College of Science & Health (CSH)
Past Dean's Distinguished Fellows
Meet our former fellows
2019
Reece Banta
Assessment of Mercury Contamination from Legacy Fur Trade Activity in Soils of Grand Portage National Monument, MN
Advisor: Kristofer Rolhus
Lauren Carstensen
Transcriptional Analysis of Two Staphylococcus aureaus Biofilm-Associated Genes in Regulatory Protein Mtan Strains
Advisor: William Schwan
Aaron Christensen
Fine-scale Characterization of Spring Phenology in a North American Prairie Using Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) Imagery
Advisor: Niti Mishra
Kean Fallon
Analysis of non-Hirsch prismatoids for linear optimization via transportation polytopes
Advisor: Eddie Kim
Emma Freeman
Inactivation of Human Noroviruses Using Heat-Denatured Lysozyme
Advisor: Xinhui Li
Alexandra Galbraith
Determining the Acute Lethal Concentration (LC50) of EarthTec® QZ for Invasive (Bithynia tentaculata) and Native (Physa gyrina) Snail Species from the Upper Mississippi River
Advisor: Nadia Carmosini
Taylor Hackel
Mechanistic Investigation of Tris (pentafluorophenyl) borane-Silane Catalyzed Reduction of B-Ketoamides
Samuel Haeuser
All-Optical Switching via MQW ZnO Thin Films
Advisor: Eric Gansen
Jillian Hebert
Analyzing the Impact of Co-Occurring Mental Health and Substance Use Disorders on Youth’s Criminal Activity
Advisor: Barb Bennie
Megan Hein
Effects of Chronic Exposure to the Insecticide Thiamethoxam on Zebrafish Behavior
Advisor: Tisha King-Heiden
Jaime Kloehn
Protein of Unknown Function from Murine Herpesvirus 68 Contributes to Cancer Growth
Advisor: Kelly Gorres
Rebekah Peplinski
RT-qPCR Analysis of Genes Involved in the Response to SK-03-92 Treatment in Yeast
Advisor: Anne Galbraith
Zarif Rahman
Investigating the Nuclear Structure of Dysprosium-160
Advisor: Shelly Lesher
Taylor Repitz
Local Adaptations of Streptomyces in Myrick Marsh
Advisor: Anita Davelos
Alexander Robbins
Structural properties and enzymatic activity of dUTPase from Epstein-Barr Virus
Advisor: Kelly Gorres
Emily Simmerman
Examining Influences of Forest Bathing on Physiological and Psychological Aspects of Stress
Advisor: Namyun Kil
Harold Soeder
The Compounding Effect of a High Calorie Diet and Poor Sleep
Advisor: Alder Yu
Michaela Thielen
Mechanism of action of potential anti-virulence compounds against Salmonella
Advisor: John May
Gina Wade
TPS domain folding causes hemolytic activation of a newly defined functional domain
Advisor: Daniel Grilley
2020
Reece Banta
Assessment of Mercury Contamination from Legacy Fur Trade Activity in Soils of Grand Portage National Monument, MN
Advisor: Kristofer Rolfhus
Mary Baumgartner
Assessing the Influence of Water Chemistry on the Toxicity of a Copper Pesticide (EarthTec® QZ) to Native and Invasive Aquatic Snail Species
Advisors: Nadia Carmosini & Gregory Sandland
* Learn more about Mary's sponsor - Prairie Springs: The Paul Fleckenstein Trust
Anna Bower
Investigating the Effect of Circadian Rhythm Disruption on Gene Expression involved in Lewy Body Dementia with Advanced Aging
Advisor: Alder Yu
Hunter Charles
Inactivation of Tulane virus, a human norovirus surrogate in water using yeast-coated beads
Advisor: Xinhui Li
* Learn more about Hunter's sponsors - Ron and Jane Rada
Paige Dunnum
Investigating Phenology of Insect Prey Abundance and Nesting Stages in Breeding Flammulated Owls
Advisor: Markus Mika
Lee Fuller
Pulsed plating of copper-tin alloys for the catalytic conversion of carbon dioxide
Advisor: Sujat Sen
Trevor Geerdts
Exploring Nonuniformities of Quantum-Dot-Based Photon-Number-Resolving Factors
Advisors: Eric Gansen
Sara Gonske
Characterizing a DcrB-dependent molecule that may enhance the resistance of Salmonella enterica to copper
Advisor: John May
Colin Griffin
The competition between positive charges – how specific cations affect the balance between DNA binding and formation of an alternative DNA structure
Advisor: Daniel Grilley
Kendra Kreienbrink
MAP65 Protein and Microtubule Mechanics
Advisor: Taviare Hawkins
Kirstyn Loyva
Effect of the ESCRT pathway on HPIV3 budding and release
Advisor: Michael Hoffman
* Learn more about Kirstyn's sponsor - Michael McGinley, ’82
Drew Lysaker
Tracking a deadly virus in La Crosse: Assessing the presence of La Crosse encephalitis and its mosquito vector
Advisor: Barrett Klein
Joseph Miller
Anti-van der Waerden Numbers of Graph Products
Advisor: Nathan Warnberg
Katherine Schmitz
A Novel Heterogeneous Catalyst for Green Catalytic Mercaptan Remediation
Advisor: Robert McGaff
Cullen Schull
Preparation of Unnatural Asymmetric Curcuminoids with Highly Turnable Structures
Advisor: Valeria Stepanova
Tessa Slaby
Are microplastics accumulating in the fish of the Upper Mississippi River? An assessment of microplastics in the Emerald Shiner (Notropis atherinoides), an abundant and important small fish
Advisor: Eric Strauss
* Learn more about Tessa's sponsor - Prairie Springs: The Paul Fleckenstein Trust
McKenna Theine
The Use of Environmental DNA as a Tool for Detecting the Presence of Invasive Lionfish Background/Statement of the Problem/Significance
Advisor: Kelly Gorres
Laura Zinnel
2021
Marina Amato
Phosphorus use and limitation in biofilms on wood and inorganic substrates in the Upper Mississippi River
Advisor: Eric Strauss
* Learn more about Marina's sponsor - Prairie Springs: The Paul Fleckenstein Trust
Ky Ariano
Determining the functional role of the GOX1969 protein in Gluconobacter oxydans
Advisor: Paul Schweiger
Kyle Baker
Learning to Facilitative Adventure-Based Learning: An Occupational Socialization Perspective
Advisor: Jenna Stark
Mary Baumgartner
Assessing the Influence of Water Chemistry on the Toxicity of a Copper Pesticide (EarthTec® QZ) to an Invasive Aquatic Snail Species, Bithynia tentaculata
Advisors: Nadia Carmosini & Greg Sandland
Teja Bhimavarapu
Circadian Rhythm Effect on Oscillation of Gut Bacteria in Wolbachia-free Drosophila melanogaster
Advisor: Alder Yu
Mason Faldet
Sean Floersch
Player Tracking for NCAA D3 Soccer to Optimize Training Design
Advisor: Chad Vidden
Brady Gagner
Well-Width Dependence of ZnO MQW All-Optical Switches
Advisor: Eric Gansen
Zachary Gephart
Task Allocation with Dynamic Task Set in a Self-Organizing Swarm
Jenna Hayes
Effect of Curcumin and Curcumin Derivatives on the Lytic Cycle of Epstein-Barr Virus
Advisor: Kelly Gorres
Jordan Hoehnen
Particle Size Analysis of a Lake Sediment Core to Understand Periods of Floods and Droughts in the Upper Midwest Since the Last Glacial Period
Advisor: Joan Bunbury
* Learn more about Jordan's sponsor - Prairie Springs: The Paul Fleckenstein Trust
Emma Jonas
Lepidopteran larval diversity, abundance, and biomass at foraging sites of insectivorous Flammulated Owls (Psiloscops flammeolus) in northern Utah
Advisor: Markus Mika
Dirk Lueck
Jason Martin
Quantifying the Flooding Characteristics of Gas-Diffusion Layers for use in CO2 Electro-Reduction
Advisor: Sujat Sen
* Learn more about Jason's sponsor - Michael McGinley, ’82
Casey McKean
Topological Data Analysis on Ecological Mississippi River Data
Advisor: Wako Bungula
* Learn more about Casey's sponsor - Prairie Springs: The Paul Fleckenstein Trust
Halle Pavelski
Flag-Tag HPIV3 M Proteins as a Tool to Investigate Protein-Protein Interaction in Variant Viral Proteins
Advisor: Michael Hoffman
* Learn more about Halle's sponsor - Michael McGinley, ’82
Kyle Philpott
Synthesis of a Photoactivated Targeting Drug Conjugate
Lilly Riederer
Assessment of Targeting Element Efficacy and Specificity in Targeted Anticancer Drug Conjugates
Veronica Sannes
Abundance of Microplastics in Carpiodes carpio (River Carp Sucker) in the Upper Mississippi River
Advisor: Eric Strauss
* Learn more about Veronica's sponsors - Ron and Jane Rada
Tessa Slaby
Are microplastics accumulating in the filter feeders of the Upper Mississippi River? An assessment of microplastics in the Zebra Mussel (Dreissena polymorpha), an important invasive species
Advisor: Eric Strauss
* Learn more about Tessa's sponsor - Prairie Springs: The Paul Fleckenstein Trust
Jacqueline Sporie
Jacy Zajac
The Influence of Attentional Focus on Running Mechanics
2022
Caleb Andrews
Determining the role of Rap1b in the cell cycle
Advisor: Jaclyn Wisinski
Ky Ariano
Revealing the mechanism of glucose transport in Gluconobacter oxydans
Advisor: Paul Schweiger
Edith Ben-Eboh
Impact of disrupted circadian rhythms on blood glucose levels in Drosophila melanogaster with modeled Type II diabetes
Advisor: Alder Yu
Anna Buss
Determine the effect of older versus younger peoples' exosomes on muscle cell differentiation and proliferation
Advisor: Jennifer Klein
Sara Duffy
Effects of Chronic Exposure to the Insecticide Imidacloprid on Fathead Minnow Behavior
Advisor: Tisha King-Heiden
* Learn more about Sara's sponsors - Ron and Jane Rada
Brice Durocher
The effects of leucine metabolites on lytic cycle activation of Epstein Barr Virus
Advisor: Kelly Gorres
Samuel Flaig
Sampling invertebrates efficiently: comparing two methods of quantifying aquatic insect emergent on the Upper Mississippi River
Advisor: Ross Vander Vorste
Nathaniel Green
Positivity of coefficients coming from matrices
Advisor: Edward Kim
Adam Grunwald
Examining the Influences of Cross-Cultural Forest Therapy on Psychological Health and Well-Being among Children and Adolescents with Health Challenges
Advisor: David Mathias
Josh Hetcher
Rap1b- Detection Assay
Advisor: Jaclyn Wisinski
Travis Key
Walter Leifeld
Generalization of Evolved Response Thresholds for Uffoctivc Decentralized Dynamic Task Allocation
Advisor: David Mathias
Abby Lewis
Display of amylases on the surface of Gluconobacter oxydans to enable starch utilization
Advisor: Paul Schweiger
* Learn more about Abby's sponsor - Michael McGinley, ’82
Audrey Mattmiller
Determining the influence of phosphorylated Rap1b on megakaryocyte regulation
Advisor: Jaclyn Wisinski
Megan Miller
Teacher Change in Attitudes and Beliefs of Social Emotional Learning through Professional Development
Advisor: Rachyl Stephenson
Emma Ann Oberg
Wild Caught Salmo trutta Gut Microbiome Response to Heavy-Metal Contamination
Advisor: Alder Yu
Max Peters
Analysis of microplastics in net spinning caddisfly larvae (Family Hydropsychidae) in driftless area streams
Advisor: Eric Strauss
* Learn more about Max's sponsor - Prairie Springs: The Paul Fleckenstein Trust
Morgan Priem
The Effects of Salt Conc. and Poly-A Tracts on the Equilibrium and Dynamics of Nucleosomes
Advisor: Daniel Grilley
Spencer Reichart
Benthic invertebrate productivity and diversity in floodplain habitats in Pool 8 of the Upper Mississippi River
Advisor: Ross Vander Vorste
* Learn more about Spencer's sponsor - Prairie Springs: The Paul Fleckenstein Trust
Aly Reuvers
The effect of the La Crosse River on the Myrick Marsh water system quality indicated by primary production
Advisor: Eric Strauss
* Learn more about Aly's sponsor - Prairie Springs: The Paul Fleckenstein Trust
Veronica Sannes
Abundance of Microplastics in Freshwater Drum
Advisor: Eric Strauss
* Learn more about Veronica's sponsor - Prairie Springs: The Paul Fleckenstein Trust
Damon Trump
The effects of leucine metabolites on lytic cycle activation of Epstein Barr Virus
Advisor: Kelly Gorres
Cora Vogt
Examining the Influences of Cross-Cultural Forest Therapy on Psychological Health and Well-Being among Children and Adolescents with Health Challenges
Advisor: Namyun Kil
* Learn more about Cora's sponsor - Prairie Springs: The Paul Fleckenstein Trust
2023
Gabi Shedlov
Analysis of the effect of carbon source on survival and copper homeostasis gene expression in SK-03-92 treated yeast cells
Advisor: Anne Galbraith
Vannessa Giallombardo
Determining the molecular structure of NmpR, an NtrC-like response Regulator Protein
Advisor: Dan Bretl
* Learn more about Vannessa's sponsor - Michael McGinley, ’82
Morgan Priem
The Effects of Salt Concentration and Poly-A Tracts on Nucleosome Equilibrium and Dynamics
Advisor: Dan Grilley
Zion Wallace
Ectomycorrhizal Fungal Communities associated with Hemlock in the Kickapoo Valley
Advisor: Anita Davelos
* Learn more about Claire's sponsor - Prairie Springs: The Paul Fleckenstein Trust
Charlotte Moser
Mathematical Model of Gull-Billed Tern Parasite Infection
Advisor: James Peirce
* Learn more about Charlotte's sponsor - Prairie Springs: The Paul Fleckenstein Trust
Aubrey Schwonek
Resource Competition among Flammulated Owls (Psiloscops flammulous) in fluctuating mountain habitats
Advisor: Markus Mika
* Learn more about Aubrey's sponsor - Prairie Springs: The Paul Fleckenstein Trust
Kendrick Kolar
Human Geographies of Vulnerabilities and Adaptations to Increased Flooding within the Driftless Area
Advisor: John Kelly
* Learn more about Kendrick's sponsor - Prairie Springs: The Paul Fleckenstein Trust
Elijah Behnke
Synthesis of Nanoparticle Suspensions for Catalytic conversion of Carbon Dioxide (CO2)
Advisor: Sujat Sen
* Learn more about Elijah's sponsor - Prairie Springs: The Paul Fleckenstein Trust
Skylar Voigt
Environmental Factors Influencing Mayfly Emergence in Pool 8 of the Upper Mississippi River
Advisor: Ross Vander Vorste
* Learn more about Skylar's sponsors - Ron and Jane Rada
Ben Graham
Determining Factors Responsible for Photobiont Preference in Driftless Area Lichens
Advisor: Todd Osmundson
Nicole Kooij
Effects of Sublethal Exposure to Thiamethoxam on the Innate Immune Response of Zebrafish (Danio rerio) Embryos
Advisor: Tisha King-Heiden
Grace Meyer
Immunohistochemical characterization of developmental changes in brainstem serotonergic networks
Advisor: Cord Brundage
Jenna Blomquist
Examination of fimB point mutations on fimB transcription in uropathogenic Escherichia coli growing in an acidic environment
Advisor: William Schwan
Vivek Tara
On the Machine Learning (ML)-based Classification of Microscopic Colitis Patients Data Obtained Through Colonoscopy
Advisor: Dipankar Mitra
Eric Zielinski
On the Development of More Adaptable and Trainable Variational Quantum Circuts (VQC) using Quantum Machine Learning (QML)
Advisor: Dipankar Mitra
Kassi Heins
A Case Study of Physical Education Teacher Change in Attitudes Toward Social Emotional Learning Through Professional Development
Advisor: Rachyl Stephenson
Reed Anderson
Characterization of the Effects of Truncation on a Cytotoxic Protein
Advisor: Dan Grilley
Sam Nelson
Ectomycorrhizal tree communities of the Kickapoo Valley
Advisor: Anita Davelos
Chris Aamodt
Passive Restoration of Ectomycorrhizal Fungi in Clear Cut Forests in Kickapoo Valley Preserve
Advisor: Anita Davelos