Lucy Bowser is a graduate student in the School of Marine and Environmental Affairs at the University of Washington. She works on a project that highlights how fishermen protect the diversity of marine life, a crucial component of healthy oceans and a healthy planet.
Read MoreRisa Takenaka is a graduate student in the Molecular and Cellular Biology program at the University of Washington and the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center. As an ecologist-turned-molecular-biologist, Risa is interested in understanding how evolutionary pressures have affected, and continue to affect, living things from fruit flies to humans at the genomic level.
Read MoreEmma Scalisi is a graduate student at the University of Washington’s School of Marine and Environmental Affairs, where her research examines the relationships between small-scale commercial fishers and fisheries management agencies in Alaska. She wants to know how fish and people can benefit from listening to both scientists and fishermen.
Read MoreAbi Elerding is a PhD student at the University of Washington working to identify and isolate neuronal cell systems that guide behavior in health and disease. Her research focuses on understanding how GABA interacts with dopamine and its role in motivation and learning.
Read MoreMegan Gialluca studies massive water loss on planets in other solar systems (termed exoplanets). This process can turn a potentially habitable planet, like Earth, into a burning hot, water-less environment, like Venus. Understanding whether or not a planet has undergone this process informs scientists on where to search for alien life in the universe, and what the clues we should look for are.
Read MoreKate Van Ness is a mechanical engineering graduate student at the University of Washington where they research technology that harnesses energy from ocean currents and strategies for making this technology more reliable. Their motivation for advancing ocean energy technology is in bringing greater access to electricity around the world.
Read MoreLauren Sarkissian is an epidemiology student who will be receiving her Master of Public Health in spring 2022. She has spent her time at the University of Washington studying improved diagnostics for tuberculosis within the Cangelosi Lab. Her unique experience of studying infectious diseases during a pandemic makes her eager for an exciting career in public health.
Read MoreAlex Neitz is a 4th year PhD candidate in the Molecular and Cellular Biology Program. Her
research looks at how organisms act as clocks to predict daily variations in their environment.
She is interested in how the modern environment affects the timing of these inner clocks in
humans to cause Seasonal Affective Disorder and what we can do to prevent it.
Miranda Mudge is a graduate student and researcher in the Molecular and Cellular Biology Department at the University of Washington. She is studying proteins to better understand how bacteria influence and respond to their environment. Her research involves using proteins in bacteria as a tool for predicting harmful algal blooms.
Read MoreArena Manning is a PhD student in the Graduate Program in Neuroscience at UW. By
analyzing brain activity and imaging the brain, she studies the role that different
interneurons (a type of neuron) play in mediating epilepsy.
April Lo is a genome sciences graduate student at the University of Washington and the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. In her research, she studies what happens in lung cancer cells when there are errors or imbalances in genes. By connecting changes in genes to changes in the cell's messaging system, she hopes to better understand and help treat this deadly cancer.
Read MoreConnor Krolak is a 2nd year Bioengineering PhD student studying how ultrasound can be used to create better diagnoses for cancer, and then also use ultrasound to treat the cancer as well. He is currently focusing on using ultrasound to diagnose a really difficult type of liver cancer – hepatocellular carcinoma.
Read MoreChristina Bjarvin is a graduate student and researcher at the University of Washington’s School of Environmental Forest Sciences, working and studying in the Center for International Trade of Forest Products lab. Her research focuses on how constructing tall buildings out of wood can help us fight climate change.
Read MoreSaumya Jani is a graduate student researcher in the University of Washington’s Department on Lab Medicine and Pathology. She is studying the immune response to an aggressive and often lethal skin cancer, Merkel cell carcinoma, in order to improve immune-based cancer treatments.
Read MoreNicole Gregorio is a second year PhD student in bioengineering at the University of Washington. She is developing new, Jell-O-like materials that help us better understand cells and disease. These materials are also a key part of improving disease treatments that help the body regenerate itself.
Read MoreLance De Koninck is a second-year bioengineering PhD student studying how to better deliver drugs using ultrasound. His research explorers how ultrasound can increase the temperature inside of cells, weakening them and assisting drugs to better penetrate these cells.
Read MoreDoris Dai is a fifth-year PhD student in social psychology at the University of Washington. Her research focuses on how historical representations of Native Americans shape non-Native individuals’ (mis)perceptions of Native Americans, and how such (mis)perceptions have downstream negative consequences on Native Americans’ well-being and lived experiences.
Read MoreCaitlin Cruz is a Masters student in the School of Environmental and Forest Sciences at the University of Washington. She works in the field of biofuels— transportation fuels made from renewable resources. Her research examines what sorts of policies create the most beneficial conditions for biofuel facilities across the US, hoping to make the implementation of these fuels more widespread.
Read MoreOlivia Kern is a second year PhD student studying how emerging variants of SARS-CoV-2 outsmart the body’s early defenses. She is particularly interested in connecting the tactics that the virus uses when it infects our lung cells to disease severity, in order to develop drugs and vaccines that combat all coronaviruses.
Read MoreRachel Gariepy is a second-year Ph.D. student studying how materials that undergo laser cooling can impact the surrounding environment. She is examining how the temperature difference caused by these materials affects the activity rate of enzymes, which are of vital importance in many biological and biochemical processes.
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