Graduate Student Engagement & Community (GSEC) Program 2024 Scholarship

John Lê is currently a Ph.D. student in Applied Physics at Rice University. He is researching antiferroelectric materials, where he aims to optimize their properties for energy storage applications. He graduated from Colroado College as a QuestBridge Scholar, where he holds a B.A. in Mathematics and Physics.

Felix is a PhD student in the Bernot Lab at the University of Connecticut and is interested in studying the evolution of parasitic copepods using morphological, molecular, and computational methods. In addition, he is interested in developing new tools and keys to facilitate copepod taxonomic research and to lower barriers of entry into this field. He earned his BS in Wildlife Management from the University of Puerto Rico - Humacao and is currently an NSF Fellow.

My name is Jorge Villanueva. I graduated from San Diego State University with a B.S. in Cell and Molecular Biology and I am currently a graduate student at Baylor College of Medicine in the Immunology and Microbiology Ph.D program. My research interests include microbe-host interactions and ways to combat antimicrobial resistance.

Sushma Gude is a first-generation, Indian-American woman and is a first-year Biomedical Engineering PhD student in the Harbin Lab at Purdue University. She is investigating the use of a collagen polymeric material as a vaccine delivery vehicle for the design and evaluation of a novel, single dose, sustained-release immunocontraceptive vaccine for smarter global wildlife management.

America Romero (she/her) is a first-generation Mexican-Salvadoran-American student from Los Angeles, CA. She’s currently a first-year PhD student in the Kuhl Lab at the University of Oregon within the Psychology department. Her research uses functional MRI and eye-tracking methods to understand how attentional behavior impacts memory and hippocampal representations of highly-similar events, in younger and older adults.

I completed my undergrad at MIT with a double major in Mathematics and in AI & Decision-Making. I am now a PhD student at Princeton Neuroscience Institute in pursuit of my interest in cognitive computational neuroscience. Broadly, I think of cognition as a computational process grounded in the basis of neurons, and that we can understand this process through models of biological and artificial neural networks. I hope to address whether thinking is essentially navigating in a mental space.

My name is Rockson and I was born and raised in Ghana. I graduated with B.S in Biochemistry from Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Ghana and currently doing my Ph.D in Biological Sciences with a concentration in Molecular and Cellular Biology at the University of Southern Mississippi. My research interest focus on exploring the molecular mechanisms underlying exosomal Tumor Necrosis Factors release from mast cells and its role in inter-cellular communication.

I’m Yasmin Butt (she/her/ella), a Clinical-Community Psychology PhD student at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. I hold a BA in Psychology and Women’s, Gender & Sexuality Studies and an MA in Clinical Psychology from Columbia University. My research focuses on multicultural parent-child and reproductive issues, aiming to improve mental and physical health outcomes for SGM BIPOC parents and their children through culturally humble, evidence-based interventions.

Esteban Abeyta was born and raised in Española, New Mexico. He earned his B.S. in Biochemistry degree from the University of New Mexico and his MPhil. in Biochemistry from the University of Cambridge. He is currently an MD/PhD student at the University of Washington. His current research focuses on understanding more about the molecular mechanisms contributing to facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy.

Marygrace Cajigan Trousdell holds a B.S. in Mathematics and a B.A. in Biology from the University of Rhode Island, where she developed a fascination for interdisciplinary research. After graduating in 2019, she spent five years as a bioinformatician in Dr. dos Santos' lab at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, studying breast cancer mechanisms. Now a PhD student in Brown University’s Center for Computational and Molecular Biology program, she focuses on applying deep learning to integrate multi-omics data.

Alejandra Rosario Crespo graduated from the University of Puerto Rico Cayey in 2024 with a B.S. in Biology. She is currently a first-year PhD student at the University of Michigan in the Program in Biomedical Sciences in Cancer Biology. Alejandra is interested in studying the mechanisms cancer cells use to bypass challenges in the body and develop new therapeutic targets. She aims to contribute to cancer research as a faculty member with a research laboratory and increase representation in STEM.

Melanie is a Mexican-American first-generation PhD student in Biological Sciences at LSU, with a B.S. in Environmental Toxicology from UC Davis. Her research in the Dowell Lab examines how plant specialized metabolites influence interactions with necrotrophic fungal pathogens, focusing on the generalist Botrytis cinerea. By studying its resistance mechanisms to diverse metabolites, she seeks to provide insights that could contribute to developing new biocontrol methods of these pathogens.

Lewis Nunez Severino (he/him) is a first year Ph.D. student in the Neuroscience Graduate Program (NSGP) at Brown University. Currently completing his lab rotations, he is interested in investigating the neural mechanisms involved in executive function. He graduated with a B.A. in Psychology from Hunter College and had research training with the NIH BP-ENDURE program. Lewis is also committed to mentorship and outreach, hoping to contribute to a more inclusive scientific community.

Born and raised in Ghana, Ruth Akorli is a first year PhD student in Marine Affairs at the University of Rhode Island. With an MPhil and BSc in Environmental Science from KNUST, her research focuses on the impacts of climate change and socio-economic vulnerabilities in coastal regions. She aims to integrate indigenous knowledge and science to develop sustainable adaptation strategies that enhance resilience in coastal communities facing climate extremes.

Omaris Vélez Acevedo holds a B.Sc. in Cellular-Molecular Biology from the University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras Campus. She is a neuroscience doctoral student whose research interests include exploring and elucidating the mechanisms present in neuropsychiatric disorders, and how to improve these conditions using pharmacotherapies. Her objective is that through fundamental research, while assessing the idiosyncrasy of subjects, her work could lead to a better understanding of disease states.

I am Isaac Kaba, a first-year Chemistry PhD student at the University of California, Berkeley. I graduated from the University of Toledo with a BS in Pharmaceutical Sciences majoring in Medicinal and Biological Chemistry. My research focuses on developing new chemical probes to modulate cytokine receptors and intracellular signaling. This work aims to provide new tools to study and control immune responses, which could lead to the development of new therapies for cancer and autoimmune diseases.

Amy received her B.A. in Biochemistry from the University of Pennsylvania, where she performed research in protein biochemistry and organic synthesis with Dr. George Burslem. She is currently a first-year Chemistry Ph.D. student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In graduate school, she intends to further elucidate the molecular mechanisms of protein-protein interactions, with a particular focus on post-translational modifications, and develop new chemical tools for their study.

Samantha is a first-year Neuroscience PhD student at the University of Washington. She earned a BS in Biology with University Honors from Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) where she engaged in community-based participatory research to address opioid misuse. As a NIH postbaccalaureate fellow, Samantha investigated the causal role of activity-dependent neuronal ensembles in social reward. She plans to study the neurobiological basis of social behavior and share this new knowledge broadly.

Hi! I’m Princess J.B. Yiadom, but most people just call me PJ. I’m from Accra, Ghana, now in Lubbock, TX, pursuing a PhD in chemical engineering at Texas Tech. I hold a Bachelor’s in petrochemical engineering, and my research is focused on computational catalysis for energy storage and sustainability. I hope to inspire first-generation female STEM enthusiasts like myself to see that they can truly achieve it all. In my free time, I love rewatching my favorite sitcoms.

John is a first-generation Salvadorean-American, queer college graduate from California with a diverse academic background. He earned an A.A. in Computer Science from the City College of San Francisco before going on to complete a B.S. in Chemistry at the University of San Francisco. Currently, he’s a first-year Ph.D. student at Caltech in the Biochemistry & Molecular Biophysics program, where his research focuses on mitochondrial biogenesis.

Khang is a Ph.D. student in applied mathematics at UCLA. His research interest lies in the intersection of geometry and machine learning. Previously, he graduated from the Vietnam National University - Ho Chi Minh City with a BS in Mathematics. Khang is very passionate about promoting education, mathematics and related STEM fields. He regularly volunteers for various outreach activities to inspire a future generation of mathematicians, scientists, and engineers both in Vietnam and in the US.

Evans Aduhene is a first-generation student in the Molecular and Cellular Life Sciences PhD program at the University of Wyoming. He is contributing to science that seeks to ultimately determine how to stabilize biological products such as vaccines without the hassle of the cold chain. His career goals focus on pursuing postdoctoral training and later becoming a research professor in an R1 institution.

Fox Baudelaire is a Ph.D. student in Molecular Biophysics and Structural Biology at the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University, with primary interests in theoretical and computational biophysical chemistry. Previously, he was a Fulbright Scholar at Toronto Metropolitan University investigating chaperone-mediated glycoprotein folding. He holds a master’s degree from the University of Michigan and completed undergraduate studies in biological physics and chemistry at Brandeis University.

After earning my B.S. in Biotechnology from the Technological Institute of Santo Domingo, I aimed to leverage molecular biology and sequencing technologies to deepen our understanding of disease mechanisms and improve diagnostics and treatments. This led me to Boston, where I contributed to the study of B and T-cell repertoires across various cancers and autoimmune diseases. As a Ph.D. student, I aim to advance our ability to combat rare diseases and address unmet needs in therapeutic science.

I’m a first-year PhD student at Penn State in the MCIBS program, exploring the intersection of immunology and evolutionary medicine through a public health lens. A proud first-gen Dominican-American from Seattle, WA, I’m also a single mother to an amazing 9-year-old daughter. Together, we enjoy hiking and running 5Ks in our free time. I’m passionate about using research to make a meaningful impact in science and public health, striving to inspire my daughter and others in my community along the way.

I’m a first-year PhD student at the USC Keck School of Medicine, originally from Ghana and raised in Beltsville, MD. After my undergraduate studies in Molecular Biology at the University of Pittsburgh, I spent 3 years at the NIH focusing on cancer biology, and immunology research, and project management. My research interests center on the tumor microenvironment's impact on drug therapies. Outside of research, I enjoy mentoring, watching sports, and exploring new foods and cities. #FightOn!

Sophia Manjarrez is a first gen college student who completed her undergraduate degree at California State University Long Beach, where she got her B.S. in Molecular and Cellular Biology. She is now a first year Ph.D. student of Biological Sciences at the Irell and Manella Graduate School at City of Hope. She aims to use her research to serve communities who experience cancer disparities by examining drivers of cancer in diverse populations, whether they are environmental, genetic, or both.

Margarito Hernandez is a current first-year biomedical engineering PhD student at Georgia Tech / Emory. He graduated from Arizona State University in 2022 and went on to become a research assistant at Columbia University. His research in his PhD lab focuses on using cardiac patch and stem cells to repair congenital heart disease. in his free time, he enjoys dancing, sleeping and engaging with his community. Ever since undergrad, he has worked in outreach and education to support latino populations.

Salihu was born and raised in the northern part of Nigeria. He holds a B.S. in Zoology and worked as a research assistant with the Sadi Wellcome Trust Lab, investigating the molecular mechanisms underlying climate adaptations and insecticide resistance in malaria vectors. Currently, he is a PhD student at the University of Florida. His research focuses on characterizing the functional role of CCHa2 neuropeptide in nutrient sensing and feeding behavior in D. melanogaster.

Maria was born and raised in Mexico City. She completed her undergrad in Biology with a minor in Pure Mathematics at UNAM and spent four years at the National Cancer Institute (INCan), identifying biomarkers to predict chemotherapy resistance in breast cancer. She also did a seven-month rotation at OIST in Japan, studying genome scrambling in Oikopleura dioica. Now pursuing a Ph.D. in Biology at Stanford, Maria is dedicated to advancing understanding of diseases like cancer.

Romualda Aquino is a Mexican-American first-generation college graduate from California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, where she earned a B.S. in Chemistry with an emphasis in Biochemistry and a minor in Microbiology. She holds a master’s in Chemistry and is now in her first year of a Ph.D. program at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. Her research centers on advancing experimental and computational to address challenges in synthesizing pharmaceutically relevant small molecules efficiently.

Srijana is pursuing her PhD degree in the Genetics and Genome Sciences program at Michigan State University. She is a first-generation college student and earned her B. Tech. in Biotechnology from Kathmandu University, Nepal. With a background in immuno-technology, she is interested in genomics, bioinformatics and biomedicine. She hopes to study oncogenes involved in cancer and their therapeutic relevance for her PhD and wants to eventually join a pharmaceutical company as a research scientist.

Gabriella holds a B.Sc. in Biological Sciences from Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Brazil. During her undergraduate studies, she worked on developing therapeutic antibodies for leukemia at a pediatric cancer center. Later, as a Research Assistant in a Mucosal Immunology Lab, she investigated the role of immunoglobulin A in suppressing tumorigenesis and learned a lot about intestinal T-cells. Currently, she is pursuing a Ph.D. at Rockefeller University, with research interests centered on immunology.

Nathaniel Amasah is a first-generation student who grew up in Teshie, one of the smallest towns in Accra, Ghana. He holds a BSc in Biochemistry, Cell, and Molecular Biology from the University of Ghana. He is currently pursuing a PhD in Cell and Molecular Biology at the University of Kansas to understand the molecular mechanisms of diseases and develop improved drug treatments. In the future, he aspires to ignite curiosity and potential in future generations by directing outreach programs.