Biology undergraduates achieved great things this year, despite all the challenges posed by the pandemic. Here, we highlight some of the impressive awards, grants and other accomplishments by Biology majors over the past year.
Nathalie Alomar received the prestigious National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship, which will support her PhD work at Yale University. Nathalie has worked with Dr. Ana Longo for two years as a MARC fellow, researching how amphibians’ skin bacteria can inhibit the chytrid fungal disease, which has devastated frog populations throughout the world.
Ashley Ohall received a 2021 University Scholars Award to pursue her research in marine chemistry with Dr. Bryndan Durham. Ashley’s research aims to determine the relationship between nitrogen metabolism and photochemistry in marine algae. Ashley has a passion for sustainability in marine environments.
Dianela Perdomo was selected for the CLAS Student Council Hall of Fame for her work on combating the COVID-19 pandemic through tracking and vaccine efficacy modeling, as well as her international research accomplishments. Dianela was mentored by Dr. Tom Hladish, a researcher in the Department of Biology and UF’s Emerging Pathogens Institute. She was awarded a full scholarship to attend the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.
Jenny Fleuristal received the 2021 Thomas J. Coady Memorial Scholarship for her dedication to addressing health disparities and access to healthcare. Jenny survived the 7.3 magnitude earthquake in Haiti at age 11. The international medical teams arriving to help in the aftermath inspired her to pursue a career in health. She will be pursuing her MPH degree with a concentration in Global Health at the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University.
Four Biology students received the UF Winona Jordan Undergraduate Scholarship for Botany in recognition of their research projects: “The role of CYP79B2/B3 in stomatal immunity against Pseudomonas syringae” (Lin L. Lu, mentored by Dr. Sixue Chen), “The role of ‘mustard oil bomb’ in plant defense” (Gedrick Mangual, mentored by Dr. Sixue Chen), “Theory of plant-herbivore cycles in plankton” (Townsend Porcher, mentored by Dr. Mathew Leibold), and “Ground-hugging leaves of a sunflower (Elephantopus elatus) push neighboring obstacles to garner space” (Camille Sicangco, mentored by Dr. Jack Putz).
Rebecca Molina (mentored by Dr. Phil Hahn), Joshua Lopez-Scarim (mentored by Dr. Diego E. Rincon Limas) and Ethan Stolen (mentored by Drs. Pamela Soltis and Douglas Soltis) received Department of Biology Undergraduate Research Grants. Rebecca’s project focused on how anti-herbivory actions of the fast-growing Mimosa tree native to south and central America benefit neighboring plants. Joshua’s project was on designing a fruit fly model for transcellular spreading of an important transcriptional regulator. Ethan’s project explored the impact of genome doubling on gene expression in the thale cress (Arabidopsis) plant.
Kevin Hao, in Dr. Jennifer Nichols’s lab, received the Biology Major Top Thesis Award for his undergraduate honors thesis entitled “A simulation study to quantitatively analyze the implementation of hunt-crossley and elastic foundation contact models in the hand.” In addition, Kevin also published a first-author paper in Journal of Biomechanics. Another Biology major, Suren Jeevaratnam in Dr. Sixue Chen’s lab, also published a first-author paper in Journal of Undergraduate Research. Authoring a peer-reviewed scientific paper as an undergraduate is quite an achievement, especially as the first author. Congratulations to Kevin and Suren!
Citations for the papers authored by Kevin and Suren:
Hao, K.A., Nichols, J.A. (2021) Simulating finger-tip force using two common contact models: Hunt-Crossley and elastic foundation. Journal of Biomechanics 119, 110334.
Jeevaratnam, S., Lin, C., Chen, S. (2020) Effect of sonication on plant stomatal movement. Journal of Undergraduate Research 22, 1-7.