Winners of the 14th Annual Graduate Research Symposium were named at the event, held Saturday, March 22, in the J. Murrey Atkins Library. The Graduate and Professional Student Government (GPSG,) in collaboration with the Graduate School, Center for Graduate Life and Atkins Library, with sponsorship from the Charlotte Research Institute, organized the symposium to share and celebrate graduate student research of all types, while encouraging interdisciplinary learning, at UNC Charlotte.
This year’s winners are:
Presentations
Physical and Natural Science
First place ($1,000): Sebastien Felt, doctoral student, biology – “Role of apoptotic signaling in susceptibility of pancreatic cancer cells to vesicular stomatitis virus mediated oncolysis”
Second place ($500): Samantha Dodbele, master’s student, chemistry – “Novel Selective Targeting of UPPS from Pathogenic, Symbiotic, and Benign Bacteria through Structure, Analogues, and Dynamics.”
Third place ($250): Jason Marmon, doctoral student, nanoscale science – “Laser-induced changes in II-VI nanowires”
Health and Education
First place: Tempestt Adams, doctoral student, curriculum and instruction - “Transforming Black Education Through the Eradication of Under-qualified Teachers & Urban Teacher Disproportionality”
Second place: Jeremy Lopuch, doctoral student, special education – “Enhancing the Prediction: Evidence to Support the Practice of Multiple Screens in Forecasting Future Reading Proficiency”
Third place: Saahir Shafi, master’s student, business administration – “A Domestic and Cross-Country Analysis of Expected Schooling, Primary Enrollment, and Adult Literacy”
Social Sciences
First place: Derrick Robinson, doctoral student, curriculum and instruction – “Masculinity and Power in a World of Strain”
Second place: Andrew Loignon, doctoral student, organizational science – “Do You Still Want to Work Together? The Relative Effects of Rational and Affective Information in Predicting Peer Ratings”
Third place: Laura Erturk, master’s student, English – “The Construction of Race and Identity in the American Stand-up Comedy of George Lopez and Margaret Cho”
Poster Competition
Physical and Natural Science
First place ($500): Shu-ta Wu, doctoral student, biology – “Anti-Cancer treatments delivered by antibody guided PLGA nanoparticles”
Second place ($250): Britney Phippen, master’s student, biology – “From the environment to the human host, the opportunistic pathogen Vibrio vulnificus has the best of both worlds”
Health and Education
First place: Tamara Scott, doctoral student, health psychology - “Cultural Adaptations of Evidence Based Treatment: A Program of Research”
Second place: Yi Zhen, doctoral student, computing and information systems – “A Semi-Automatic Method for Generating An Ontology of the Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events”
Social Sciences
First place: Daniel Yonto, doctoral student, geography and earth sciences – “Student Travel Behavior: Can Preferences Increase Light Rail Ridership”
Second place: Alexis Brightman master’s student, psychology – Clinical and Community – “Centrality of Religion and Spiritual Growth following Trauma”