Graduate Research Award Recipients

2009-2010

	Carlos Anderson, Zoology, "Speciation in Artificial Life: Testing the Generality of Reinforcement " (Mentors: Barry Williams, Zoology/Microbiology and Molecular Genetics; Charles Ofria, Computer Science and Engineering)
	Rahul Banerjee, Chemistry, (Quantitative Biology Program Mentors: Robert Cukier, Chemistry; Honggao Yan, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology)
	Jacob Clifford, Physics and Astronomy, "Predicting Expression Levels Based on Enhancer Occupancy" (Mentors: William Wedemeyer, Physics and Astronomy/Biochemistry & Molecular Biology; David Arnosti, Biochemistry & Molecular Biology)
	Gengxin Li, Statistics and Probability, "Bivariate Quantitative Trail Linkage Analysis in Mapping Imprinted Quantitative Trail Loci Underlying Endosperm Traits in Flowering Plant" (Mentors: Yuehua Cui, Statistics and Probability; Dechun Wang, Crop and Soil Science)
	Fan Yang, Civil and Environmental Engineering, "Connecting Carbon Flux and Energy Conservation in Heavy Metal Reduction Process Induced by Barteria" (Mentors: Thomas Voice, Civil and Environmental Engineering; Terence Marsh, Microbiology and Molecular Genetics)
	Wenzhao Yang, Animal Science, "Hierachical Multivariate Mixed Models for Genome Wide Prediction of Genetic Merit Using High Density" (Mentors: Robert Tempelman, Animal Science; Catherine Ernst, Animal Science)

2008—2009

	Carlos Anderson, Zoology, "Speciation in Artificial Life: Testing the Generality of Reinforcement " (Mentors: Barry Williams, Zoology/Microbiology and Molecular Genetics; Charles Ofria, Computer Science and Engineering)
	Leann Buhrow, Cellular and Molecular Biology Program, (Quantitative Biology Program Mentors: Shelagh Ferguson-Miller, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology; Leslie Kuhn, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology)
	Jacqueline Dresch, Mathematics, "Modeling DNA Transcription Using a Hybrid Mathematical Model" (Mentors: Chichia Chiu, Mathematics; David Arnosti, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology)
	Ming Li, Epidemiology, (Quantitative Biology Program Mentors: Wenjiang Fu, Epidemiology; Shin-Han Shiu, Plant Biology)
	Shaoyu Li, Statistics and Probability, "Genomewide Mapping Transcriptional Abundance and Inferring Genetic Networks by Pathway-Based Genetical Genomics Analysis" (Mentors: Yuehua Cui, Statistics and Probability; Shin-Han Shiu, Plant Biology)
	Nikolas Mcpherson, Genetics Program, (Quantitative Biology Program Mentor: David Arnosti, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology)
	Gaurav Moghe, Microbiology and Molecular Genetics Program, (Quantitative Biology Program Mentors: Shin-Han Shiu, Plant Biology; Rong Jin, Computer Science and Engineering)
	Patrick Ochieng, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (Quantitative Biology Program Mentors: Charles Hoogstraten, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology; Michael Feig, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology)
	Erica Schwander, Chemistry, (Quantitative Biology Program Mentors: David Weliky, Chemistry; Michael Garavito, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology)
	Jennifer Smith, Zoology, "Social Network Structure and its Fitness Consequences in the Fission-Fusion Society of Spotted Hyenas" (Mentors: Kay Holekamp, Zoology; Thomas Getty, Kellogg Biological Station/Zoology)
	Jeffrey Van Voorst, Computer Science and Engineering, "Annotating Structural Genomics Structures by Screening the Protein Data Bank for Binding Sites with Similar Chemistry and Shape" (Mentors: Leslie Kuhn, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology; Yiying Tong, Computer Science and Engineering)
	Yalu Wen, Epidemiology, (Quantitative Biology Program Mentor: Wenjiang Fu, Epidemiology)
	Ming Wu, Computer Science and Engineering, (Quantitative Biology Program Mentors: Rong Jin, Computer Science and Engineering; Christina Chan, Chemical Engineering and Materials Science)
	Qing-Peng Zhang, Computer Science and Engineering, (Quantitative Biology Program Mentor: Titus Brown, Computer Science and Engineering)

2007—2008

	Ahmet Ay, Mathematics, "Mathematical Modeling and Analysis of DNA Transcriptional Network" (Mentors: Chichia Chiu, Mathematics; David Arnosti, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology)
	Jaime Curtis, Chemistry, "X-ray Crystallographic and Solid-State Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Structural Studies of Influenza and HIV-1 Fusion Proteins" (Mentors: David Weliky, Chemistry; and Michael Garavito, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology)
	Ertugrul Dalkic, Cell and Molecular Biology Program, "Quantitative Analysis of Whole Genome Networks to Understand the Control of Cell Cycle in the Development of Tumors" (Mentors: Christina Chan, Chemical Engineering and Material Science; Phillip Duxbury, Physics and Astronomy)
	Keyur Desai, Electrical and Computer Engineering, "Statistical Modeling of Gene Expression Interdependence for Reliable Inference from DNA Microarray Data" (Mentors: John Deller, Electrical and Computer Engineering; Justin McCormick, Microbiology and Molecular Genetics/ Biochemistry and Molecular Biology)
	Michael Grillo, Plant Biology, "The Role of Epistasis in the Genetic Basis of Adaptation" (Mentors: Douglas Schemske, Plant Biology; Yuehua Cui, Statistics and Probability)
	Bryan Schindler, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, "Metabolic Engineering of Actinobacillus Succinogenes for Succinate Production" (Mentors: Claire Vieille, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology; and Yair Shachar-Hill, Plant Biology)

2006—2007

	Ahmet Ay , Mathematics, "Mathematical Modeling and Analysis of DNA Transcriptional Network" (Mentors: Chichia Chiu, Mathematics; David Arnosti, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology)
	Nathan Miller , Zoology, "Modeling Multiphase Transport in Sea Turtle Nesting Beaches: Implications for Nest-site Selection, Nest Survival, and Conservation " (Mentors: André Bénard, Mechanical Engineering; Richard Hill, Zoology)
	Matthew O'Toole , Mathematics, "Modeling Mitochondrial Biogenesis, Transport, and Destruction in Neurons " (Mentors: Kyle Miller, Zoology; C.Y. Wang, Mathematics)
	Vijay Singh , Physics, "Disorder and Folding Mechanism in Proteins" (Mentors: Lisa Lapidus, Physics and Astronomy; William Wedemeyer, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology)
	Jeffrey Van Voorst , Computer Science and Engineering, "Performing Surface Chemistry Pattern Recognition to Improve Drug Specificity " (Mentors: Leslie Kuhn, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology; Anil Jain, Computer Science and Engineering)
	Bess Walker , Computer Science and Engineering, "Exploring the Rapid Evolution of Complex Designs in Ecosystems " (Mentors: Charles Ofria, Computer Science and Engineering; Richard Lenski, Microbiology and Molecular Genetics)
	Linxia Zhang , Chemical Engineering, "Modeling the Interplay of CREB and NF-kB at the Transcriptional Level in Hepatocytes" (Mentors: Christina Chan, Chemical Engineering; David Arnosti, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology; Sarat Dass, Statistics & Probability)

2005—2006

	Kai-Chun Chen, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, "Folding of Prion Protein Polymorphisms Correlated with Susceptibility to Scrapie" (Mentors: William Wedemeyer, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology/Physics and Astronomy; Lisa Lapidus, Physics and Astronomy)
	Jeff Clune, Computer Science and Engineering, "General Evolutionary Strategies Underlying Kin Selection-Based Altruism" (Mentors: Charles Ofria, Computer Science and Engineering; Robert Pennock, Lyman Briggs School of Science)
	Kimberly Cooper, Physics and Astronomy, "Fast Folding Studies of Cholera EpsG Protein in a Microfluidic Mixer" (Mentors: Lisa Lapidus, Physics and Astronomy; William Wedemeyer, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology/Physics and Astronomy)
	Sean Law, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, "Determining Protein-DNA Interactions Between MutS DNA Mismatch Repair Protein in E. coli and Various DNA Mismatches and DNA Insertion/Deletions Using Molecular Dynamics Simulation" (Mentors: Michael Feig, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology/Chemistry; Guo Wei, Mathematics)
	Karina Martino, Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering, "Computational Methods for Modeling and Quantifying Sources of Variability and Uncertainty in Growth Models for Listeria monocytogenes and E. coli O157:H7" (Mentors: Bradley Marks, Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering; Elliot Ryser, Food Science and Human Nutrition)
	Matt Tonero, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, "Identifying New Classes of antibiotic compounds that Inhibit the Folate Biosynthetic Enzyme, HPPK" (Mentors: Leslie Kuhn and Honggao Yan, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology)
	Jifeng Wang, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, "Is Conformational Dynamics Correlated with Catalytic Mechanism? A Multidisciplinary Study on Yeast Cytosine Deaminase" (Mentors: Honggao Yan, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology; Robert Cukier, Chemistry)
	Xuerui Yang, Chemical Engineering, "Modeling of Signal Transduction Pathways and Crosstalks: Quantitative Study of Signaling and Metabolic Network Involved in Type 2 Diabetes" (Mentors: Christina Chan, Chemical Engineering and Material Science; Kathy Gallo, Biochemistry & Molecular Biology).

2004—2005

	Brian Connelly, Computer Science and Engineering, "The Simulation Database (SimDB) for Comparing Molecular Dynamics Simulations" (Mentors: Li Xiao, Computer Science and Engineering; and Michael Feig, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology/Chemistry)
	Jason Criscione, Chemistry, "X-ray Crystallographic and Solid-State Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Structural Studies of Influenza and HIV-1 Fusion Proteins" (Mentors: David Weliky, Chemistry; Michael Garavito, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology; and Mark Worden, Chemical Engineering and Materials Science)
	Sherri Goings, Computer Science/Ecology, Evolutionary Biology, and Behavior, "The Evolution of Altruism and Cooperation" (Mentors: Charles Ofria, Computer Science and Engineering; Richard Lenski, Microbiology & Molecular Genetics)
	Zhenwei Lu, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, "NMR and Molecular Dynamics Analysis of HPPK (6-hydroxymethyl-7,8-dihydropterin pyrophosphokinase) Catalysis" (Mentors: Honggao Yan, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology; Robert Cukier, Chemistry)
	James McKinlay, Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, "Modeling of Fermentative Flux to Guide the Metabolic Engineering of A. succinogenes for Enhanced Succinate Production" (Mentors: Gregory Zeikus, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology; Yair Shachar-Hill, Plant Biology)
	Sachin Patil, Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, "Application of Metabolic Modeling to Study Alzheimer's Disease" (Mentors: Christina Chan, Chemical Engineering and Materials Science; William Atchison, Pharmacology & Toxicology)
	Matthew Rupp, Computer Science and Engineering, "Phylogeny Reconstruction Algorithms Based on Information Theory" (Mentors: Eric Torng, Computer Science and Engineering; Charles Ofria, Computer Science and Engineering; and Thomas Schmidt, Microbiology and Molecular Genetics)
	Kyle Thomson, Electrical and Computer Engineering, "Cortical Processing of Motor Sequence Information" (Mentors: Karim Oweiss, Electrical and Computer Engineering; Sharleen Sakai, Psychology and Neuroscience Program)
	Steven Waldauer, Physics and Astronomy, "Development of Dielectric Spectroscopy for Assaying Biomolecular Complex Formation and Nucleic Acid Structure" (Mentors: Vladimir Zelevinsky, Physics and Astronomy; Simon Billinge, Physics and Astronomy; William Wedemeyer, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology/Physics and Astronomy; and Charles Hoogstraten, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology)
	Yalin Xiong, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, "Molecular Dynamics and Kinetics of RNA Polymerase II Transcription Elongation and Regulation" (Mentors: Zachary Burton, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology; Michael Feig, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology/Chemistry)
	Xi Zhang, Chemistry, "Mass Spectrometric Analysis of Lipid and Subunit Composition of the Membrane Protein Cytochrome c Oxidase" (Mentors: John Allison, Chemistry; Shelagh Ferguson-Miller, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology)
	Yongcheng Zhou, Mathematics, "Advanced Interface Method for Biomolecu le Simulations" (Mentors: Guo Wei Wei, Mathematics; Michael Feig, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology/Chemistry)

Prior Awardees