2022-2023 biological sciences scholarship and prize winners

The Department of Biological Sciences congratulates our Wayne State Warriors on their recent achievements!

Undergraduate awards

Nicolette Therese Keller Endowed Scholarship in Biological Sciences

Hajir Laft, Essra Aljaberry, Ammar Alromdhan

Kathryn and Gary Armstrong Endowed Scholarship

Julia Llana, Rita Haddad

Graduate awards

Brenna Friday and Katrina Lewandowski from the lab of Donna Kashian received prestigious Knauss Fellowships in Washington DC. As a result, Brenna Friday will work in the Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Water’s Office of Science and Technology as a biocriteria, nutrients and harmful algal blooms fellow. Katrina Lewandowski will become a coastal resilience specialist for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Hashan Sri Madhubhashana Jayarathn

Graduate student teaching awards

Sarah Black

Sarah was nominated by research faculty and students for her teaching in BIO 5740/7740: General Entomology. A student noted “Sarah went out of her way to provide additional time outside of class in order to ensure students had enough time and one on one help to properly pin and identify the insects that they collected. I believe her teaching of this course was a big source of inspiration for the students to continue practicing the material they had learned once the class was over.”

Savannah Kozole (Karen Beningo lab)

Savannah was nominated for her teaching in BIO 4630: Histology. One student commented: “Her explanations in class to introduce the topic were clear and concise, she would relate new material in the course such as certain organs of a system to earlier topics to ensure we had a basis for new material as well continuously keeping earlier material relevant. I found this aspect of her teaching to be supportive of actively learning and understanding new material, instead of isolating each section then just memorizing. Furthermore, I appreciated her encouragement of students’ participation.”

Eleazar Reward (Haidong Gu lab)

Eleazar was nominated for his teaching in BIO 3070: Genetics. One student stated: “I can confidently say that he is an exceptional teaching assistant. His commitment to creating a dynamic and inclusive learning environment made a significant impact on my learning experience. Eleazar’s passion for genetics was evident in every class session, and he effortlessly conveyed complex concepts in a way that was engaging and accessible to all students.”

Kailynn Sparks (Mark VanBerkum lab)

Kailynn was recognized for her teaching in BIO 2600: Cell Biology and BIO 4120: Comparative Physiology. One student commented: “She guided us as a class through each stage of the semester with simultaneous thoroughness and expedience. Both aspects of her teaching were really appreciated as I wanted to make sure I learned a complete picture of the lesson but also wanted to get it done and get home to enjoy the weather. She wasted no time. For each lab, she would begin by giving us an overview on the whiteboard and answering any procedural questions the class might have. We would then grab our supplies and begin, and she would go by each group and watch us and provide guidance when asked. She was available, friendly, and at times even funny. There really isn’t anymore one could ask of a TA.”

Sumit Bandyopadhyay

Graduate student Sumit Bandyopadhyay receives ATTRACT funding from WSU Chemical Biology Interface.

Science Coalition’s #FundItForward video challenge

Graduate students Mohamed Chakkour and Chisom Onu win first place in The Science Coalition’s #FundItForward video challenge.

Graduate student research awards

Kendall Case (Miriam Greenberg lab)

Among other accomplishments, Kendall published a first-author review and a first-author research paper in revision in the highly regarded journal Scientific Reports. Miriam Greenberg remarked that Kendall chose the most intractable project available in the lab, and introduced numerous technologies to the lab to complete the mission, only to find out that the hypothesized model was incorrect. However, Kendall was committed to communicating his findings so that others in the field will not spend time and resources to unnecessarily repeating this work.

Imad Soukar (Lori Pile lab)

Imad impressed the award committee by a co-first author review, a paper under revision in Biology Open, a co-authorship on a published paper in Biochimica et Biophysica Acta and a co-authorship on a paper under revision. Corroborating a strong trajectory, Imad defended his Ph.D. thesis research on July 31.

Linh Vo (Miriam Greenberg lab)

Linh stood out by the publication of a first-author paper in the "Journal of Biological Chemistry," a second authorship in Biochimica et Biophysica Acta, and delivering an invited talk at an international meeting. In addition, Linh completed her Ph.D. training in under five years, which is an extremely impressive accomplishment all by itself.

Armstrong-Bromel Inspirational Graduate Student Teaching and Mentoring Awardee

Maggie Sneideman

While working on dosage compensation in the fruit fly X-chromosome for her Ph.D. thesis research, Maggie taught BIO 3070: Genetics as graduate teaching assistant, where many students became fans of her. One of them stated that “If she were a professor, I would be sure to take every class of hers.” To us, that sounds like a call to higher duty. Of note, this year the department received over 100 nominations for this award, almost all from undergraduates.

Thomas Rumble Fellowship Awardees

• Hashan Jayarathne
• Brenna Friday
• Chisom Onu

Research retreat awards

2023 best poster winners

Graduate students

• Mohamed Dabaja (Joy Alcedo lab)
• Aishwarya Ghosh (Jared Schrader lab)
• Emma Fidler (Athar Ansari lab)
• Vikalp Kumar (Miriam Greenberg lab)
• Sydney Scofield (Marianna Sadagurski lab)
• Brendyn St. Louis (PC Lee lab)
• Aishwarya Ghosh & Hadi Yassine (Jared Schrader lab)

Undergraduate students

• Ali Rashid and Lin Rayes (Njus lab)