive summer research opportunities available to students seeking to enrich their undergraduate experience in this way.

Once again, congratulations to the recipients of 2016 SURF awards, and good luck with your summer projects!