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Guided by HRP mentor Dr. Ephraim Trakhtenberg, postdoctoral fellow Juhwan Kim demonstrates microscope-assisted surgery to master’s student Muhammad Sajid (background), HRP student Kathleen Renna, and M.D.-Ph.D. student Bruce Rheaume. (Photo by Ethan Giorgetti)The Office of Undergraduate Research is pleased to announce the next phase of the Health Research Program (HRP). This program offers a pathway into undergraduate research for students with interests in health and/or the biomedical sciences. By facilitating connections between UConn Health researchers and UConn undergraduates, the program aims to involve more students in research at UConn Health.
For students interested in participating in this program for Summer 2018, here is the key information:
Summer 2018 opportunities are now posted on the HRP website. There are 26 opportunities that range from software development to public health, biomaterials to neuroscience, genetics to bioinformatics. The application deadline for these opportunities is Friday, January 26, 2018.
All of these opportunities are slated to continue into the 2018-19 academic year. Continuation is contingent on satisfactory progress over the course of the summer and both student and faculty mentor interest in continuing the placement.
To be eligible for Summer 2018 HRP opportunities, studentsmust plan to graduate no sooner than May 2019.
Further details and answers to frequently asked questions are available on the Health Research Program website. Students are encouraged to peruse the posted opportunities and begin preparing application materials for any placements of interest. We urge students to take care to consider the time commitment and schedule options involved in a given opportunity to ensure that they can accommodate these demands in their summer and academic year schedule.
Please join us in congratulating the UConn undergraduates named below for their significant research and creative accomplishments in summer and fall 2017. Students: if you have an accomplishment to share, please do so using this online form.
AWARDS
Congratulations to Catherine Cabano ’18 (CAHNR) and Alexander Holmgren ’18 (CLAS), UConn’s two undergraduate representatives at the Universitas 21 Research Conference in Edinburgh, Scotland in June 2017.
PUBLICATIONS
Nicole Gomez ’18 (CLAS) was a co-author on a recent publication from Jessica Rouge’s lab:
Santiana, J. J., Sui, B., Gomez, N., & Rouge, J. L. (2017). Programmable Peptide-Cross-Linked Nucleic Acid Nanocapsules as a Modular Platform for Enzyme Specific Cargo Release. Bioconjugate Chemistry. doi: 10.1021/acs.bioconjchem.7b00629
Naseem Sardashti ’18 (ENG), an undergraduate in the Health Research Program, was a co-author on a recent publication based on research conducted with Dr. Sangamesh Kumbar at UConn Health:
Manoukian, O. S., Arul, M. R., Sardashti, N., Stedman, T., James, R., Rudraiah, S., & Kumbar, S. G. (2017). Biodegradable polymeric injectable implants for long-term delivery of contraceptive drugs. Journal of Applied Polymer Science, 135, 46068. doi: 10.1002/app.46068
Zachary Stempel ’18 (CLAS), a member of William Bailey’s lab, was the second author on two recent publications in Organic Letters and The Journal of Organic Chemistry:
Lambert, K. M., Stempel, Z. D., Wiberg, K. B., & Bailey, W. F. (2017). Experimental Demonstration of a Sizeable Nonclassical CH···G Hydrogen Bond in Cyclohexane Derivatives: Stabilization of an Axial Cyano Group. Organic Letters, 19(23), 6408-6411. doi: 10.1021/acs.orglett.7b03287
Lambert, K. M., Stempel, Z. D., Kiendzior, S. M., Bartelson, A. L., & Bailey, W. F. (2017). Enhancement of the Oxidizing Power of an Oxoammonium Salt by Electronic Modification of a Distal Group. The Journal of Organic Chemistry, 82(21), 11440-11446. doi: 10.1021/acs.joc.7b01965
SUMMER RESEARCH ACTIVITIES
Pierre Fils ’18 (ENG) conducted research at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in the Climate Change Science Institute. Pierre had the opportunity to work on mid-scale, high performance computing clusters to analyze climate data with the goal of redesigning the ASHRAE Climate Zones.
Chelsea Garcia ’20 (CAHNR)
Chelsea Garcia ’20 (CAHNR) participated in the Bridging the Gap Program funded by the USDA and coordinated by the Department of Nutritional Sciences. Dr. Christopher Blesso served as Chelsea’s research mentor for the summer experience. She presented her research poster, “Effects of Grape Consumption on Postprandial Response to a High Saturated Fat Test Meal,” at the Summer Research Poster Symposium in August.
Mark Garcia ’20 (CLAS) completed a research internship in Dr. Peter Raymond’s Biogeochemistry Laboratory at the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies.
Djion A. Holness ’19 (CAHNR) spent her summer at the University of Georgia engaged in research through an NSF funded REU program. Djion conducted veterinary diagnostic research exploring patters of co-infection in domestic dogs along the Panama Canal.
Two students spent the summer engaged in research at The Scripps Research Institute in Jupiter, FL. Through an NSF funded REU program, Mirella Fernandez ’19 (CLAS) worked in the Page Laboratory studying the effects of a double mutant gene on three known phenotypes of Autism Spectrum Disorder. Sarah Robbins ’18 (CAHNR, CLAS) conducted her summmer research in immunology under the direction of Dr. Matthew Pipkin. Sarah worked with in vivo models and RNAi silencing systems to identify transcription factors that function in CD8+ T cell development.
Tanya Miller ’20 (CLAS)
Tanya Miller ’20 (CLAS) participated in the Health Disparities Clinical Summer Research Fellowship Program through the UConn Health Department of Health Career Opportunity Programs (HCOP). Over the course of the seven week program, Tanya worked with the North Central Regional Mental Health Board under the direction of Quyen Truong, Outreach and Evaluation Manager, to research young adults’ opinions on health care. She presented her research “Community Conversation Among Young Adults on Health Care” at UConn Health in July.
Andrea Naranajo-Soledad ’19 (ENG) enjoyed the opportunity to work at Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU), a research-based university in China. Andrea studied photocatalytic, antifouling and humic acid removal properties of a membrane used for ultrafiltration in water.
Brittany Nelson ’19 (ENG) conducted research through the NSF REU program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the University of Puerto Rico-Mayaguez. Brittany’s project focused on controlling the behavior of human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs).
Kesan Samuel ’20 (CLAS) conducted field research at El Yunque Forest in Puerto Rico. Under the supervision of Dr. Steven Presley, Kesan studied gastropod and phasmid populations, assisting with sampling plots to identify and count various species.
Maya Schlesinger ’18 (CAHNR) completed a summer research fellowship at the San Diego Zoo Institute for Conservation Research. Maya studied a newly discovered parvovirus affecting Red Pandas at the San Diego Zoo.
Anthonia Wray ’19(CLAS), an NSF REU recipient, worked under the guidance of Dr. Jessica Plavicki in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at Brown University. Anthonia studied the effects of AHR activation in the liver using zebrafish models.
PRESENTATIONS
David Bachoy ’19 (CLAS)
Society for the Study of Human Development Biennial Meeting – October 6-8, 2017 – Providence, RI
David Bachoy ’19 (CLAS) – OUR Travel Award recipient Associations Between Marijuana Use and Time Spent Playing Different Types of Video Games Alone and with Others
Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES) Annual Meeting – October 11-14, 2017 – Phoenix, AZ
Norah Cowley ’18 (ENG) – OUR Travel Award recipient Analysis of Growth and Stiffness of Cancer Spheroids Using 3D-Printed Microtweezer Device
Norah Cowley ’18 (ENG)Amisha Dave ’18 (ENG)
Amisha Dave ’18 (ENG) – OUR Travel Award recipient mHealth Smartphone Application to Measure Risky Driving Behavior and Predict Crashes
Clinton Global Initiative University Conference (CGI U) – October 13-15, 2017 – Boston, MA
Akshayaa Chittibabu ’19 (CLAS) – Selected as a student presenter
American Physical Society Division of Nuclear Physics Fall Meeting – October 25-28, 2017 – Pittsburgh, PA
Sam Markelon ’20 (CLAS) – OUR Travel Award recipient gemcWeb
Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) Annual Meeting – October 27-30, 2017 – Minneapolis, MN
Katherine Saltzgiver ’18 (ENG)
Katherine Saltzgiver ’18 (ENG) – OUR Travel Award recipient Production and Utilization of Biochar from the Slow Pyrolysis of Food Waste
Obesity Week 2017 – October 29-November 2, 2017 – Washington, DC
Christiana Field ’17 (CLAS) – OUR Travel Award recipient Advances in Self-monitoring of Blood Glucose in Type-2 Diabetes: A Study on Patient Experiences
IEEE MIT Undergraduate Research Technology Conference – November 3-5, 2017 – Cambridge, MA
Xinkang Chen ’18 (ENG) & Md Tanvirul Islam ’19 (ENG) – OUR Travel Award recipients Comparison of Chirped and Unchirped Superlattices as Adjustable-Strain Platforms for Metamorphic InGaAs/GaAs Devices
Northeastern Glenn Symposium on Biology of Aging – November 9, 2017 – UConn Health, Farmington, CT
Jacob Macro ’19 (CLAS) & Pooja Patel ’18 (CLAS) – Health Research Program participants Indy Reduction Maintains Fly Health and Homeostasis
Society for Neuroscience (SFN) Annual Meeting – November 11-15, 2017 – Washington, DC
Danni Dong ’18 (CLAS) – OUR Travel Award recipient Observational Learning: Comparing a Foraging and Aversive Motivated Task in Female Rats
Thomas Pietruszewski ’19 (CLAS) – OUR Travel Award recipient Influence of the Social Environment on Female Rats Exploring a Novel Open Field
ASCB/EMBO 2017 Meeting – December 2-6, 2017 – Philadelphia, PA
Alyssa Mathiowetz ’18 (CLAS) – OUR Travel Award recipient Actin Nucleation Factors that Control Autophagy are Important for Zebrafish Organ Development
Xinkang Chen ’18 (ENG) and Md Islam ’19 (ENG)Pooja Patel ’18 (CLAS) and Jacob Macro ’19 (CLAS)Danni Dong ’18 (CLAS)
Please join us in congratulating the UConn undergraduates named below for their significant research and creative accomplishments in spring 2017. Students: if you have an accomplishment to share, please do so using this online form.
AWARDS
Alyssa Mathiowetz ’18 (CLAS) received a Founders Affiliate Undergraduate Student Summer Fellowship Award from the American Heart Association. She will be working under the supervision of Professor Kenneth Campellone in the Campellone Lab this summer, studying actin nucleation factors and autophagy in cardiovascular development. Congratulations, Alyssa!
Elizabeth Rodier ’18 and Jessica Young ’19 have been selected as UConn Beckman Scholars. The Beckman Scholars program will support their independent research in the Tzingounis Laboratory and the Sun Laboratory, respectively, for two summers and one academic year. Congratulations, Elizabeth and Jessica!
Congratulations to John Ovian ’17 (CLAS), pictured at right, and Diler Haji ’17 (CLAS), undergraduate recipients of 2017 NSF Graduate Research Fellowships! They are among the 10 UConn students and alumni who won NSF Graduate Research Fellowships this year.
PUBLICATIONS
Jack Morley ’17 (ENG) and Leopoldo Valencia ’17 (ENG) were co-authors on a recent publication from Seok-Woo Lee’s Lab, as was one past undergraduate researcher, Thomas Bissell ’16 (ENG):
Sayeda Najamussahar Peerzade ’20 (ENG) was a co-author on a recent publication based on research conducted with Dr. Vladimir Litvak at the University of Massachusetts Medical School:
Filiano, A.J., Xu, Y., Tustison, N.J., Marsh, R.L., Baker, W., Smirnov, I., Overall, C.C., Gadani, S.P., Turner, S.D., Wheng, Z., Najamussahar Peerzade, S.,, Chen, H., Lee, K.S., Scott, M.M, Beenhakker, M.P, Litvak, V., & Kipnis, J. (2016). Unexpected role of interferon-γ in regulating neuronal connectivity and social behavior. Nature, 535, 425-429. doi: 10.1038/nature18626.
Connor Occhialini ’18 (CLAS) was the first author on a recent publication in Physical Review B:
Occhialini, C.A.,, Handunkanda, S.U., Curry, E.B., & Hancock, J.N. (2017). Classical, quantum, and thermodynamics of a lattice model exhibiting structural negative thermal expansion. Physical Review B, 95, 094106. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevB.95.094106.
Nicolas Ochart ’18 (SFA) published a paper based on research he conducted while enrolled in ARTH 3530 – Contemporary Art, taught by Professor Margo Machida:
Ochart, N. (2017). Stark imagery: The male nude in art. Bowdoin Journal of Art, 3, 1-17. Full Text.
EXHIBITIONS, SCREENINGS, AND PERFORMANCES
Spring 2017 included a series of art exhibitions, screenings, and performances by the following undergraduate students:
Diana Abouchacra ’17 (SFA) – UConn IDEA Grant recipient Include|Exclude: Explorations of Xenophobia through Printmaking
Louise Astorino ’17 (SFA) – UConn IDEA Grant recipient Raccogliere: A Study of Gatherings and Public Spaces in Florence, Italy
Edward (John) Cody ’17 (SFA) – UConn IDEA Grant recipient 100 Birds: An Original Puppetry Production
Catherine Solari ’17 (SFA) – UConn IDEA Grant recipient STAMPEDE: A Solo Exhibition of Sculptural Printmaking
Over the course of the 2016-17 academic year, Ali Oshinskie ’17 (CLAS) created and produced a podcast, Professors Are People Too, about her experience as an English major and the delight of getting to know her professors. All past episodes are available at the link above.
PRESENTATIONS
Plant Animal Genome Conference – January 14-17, 2017 – San Diego, CA
Sumaira Zaman ’17 (ENG) – OUR Travel Award recipient Bioinformatic Evaluation of Transcriptomic Frame Selection Methods in Non-model Species
Samantha Mairson ’17 (SFA)American Library Association Midwinter Conference – January 20-24, 2017 – Atlanta, GA
Samantha Mairson ’17 (SFA) – OUR Travel Award recipient Museums, Libraries, and Civic Discourse in Connecticut: Omeka Everywhere
Yale Undergraduate Research Conference – February 11-12, 2017 – New Haven, CT
Radhika Malhotra ’18 (CLAS) – OUR Travel Award recipient Investigating the Role of Ras Signaling in Ovulation Using Drosophila Melanogaster as a Model System
American Association for the Advancement of Science Annual Meeting – February 16-20, 2017 – Boston, MA
Colin Cleary ’17 (CLAS) – OUR Travel Award recipient Investigating Service Learning Pedagogy in Undergraduate STEM Coursework
Jessica Griffin ’17 (CAHNR, CLAS)Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography Aquatic Sciences Meeting – February 26-March 3, 2017 – Honolulu, HI
Jessica Griffin ’17 (CAHNR, CLAS) – OUR Travel Award recipient Food Quality and Diet Preference in Mysis diluviana
Wilson Ornithological Society Annual Meeting – March 9-12, 2017 – Ft. Myers, FL
Nicholas Russo ’18 (CLAS) – Recipient of the Nancy Klamm Undergraduate Presentation Award for best student talk – OUR Travel Award recipient Avian Spring Migration as a Dispersal Mechanism for an Invasive Insect
American Physical Society Meeting – March 13-17, 2017 – New Orleans, LA
Connor Occhialini ’18 (CLAS) – OUR Travel Award recipient Inelastic X-Ray Scattering Study of Incipient and Realized Structural Transitions in Mercurous Halides
Sarah McGee ’17 (ENG), Cailah Carroll ’17 (ENG), Courtney Mulry ’17 (ENG), Katelyn Houlihan ’17 (ENG), & Celine Agnes ’17 (ENG)Rice 360 Undergraduate Global Health Technologies Competition – March 24, 2017 – Houston, TX
Celine Agnes ’17 (ENG), Rosalie Bordett ’17 (ENG), Cailah Carroll ’17 (ENG), Katelyn Houlihan ’17 (ENG), Sarah McGee ’17 (ENG) & Courtney Mulry ’17 (ENG) – OUR Travel Award recipients Promote KMC – Preventing Neo-Natal Mortality Using Technology Assisted Kangaroo Mother Care
CUNY Conference on Human Sentence Processing – March 30-April 1, 2017 – Cambridge, MA
Jessica Joseph ’17 (CLAS) – OUR Travel Award recipient Can Visual Shapes Influence Phoneme Perception?
American Chemical Society National Meeting – April 2-6, 2017 – San Francisco, CA
Sydney Scheirey ’18 (CLAS) – OUR Travel Award recipient Polyureas for Dielectric Applications Developed through a Rational Co-Design Approach
Jean-Marc Lawrence ’17 (CLAS) – OUR Travel Award recipient Separate Ways: Efforts to Resolve Planar Chiral [13]-Macrodilactones
Sam Lawrence ’17 (CLAS)Society for Research in Child Development Biennial Meeting – April 6-8, 2017 – Austin, TX
Maranda Jones ’17 (CLAS) – OUR Travel Award recipient Relationships between Auditory Brainstem Responses and Early Language in Typically Developing Children and Children with Autism
Samantha Lawrence ’17 (CLAS) – OUR Travel Award recipient Moral Judgments About Exclusion Bullying: The Role of Previous Experiences and Ethnicity of Participant, Excluders, and Victims
Midwest Political Science Association Conference – April 6-9, 2017 – Chicago, IL
Sydney Carr ’18 (CLAS) – OUR Travel Award recipient Can’t Fight This Feeling: Emotions, Political Participation, and Black Presidential Candidates
Meriden Public School District Meeting – April 21, 2017 – Meriden, CT
Tashua Sotil ’17 (CAHNR) The Meriden School Climate Survey: Student Version District Evaluation
Pacific University Undergraduate Philosophy Conference – April 21-22, 2017 – Pine Grove, OR
Christopher Caples ’17 (CLAS) – OUR Travel Award recipient The Ship of Plato, A Dualistic-Teleological Theory of Identity
Professor Michelle Judge and Brittany Molkenthin ’17 (NUR)Experimental Biology Annual Meeting – April 22-26, 2017 – Chicago, IL
Brittany Molkenthin ’17 (NUR) – OUR Travel Award recipient Evaluation of the Association of Toll-Like Receptor 4 and BMI with Postpartum Depressive Symptomatology
New England Political Science Association Conference – April 20-22, 2017 – Providence, RI
Marissa Piccolo ’17 (CLAS) – OUR Travel Award recipient Running and Winning: Understanding the Gender Differential in State Legislatures
Pediatric Academic Societies Meeting – May 6-9, 2017 – San Francisco, CA
Kristin Burnham ’18 (CLAS) – OUR Travel Award recipient Obesity Diagnosis in Pediatric Emergency Departments: A Missed Opportunity
Griffin Struyk ’17 (CLAS) – OUR Travel Award recipient Development and Validation of the Violence Prevention Emergency Tool
The Office of Undergraduate Research is pleased to announce the next phase of the Health Research Program (HRP). This program offers a new pathway into undergraduate research for students with interests in health and/or the biomedical sciences. By facilitating connections between UConn Health researchers and UConn undergraduates, the program aims to involve more students in research at UConn Health.
For students interested in participating in this program for Summer 2017 and/or Academic Year 2017-18, here is the key information:
Summer 2017 opportunities are now posted on the HRP website. There are 24 opportunities that range from software development to health policy, biosensors to neuroscience, genetics to molecular medicine. The application deadline for these opportunities is Friday, February 24, 2017. Most Summer 2017 opportunities are slated to continue into the 2017-18 academic year (they will continue if the student makes satisfactory progress over the course of the summer and both the student and the faculty mentor are interested in continuing the placement); those that will not continue are marked “Summer Only.” Summer researchers will receive a stipend of $4,000 to cover the expenses associated with participating in this program
Academic Year 2017-18 opportunities (i.e., research placements that begin in the fall) are also now posted on the HRP website. There are 4 opportunities in molecular medicine, orthopaedics, neuroscience, and immunology. The application deadline for these opportunities is also Friday, February 24, 2017. These academic year opportunities can continue into summer 2018, as long as the student makes satisfactory progress over the course of the academic year, both the student and the faculty mentor are interested in continuing the placement for summer, and the student will be returning to UConn as an undergraduate student for 2018-19.
To be eligible for Summer 2017 and Academic Year 2017-18 HRP opportunities, students must plan to graduate no sooner than May 2018.
Further details and answers to frequently asked questions are available on the Health Research Program website. Students are encouraged to peruse the posted opportunities and begin preparing application materials for any placements of interest. We also urge students to take care to consider the time commitment and schedule options involved in a given opportunity to ensure that they can accommodate these demands in their summer and/or academic year schedule.
Please join us in congratulating the UConn undergraduates named below for their significant research and creative accomplishments in summer and fall 2016. Students: if you have an accomplishment to share, please do so using this online form.
AWARDS
Audrey Gallo ’18 (ENG) completed a summer internship with LambdaVision, a UConn Technology Incubation Program startup company. She was mentored by Nicole Wagner, CEO of LambdaVision and Assistant Research Professor in Chemistry at UConn. Audrey completed the Connecticut Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation Summer Fellowship program, presented her research at the 2016 Massachusetts Life Sciences Innovation Day, and tied for first place in the Wolff New Venture Competition. Pictured are LambdaVision founders Dr. Jordan Greco ’10 (CLAS), ’15 Ph.D. (far left), and Dr. Nicole Wagner ’07 (CLAS), ’13 Ph.D. (far right), with undergraduate interns Molly Zgoda ’17 (CLAS) and Audrey Gallo. Photo by Nathan Oldham/UConn School of Business.
Congratulations to Catherine “Catrina” Nowakowski ’17 (ENG), one of three student winners of the CMAS Student Poster competition, and the only undergraduate winner. Catrina presented her research at the Community Modeling and Analysis System (CMAS) annual conference in Chapel Hill, NC on October 25, 2016, and is pictured at right with her faculty advisor, Marina Astitha, Assistant Professor of Civil & Environmental Engineering.
PUBLICATIONS
Nick Russo ’18 (CLAS) was the first author on a recent publication from the Tingley Lab:
Russo, N.J., Cheah, C. S.-J., Tingley, M.W. (2016). Experimental Evidence for Branch-to-Bird Transfer as a Mechanism for Avian Dispersal of the Hemlock Woolly Adelgid (Hemiptera: Adelgidae). Environmental Entomology, 45(5): 1107-1114. doi:10.1093/ee/nvw083
EXHIBITIONS
Fall 2016 brought us incredible exhibitions by the following undergraduate students:
Michael Amato ’17 (SFA) – SURF Award and OUR Supply Award recipient Flowhana: Photographs of the Hawaii Fire Artists
Raeanne Nuzzo ’17 (SFA) – UConn IDEA Grant recipient Fear: The Culture
OFF-CAMPUS RESEARCH ACTIVITIES
Three UConn students participated in the Jackson Laboratory Summer Student Program: Jennifer Allocco ’17 (CLAS) at the Bar Harbor, ME campus; and Nicole Gay ’17 (ENG) and Rujia (Lucia) Lian ’19 (CAHNR) at the Farmington, CT campus.
Jessica Griffin ’17 (CAHNR, CLAS) conducted research in summer 2016 through the Lake Champlain REU at the University of Vermont. She worked under the direction of Dr. Jason Stockwell examining the feeding preferences of lake invertebrate Mysis diluviana.
Savanna Smith ’18 (ENG) participated in the SURE Robotics program at Georgia Tech University in summer 2016. Her project, Detection Based Clinical Gail Analysis, was supervised by Dr. Patricio Vela, Associate Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering.
PRESENTATIONS
R: Samantha Lawrence ’17 (CLAS)
International Society for the Study of Behavioral Development (ISSBD) Biennial Meeting – July 10-14, 2016 – Vilnius, Lithuania
Samantha Lawrence ’17 (CLAS) – OUR Travel Award recipient Justifying Bullying: How Previous Experiences Predict Adolescent Moral Reasoning about Exclusion Used to Bully in Same-Race and Cross-Race Situations
International Lichenological Symposium – August 1-5, 2016 – Helsinki, Finland
Dinah Parker ’17 (CLAS) Two Lichens, One Fungus: The Identity of Dendriscocaulon intricatulum
American Chemical Society (ACS) National Meeting and Exposition – August 21-25, 2016 – Philadelphia, PA
John Ovian ’17 (CLAS) – OUR Travel Award recipient Oxoammonium Salts: Powerful yet Practical Reagents for Oxidation and Oxidative Functionalization in Chemistry
Christiane Nguyen ’17 (ENG)
Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES) Annual Meeting – October 5-8, 2016 – Minneapolis, MN
Cameron Flower ’17 (ENG) – OUR Travel Award recipient Discovery of lncRNA-Encoded Peptidome in Mouse Kidney Inner Medulla
Christiane Nguyen ’17 (ENG) – OUR Travel Award recipient Co-patterning Of Living Tissues in 3D-Printed Microfluidic Chips
American Physical Society Division of Nuclear Physics Fall Meeting – October 13-16, 2016 – Vancouver, BC
Christine Ploen ’17 (CLAS) Beam Line Background Studies for the Electron-Ion Collider at Jefferson Laboratory: A Critical Foundation
Society for Advancement of Chicanos/Hispanics and Native Americans in Science (SACNAS) Conference – October 13-15, 2016 – Long Beach, CA
Gabriella Reggiano ’17 (CLAS) – Winner for Outstanding Poster Presentation in Biochemistry/Biophysics – OUR Travel Award recipient Molecular Dynamics Simulations of Human Cardiac Calsequestrin and the Mutation E39K
Community Modeling and Analysis System (CMAS) Annual Conference – October 24-26, 2016 – Chapel Hill, NC
Catherine Nowakowski ’17 (ENG) – Winner of the 2016 CMAS Student Poster Competition – OUR Travel Award recipient Prediction of Harmful Water Quality Parameters Combining Weather, Air Quality and Ecosystem Models with In-situ Measurements
Obesity Week 2016 – October 31-November 4, 2016 – New Orleans, LA
Jacob Naparstek ’18 (CLAS) – OUR Travel Award recipient Internet-Delivered Obesity Treatment Improves Depression Symptoms
National Association for Multicultural Education International Conference – November 9-13, 2016 – Cleveland, OH
Kathrine Grant ’19 (ED, CLAS) – OUR Travel Award recipient Identifying and Using Critically Conscious Film to Address Education Inequity/Verplank Elementary School: A Rich Tapestry
Northeastern Political Science Association Annual Meeting – November 10-12, 2016 – Boston, MA
Amy Saji ’19 (CLAS) – OUR Travel Award recipient Reel v Real: Assessing the Lessons of Law and Order: SVU within the Current Legal and Political Climate
Society for Neuroscience (SFN) Annual Meeting – November 12-16, 2016 – San Diego, CA
Saheeb Ahmed ’17 (CLAS) – OUR Travel Award recipient Social and Environmental Factors Influencing Exploration of a Novel Environment
John Pflomm ’17 (CLAS) – OUR Travel Award recipient Inactivation of Medial Prefrontal Cortex, Dorsal, or Ventral Hippocampus during a Temporal Sequence Task in a Radial Arm Water Maze
Molly Potter ’17 (CLAS) – OUR Travel Award recipient Effects of Caffeine and Hypothermia on Neuropathology in P6 Rats with Experimentally Induced Hypoxic Ischemic Brain Injury
American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) Annual Meeting – November 13-18, 2016 – San Francisco, CA
Daniel Dougherty ’17 (ENG) – OUR Travel Award recipient Study of Microstructures and Surface Treatment Techniques on the Drying Rate of Simulated Soil Micromodels in Microfluidic Devices
Nur Hamideh ’17 (ENG) – 1st place in the Food, Pharmaceutical, and Biotechnology Division – OUR Travel Award recipient Characterization of Polysaccharide Solutions Using Microrheology: Surface Charge Effects
Cameron Harrington ’17 (ENG) – OUR Travel Award recipient Cell Culture of the Termite Gut Microbiome Using a 3D-Printed Synthetic Microhabitat
Alyssa Pierne ’17 (ENG) – OUR Travel Award recipient Gradient Bioengineering of the Termite Gut Microbiome
The Society for Judgment and Decision Making Annual Meeting – November 18-21, 2016 – Boston, MA
Ryan Thibodeau ’17 (CLAS)R: Emily Roller ’17 (CLAS)
Emily Roller ’17 (CLAS) – OUR Travel Award recipient Extending Construal Level Theory to the Hiring Decision Process
Ryan Thibodeau ’17 (CLAS) – OUR Travel Award recipient Competitive Modeling: Predicting Counterproductive Work Behavior with the Theory of Planned Behavior and the Prototype Willingness Model
American Society for Cell Biology (ASCB) Annual Meeting – December 3-7, 2016 – San Francisco, CAAlyssa Mathiowetz ’18 (CLAS)
Alyssa Mathiowetz ’18 (CLAS) – OUR Travel Award recipient Interactions of Disease-Associated WHAMM Variants with Actin, Microtubules, and Membranes
SHARE Awards support undergraduate research apprenticeships in the social sciences, humanities, and arts, offering students majoring in these fields opportunities to develop inquiry skills and explore research interests early in their college careers.
We are delighted to announce the 16 student-faculty teams selected to receive awards for Spring 2017 and thank the University of Connecticut Humanities Institute for its generous support of two of these student awards. Congratulations to all award recipients!
Project Title: Extinction of Fear Within Virtual Reality Environments Student Apprentice and Major: Allison Arnista, Psychological Sciences Faculty Mentor and Department: Robert Astur, Psychological Sciences
Project Title: Intercultural Communication Student Apprentice and Major: Emma Barnes, Political Science & German Faculty Mentor and Department: Manuela Wagner, Literatures, Cultures, and Languages
Project Title: Exploring the Communication of Support about Racial Microaggressions in Black Women Friend Groups Student Apprentice and Major: Alleyha Dannett, Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies & Human Rights Faculty Mentor and Department: Sharde Davis, Communication
Award Co-Sponsored by the University of Connecticut Humanities Institute
Project Title: Support for Reducing Inequality: Citizen Attitudes vs. Public Action Student Apprentice and Major: George Dennis, Political Science & History Faculty Mentor and Department: Thomas Hayes, Political Science
Project Title: Pesos and Ponies: Neural Representation of Phonetic Category Structure in Spanish-English Bilinguals Student Apprentice and Major: Divya Ganugapati, Cognitive Science & Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences Faculty Mentor and Department: Rachel Theodore, Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences
Project Title: Town Conservation Commissions and Regional Conservation Associations in New England Student Apprentice and Major: Abigail LaFontan, Political Science Faculty Mentor and Department: Prakash Kashwan, Political Science
Project Title: Mu Rhythm Patterns in Early Childhood Student Apprentice and Major: Dilsara Liyanage, Psychological Sciences Faculty Mentor and Department: Kimberly Cuevas, Psychological Sciences
Project Title:The Implications of Ethnic-Racial Socialization for Emerging Adults’ Development Across Ethnic-Racial and Gender Groups Student Apprentice and Major: Thessiana Mesilus, Psychological Sciences & Human Development and Family Studies Faculty Mentor and Department: Annamaria Csizmadia, Human Development and Family Studies
Project Title: Identification of Barriers and Facilitators to Physical Activity in the Elderly with Osteoarthritis Student Apprentice and Major: Erin Milner, Nursing Faculty Mentor and Department: Deborah McDonald, Nursing
Project Title: Violence Against Women and Girls: Evidence of the Normative Gap Between Rhetoric and Law Student Apprentice and Major: Susan Naseri, Political Science & Human Rights Faculty Mentor and Department: David Richards, Political Science
Project Title: Using a Focus Group to Evaluate the Utility of Interactive Modules for Self-Management of Low Back Pain Student Apprentice and Major: Amanda Pinto, Nursing Faculty Mentor and Department: Angela Starkweather, Nursing
Project Title: Flusser 2.0 – From the Print-Text to the Image-Flood Student Apprentice and Major: Katherine Riedling, Computer Science and Engineering & German Faculty Mentor and Department: Anke Finger, Literatures, Cultures, and Languages, Nursing
Award Co-Sponsored by the University of Connecticut Humanities Institute
Project Title: Crafting Environmental Citizenship: Pollution, Resistance and Representation in Latin American Cities Student Apprentice and Major: Emily Steck, Political Science & Human Rights Faculty Mentor and Department: Veronica Herrera, Political Science
Project Title: An Examination of the Unique Social-Ecologies of Discriminatory Bullying Experienced by Latino Immigrant Youth Student Apprentice and Major: Monica Vise, Human Development and Family Studies Faculty Mentor and Department: Alaina Brenick, Human Development and Family Studies
Project Title: The Effects of the Maternal Voice on the Infant in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) Student Apprentice and Major: Selena Williamson, Nursing Faculty Mentor and Department: Jacqueline McGrath, Nursing
Project Title: Designing Interactive Museum Experiences with Omeka Everywhere Student Apprentice and Major: Andrew Wolf, Digital Media and Design Faculty Mentor and Department: Clarissa Ceglio, Digital Media and Design
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
Quian Callender ’16 (BUS), during his study abroad in China.
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.
Fejiro Okifo ’16 in the lab.
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
William Chan ’16 (CLAS)
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
Kezhen Wang ’17 (CAHNR)Sydney Carr ’18 (CLAS)
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
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)Meaghan Sullivan ’16 (NUR)
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
Pavan Anant ’16 (CLAS) & Michael Powell ’16 (CLAS) – OUR Travel Award recipients Parental perceptions of medical marijuana in an urban children’s medical center
Devin Chaloux (2010) came to the University of Connecticut with plans for eventually becoming a band teacher. “But when I got here, I took a mandatory course on music theory designed to broaden student understanding on the subject of music,” says Chaloux, who will be the student speaker at the School of Fine Arts’ undergraduate commencement ceremony. “I was hooked.”
Music theory is the study of the science of music, explains Chaloux. Theorists break down compositions to their basic components in order to understand how and why music works the way it does. “In chemistry there are molecules; in physics there are atoms,” says Chaloux. “With music theory, the basic building blocks that you’re working with are the single notes of a piece.”
Chaloux decided to come to UConn after a stellar piano audition that left him feeling comfortable with the faculty who would later become his close advisors. He studied piano with professors Neal Larrabee and Minyoung Lee, and composition with Professor Kenneth Fuchs. He is graduating this semester with a Bachelor of Music degree in music theory.
One of 24 University Scholars graduating this year, Chaloux developed a senior project titled “A Theoretical and Analytical Approach to Poetry by Emily Dickinson through Composition.” The project allowed Chaloux to work with faculty from both the Department of Music in the School of Fine Arts and the Department of English in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.
“I worked with Professor David Abraham from CLAS to really read into the poetry and develop my own interpretations of the texts,” says Chaloux. “At the same time, I was working closely with Dr. Kenneth Fuchs to create compositions for voice and piano, using Emily Dickinson’s poetry for the text of the songs.”
Chaloux’s project was performed on March 28. He has since been accepted to the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, where he will be working towards a master’s degree in music theory. He hopes to someday earn a doctorate in music theory and become a tenure-track professor.
“I started out wanting to teach band,” says Chaloux. “I never dreamed that I’d wind up where I am today.”
Adapted from a UConn Today story by Timothy Stobierski.
Alexis Cordone ’14 (CLAS) and her research mentor Clare Costley King’oo, assistant professor of English. (Ariel Dowski ’14 (CLAS)/UConn Photo)
Protestants and Catholics waged bloody wars over doctrinal differences during the Reformation, but an undergraduate research project shows they shared similar views about hell. In a historical study comparing how eternal damnation was depicted in centuries-old religious texts, Alexis Cordone 2014 (CLAS), a religious studies major, found more similarities than differences between the two denominations.
Cordone attributes this unexpected convergence to the fact that what the two groups were reading about hell was virtually the same material. She cites, for example, “a sixteenth-century devotional handbook that was first published by a Jesuit [Catholic],” and then “republished by a Protestant.” Investigating the two versions of the handbook in detail, Cordone says she began to notice that “most of the content about hell in the second publication was exactly the same as that in the original.”
During this historical period, when opposing religious powers were engaged in a struggle across much of Europe, such re-publication methods led to a surprising degree of “ecumenical” thought. This continuity “was not what I would have expected for works written about such a controversial topic during the Reformation,” says Cordone.
Cordone’s opportunity to examine early printed books in detail and uncover insights into what scholars know about the Reformation period, comes thanks to a UConn program that funds undergraduate research in the social sciences, humanities, and arts.
UConn’s Office of Undergraduate Research has taken the initiative to promote and support early career undergraduate research such as Cordone’s. The Social Sciences, Humanities, and Arts Research Experience (SHARE) program encourages a research partnership between a student and faculty member, which exposes the student to research in these disciplines and provides the faculty member with an apprentice for their professional projects.
The program was initiated in 2010 by Lynne Goodstein, associate vice provost for enrichment programs and director of the Honors Program, and the then-director of the Office of Undergraduate Research, Jennifer Lease-Butts, to promote research experience in the early stages of students’ undergraduate careers in the social sciences, humanities, and arts.
Attention to early career research is beneficial for students in the long run, says the current program coordinator of the Office of Undergraduate Research, Gwen Pearson. “The fact that SHARE is specifically for early students makes it unique,” she says. “It’s usually been juniors and seniors that are heavily involved in research. There’s recognition now that if you help freshman and sophomores get ready for that, then they will have an even better experience.”
Early career research is also crucial in preparing students in the social sciences, humanities, and arts for competitive research grants against candidates in the hard sciences who have been exposed to research early on in laboratory courses.
“The students who were able to start in labs in their freshman and sophomore year, by the time they were writing a proposal for a Summer Undergraduate Research Fund grant they were more grounded in their work and able to discuss methodology with more authority,” Goodstein says. “We thought that [SHARE] was the equivalent of the lab experiences students in the sciences had.”
Another rewarding feature of the SHARE program is the opportunity faculty members and students have to establish a working partnership. “The research proposal is jointly submitted by the faculty member and the student,” says Goodstein. “[What’s great] about being a faculty member working with ambitious students is the personal satisfaction you get from being able to watch the student develop.”
Clare Costley King’oo, associate director of graduate studies and assistant professor in the English department, agrees that the partnership is a rewarding one. “Training an undergraduate apprentice is no doubt challenging. But the benefits far outweigh the costs,” says King’oo who mentored Cordone in her immersion into Reformation literature.
For her part, Cordone is grateful for the opportunity to help with researching literature relevant to the Protestant Reformation. “It’s given me a better understanding of the development of modern Catholic and Protestant teachings,” she says. “I am also gaining a lot of firsthand experience in understanding the course and development of a research project in the humanities.”
Undergraduate research is intense: for many students, it opens up a whole new world of information they did not know was available to them, notes King’oo. “These grants enable undergraduate students to get a better picture, early on in their careers, of the kind of work we non-scientists do as scholars,” she says. “I hope, in particular, that it will persuade some undergraduates to prepare for graduate work in the social sciences, humanities, and arts.”
Stephanie Godbout, one of last year’s SHARE recipients, is enthusiastic about the research she conducted with mentor JoAnn Robinson, a professor in the Department of Human Development and Family Studies. Godbout’s project was a study of the relationships formed within the JumpStart program between mentors and preschool children. She too says that the partnership opened her eyes to the research opportunities available in the social sciences.
“Prior to my involvement in the SHARE program, I had little knowledge of how research in the social sciences was conducted,” she says. “The program gave me the opportunity to learn how to develop a research question, design a study, collect and analyze data, and ultimately complete a cohesive thesis. In addition, it allowed me to form wonderful relationships with my thesis supervisor, graduate students, and fellow undergraduate researchers.”
As for the impact of the program, King’oo says, “I would certainly recommend the experience – not just to faculty members, but to students, too.”
Applications for the 2013 SHARE program will be available for students and faculty on August 30, 2012. Applications are due in October and winners will be announced in December.
Nursing students do research too–here’s an example! Danielle received a 2011 SURF award from the Office of Undergraduate Research.
At the cusp of graduation, nursing senior Danielle Millar (Nursing 2012) has learned to balance academic and social excellence. She entered the School of Nursing during her freshman year at UConn. “I wanted to be a nurse, because it’s a great integration of science and medicine and social skills,” she says. “You have to have the knowledge to ask difficult questions and genuinely care about the answers you get.”
But Millar wasn’t always so gregarious. “I was a much more reserved person when I came to UConn,” she recalls. Looking back on her growth as a student and the challenges she has conquered in her four years as an undergraduate, she says it wasn’t always easy. It’s clear, however, that she has overcome the initial anxiety she felt when she embarked on her college career.
A student in the Honors Program, Millar has spent the past two years researching the effects of omega-3 fatty acids in treating the symptoms of PMS. Working with her mentor Michelle Judge, she solicited participants from across the University to participate in her research, coordinating more than 50 volunteers. Now that her study is complete and her findings in, Millar is hard at work preparing poster presentations and writing her senior thesis.
In addition to nursing and academics, Millar has been an avid dancer since childhood. She has spent the past four years as a member of the UConn Dance Company, as both dancer and choreographer. “I was in the first generation able to spend all four years in the company,” she says. “We helped to create a lot of structure and set the company up for success.” Millar studies all types of dance, from ballet to jazz, and works at a dance studio in Ellington instructing young ballerinas.
Millar is excited to graduate and begin work as a full-time nurse. A recent summer internship at the UConn Health Center has her eager for the future. Her success was recognized by the School of Nursing this year, when she received the Undergraduate Senior Woman Award in April.
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Congratulations to John Ovian ’17 (CLAS), pictured at right, and Diler Haji ’17 (CLAS), undergraduate recipients of 2017 NSF Graduate Research Fellowships! They are among the 
Congratulations to Catherine “Catrina” Nowakowski ’17 (ENG), one of three student winners of the CMAS Student Poster competition, and the only undergraduate winner. Catrina presented her research at the Community Modeling and Analysis System (CMAS) annual conference in Chapel Hill, NC on October 25, 2016, and is pictured at right with her faculty advisor, Marina Astitha, Assistant Professor of Civil & Environmental Engineering.
Nick Russo ’18 (CLAS) was the first author on a recent publication from the 
Project Title: Exploring the Communication of Support about Racial Microaggressions in Black Women Friend Groups
Devin Chaloux (2010) came to the University of Connecticut with plans for eventually becoming a band teacher. “But when I got here, I took a mandatory course on music theory designed to broaden student understanding on the subject of music,” says Chaloux, who will be the student speaker at the School of Fine Arts’ undergraduate commencement ceremony. “I was hooked.”
