2025-2026 Chancellor’s Undergraduate Award Ceremony

About this award

Supported by the Provost’s Office and the Hilldale Fund, this fellowship provides undergraduate students with $4,000 to pursue an independent research project under the mentorship of UW–Madison faculty or staff.

Three Hilldale Fellowships are sponsored by the McPherson Eye Research Institute.
One Hilldale Fellowship is sponsored by the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, with support from the J & H Wang Family Fund.

Nina Anglim
Major: English
Project: Online Health of Adolescent and Young Adult Organ Transplant Recipients
Faculty Advisor: Taylor House

Ava Berdelman
Major: Biochemistry, Global Health
Project: Structural and Functional Analysis of RSV Matrix Protein Mutations in Viral Assembly
Faculty Advisor: Elizabeth Wright

Aletta Bergman
Major: Wildlife Ecology
Project: Effects of Fuels Management on a Diverse Forest Owl Assemblage in the Sierra Nevada
Faculty Advisor: Zach Peery

Alec Brey
Major: Mechanical Engineering
Project: Real-Time Control of Soft Robots via Physics-Preserving Reduced-Order Models
Faculty Advisor: Harsh Sharma

Natalie Broderick
Major: Astronomy – Physics, Philosophy, Physics
Project: The Effects of Gravitational Acceleration Profiles in Tall-Box ISM Simulations
Faculty Advisor: Ellen Zweibel

Jonathan Buscher
Major: Biochemistry, Statistics
Project: Investigating the Effects of the Escherichia Coli RNA Polymerase Omega Subunit on Post-Initiation Transcriptional Processes
Faculty Advisor: Robert Landick

Sudhindra Chavadam
Major: Biomedical Engineering
Project: Biaxial Viscoelastic Characterization of Human and Porcine Aortic Valve Leaflets to Validate Porcine Surrogate Tissue Models
Faculty Advisor: Colleen Witzenburg

Jiaqi Chen
Major: Biochemistry
Project: Advancing Human Proteoforms Characterization by Integrating Top-Down Mass Spectrometry with Hydrophilic Interaction Chromatography
Faculty Advisor: Ying Ge

Stanislav Cherempei
Major: Chemistry
Project: On-DNA Aziridination for Efficient DNA-Encoded Library (DEL) Construction
Faculty Advisor: Jennifer Schomaker

Adam Chu
Major: Data Science, Molecular & Cell Biology
Project: H4K16ac and H4K20me1 Gate Transcription to Regulate Muscle Stem Cell Activation
Faculty Advisor: Roméo Blanc

Jake Chung
Major: Biochemistry, History
Project: Exploring SARS-CoV-2 nsp13 Helicase as a Specificity Determinant in RNA Synthesis Initiation
Faculty Advisor: Robert Kirchdoerfer

Ari H. Collins
Major: Educational Policy Studies, Philosophy, Political Science
Project: The Goods of Childhood: Justifying Paternalistic Treatment Despite the Presence of Social Construction
Faculty Advisor: Harry Brighouse

Madeleine Dart
Major: Anthropology
Project: Ancient Egyptian and Indus Faience: Investigating Red and White Faience Glazes
Faculty Advisor: Jonathan Kenoyer

Amber DuVal
Major: Biomedical Engineering
Project: Active Biomechanics and Histological Investigation of Venule and Arterial Tissue
Faculty Advisor: Colleen Witzenburg

Lauren Eno
Major: Community & Organizational Development, Environmental Studies
Project: Enforcing the American Lawn: Coding and Mapping Policies Limiting Non-Turfgrass Alternatives in Wisconsin
Faculty Advisor: Holly Gibbs

Rong Fan
Major: Astronomy – Physics, Physics
Project: Quantum State Tomography from Sequentially Probed Reservoir Dynamics
Faculty Advisor: Roman Kuzmin

Thea Stowe Fonstad
Major: International Studies
Project: Autonomous Trucking and the Future of Cross-Border Supply Chains in North America
Faculty Advisor: Greg DeCroix

Cassian Frederick
Major: Engineering Physics
Project: Enabling Ising Superconductivity in Multilayer NbSe2 via Interlayer Twist
Faculty Advisor: Song Jin

Collin Gehl
Major: Genetics & Genomics, Neurobiology
Project: Dissecting the Genetic Architecture of Body Size Evolution in Drosophila melanogaster
Faculty Advisor: John Pool

Jiarui Gong
Major: Mathematics, Statistics
Project: Synonymous Codon Usage as a Lever for Mutation Robustness: A Structure-Aware Genomic Analysis
Faculty Advisor: Aaron Ragsdale

Krithi Gopinath
Major: Neurobiology
Project: Impact of Isocitrate Dehydrogenase Mutation Status on Language Ability in Glioma Patients
Faculty Advisor: Ankush Bhatia

Naomi Gross
Major: Biology
Project: Ecological Consequences of Type III CRISPR-Induced Growth Arrest in Staphylococcus aureus
Faculty Advisor: Charlie Mo

Maya Guerriero
Major: Molecular & Cell Biology
Project: Choroid Plexus as a Modulator of DHA and Arachidonic Acid Balance in the Brain
Faculty Advisor: Akihiro Ikeda

Zoe Gureno
Major: Mechanical Engineering
Project: UV Surface Coatings for Magnetically Driven Soft Microrobotics
Faculty Advisor: Yunus Alapan

Natalie Madelyn Hanka
Major: Genetics & Genomics
Project: Loss of GATA2 Drives Myometrial Invasion in Uterine Serous Carcinoma
Faculty Advisor: Daniel Matson

Everett Higa
Major: Biology, Dance
Project: Characterizing the Interaction of Usher Syndrome Protein MYO7A and RIPOR1 in the Retina
Faculty Advisor: Celia Bisbach
(This Hilldale Fellowship is sponsored by the McPherson Eye Research Institute.)

Ahmed Ibrahim
Major: Electrical Engineering
Project: Understanding and Controlling the Chemically Induced Phase Transformation (ChIPT) of 2D Graphene into Ultrathin 3D Diamond
Faculty Advisor: Robert Jacobberger
(This Hilldale Fellowship is sponsored by the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, with support from the J & H Wang Family Fund.)

Alexander Ivey
Major: Nuclear Engineering
Project: Harnessing Nano-Energy: Using Fast Scanning Calorimetry to Characterize Nuclear Materials
Faculty Advisor: Charles Hirst

Samanyu Jadhav
Major: Biochemistry, Data Science
Project: Epigenetic and Fragmentomic Enrichment of Tumor-Derived cfDNA for Improved Detection of Copy Number Aberrations in Low-Signal Melanoma
Faculty Advisor: Muhammed Murtaza

Yuhan Jiang
Major: Physics
Project: Quantum Generative Algorithms for First-Principles Materials Discovery
Faculty Advisor: Matthew Otten

Tony Jing
Major: History, Political Science
Project: Alignment Without Alliance: Explaining Russia-China Relations in the Contemporary Era
Faculty Advisor: Andrew Kydd

Griffyn Jones
Major: Anthropology, Zoology
Project: Garden Bounty, Risks, and Rewards: Demographic and Resource Predictors of Anthropogenic Space Use in Nature’s Valley Chacma Baboons
Faculty Advisor: Margaret Bryer

Arianna Kaas
Major: Microbiology
Project: Characterization of Candida auris PMT Mutants by Neutrophil Phagocytosis and Killing
Faculty Advisor: Jeniel Nett

Paul Kasprowicz
Major: Psychology
Project: Establishing an Objective Model of Anhedonia in Rhesus macaques
Faculty Advisor: Jonathan Oler

Keagan Kautzer
Major: Computer Sciences, Data Science, Mathematics
Project: A Digital Twin of the Human Voice for Clinical Assessment
Faculty Advisor: Jack Jiang

Sophia Komosa
Major: Data Science, Psychology
Project: Does Correcting Students Limited Understanding of the Equal Sign Improve Algebraic Outcomes?
Faculty Advisor: Martha Alibali

Diya Kothari
Major: Data Science, Economics
Project: Automated Gene Function Extraction from Vibrio fischeri Literature Using Natural Language Processing
Faculty Advisor: Mark Mandel

Braedon Krisko
Major: Molecular & Cell Biology, Music
Project: Citrullinated IgG3-reactive Rheumatoid Factors in Preclinical Rheumatoid Arthritis and Following SARS-CoV-2 Infection
Faculty Advisor: Miriam Shelef

William Laudon
Major: Economics
Project: A Machine Learning Approach to Optimizing Wisconsin’s Unemployment Insurance Risk Profiling System
Faculty Advisor: Corina Mommaerts

Jake Leismer
Major: French, International Studies, Political Science
Project: Mercenaries of Hope: The Terrorist Exploitation of Rural Identity, Community, and Consciousness in Western Sahelian States
Faculty Advisor: Katherine Cramer

Ellinore Letts
Major: Biomedical Engineering
Project: Magnetic Spheroids for Probing Lymphatic Endometrial Cancer Interactions and Effective Distance of Interaction
Faculty Advisor: María Virumbrales-Muñoz

Jiayun Li
Major: Pharmacology & Toxicology
Project: Cellular Senescence Across Brain Cell Types Following CNS Infection of Mycobacterium tuberculosis
Faculty Advisor: Thiunuwan Thanthrige

Zhiyuan Li
Major: Computer Sciences, Data Science
Project: Toward Context-Adaptive Prediction and Subtyping of Postpartum Hemorrhage
Faculty Advisor: Benjamin Lengerich

Eleyna Limburg
Major: Psychology, Spanish
Project: Growing through Adversity: The role of Social Support in the Relationship between Adverse Childhood Experiences and Posttraumatic Growth
Faculty Advisor: Katie Howell

Jeffrey Liu
Major: Computer Sciences, Mechanical Engineering
Project: CAP-Grasp: Current-Adaptive Planning for Multi-Finger Robotic Grasping
Faculty Advisor: Bilge Mutlu

Chris J. Lopez-Henriquez
Major: English, Music Performance
Project: Terms and Conditions of the Managed Voice: Artistic Expression under the Regime of Permission
Faculty Advisor: Kristina Huang

Qiushi Lu
Major: Computer Sciences, Data Science, Mathematics
Project: Riemannian Gradient Descent for Eigenvector Computation
Faculty Advisor: Jelena Diakonikolas

Zibby Lunger
Major: Psychology
Project: The Effect of Comorbid Psychopathology on Autistic Children Using a Dimensional Perspective
Faculty Advisor: James Li

Kashika Mahajan
Major: Computer Sciences, Mathematics
Project: Vector-Augmented 3D Images for Deep Learning-Based Segmentation of Microglia Cells
Faculty Advisor: Liz Haynes

Utkarsha Marasini
Major: Mechanical Engineering
Project: MouseGaitLab
Faculty Advisor: Jared Cregg

Mina Meyer-Najmi
Major: Chemistry
Project: Regiodivergent Electrochemical Oxyamination of Alkenes using Phenothiazine
Faculty Advisor: Zachary Wickens

Kate Moeller
Major: Communication Sciences and Disorders
Project: Cognate Processing and Long-Term Memory in Bilinguals
Faculty Advisor: Margarita Kaushanskaya

Grace Munro
Major: Neurobiology
Project: Testing Akkermansia muciniphila in Fragile X Mice
Faculty Advisor: Cara Westmark

Conor Neill
Major: Biomedical Engineering
Project: Ultrastructural Compartmentalization of Mechano-Electrochemical Crosstalk between Caveolae, Sarcoplasmic Reticulum, and Mitochondria in Healthy and Diseased Hearts
Faculty Advisor: Alexey Glukhov

Hypatia Newton
Major: Chemistry
Project: Studying the Anharmonic Coupling of the OH Stretching Mode in 10- Hydroxybenzo[h]quinoline using Constrained Nuclear-Electronic Orbital Theory
Faculty Advisor: Yang Yang

Aaleeyah Padela
Major: Environmental Sciences, Geology & Geophysics
Project: The North American Wildfire Response to the 8.2 Kiloyear Event
Faculty Advisor: Jack Williams

Shivam Pranay Patel
Major: Genetics & Genomics
Project: Investigating the Role of DUF1917 Proteins in Dehydroamino Acid Formation and Antiviral Immunity Against HIV-1
Faculty Advisor: Nathan Sherer

Matthew Pennington
Major: Economics, English
Project: Dehumanizing Effects of Subliminal Exposure to AI- and Automaton-Based Derogatory Language
Faculty Advisor: Kelly Wright

Brock Peyton
Major: Biochemistry
Project: Isoform Specific Regulation of Cellular Metabolism by PGC-1α in Primary Astrocytes
Faculty Advisor: Rozalyn Anderson

Natalie Pinka
Major: Communication Sciences and Disorders, Psychology
Project: The Role of Experience on Early Word Learning in Children with Cerebral Palsy
Faculty Advisor: Jenny Saffran

Benjamin Plum
Major: Neurobiology, Psychology
Project: Behavioral Characterization of Tonic-Clonic Seizures in Ictal and Post-Ictal Phases
Faculty Advisor: Urszula Gorska-Klimowska

Benjamin Pralat
Major: Biochemistry
Project: Utilizing Crystallographic Screening to Seek the Structure of DDX41
Faculty Advisor: Aaron Hoskins

Jiangrong Qin
Major: Mathematics, Molecular & Cell Biology, Statistics
Project: A Transfer Learning Framework for De Novo Sequencing of Endogenous Peptides
Faculty Advisor: Lingjun Li

Shreshth Rach
Major: Data Science, Economics
Project: Planetary Eccentricities Across Galactic Time: Disentangling Stellar Age from Galactic Environment
Faculty Advisor: Elena D’Onghia

Samuel Rafferty
Major: Neurobiology
Project: The Role of TSC2 in EphA-mediated Axon Guidance in Retinal Ganglion Cells Independent of TSC1 and mTORC1
Faculty Advisor: Timothy Gomez
(This Hilldale Fellowship is sponsored by the McPherson Eye Research Institute.)

Shreyas Raini
Major: Molecular & Cell Biology
Project: Basal Cell Proliferation and Differentiation in BAL-Derived Airway Organoids During Acute Cellular Rejection
Faculty Advisor: Monica Liu

Amelia Rancour
Major: Biochemistry
Project: Investigation of rSWI/SNF Complex Interaction with Super Enhancer Regions in SCCOHT Cell Lines
Faculty Advisor: Jessica Lang

Alyssa Rooks
Major: Forest Science
Project: Community-Engaged Food Forest Design with the Oneida Nation of Wisconsin
Faculty Advisor: Adena Rissman

Karrin Sackett
Major: Chemical Engineering, Chemistry
Project: Identification and Mechanistic Analysis of Inhibitory Cheese Whey Impurities on Sulfuric Acid-Catalyzed Lactose Hydrolysis
Faculty Advisor: George Huber

Daleep Singh Sandhu
Major: Neurobiology, Psychology
Project: Neural Mechanisms of Impaired Consciousness During Focal Seizures
Faculty Advisor: Matthew Banks

Anna Schellin
Major: Psychology, Statistics
Project: Do Words Slow Us Down? Investigating Fraction Processing Across Formats
Faculty Advisor: Percival Matthews

Kierstin Schlevensky
Major: Biochemistry
Project: Developing CD123-Targeting NOT-Gated CAR T Cells for Acute Myeloid Leukemia Therapy
Faculty Advisor: Becky Richards

Arnav Joshi Shanbhag
Major: Mathematics, Statistics
Project: Advancing Optimization Algorithm Complexity Theory
Faculty Advisor: Vivak Patel

Hailey Sieren
Major: Microbiology
Project: Horizontal Transmission of Mosquito-Associated Bacteria via Shared Nectar Sources
Faculty Advisor: Kerri Coon

Paige Sikora
Major: Biochemistry, Physics
Project: A Comparison of the Photophysical Properties of mStayRose, mCherry, and Cy3
Faculty Advisor: Aaron Hoskins

Xiaoran Sun
Major: Psychology
Project: How does Inner Speech Predict the Use of Category-Based Inference?
Faculty Advisor: Gary Lupyan

Tommy Sun
Major: Computer Sciences, Data Science, Mathematics
Project: Semantic-Aware Retrieval and Agent-Grounded In-Context Learning for Molecular Analysis via LLMs
Faculty Advisor: Xiao Luo

Lucia Sundberg
Major: Genetics & Genomics
Project: Investigating the Effects of TMEM135 Mutation on Lipid Metabolism and Oxidative Stress in the Brain
Faculty Advisor: Sakae Ikeda

Samantha Surges
Major: Environmental Sciences
Project: Ecomorphological Trait Variation in Montane Ground Beetles (Carabidae: Nebria) Across Elevation
Faculty Advisor: Sean Schoville

Nicholas Tallon
Major: Astronomy – Physics, Mathematics, Physics
Project: Constraining the Missing Sulfur Problem with James Webb Space Telescope
Faculty Advisor: Abygail Waggoner

Yaqing (Amelia) Tang
Major: Communication Sciences and Disorders, Data Science, Psychology
Project: How Inner Speech Shapes Phonological Activation
Faculty Advisor: Gary Lupyan

Becca Trillin-Lee
Major: Psychology
Project: Developmental Origins of the Motherhood Penalty: Do Children Associate Parenthood with Occupational Status?
Faculty Advisor: Kristin Shutts

Pranav Venkit
Major: Biomedical Engineering
Project: Neural Architecture and Connectivity across Primates within the Retina’s First Synapse
Faculty Advisor: Raunak Sinha
(This Hilldale Fellowship is sponsored by the McPherson Eye Research Institute.)

Raagav Vijayalakshmi Siva
Major: Agricultural Business Management
Project: Evaluation of a Fermentation-Derived Antimicrobial for Poultry Surface and Packaging Applications
Faculty Advisor: Jae-Hyuk Yu

Katherine Genevieve Wahr
Major: Biochemistry
Project: Exploration of Lymphatic and Myeloid Cell Functional Responses as a Result of Aging
Faculty Advisor: Zsuzsanna Fabry

Erika Wan
Major: Psychology, Statistics
Project: The Role of Grammatical Agency in Children’s Moral Judgments
Faculty Advisor: Pearl Han Li

Alexandra Diaz Granados Wayss
Major: Neurobiology, Sociology
Project: How does the Experience of Childhood Trauma Moderate the Association between Cognition and the Time Course of Emotional Responses?
Faculty Advisor: Stacey Schaefer

Ty Weaver
Major: Molecular & Cell Biology
Project: Non-Invasive Longitudinal Tracking of Single-Cell Metabolic Recovery in Human iPSC-CMs following Mitochondrial Transplantation via NAD(P)H FLIM
Faculty Advisor: Melissa Skala

Elliott Weix
Major: Biochemistry, Mathematics
Project: Probing Phenotypic Heterogeneity using a Synthetic Asymmetric Cell Division System
Faculty Advisor: Scott Coyle

Lukas Wiggers
Major: Molecular & Cell Biology, Neurobiology
Project: Improving Neural Stem Cell Lysosomal Function in an Alzheimer’s Disease Mouse Model
Faculty Advisor: Darcie Moore

Isabella Willis
Major: Neurobiology
Project: Intestinal Lipid Metabolism and Enteric Nervous System
Faculty Advisor: Eric Yen

Carolyn Winder
Major: Biochemistry, Biology, French
Project: Targeting the Gut to Treat Alzheimer’s Disease
Faculty Advisor: David Harris

Abigail Winn
Major: Mathematics, Mechanical Engineering
Project: Scalable Verification and Experimental Validation of Neural Network-Enabled Thrust Vector Control for Reusable Rockets
Faculty Advisor: Xiangru Xu

Abigail Wu
Major: Biochemistry
Project: Evaluating Nitrogen Transfer From Engineered K. variicola to Maize Using 15N Gas Enrichment
Faculty Advisor: Jean-Michel Ané

Zhaoyang Xiang
Major: Biochemistry
Project: Protein Evolution on Monomeric Esterase for Acyl Chloride Proximity Labeling
Faculty Advisor: Jeff Martell

Jieying (Iris) Xu
Major: Computer Sciences, Data Science
Project: Multi-Class Ovarian Ultrasound Segmentation with Retrieval-Augmented Explainability
Faculty Advisor: Irene Ong

Leo Xu
Major: Computer Sciences, Mathematics
Project: Learning to Assist: Generative Behavior-Cloned Policies for Implicit Human-Robot Collaboration
Faculty Advisor: Mike Hagenow

Keira R Ylvisaker
Major: Biochemistry, Mathematics, Pharmacology & Toxicology
Project: DNA Strand-Specific Replication-Coupled Repair and Regulation of Error Prone TLS Polymerases
Faculty Advisor: Kavi Mehta

Jake Yun
Major: Computer Engineering, Computer Sciences
Project: MedRankAI: A Benchmark for Evaluation of Vision Foundation Models in Medical Imaging
Faculty Advisor: Alan McMillan

Grace Zhang
Major: Chemical Engineering
Project: Investigating the Role of Structure-Sensitivity in Liquid Carrier Dehydrogenation Kinetics for Renewable Hydrogen Storage
Faculty Advisor: Siddarth Krishna

Ander Zheng
Major: Microbiology
Project: Analysis of Essential Genes in Vibrio fischeri using Mobile-CRISPRi
Faculty Advisor: Mark Mandel

Zike Zhou
Major: Food Science, Microbiology
Project: Light-Guided Optimization of Natural Antimicrobial and Cosmetic Metabolite Production in Aspergillus oryzae
Faculty Advisor: Jae-Hyuk Yu

About this award

A generous grant from Carleton and Mary Beth Holstrom of Pipersville, Pennsylvania, provides undergraduates with $4,000 to pursue an independent research project related to environmental issues under the mentorship of UW–Madison faculty or staff.

Noahvose Herron
Major: Environmental Engineering
Project: Quantifying the Corn Ethanol Water Footprint in the Continental United States
Faculty Advisor: Christopher Zahasky

Kathryn Leonard
Major: Agricultural & Applied Economics, Environmental Studies
Project: Valuing Tradeoffs: Understanding Wisconsin Residents’ Perceptions of Data Center Environmental Impacts
Faculty Advisor: Corbett Grainger

Asher Benjamin Salkin
Major: Agricultural & Applied Economics
Project: The Diffusion of Agrivoltaics in Wisconsin: Stakeholder Perceptions and the Innovation-Decision Process
Faculty Advisor: Jeremy Beach

Vedaa Usha Vandavasi
Major: Biological Systems Engineering
Project: From Farmland to Air: Bridging the Gap between Satellite Observations and  Emissions Inventories for Agricultural Ammonia Emissions
Faculty Advisor: Christopher Kucharik

About this award

Generous grants from the Brittingham Wisconsin Trust, the Knapp Bequest, and the Division for Teaching and Learning provide undergraduates with $3,000 to pursue a research project under the mentorship of UW–Madison faculty or staff.

One Sophomore Fellowship is sponsored by the McPherson Eye Research Institute.

Sohan Alleshwaram
Major: Computer Sciences, Mathematics
Project: Forward-in-Time Simulations of the Colorado Potato Beetle to Predict Gene Flow
Faculty Advisor: Sean Schoville

Haley Alvarez-Garcia
Major: Genetics & Genomics
Project: Understanding Sex-Based Differences in Inguinal Hernia Care: Clinical Pathways to Surgery and Postoperative Outcomes
Faculty Advisor: Victoria Rendell

Lauren Anderson
Major: Biomedical Engineering
Project: Correlating the Metabolism and ECM Structure of Cardiac Fibroblasts through Optical Metabolic Imaging and Second-Harmonic Generation Microscopy
Faculty Advisor: Melissa Skala

Maxwell Bartlett
Major: Chemical Engineering
Project: Designing Zeolite-Based Catalysts for Simultaneous Nitrous and Nitrogen Oxide Pollution Abatement from Ammonia Engines
Faculty Advisor: Siddarth Krishna

Adit Bhootra
Major: Biology
Project: Mechanisms of DNA Repair Deficiency and Radiosensitivity in TSC-Mutant Cancer Cells
Faculty Advisor: Pippa Cosper

Caroline Blust
Major: Biomedical Engineering
Project: Development and Evaluation of a Fully Automated Preoperative Planning and Intraoperative Guidance Workflow for Periacetabular Osteotomy
Faculty Advisor: Josh Roth

Andriana Boulos
Major: Psychology
Project: Do Adults’ Messages Engender Self-Resemblance Preferences in Racially-Minoritized Children?
Faculty Advisor: Ashley Jordan

Elia Careaga
Major: Neurobiology
Project: Validating the Impact of Morphogen Modulation on Cell Identity in an Organoid Screen
Faculty Advisor: André Sousa

Sixing Chen
Major: Neurobiology
Project: Defining the Critical Period for FMRP Restoration in Fragile X Mice
Faculty Advisor: Xinyu Zhao

Yu Chen
Major: Biology
Project: Role of Neutral Sphingomyelinase (nSMase) Activation in Caveolae Remodeling Under Chronic Mechanical Stress in Cardiomyocytes
Faculty Advisor: Alexey Glukhov

Michael Cherevatsky
Major: Biochemistry
Project: Aging Impacts Myeloid Cell Functional Features and Phenotype at the Cribriform Plate
Faculty Advisor: Matyas Sandor

Tejas Dahiya
Major: Undeclared
Project: Predictive Sensor Health Index for Multi-Sensor Failure Detection in Engine Systems
Faculty Advisor: Saurabh Gupta

Ishpreet Dang
Major: Molecular & Cell Biology
Project: The Role of Ssd1 in Regulating Protein Production in Aneuploid Yeast
Faculty Advisor: Audrey Gasch

Christopher DeCorte
Major: Biology, Biomedical Engineering
Project: Engineering Immune-Evasive Endothelium and Defining the Rejectome: Modeling and Predicting Early Allogeneic Graft Rejection
Faculty Advisor: Matthew Brown

Katelyn Doehrmann
Major: Biochemistry
Project: Utilizing Isotopically Substituted Ammonia to Quantify the Production of Molecular Nitrogen in  Astronomically Relevant Ices
Faculty Advisor: Susanna Widicus Weaver

Nolan Doherty
Major: Microbiology
Project: Correlating Listeria monocytogenes Plaque Area and Sigma Factor B Activity during Stress with Elevated Virulence through a Clinical Isolate Screen
Faculty Advisor: JD Sauer

Abigail Fagerlin
Major: Physics
Project: Photometric Precision Limits of Low-Cost Astronomical CCD Systems for Distance Measurements
Faculty Advisor: Peter Timbie

Eavan Finnerty
Major: Neurobiology
Project: Can Anti-Müllerian Hormone Predict Inflammatory Cytokines in Female Infertility?
Faculty Advisor: Aleks Stanic-Kostic

Helaina Grossmeyer
Major: Astronomy – Physics, Computer Sciences
Project: Identifying Extremely Young Post-Starburst Galaxies with SDSS-IV/eBOSS Spectroscopy
Faculty Advisor: Christy Tremonti

Fleli Hakizimana
Major: Biology, Global Health
Project: Mechanistic Regulation of Histone H3 Thr3 Phosphorylation Dynamics During Mitosis
Faculty Advisor: Aussie Suzuki

Jixiang Hu
Major: History
Project: German Pietism and the Formation of the Modern Self
Faculty Advisor: Eric Carlsson

Wanyang Huang
Major: Molecular & Cell Biology
Project: Environmental Isolation and Construction of a Bacillus subtilis Bacteriophage Library of the University of Wisconsin-Madison
Faculty Advisor: Jade Wang

Devyn Iglesias-Fuller
Major: Biochemistry, Latin American, Caribbean and Iberian Studies
Project: An in vitro Investigation of RNA Binding and Liquid-Liquid Phase Deparation of C. elegans Processing Body Protein CAR-1
Faculty Advisor: Andrea Putnam

Alexandra Isaak
Major: Microbiology
Project: Graphical User Interface to Improve the Accessibility of T Cell Quality Monitoring using Automated Optical Metabolic Imaging
Faculty Advisor: Melissa Skala

Olivia Jerabek
Major: Genetics & Genomics
Project: Ploidy and Adaptation: Comparing the Fitness of Isogenic Haploid and Diploid Mutants in Schizosaccharomyces pombe
Faculty Advisor: Nathaniel Sharp

Madeline Koebrick
Major: Molecular & Cell Biology
Project: Interrogating the Function of the Hox Gene Deformed in the Development of the Prehensile Leg of Daddy-Longlegs
Faculty Advisor: Prashant Sharma

Violet Krol
Major: Biology
Project: Impacts of Global Climate Change on the Fitness of the Copepod Eurytemora affinis
Faculty Advisor: Carol Eunmi Lee

Samuel Kuemmel
Major: Statistics
Project: Mapping Green: A Geospatial Analysis of Neighborhood-Level Lawn Ownership Demographics
Faculty Advisor: Holly Gibbs

Matias Kvalsvik
Major: Biology
Project: Investigating the Bicaudal-C(Bicc1)-RNA Interface across Different Species
Faculty Advisor: Michael Sheets

Heng (Dariush) Lasiang
Major: Electrical Engineering, Physics
Project: Simulating Nanoscale Photon Transport and its Effects on Near-field Thermophotovoltaic Cell Performance
Faculty Advisor: Eric Tervo

Ruda Lee
Major: Chemistry, Data Science
Project: Synthesis of High-Csp3 DNA-Encoded Libraries Using Thianthrenium On-DNA Chemistry
Faculty Advisor: Jefferey Martell

Eve Lin
Major: Mechanical Engineering
Project: Additive Manufacturing Functionally Graded Foams to Control Local Mechanical Response
Faculty Advisor: Ramathasan Thevamaran

Zoe Littlefield
Major: Undeclared
Project: Social Patterns on a Local Stage: Translating the work of Ashley Mears to Regional Theater
Faculty Advisor: Chloe Hart

Yihan (Ashley) Liu
Major: Astronomy – Physics
Project: Worlds in Time: The Cooling Histories and Ages of Temperate Super-Earths
Faculty Advisor: Melinda Soares-Furtado

Kevin Kai Ming Low
Major: Physics
Project: Intrinsic Gap Complexity of Kepler Planetary Systems with Undetected Planets
Faculty Advisor: David Rice

Maire J. Lucero
Major: Physics
Project: Assessing Variance of Atmospheric Hydrogen Intensities with Respect to the Solar Cycle Using Southern Hemispheric Data
Faculty Advisor: Susan Nossal

Aiyana Manglona
Major: English, Information Science
Project: One Size Does Not Fit All: Challenging the Use of Overarching Guidelines for Data Visualizations
Faculty Advisor: Karen Schloss

Jack Marsh
Major: Biochemistry
Project: Cpt2-Dependent Regulation of Intestinal Fatty Acid Oxidation by the Gut Microbiota
Faculty Advisor: Eric Yen

Cody McKenna
Major: Computer Sciences, Mathematics
Project: Using AI to Simulate Novel Physics from Text Descriptions and Mathematical Specifications
Faculty Advisor: Misha Khodak

Khushi Mitchell
Major: Neurobiology
Project: Isolating Cone-Driven Visual Behavior in LIAIS Mice Using a Novel Rod-Silent Optomotor Approach for Color Vision Studies in Parkinson Disease
Faculty Advisor: Freya Mowat
(This Sophomore Fellowship is sponsored by the McPherson Eye Research Institute.)

Angeline Morgado Romero
Major: International Studies, Latin American, Caribbean & Iberian Studies, Political Science
Project: Displaced & Blamed: The Venezuelan Diaspora’s Responses to Xenophobic Discourses in Chile
Faculty Advisor: Sara Mckinnon

Sage Osesek
Major: Genetics & Genomics, Molecular & Cell Biology
Project: Sex-Specific Regulation of Bis(monoacylglycero)phosphate by mTORC1 in Skeletal Muscle Aging
Faculty Advisor: Ryan Marshall

Tirth Mihirbhai Patel
Major: Data Science, Economics
Project: Detecting Shifts Between Populist and Responsible Governance in Three Signature Episodes
Faculty Advisor: Matteo Camboni

Anikait Patel
Major: Molecular & Cell Biology
Project: Engineering Signal Peptides to Enhance Antitumor Potency of Virus-free CRISPR GD2-CAR T Cells
Faculty Advisor: Portia Smith

Sophie Petta
Major: Neurobiology
Project: Donor-Recipient Origin of BAL-Derived Organoids and Immune Cells From Lung Transplant Patients
Faculty Advisor: Monica Liu

Owen Plate
Major: Environmental Sciences
Project: Influence of Disturbance Regime and Soil Properties on Grassland Plant Community Composition
Faculty Advisor: Ellen Damschen

Keyvan Pouladian
Major: Engineering Physics
Project: Noise Analysis for Fast Differential Scanning Calorimetry of Defect Annealing in SiC
Faculty Advisor: Charlie Hirst

Agastya Rathee
Major: Computer Sciences, Data Science
Project: Hardware-Agnostic Optimization and Massive Parallelization of the SPECTRAX Kinetic Plasma Solver
Faculty Advisor: Rogerio Jorge

Grace Reichert
Major: Molecular & Cell Biology
Project: Characterizing the Roles of Electrostatic Residues in Regulating Proton Leak through Multidrug Resistance Transporter EmrE
Faculty Advisor: Katherine Henzler-Wildman

Anna Rosu
Major: Materials Science & Engineering
Project: Crystalline Properties and Ion Transport in POEM5/POEM20 Random Co-Polymer Electrolytes
Faculty Advisor: Whitney Loo

Lyn Sepersky
Major: History, Information Science, Political Science
Project: Analyzing the Impact of Interpersonal Rural-Urban Relationships on Measured Levels of Rural-Urban Polarization
Faculty Advisor: Matthew Pietryka

Meredith Serrano
Major: Neurobiology, Psychology
Project: Approximate Number System Development in Children
Faculty Advisor: Stephen Ferrigno

Ryan Smithana
Major: Biochemistry, Spanish
Project: Thrombospondin-1 and RPE Cell Function in Dry AMD
Faculty Advisor: Nader Sheibani

Aurora Swissdorf
Major: Biochemistry
Project: Understanding the Effects of Inflammatory Signaling on Lymphatic Vessels in HGSOC
Faculty Advisor: María Virumbrales-Muñoz

Aleena Varghese
Major: Molecular & Cell Biology
Project: Genetic Analgesia via Synthetic Post-Transcriptional Repression of Sodium Channels in Sensory Neurons
Faculty Advisor: Zachary Campbell

Yuva Vijaykumar Shunmugapriya
Major: Biochemistry
Project: Evaluating the Therapeutic Efficacy of MRTX1133 in Combination with MK-8776 in KRAS G12D-Driven Colorectal Cancer
Faculty Advisor: Dustin Deming

Nina Wolff
Major: Neurobiology, Psychology
Project: Top-Down or Bottom-Up? Directionality of Ratio Visual Processing
Faculty Advisor: Percival Matthews

Yuhan Xing
Major: Electrical Engineering
Project: A Triboelectric Nanogenerator-Based Energy Harvesting Strategy for Prolonging the Battery Life of Sports Headphones
Faculty Advisor: Xudong Wang

Benjamin Zumbrunnen
Major: Geology & Geophysics
Project: Determining the Relationship between Sediment Concentration and Dielectric Permittivity in Ice for Applications in Radar Surveys
Faculty Advisor: Lucas Zoet

About this award

A generous gift from the Herfurth and Kubly families provides for these longstanding awards which honor senior students exemplifying superior academic achievement, community service and leadership in extracurricular activities, financial self-support, and effective communication skills.

Evelyn Browning
Majors: Data Science, Genetics & Genomics

Reem Itani
Major: Political Science

Sophia Melnyk, Honorable Mention
Majors: Chemistry, Biochemistry, Pharmacology & Toxicology

Frankie Milanowski, Honorable Mention
Majors: Legal Studies, Spanish

The Beinecke Scholarship Program provides college juniors with $35,000 to pursue research‑ or creative‑focused graduate study in the arts, humanities, and social sciences. 

Amanda Grant
African Cultural Studies, Art History, History
Beinecke Scholar

From Clayton, Wisconsin, Amanda graduated in December 2025 with a Bachelor of Arts in African Cultural Studies, Art History, and History with honors. Amanda’s research explores the history of gendered health care in East Africa, with a particular focus on missionary training schools and women’s experiences within colonial medical systems. Supported by a Hilldale Research Fellowship and other awards, Amanda conducted archival research in Uganda and London and studied Swahili through federally funded language programs. Her work on the Maternity Training School at Mengo Hospital in Kampala, Uganda, earned the UW–Madison History Department’s Farha Tahir Award for African History and was presented at the national American Historical Association conference. Amanda plans to pursue a PhD in History.

The Goldwater Scholarship provides $7,500 for undergraduate study to students who demonstrate great potential for, and commitment to, a research career in the field of mathematics, the natural sciences or engineering.

Aletta Bergman
Wildlife Ecology
Goldwater Scholar

A junior from Grantsburg, Wisconsin, Aletta is a Mercile J. Lee Scholar majoring in wildlife ecology with honors in research. She conducts research in two campus laboratories, receiving both the Sophomore Research Fellowship and the Hilldale Research Fellowship to support her work. In Professor Jake Vander Zanden’s Lab, she researches the impact of spiny water flea on biogeochemical cycling. Aletta’s research in Professor Zach Peery’s lab on the impacts of severe fire and fuels management strategies on forest owls in the Sierra Nevada, earned an award for best undergraduate poster presentation at the 2025 Raptor Research Foundation Annual Meeting and she is preparing a first-author manuscript for publication. Additionally, she has worked as a research technician in northern Minnesota on a forest bird monitoring program and a Boreal Chickadee research project. This summer she will conduct research on Egyptian Vultures in southern Spain. Beyond research, Aletta is the vice president of the Audubon Society, and past president of the Wildlife Society, at UW–Madison. She plans to pursue a PhD in Ecology.

Krithi Gopinath
Neurobiology
Goldwater Scholar

A junior from Germantown, Wisconsin, Krithi is majoring in neurobiology with a certificate in South Asian studies. She conducts research in three campus laboratories, contributing to projects that span basic, clinical and educational neuroscience, receiving both the Sophomore Research Fellowship and the Hilldale Research Fellowship to support her work. With Professor Jon Audhya, Krithi investigates the cellular mechanisms underlying neurodegeneration, earning co-authorship on an article published in the Journal of Cell Biology. In collaboration with Dr. Ankush Bhatia, she conducts clinical and translational research examining how molecular alterations in brain cancer influence brain connectivity, neurocognitive function, and patient outcomes. She also serves as lab manager for Professor Edward Hubbard’s educational neuroscience lab, which studies mathematical cognition in children and adults. After completing medical school, Krithi will pursue a career in medicine and translational research focused on neural recovery following brain injury.

Eva Stafne
Mechanical Engineering
Goldwater Scholar

A junior from Stillwater, Minnesota, Eva is majoring in mechanical engineering and completing a certificate in international engineering. She conducts astrophysics research with Professor Juliette Becker and has earned both the university’s Sophomore Research Fellowship and the NASA‑funded Wisconsin Space Grant Consortium Fellowship to support her work. In a first‑author paper in The Astrophysical Journal, Eva overturns a key assumption about habitability research by showing that general relativity can stabilize planetary orbits around white dwarf stars, allowing some planets to remain temperate enough to potentially support life. Last fall, Eva studied at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), completing coursework in space technology and contributing to Orbit BioSat, a student‑led satellite mission aimed at growing a living plant in space. This summer Eva will intern at the NASA Jet Propulsion Lab in California. She plans to pursue a PhD in Aerospace Engineering and a career focused on mission‑driven research into the habitability of other planets.

The Truman Scholarship provides $30,000 for graduate study to outstanding juniors who plan a career in public service.

Miranda Garcia-Dove
Information Science, Political Science
Truman Scholar

A junior from Madison, Wisconsin, Miranda is majoring in political science and information science, and completing a certificate in public policy and Honors in the Liberal Arts. She is the co‑founder and co‑leader of BridgeMadison, a student organization dedicated to reducing political polarization through thoughtful, constructive dialogue. The goal is not to change minds, but rather encourage students to engage with differing beliefs and perspectives. Under her leadership, the group has earned national recognition and university support. Additionally, Miranda has been an important student voice in the university’s new initiative, The Wisconsin Exchange: Pluralism in Practice. After graduate study, Miranda plans to pursue a career in public service, working first with the International Organization for Migration and later with the U.S. State Department to use data‑driven insights to create safer, legal migration pathways in Latin America.

Amy Liang
Neurobiology, Political Science 
Truman Scholarship Finalist

A junior from Middleton, Wisconsin, Amy is majoring in political science and neurobiology and completing a certificate in health policy, while conducting research in three laboratories. After graduation, she plans to pursue an MD/MPH and a career at the intersection of medicine, public health, and health policy. Amy has already made meaningful contributions to health literacy in Wisconsin. Through her work as a longtime tutor with the Literacy Network, a local nonprofit offering free English classes to adults in Dane County, she recognized barriers English language learners face in health care settings and, with support from a Wisconsin Idea Fellowship, developed a health literacy curriculum to address this need. Because the Literacy Network serves nearly 1,700 learners and shares its materials statewide, Amy’s work has the potential for broad impact across Wisconsin. After medical school, Amy aspires to join the Commissioned Corps of the U.S. Public Health Service and ultimately hopes to serve as U.S. Surgeon General.

Sreejita Patra
Journalism
Truman Scholarship Finalist

A junior from Fairfield, Connecticut, Sreejita will graduate in May 2026 after three years of study with a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism and Honors in the Liberal Arts. Sreejita, who is currently studying abroad in London and cannot be here in person tonight, is a regular contributor to student media, including The Daily Cardinal, where she is a senior staff writer. She has covered the Oregon Village Board for The Oregon Observer and interned with several news outlets, including the Badger Project, a nonpartisan nonprofit that investigates politicians and law enforcement, and Wisconsin Watch, a nonprofit investigative news organization. At Wisconsin Watch, she uncovered a senior suicide crisis in rural Wisconsin and reported thoughtfully on complex issues such as conditions in the state’s prison system.Sreejita plans to pursue a master’s degree in journalism and a career in public‑interest journalism that informs the public, holds those in power accountable, and strengthens democracy.

The Udall Scholarship provides $7,000 for undergraduate students in recognition of their leadership, public service, and commitment to issues related to Native American nations or to the environment.

Helena Bello
Environmental Studies, Legal Studies 
2025 Udall Scholar

A senior from Washington, D.C., Helena is double majoring in legal studies and environmental studies. Her interest in environmental protection began with birding and, while still in high school, led her to develop a legislative proposal for bird‑safe building designs—work that generated significant public interest and contributed to the passage of the District of Columbia’s Migratory Local Wildlife Protection Act. In college, Helena continued this policy work by presenting a bird‑safe building proposal for the City of Milwaukee and serving as an environmental advocacy intern with the Southern Wisconsin Bird Alliance. She has also served as a legal intern with the Tribal Court of Appeals Project. This fall, Helena will begin law school and aspires to a career in environmental law focused on conservation and environmental justice.

Alissa Choi
Chemistry, Geology & Geophysics
2025 Udall Scholar

A senior from Brooklyn, New York, Alissa is double majoring in geology and chemistry. As a researcher with the NSF Center for Oldest Ice Exploration, she studies Earth’s oldest ice cores, analyzing dust, greenhouse gases, and ice microstructure to better understand past climate change and how Earth systems may respond to future climate change. Alissa, who is involved in basic research and geoscience education research, is a 2025 Goldwater Scholar, a 2024–2026 NOAA Hollings Scholar, and a 2026 NSF Graduate Research Fellow. Deeply committed to science communication and education, she works with Inspiring Girls* Expeditions and Project Ice to introduce K–12 students and educators to polar science. She has also produced climate‑focused short films featured in the Polar Film Festival and Scholastic Science World digital magazine. This fall, Alissa will begin a PhD in Earth and Environmental Sciences at Columbia University.

Leo Strand
Environmental Studies, Political Science
2025 Udall Scholarship Honorable Mention

A senior from Milton, Wisconsin, Leo is majoring in environmental studies and political science, with certificates in history and public policy. He is interested in sustainable urban design, with a focus on transportation and public transit infrastructure in the Midwest. Through the AmeriCorps service program, Leo served as sustainability coordinator for the City of La Crosse, where he helped implement the city’s Climate Action Plan. He worked on a major highway reconstruction project, incorporating bike lanes, sheltered bus stops, and a bus‑only lane into the design, and secured funding to expand the Youth Climate Action Fund microgrant program. A participant in UW–Madison’s Community Environmental Scholars Program, Leo has further expanded his public service canvassing for Wisconsin Conservation Voters, and as a legislative intern for a state representative. Leo plans to pursue a master’s degree in environmental policy or urban and regional planning.

Aryana Wadhwani
Human Development and Family Studies
2026 Udall Scholar

A sophomore from Atlanta, Georgia, Aryana is majoring in human development and family studies with a certificate in global health, Aryana studies how exposure to environmental toxins, such as heavy metals, can affect children’s growth and development. Her scoping review on cadmium‑ and arsenic‑contaminated soil and its neurotoxic effects on children worldwide has been submitted for publication in the Journal of Exposure Science and Environmental Epidemiology. Additionally, with the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability, she has conducted international research on heavy metal bioaccumulation resulting from mining‑related contamination. While in high school, Aryana founded the nonprofit The World We Once Knew to empower youth to take meaningful action on climate issues, partnering with the United Nations’ Youth Climate Movement. She is also active with Change the Chamber, a non-partisan youth coalition advocating for science-based climate policies. Aryana plans to pursue an MD/MPH and aspires to a career translating environmental health research into policies that protect children and communities worldwide.

The Marshall Scholarship provides tuition, and stipend for completion of a graduate degree at any university in the United Kingdom.

Evelyn Browning
Data Science, Genetics & Genomics
Marshall Scholar

A senior, Evelyn is among the 43 Marshall Scholars selected from 1,023 candidates in 2026. Originally from The Woodlands, Texas, Evelyn spent her childhood in Hampshire, England but returned to the U.S. at age twelve. She will graduate May, 2026 with a Bachelor of Science in Genetics & Genomics and Data Science with Honors. Her senior honors thesis investigates the epigenetic regulation of familial epilepsy, supported by a Hilldale Research Fellowship. An active part of the campus community, Evelyn serves as the academic chair for the UW-Madison Undergraduate Genetics Association, and a student representative on the committees of the Wisconsin Agricultural and Life Sciences Alumni Association. She enjoys sharing her love of martial arts as a volunteer at a local YMCA’s Okinawan Karate class and can be found most Friday’s participating in on-campus swing dances. Evelyn will pursue a PhD in Biological Science at the University of Cambridge’s Wellcome Sanger Institute, a world-leading genomics research institute. Her ambition is to uncover the underlying genetic risk factors for rare neurodevelopmental disorders and harness them for better diagnoses and treatments. Evelyn hopes to improve the lives of those like Tori, her older sister, who has Prader-Willi Syndrome and whose perseverance in the face of challenges has been a lifelong inspiration.

The Rhodes Scholarship provides tuition, room, board, and stipend for two years of study at the University of Oxford.

Zoe Kukla
History, Political Science,
Rhodes Scholarship Finalist

Zoe Kukla, a senior, was among 238 U.S. Rhodes Scholarship finalists selected from approximately 1,000 applicants. A native of Grand Rapids, Michigan, Zoe will graduate May, 2026 with a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and History, honors in the liberal arts, and certificates in African American Studies and Public Policy. She received the College of Letters and Science 2026 Dean’s Prize and will be commencement speaker for the L&S Honors Program. A recipient of the Obama‑Chesky Voyager Scholarship for Public Service, she enjoys using her creative talents to educate and engage diverse audiences. Zoe has served as special pages and graphics editor for The Daily Cardinal and as the inaugural digital community organizer for the Executive Office of Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer. Last summer, she interned with the Joan Ganz Cooney Center, Sesame Workshop’s research and innovation lab, and the Erikson Institute, a leading center for early childhood development research. After graduation, Zoe will serve as Social Media Lead for Wisconsin Secretary of State Sarah Godlewski. She plans to pursue a career in public children’s media, with a focus on improving childhood literacy.