URCA News Archives
November 2022
Carlee Hawins & Lindsey Miles held a Workshop about “Identifying and Avoiding Bias in Letters of Recommendation.
Ayegbidun OM, IP Osikoya, TA Lobb, et al. Marker-Assisted Selection for Stress Resistance in Maize. ASA-CSSA-SSSA International Annual Meeting. November 8, 2022.
Benware M-M, OM Ayegbidun, IP Osikoya, TA Lobb, et al. Hydroxycinnamic Acid Concentrations in Zea mays Across Four Fields with Differing Environmental Conditions. ASA-CSSA-SSSA International Annual Meeting. November 6, 2022.
October 2022
Clawson, M., Sanford, T., Riley, A., Raasch, K., Oybamiji, R., and Sumita, M., "Semi-enzymatic Synthesis of Pseudouridine" poster, Rustbelt RNA Meeting, Cleveland, OH, Oct. 14, 2022
Burbach, N., DeGregorio, A., and Sumita, M., "Purification of Protected Sugar with Kugelrohr Distillation" poster, Rustbelt RNA Meeting, Cleveland, OH, Oct. 14, 2022
Sanford, T., Riley, A., Clawson, M., Raasch, K., Oyebamiji, R., and Sumita, M., "Incorporation of Pseudouridine into RNA for Biochemical and Biophysical Studies," RNA Structure and Function (Barciszewski, J., Rajewsky, N., eds.). 2023, Springer-Nature, Berlin (in press)
May 2022
Congratulations to URCA Assistant Sydney McNece, who will be participating in an internship with a federal judge this summer!
Congratulations to URCA Assistant Sai Medavaka, who was accepted into SIUE's Psychology Honors Academy! Next year, he will be completing an honors thesis as part of this program!
April 2022
Congratulations to URCA Assistant Derek Burns, who presented his work alongisde his mentor at two conferences this year! Derek presented their work at the Transnational Asia Conference in Salt Lake City, and Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations Conference in New Orleans.
Congratulations to URCA Associate Brooke Prater, who received the Mary Rast Senior award in Biological Sciences at SIUE's College of Arts and Sciences Honors Day! She also presented her work twice this semester, at the Illinois State Academy of Science Annual Symposium, and the Illinois Chapter of the Wildlife Society Conference, both of which were in the same week! Brooke's presentation even won 2nd place for Undergraduate oral presentations at the Illinois State Academy of Science!
Congratulations to URCA Associate Sai Medavaka, who received the Senior Award in SIUE's Medical Science Department of Biological Sciences at the College of Arts and Sciences Honors Day! He's also been volunteering at the Rural Medical Clinic, which travels to rural areas of Missouri where healthcare is difficult to access and provides treatment to underinsured and impoverished individuals throughout the state. Sai also presented his work twice at the APS Hot Topics in Nutrition Physiology Poster Session. Way to go Sai!
Congratulations to URCA Associate My Tran, who received SIUE's Senior Award in Integrative Biology at the College of Arts and Sciences Honors Day!
March 2022
Congratulations to URCA Assistant Stephanie Lopez, who was featured in an interview on the SIUE Segue radio show! You can read about her interview on the Intelligencer.
Congratulations to URCA Assistant Mentor, Dr. Rachel Tennial, who was featured as an SIUE Difference Maker! You can read about her work on SIUE's website here.
February 2022
Congratulations to URCA Assistants Taylor Ewing, Stephanie Lopez, Raycine Love, and Blessing Udoh, who all presented at this year's LSAMP conference in Chicago! Stephanie even won the first place award in chemistry for her presentation! Way to go!
Congratulations to URCA Assistants Hannah Almos, Natalie Karibian, and Connor Lieb, whose work was recently accepted for publication in the Journal of Microbiology Education!
Congratulations to URCA Associate My Tran, who was accepted to study for her PhD at University of Wisconsin-Madison!
Congratulations to URCA Associate Jillian Freeman, who accepted a job offer from Boeing to work as a software engineer!
Congratulations to URCA mentor, Dr. Howard Rambsy, who was named a Distinguished Research Professor at SIUE! Dr. Rambsy is the first Black professor to receive this prestigious award! You can read more about Dr. Rambsy's work both in the URCA program and in other areas on campus at the Alestle.
Congratulations to URCA Assistant Elizabeth Schroader, who was accepted into The Library Science Master's degree program at UI, where she will specialize in studying humanities and history!
December 2021
Congratultions to URCA Associate Sai Medavaka, whose work was published in Endocrinology & Metabolism International Journal's 9th volume!
Congratulations to various current and former URCA Assistants, Youssef Hassan, Cheyenne Copling, Adam Sullivan, Valeria Zerda, Makenzy Sorsen, Ifeoluwa Peace Osikoya, Isabella Guppy, Emily Wiggins, and Jessie Icenogle, as well as URCA Associates Sophia Melzer and Kendra Selby, who, alongisde URCA mentors Dr. Kevin Tucker, Dr. Robert Dixon, and Dr. Carolyn Butts-Wilmsmeyer, presented their work at the American Society of Mass Spectrometry's annual conference this year! Their work was featured across 4 different presentations at this national conference!
Congratulations to this semester's URCA Awards winners! This time around, the URCA Creative Activites Mentor of the Semester award went to Dr. Johanna Schmitz, while the Research Activities mentor of the Semester Award was given to Dr. Barbara McCracken! In addition, Lydia Fulton was awarded the URCA Research Assistant of the Semester, and Elizabeth Schroader was awarded Creative Activities Assistant of the Semester! Congratulations to each of the award winners! You can read a bit more about them on the URCA website ,in the Riverbender, and at Advantage News.
Congratulations to URCA Assistant Avery Ogle and URCA Associate Sai Medavaka, who were featured as co-authors on a paper in Endocrinology and Metabolism International Journal alongside long-time URCA mentors Dr. Chaya Gopalan and Dr. Kevin Tucker!
Congratulations to URCA Assistant Skylar Bone, whose presented her work with mentor Zhi-Qing Lin at the SETAC North America 42nd Annual Meeting!
November 2021
Congratulations to URCA Assistant Blessing Udoh, who presented her work with mentor Dr. Brittany Peterson at the Annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minority Students!
Congratulations to former URCA Associate Chelsie Zajac, whose work during her time in the URCA program was published in Applied Physiology, Nutrition, and Metabolism!
Congratulations to URCA Assistant Mackenzie Richards who was named the SIUE/Edwardsville Rotary Student Leader of the Month for November! Mackenzie is involved in Student Government, the Student Leadership Council, the Phi Eta Sigma Honor Society, the Psychology Club, New Horizons and the Pre-Health Hub. She also performs community service as a French tutor for high school students, and volunteers as a coach for Granite City High School's Speech and Debate Team, and Theatre Program.
September 2021
Congratulations to URCA Assistant Mackenzie Richards, who was elected to a leadership position in SIUE's student government for the 2021-2022 academic year! Mackenzie was elected to the Senator at Large position. You can read about hers and her colleagues in SG's initiatives for the year here!
May 2021
Congratulations to URCA assistants, Hannah Almos, Osaguana Idemudia, Connor Lieb, Lauryn Leonard, and Natalie Karibian who presented two posters at this year’s annual SABER meeting!
Congratulations to URCA Assistants Samuel Rapp and Bryn Guthrie, whose work with their mentor Dr. Carolyn Butts-Wilmsmeyer was published last year in Current Opinion in Environmental Science & Health!
Congratulations to URCA Assistant Andrew Tresslar whose work alongside Dr. Susanne DiSalvo was published last year in Genes!
Congratulations to URCA Assistant Taylor Jeans, who was accepted for a presentation at this year’s upcoming APHA Annual Meeting and Exposition!
Congratulations to URCA Assistant Lexee Camp, who presented a poster earlier this year at the annual meeting of the Midwestern Psychological Association alongside former URCA Assistants Haileigh Verdeyen and Courtney Yildiz! Lexee also recently submitted a manuscript to Teaching of Psychology alongside her mentor, Dr. Carlee Hawkins! The manuscript is currently under review.
Congratulations to former URCA Assistant Brianna Amos, who recently attended and presented at the Illinois State Academy of Science 2021 Annual Meeting alongside her mentor, Dr. Zhi-Qing Lin!
Many of Dr. Joel Nadler’s current and past URCA Assistants have submitted papers to the 2021 Midwestern Psychological Association’s annual conference, including Melissa Henry, Marcus Washington, Jocelyn Rahim, Gabriela Shea, and Madalynn McKenzie! Congratulations to all of these amazing student researchers!
Congratulations to Dr. Eunyoe Ro’s URCA current URCA Assistant, Jayde Grams, and former Assistant, Bayli Ironwing, who were accepted for a poster presentation at this year’s Midwestern Psychological Association conference!
Congratulations to Dr. Laura Pawlow and her URCA Assistants, Emma Cardelli, Michelle Duong, Baylee Kiel, and Emma Shoaf, whose work was accepted for a poster presentation at the Midwestern Psychological Association’s annual conference for 2021!
Congratulations to URCA Associate Haley Brashears! She recently accepted an offer to attend Clemson University’s toxicology PhD program!
Congratulations to URCA Associate Zeb Campbell, who was recently accepted into SIUE’s Master’s program in Chemistry!
April 2021
Congratulations to URCA Assistant Alexandra Vogen, who presented her work with Dr. Elizabeth Meinz at the Midwestern Psychological Association's annual conference.
Congratulations to URCA Assistant Kayla Canas, who presented at the Indiana Academy of Social Sciences as part of her project with Dr. Carolina Rocha!
Congratulations to URCA Assistants Farid Rivera-Rodriguez and Patrick Nilges, who presented their work with Dr. Kelly Barry at the Illinois State Academy of Science annual conference!
Congratulations to URCA Assistant Jamie Grawitch, who put on a show of their dance project entitled Spring to Dance in the SIUE Quad!
Congratulations to this semester's URCA award winners! This time around, we had two Vaughn Vandegrift URCA Assistant Research Mentor of the Semester award winners, Dr. Brittany Peterson and Dr. Carlee Hawkins! We also had two URCA Research Assistant of the Semester award recipients, Lauren Ferris and Vu Dinh. Congratulations to each of the award winners! Their great accomplishments have been featured on SIUE's news page and in the Riverbender!
Congratulations to URCA Associate Kylea Perkins, who was recently selected as a Phenomenal Woman at SIUE for her work in the Honors Office!
Congratulations to URCA Associate Haley Brashears and URCA Assistant Miranda Jackson, who each presented their work at the Illinois State Academy of Science annual conference!
Congratulations to URCA Assistant Kaitlin Goodbrake, who presented her work alongisde mentor Dr. Brittany Peterson at the Illinois State Academy of Science annual conference!
March 2021
Congratulations to former URCA participant Olivia Slater, the FIRST student to be admitted into the new medinical chemistry co-op doctoral program out of the SIUE School of Pharmacy and the SIUE School of Medicine! Please read about this amazing intiative and former student here!
Congratulations to URCA Mentor Kathryn Bentley and her URCA assistant, Troy Caldwell-Day, whose short film series 'ESTL' was recently featured in the Alestle! You can read about their work here.
Congratulations to URCA Assistant Nicholas DeGroot who presented his work alongside his mentor Dr. Yun Lu at the SIUE Chemsitry Department's 44th annual WIlliam J. Probst lecture!
February 2021
Congratulations to URCA Associate Caleb Powell who was recently accepted into the University of Illinois Medical School!
Congratulations to Sophia Melzer, URCA Associate, whose work was accepted for presentation at the upcoming PittCon virtual conference in March.
Congratulations to URCA Associate Molly Walker, who will also be presenting her work at PittCon next month!
January 2021
Congratulations to URCA Assistant Mentor, Dr. Pietro Sasso, who was recently named the inaugural faculty research fellow for the Timothy J. Piazza Center for Fraternity and Sorority Research and Reform at Penn State University! You can read about Dr. Sasso’s work in the RiverBender here.
Congratulations to URCA Mentor Dr. Kevin Tucker whose work was recently recognized in the Riverbend Advantage! Read about his amazing work here.
Congratulations to SIUE alumna and former URCA student Sacha Jackson, whose work was recently featured in the RiverBender! Sacha recently achieved third place in the Lambda Alpha Senior Scholarship Award from the Lambda Alpha National Anthropology Honor Society! You can read about her awesome achievement here.
Congratulations to URCA Associate Kylea Perkins whose work was recently featured in an SIUE news article! You can read about her creative project here.
Congratulations to SIUE’s IEGE program whose important work was recently featured in the RiverBender and Telegraph! Drs. Alan Black and Rohan Benjankar, in the IEGE program, are working with URCA students this semester to study how graduate student mentorship can be improved. The stories are linked above.
November 2020
Congratulations to the Fall 2020 URCA award winners! Dr. Myron Jones is this semester’s recipient of the Vaughn Vandegrift URCA Assistant Research Mentor of the Semester Award. Professor Kristin Best-Kinscherff is this semester’s URCA Creative Activities Mentor of the Semester Award. Blessing Udoh has been awarded the URCA Research Assistant of the Semester Award, and Kenzie Holzinger has been awarded the URCA Creative Activities Assistant of the Semester Award. Congratulations to all of the award recipients! You can read about the award recipients in the Riverbender here and from SIUE’s news page here.
Congratulations to URCA assistant Tessa Walker, who won the 2020 Student Laureate award from the Lincoln Academy of Illinois! You can read about Tessa’s award here and here.
Congratulations to former URCA assistants Kaitlyn Funneman and Aliyah Price, whose work alongside their mentor, Dr. Sophia Wilson, will be published in a 2021 issue of Research in Social Movements, Conflicts and Change.
October 2020
Congratulations to associate Andrew Tresslar! Andrew was recently accepted into two medical school programs, at Rosalind Franklin in Chicago and SIU!
Congratulations to URCA assistant Jamie Grawitch, whose work with her mentor, Professor Kristin Best-Kinscherff, was featured at the Gardens at SIUE this month!
Congratulations to URCA associates Colleen Wagner and Andrew Tresslar, whose work was published in Genes this past summer! Their article is free to read from the journal here.
Congratulations to Samuel Rapp and Bryn Guthrie, whose work was recently published in Current Opinion in Environmental Science and Health!
Congratulations to Samantha Olendorff and Karolina Chmielewska for presenting virtually at the ASMS conference this past summer!
Congratulations to Dr. Jon Klingensmith and his collaborator Dr. Maria Fernandez del Valle for their work on cardiac health and their receipt of a $433,376 NIH grant! Thank you to both of these fantastic mentors for including URCA students on this important work! You can read about their research in the Riverbender here and in the Alton Telegraph here.
Congratulations to URCA assistant Katherine Maloof and URCA associate Alexis Reinders whose work will be published in the upcoming December edition of Current Opinion in Environmental Science and Health!
Congratulations to URCA assistants Rachel Davis, Jackson Hoang, Sarah Rizzo, Dalia Hassan, and Bobbi Porter whose work was published in Science of the Total Environment!
Congratulations to URCA associate Alexis Reinders who was accepted into the University of Illinois Medical School!
May - September 2020
Unfortunately, many events were cancelled due to COVID-19. Most on campus activities at SIUE were affected by the pandemic, including URCA. While research and creative activities did continue, most presentations and conferences were cancelled or put on hold. Still, all of our URCA assistants, URCA associates, and their mentors kept on researching and creating wonderful things despite the challanges they were faced with! Way to go!
April 2020Congratulations to URCA Associate Mitchell Haddock who was awarded the Senior Research Award in the Department of Biological Sciences!
Congratulations to URCA Associate Nicholas Grunloh for presenting his poster at Pittcon in Chicago. This is an international conference that was attended by 10,000 people!
Congratulations to URCA Associate Hannah Queen who was accepted to present her work at the Midwestern Psychological Association Conference this spring.
Congratulations to URCA Assistant Austin Woodard for his acceptance into the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Chemistry doctoral program! Austin was also selected as a UIUC Snyder Scholars fellow last summer and gain valuable research experience. Austin also presented his research at the Rustbelt RNA meeting in Cleveland, Ohio in October! Way to go Austin!
Congratulations to URCA Assistant Ben Gallaher for receiving the SIUE STELLAR Student Award!
Congratulations to former URCA Assistant Andrew Riley for his acceptance into the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Biochemistry doctoral program!
Congratulations to URCA Associates Katherine Albert, Kiah Johnson, Grace McBride, Tessa Walker, and Mallory Westrick who were to present their poster at the annual meeting of the Midwestern Psychological Association. Even though the event was cancelled, we wanted to congratulate them on their hard work!
Congratulations to URCA Assistant Michael Robinson for his poster acceptance at the annual meeting of the Midwestern Psychological Association. Even though the event was cancelled, we wanted to congratulate him on his hard work! Michael was also the recipient of the Spring 2020 Psychology of Aging Award! Way to go Michael!
Congratulations to URCA Assistant Karolina Chemielewska whose work was presented at PittCon!
Congratulations to URCA Assistants Dalia Hassan, Jillian Rhomberg and Jacob Smith for presenting their poster at both PittCon and LSAMP this Spring!
Congratulations to URCA Assistants Jackson Hoang, Sarah Rizzo, Alexis Reinders, and Jayda Hatten whose poster was presented at PittCon!
Congratulations to URCA Assistants Sophia Melzer, Jackson Hoang, and Sarah Rizzo who presented their poster at PittCon!
Congratulations to URCA Assistants Youssef Hassan and Nick Howard and URCA Associate Nicholas Grunloh for presenting their poster at LSAMP!
Congratulations to URCA Assistant Jordan Robinson for her poster presentation at the 2020 Illinois ILSAMP Symposium where she received 2nd place in the Molecular Biology category!
Congratulations to URCA Associate Nicholas Grunloh and URCA Assistants Jayda Hatten, Jackson Hoang, Sarah Rizzo, and Alexis Reinders for presenting their work at LSAMP this Spring!
Congratulations to former URCA Assistant Jessica Mateo who was featured on page 6 of the SIUE Spring 2020 Latinx Graduation booklet! You can read what Jessica had to say here.
Congratulations to URCA Associate Nicholas Grunloh on his acceptance into the Master of Physical Assistant Studies program at Butler University!
March 2020Congratulations to URCA Associate Colleen Wagner for her acceptance into The University of Iowa’s Bioinformatics doctoral program and SLU’s Biomedical Sciences doctoral program! Colleen is also an American Society for Microbiology Undergraduate Research Fellow and the recipient of the SIUE STELLAR Student Award!
Congratulations to URCA Associate Andrew Tresslar who was accepted to present his project at the American Society for Microbiology Microbe Conference in June! Andrew is also the recipient of the Michael R. Levy Memorial Award in Molecular Biology! Nice job Andrew!
Congratulations to URCA Mentor Dr. Maria Fernandez del Valle for her feature in the RiverBender! You can read about her research here.
Congratulations to URCA Mentor Dr. Chaya Gopalan who has been named the American Physiological Society’s 2020 Arthur C. Guyton Educator of the Year! You can read more about Dr. Gopalan and her incredible accomplishments here.
SIUE will hold the first Symposium on Women and Gender on Thursday, March 19th. The symposium was organized by URCA Mentor Dr. Carolina Rocha and the logo was designed by URCA Mentor Barbara Nwacha. The symposium aims to inspire new research topics for URCA students. You can read more about this event here.
Congratulations to URCA Associate Kristina Springer for her acceptance into multiple graduate programs! She has accepted an offer into SLU’s Cell and Molecular doctoral program! Way to go Kristina!
Congratulations to URCA Assistants Dalia Hassan, Youssef Hassan, Jayda Hatten, Andres Mancilla, Jordan Robinson, and Eno Obong Blessing Udoh for their participation in the Illinois Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation (LSAMP) 2020 Spring Symposium. At this symposium Assistant Jordan Robinson was also a recipient of an award. Congratulations! You can read more about the event here.
Congratulations to former URCA Assistant Brittany Rhodes who is now a full-time instructor of children’s art courses at the Museum of Fine Arts Houston! Her work as an Assistant centered around complex plaster molds taken from objects in the natural world.
February 2020Congratulations to URCA Associate Colleen Wagner who was accepted to present her poster at the 2020 American Society for Microbiology Microbe Conference in June!
Congratulations to URCA Assistant Lara Tupper who was accepted to present her poster presentation at the Sports, Cardiovascular, and Wellness Conference in Boston!
Shout out to Dr. Carolina Rocha’s URCA Assistant Ethan Hill for being featured as a CAS student spotlight! You can read about Ethan’s amazing accomplishments here!
Congratulations to URCA Assistant Taylar Counts who was accepted into the SIUE Clinical Child and School Master’s Program!
Congratulations to URCA Associate Hannah Queen whose research was accepted for presentation at MPA!
Congratulations to URCA Associate Noah Pyles who was accepted into SIUE’s Biological Sciences Grad Program!
Congratulations to URCA Associate Ryan Raymond who was accepted into SIUE’s I/O Psychology Grad Program and he was also accepted to present his work at MPA! Additionally, Ryan won the Robert J. McLaughlin Psychology Honors Academy Award!
Congratulations to URCA Associate Emily Lange who recently presented a paper regarding her URCA research at the MUSE Undergraduate Humanities Conference at Illinois Wesleyan! She was also accepted into the Master’s Program in Archaeology at Cornell!Congratulations to URCA Associate Kristina Springer who has been accepted into the UIC Biology Ph.D. program! Way to go Kristina!
January 2020Congratulations to former URCA Assistants Kelsey Bernard and Claire Heyman who co-authored an article with their mentor Dr. Marie Klopfenstein.
Congratulations to Lauren Ferris, Megan Devore, Camiryn Irving, Garrett Milligan, Anna Zavertnik, and Taylar Counts who had their project entitled, “Vaping attitudes, behaviors, and correlates in college students” accepted for presentation at the upcoming annual conference of the Midwestern Psychological Association!
Congratulations to Lydia Fulton, Miranda Foley, Adaeze Nwaezeigwe, Jennifer Goeckner and Tyler Gleadle, all URCA assistants who presented at this year’s Undergraduate Humanities+ Conference at Illinois Wesleyan University!
