Student Highlights in Biological Sciences

#BoardmanLab Graduate students WESLEY RHINEHART @wdrhinehart  and MITCHELL ADKINS @mladkins97 completed a clean sweep of MS student paper competition at the recent #TenneesseeEntomologicalSociety annual conference! (left in photo)

SAM DREWRY, MS (middle in photo) student in Jennifer Mandel’s Lab in the Department of Biological Sciences, presented her work on "Conservation Genetics in the Endangered Whorled Sunflower Helianthus verticillatus (Asteraceae)" at the Botany Conference in Boise, Idaho this summer. Her poster received a Botanical Society of America Genetics Section Student Travel Award. 

MAZEN ISTANBOULI, PhD student, Department of Biological Sciences, won 2nd place in the Student Poster Presentation competition at the 19th Annual Meeting of the Mid-South Computational Biology and Bioinformatics Society (MCBIOS), held March 15-17, 2023 in Dallas, TX. Mazen’s poster was titled “Longitudinal Psychological Subtypes of PTSD using Hidden Markov Modeling.” Mazen is receiving his award (top right image), which was accompanied by a monetary prize.

Pictured in the far right photo from left to right are:

1. Dr. Inimary Toby, 2022-2023 MCBIOS President, Assistant Professor, Biology Department, University of Dallas
2. Mazen Istanbouli, PhD candidate, Department of Biological Sciences, University of Memphis
3. Dr. Prajay Patel, MCBIOS 2023 Poster Award Chair, Assistant Professor, Chemistry Department, University of Dallas

NSF Graduate Research Fellow Recipients

Two UofM 2023 NSF Graduate Research Fellow Recipients in the Department of Biological Sciences, Ms. SERENA BLAIS and Ms. JULIA WEIL (both pictured above), were selected as 2023 National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellows (NSF GRF). They join 2,550 other students awarded this nationally competitive fellowship, out of approximately 13,000 applicants. The NSF GRF recognizes and supports outstanding graduate students in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) disciplines who are pursing research-based master’s and doctoral degrees at US institutions. Each fellow will receive three years of support including an annual stipend of $37,000; their institution will receive an annual cost of education allowance of $12,000. “We are very proud of Julia and Serena! The NSF GRFP provides an amazing opportunity for our students to immerse themselves in their research projects” says Chair of Biological Sciences, Dr. David Freeman.