Graduate students at the College of Science are conducting crucial research that addresses critical challenges and benefits both local communities and the broader world.
To celebrate their accomplishments, the College will be hosting the inaugural Graduate Science Research Showcase from 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. on Friday, May 16, 2025 in the Memorial Union Horizon Room.
This event offers a glimpse into the future of science featuring graduate research presentations, a poster session and a keynote address from renowned alumnus Jonathan Gallion, vice president of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning for OmniScience.
Gallion, recipient of the College's 2024 Early Career Award, earned dual Honors bachelor's degrees in biochemistry and biophysics, and microbiology in 2012. His career began with an internship at SIGA Technologies, where he programmed robots to screen chemical compounds for antiviral medicines. At OmniScience, Gallion and his team utilize large language models to enhance clinical trial outcomes and improve human health. Their work accelerates decision-making and transforms data analysis in biotech, medtech, pharmaceutical and preclinical innovation. Rather than replace human expertise, their AI tools are designed to compliment it.
Schedule of Events
12 p.m.
Lunch
12:20 p.m.
Welcome from Executive Associate Dean Vrushali Bokil and Dean's Remarks from College of Science Dean Eleanor Feingold.
12:30 p.m.
Keynote speech from alumnus Jonathan Gallion, V.P. of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning for OmniScience.
Keynote Talk Title - Beyond Automation: Agentic AI and the New Frontier of Life Science Innovation
Abstract: Artificial intelligence in the life sciences is moving beyond automation into a new frontier defined by agentic systems—AI tools capable of reasoning, planning, and autonomous action. As these AI agents continue to evolve from tools to collaborators, life scientists will need to rethink how we generate hypotheses, design experiments, interpret data, and generate insights. This keynote will examine how agentic AI is already transforming decision-making and accelerating innovation within clinical trial development and offer a perspective on how domain experts can adapt and lead at the intersection of scientific expertise and intelligent automation through AI.
1 - 2:30 p.m.
Five minute research presentations and dessert, followed by a poster session, showcasing the diverse research conducted across the seven departments in the College of Science. The session will highlight how Science graduate students are participating and contributing to this valuable research.
Presenters include:
Oluwasen Adu (Integrative Biology)
Advisor: Michael Blouin
Talk title: Genome Wide Association Study of Biomphalaria glabrata snail and its Schistosome Parasite
Vera Alenicheva (Chemistry)
Advisor: Vincent Remcho
Talk title: A Microfluidic Paper-Based Assay for the Quantification of CBD and THC
Lucas Allan (Chemistry)
Advisor: Tim Zuehlsdorff
Talk title: FC2DES: Modeling 2D Electronic Spectroscopy for Harmonic Hamiltonians
Hallee Boyd (Chemistry)
Advisor: May Nyman
Talk title: Characterization of Trivalent Lanthanide Keggin Phosphomolybdate Sandwich Clusters
Daniel Malone Buoy (Statistics)
Advisor: Claudio Fuentes / Sarah Emerson
Talk title: Representative Sampling Methods for K-Fold Cross Validation
Olivia Burleigh (Integrative Biology)
Advisor: Virginia Weis
Talk title: Transcription Factor-targeted ChIP-Seq for Smad3-mediated TGF-β Signaling in Heat-stressed Aiptasia
Jun Cai (Integrative Biology)
Advisor: Virginia Weis
Talk title: Effect of Sphingolipid Metabolic Pathway Inhibition and Knockdown on Cnidarian-Algal Symbiosis
Giovanni Crestani (Integrative Biology, Ph.D.)
Advisor: Molly Burke
Talk title: Genomics of experimentally-evolved postponed reproduction in Drosophila melanogaster
Ushasi Datta (Chemistry)
Advisor: Marilyn Mackiewicz
Talk title: Unveiling the Hidden Properties: How Nanomaterial Surface Chemistry and Biomimetic Systems Shape Reflectance and Contrast
Konstantin Drallios (Chemistry)
Advisor: Thomas Osborn Popp
Talk title: 3D Printable Radiofrequency Coils
Rudranil Dutta (Chemistry)
Advisor: Claudia Maier
Talk title: Identification and Quantitation of Bioactive Alkaloids in Withania Somnifera
Arpa Ebrahimi (Chemistry)
Advisor: Claudia Maier
Talk title: Characterizing the Lipidomic and Proteomic Profile of the 5xFAD Alzheimer’s Disease Mouse Model: A Comparative Study Using MALDI Imaging Mass Spectrometry
Jessica Etter (Chemistry)
Advisor: Claudia Maier
Talk title: LC-QTOF and LC-TIMS-qQTOF MS Analysis of Fecal Inoculum Biotransformation Products and LC-MRM-MS Analysis of Human Withanolide Pharmacokinetics of an Ashwagandha Supplement
Caroline Hernandez (Microbiology)
Advisor: Maude David
Talk title: Whole-Cell Crosslinking Reveals Direct Lactobacillaceae and Rhizobiaceae Interactions with Host Duodenal Neuropods
Esteban Hernandez (Chemistry)
Advisor: Jennifer Field
Talk title: Experimental pKa Values of Substituted and Unsubstituted Perfluoroalkyl Sulfonamides via 19F NMR
Lucas Kolanz (Physics)
Advisor: Davide Lazzati
Talk title: Cosmic dust bunnies
Weiqi ‘Grace’ Li (Statistics)
Advisor: Yuan Jiang
Talk title: Reframing spatial transcriptomics prediction: From regression to classification
Sarah Louie (Biochemistry & Biophysics)
Advisor: Richard Cooley / Ryan Mehl
Talk title: Optimizing genetic code expansion technology to access post-translationally modified proteins
Praveeni Mathangadeera (Mathematics)
Advisor: Małgorzata Peszyńska
Talk title: Computational Modeling of the Nonlinear Heat Equation in Frozen Soil and Snow
Anshika Nagar (Chemistry)
Advisor: Marilyn Mackiewicz
Talk title: Shielded Nanoparticles: Advancing X-Ray Fluorescence Microscopy with Oxidant-Resistant Nickel and Cobalt
Luke Nearhood (Physics)
Advisor: Patti Hamerski
Talk title: Computing the Tension
Joline Nguyen (Biochemistry & Biophysics)
Advisor: Sarah Clark
Talk title: Isolation of Scarce Membrane Protein Complexes from C. elegans
Victory Chiamaka Obieke (Mathematics)
Advisor: Vrushali Bokil
Talk title: Compatible Energy Preserving Discretizations for Nonlinear Optical Wave Propagation: The Maxwell-Duffing Approach
Emily Palmer (Statistics)
Advisor: Yuan Jiang
Talk title: A Group Penalization Framework for Detecting Time-Lagged Microbiota-Host Associations
Madison Phelps (Mathematics)
Advisor: Małgorzata Peszyńska
Talk title: Nonlinear Solvers in Permafrost applications
Kevin Rice (Microbiology)
Advisor: Maude David / Kenton Hokanson
Talk title: Electrical Characterization of Primary Enteroendocrine Cells: Developing Tools to Screen Novel Microbial Neuroactive Compounds
Casey Rummelhart (Chemistry)
Advisor: Addison Desnoyer
Talk title: Frustrated Lewis Pairs Ligand for the Transformation of Carbon Dioxide to Chemical Feedstocks
Pavel Sengupta (Chemistry)
Advisor: Dipankar Koley
Talk title: Quantifying Dissolved Oxygen in Biofilms with Non-invasive Flexible Amperometric Oxygen Sensors
Michael Sieler (Microbiology)
Advisor: Thomas Sharpton
Talk title: Modeling the zebrafish gut microbiome’s resistance and sensitivity to climate change and parasite infection
Gavin Tovar (Statistics)
Advisor: Robert Trangucci / Sarah Emerson
Talk title: Sequential Approach to K-Fold Cross-validation---Computational Reduction Technique
Hao Yue (Chemistry)
Advisor: Marilyn Mackiewicz
Talk title: Targeted X-ray Imaging Agents for Visualizing Triple-Negative Breast Cancer
Sima Ziyaee (Chemistry)
Advisor: Claudia Maier
Talk title: Exploring Cellular Heterogeneity through Single-cell Proteomics
Join us to celebrate the future of science — and the graduate students who are making it happen.
