Category: Postdoctoral Research Award

Haolin “Horace” Zeng, is a postdoctoral associate in the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences and an exceptional early-career entomologist whose research has generated transformative insights into the genetic and behavioral bases of complex social systems. He combines behavioral experiments, chemical ecology, population genetics, and computational modeling to investigate how selfish genetic elements influence social structure, reproduction, and collective decision-making in ants. Zeng has published as a first or senior author in leading journals, including PNAS, Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology, and Ecology and Evolution, with additional works currently under revision. His research has attracted national attention, competitive National Science Foundation support, and interdisciplinary collaborations across biology, physics, computer science, and the arts. He is also a committed mentor to undergraduate and high school students and an innovative science communicator who bridges scientific discovery and public engagement. His record of intellectual originality, leadership, and impact exemplifies the highest standards of postdoctoral research excellence. 

Trevor Tuma, a National Science Foundation Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Franklin College Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, helps advance student learning, success, and career development in STEM. His work examines how mentoring relationships and research training shape students’ motivation, learning, well-being, persistence, and research productivity, addressing a critical but underdeveloped dimension of scientific workforce development. Tuma leads a nationally scaled program designed to help faculty navigate conflict and strengthen mentoring relationships with Ph.D. students. Drawing on relationship and motivation science, he has designed and tested the program through multi-institutional studies at research universities across the country, demonstrating measurable improvements for students and faculty. In parallel, Tuma has developed multiple independent lines of inquiry that integrate novel methods from educational, organizational, and social psychology to advance mentoring scholarship. His research has resulted in high-impact publications, invited talks, and rare principal investigator status on multiple federal grant proposals, reflecting a level of independence and productivity uncommon at the postdoctoral stage.

Postdoctoral Research Award 2025

Stephanie Halmo, postdoctoral research associate in the Owens Institute for Behavioral Research, studies metacognition and STEM education under the mentorship of Associate Professor Julie Stanton. Halmo’s work examines how undergraduate life science students develop metacognitive skills, providing key insights into improving science education. She leads the College Learning Study, a large-scale longitudinal project tracking students’ metacognitive skill use and development across four years of college. She has advanced qualitative and quantitative analysis methods, including discourse analysis, to assess how students regulate their thinking during problem-solving. Her research has resulted in multiple first-author publications in CBE–Life Sciences Education and attracted nearly $350,000 in NSF funding as a sole principal investigator—an extraordinary achievement for a postdoctoral scholar. With a growing national and international reputation, Halmo’s research is shaping how educators understand and support student learning in STEM, positioning her as a leader in discipline-based education research.

Postdoctoral Research Award 2025

Raíssa Nogueira de Brito, postdoctoral research associate in the Franklin College Department of Anthropology, conducts groundbreaking research on vector-borne disease ecology and zoonotic disease transmission under the mentorship of Associate Professor Susan Tanner in anthropology and Professor Julie Velásquez Runk of Wake Forest University, in collaboration with Professor Nicole Gottdenker in the College of Veterinary Medicine. Brito’s interdisciplinary work bridges anthropology, ecology, and public health to investigate the biological, social, and environmental factors shaping disease emergence. She has a central role in an NSF-funded project on multi-host, vector-borne infections in tropical landscapes, conducting field research in rural Panama and leading a genetic sequencing study on Chagas disease vectors. Brito has published in top journals, including Acta Tropica, and co-developed TriatoKey, a mobile app for disease vector identification and citizen education. A 2023 SEC Emerging Scholar, she has secured research funding and presented internationally. Brito’s work is advancing understanding of how environmental and social factors drive disease transmission, with significant implications for global health and policy.