Postdoctoral Research Award 2016 Kevin Vogel, a postdoctoral fellow in the department of entomology, uses comparative genomics and molecular biology to study reproduction and development processes in mosquitoes. Over the last three years, he worked to identify and characterize a hormone receptor that, when silenced, blocked the...
Postdoctoral Research Award 2016 Alexander Tokarev, a former postdoctoral research associate in the department of textiles merchandising and interiors, is recognized for his role in creating a new, inexpensive way to manufacture extraordinarily thin polymer strings commonly known as nanofibers. The new method, dubbed “magnetospinning,” provides a...
James L. Carmon Award 2016 Josh Clevenger, a doctoral student in the Institute of Plant Breeding, Genetics and Genomics, uses genomic data and computational approaches to find genetic signatures of resistance to aflatoxin in peanut. Aflatoxin is a highly carcinogenic compound that causes liver damage in...
Robert C. Anderson Memorial Award 2016 Sarah Budischak, a recent doctoral graduate in ecology, studies the disease transmission and health implications of parasitic infections. Her dissertation research on the consequences of coinfection—the simultaneous infection of a host by multiple pathogens—in wild African buffalo required extensive field...
Robert C. Anderson Memorial Award 2016 Arnab Banerji, a recent doctoral graduate in theater and film studies, is recognized for his scholarship on Asian performing arts, Indian cinema and Indian popular culture. His doctoral dissertation, Setting the Stage: A Materialist Semiotic Analysis of Contemporary Bengali Theatre...
Graduate Student Excellence-in-Research Award 2016 Chi Zhang, a recent doctoral graduate in Bioinformatics, studies the mechanisms of cancer initiation, progression, metastasis and post-metastasis development using large-scale data analyses of cancer tissue samples and computer modeling. Much of his research focuses on cancer micro-environment alterations and the Warburg’s...
Graduate Student Excellence-in-Research Award 2016 Asher Rosinger, a recent doctoral graduate in anthropology, is recognized for his work on human water consumption and nutrition. During one year of fieldwork in lowland Bolivia, Rosinger combined ethnographic methods with objective biomarkers of nutrition and disease to test how...
Graduate Student Excellence-in-Research Award 2016 Horry Parker, a recent doctoral graduate in geology, has made several outstanding contributions in the fields of geology and geophysics. He applied geophysical methods, including seismology and magnetics, to study the structure and composition of the southern Appalachians and Atlantic Coastal...
Graduate Student Excellence-in-Research Award 2016 Lindsey Harding, a recent doctoral graduate in English, distinguished herself by producing a sophisticated dissertation that investigated multi-modal forms of writing, including photography and digital archives. A hybrid of creative non-fiction and faux documentary, personal family history and rhetorical criticism, photography...
Graduate Student Excellence-in-Research Award 2016 Michael Baer, a recent doctoral graduate in management, studies the concepts of trust and fairness in the workplace. His dissertation examines the motives that drive managers to engage in trusting behaviors toward their employees. Some of his other work demonstrates the...