Undergraduate Research Prizes
The final program funded by the Sara and Frank McKnight Fund for Biomedical Research offers undergraduate prizes in the fields of chemistry, biophysics and biochemistry. In the late summer of each year a national announcement of the awards is distributed, leading junior and senior level undergraduates to be nominated for these awards. Selection committees in chemistry (Joseph Ready and Jef DeBrabander), biophysics (Kevin Gardner and Luke Rice) and biochemistry (Benjamin Tu and Wade Winkler) then review all applicants to select the top five to be invited to the annual research retreat of the Department of Biochemistry that takes place in early November of each year in New Braunfels, Texas. While at the departmental research retreat, the undergraduates present posters that are viewed and judged by faculty members to select the 1st place ($2,000), 2nd place ($1,000) and 3rd place ($500) winners. A listing of past winners in the fields of chemistry, biophysics and biochemistry is shown below, as are photographs of the 2007 awardees and finalists for 2008-2014 taken at the departmental research retreat. Given that there are precious few awards and prizes for undergraduate research accomplishments, we feel that this program – despite its modest size – offers well-deserved recognition for young scientists at an early stage of their respective careers.
2007 WINNERS
Chemistry:
1st Place: Kaylie Young (Brown University)
2nd Place: Brian Shuler (Washington State)
3rd Place: Jesse Jacobsen (University of Louisville)
2008 WINNERS
Biophysics:
1st Place: Rathi Srinivas (Columbia)
2nd Place: Alex Augustyn (University of Chicago)
3rd Place: Molly Plovanich (Johns Hopkins)
Chemistry:
1st Place: Andrew Hoover (University of Illinois, Urbana)
2nd Place: Jonathan Stefely (University of Notre Dame)
3rd Place: Jacob Kanady (University of California, Irvine)
2009 WINNERS
Biochemistry:
1st Place: Celine Santiago (Rice)
2nd Place: Chirstopher Novotny (University of Illinois, Urbana)
3rd Place: David Hershey (Iowa State)
Runners Up: Eric Abhold (University of California, San Diego) and Amanda Olivo (Columbia)
Chemistry:
1st Place: Anish Shah (Columbia)
2nd Place: Yongho Park (Duke)
3rd Place: James Masters (University of Notre Dame)
Runners Up: Kevin Arendt (Texas A&M) and Kathleen Richert (University of Illinois, Chicago)
Biophysics:
1st Place: Susanna Lynch (Calvin College)
2nd Place: Noam Prywes (Columbia)
3rd Place: Alex Zevin (Colorado State)
Runners Up: Justin Drake (University of Texas) and Tran Nguyen (Ohio State)
2010 WINNERS
Biochemistry:
1st Place: Katherine Klymko (Columbia)
Finalists: Robert DiFazio (University of Illinois, Urbana), Max Horlbeck (Columbia),
Lee Andrew Replogle (University of Illinois) and Bryan Lanning (Indiana)
Chemistry:
1st Place: Brandon Rosen (University of Michigan)
Finalists: Justin Su (University of Texas), Jason Pflueger (Columbia),
Anthony Prosser (University of Kansas) and Jessica McCombs (University of Utah)
Biophysics:
1st Place: Jacob Sama (University of Maryland, College Park)
Finalists: Sarah Husseini (Southern Methodist University) and
Suehelay Acevedo (University of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez)
2011 WINNERS
Biochemistry:
1st Place: Troy Hubbard (Creighton University)
Finalists: Anantnoor Brar (Oregon State University), Roman Camarda (University of Washington), Sami Farhi (UC Berkeley),
Srona Sengupta (Johns Hopkins University)
Chemistry:
1st Place: Emily Johnson (New Mexico State University)
Finalists: Matthew Bockman (Illinois Wesleyan University), Ashleigh Locke (Baylor University), Edith Nagy (Florida Atlantic University),
Anthony Silvestri (Colorado State University)
Biophysics:
1st Place: Rumen Stamatov (University of Pennsylvania)
Finalists: Elise Pellman (Marquette University), Rahul Rekhi (Rice University), Hanna Thomsen (University of Oregon),
Andy Zhou (Miami University)
2012 WINNERS
Biochemistry:
1st Place: Susan Elizabeth Liao (Caltech)
Finalists: Peng Xia (Brown University), Jiayi Kong (Rice University), Sar Marie Fielder (Bryn Mawr College), Sandhya Chandrasekaran (Caltech)
Chemistry:
1st Place: Matthew Landry (Princeton)
Finalist: Kathleen White (University of Iowa), Ashley Danielle Cardenal (University of Tennesee Chattanooga), Marie Arba (UT San Antonio), Matthew Kent Nielsen (BYU)
Biophysics:
1st Place: Alexandra Long (Caltech), Naomi Latorraca (University of Pittsburgh)
Finalists: David Angeles-Albores (Cornell), Amanda Witte (Calvin College), Samantha Mellin (Oregon)
2013 WINNERS
Biochemistry:
1st Place: Margarete Diaz Caudros (Columbia)
Finalists: Stefan Petrovic (Bucknell University), Hannah Chen (Emory)
Chemistry:
1st Place:Justine deGruyter (New Mexico State University)
Finalists: Tho Tranm (University of Houston), Dongyoung Kim (UIUC)
Biophysics:
1st Place: Michael D. Clark (Northwestern)
Finalists: Allyson Rice (UT Austin), Reid Alderson (University of Wisconsin, Madison)
2014 WINNERS
Biochemistry:
1st Place: Jung Min Lee (Duke University)
Finalists: Jonathan Karr (Colorado State University), Caleb Natale (Northwestern University)
Chemistry:
1st Place: Chengtian Shen (University of California, Irvine)
Finalists: Jonathan Varelas (Providence College). Janelle Kirsch (Hope College)
Biophysics:
1st Place: Kun Leng (Columbia University)
Finalists: Ryan Henrici (Pennsylvania State University), Abby Knecht (Brandeis University)
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