From more than 12,000 applicants, Matthew Niederhuber (a GMB graduate student in Daniel McKay’s lab), was selected to receive a prestigious “3-year NSF Predoctoral Fellowship award”. Matt’s project will focus on how transcription factors switch enhancers on and off during development.
A paper by Dr. Meral Tunc-Ozdemir (Alan Jones lab) and colleagues was selected by editors of the Journal of Biological Chemistry as an exciting advance in GPCR-related research over the last three years. The article, “Direct modulation of heterotrimeric G protein-coupled signaling by a receptor kinase complex,” appears in a special virtual issue entitled “Signaling through Space and Time.”
Congratulations to Dr. Jennifer Coble, who was awarded the 2017-2018 Biology Faculty Teaching Award for excellence in the teaching of biology. This award was presented by Tri-Beta at the Biology Graduation Ceremony on May 12. Dr. Coble is a Biology Teaching Associate Professor and the Coordinator for the UNC BEST program.
Congratulations to Greg Matera, who was recently elected to serve on The RNA Society Board of Directors, beginning in 2019. The RNA Society is a non-profit, international scientific organization whose members are dedicated to fostering research and education in the field of RNA biology.
Kelly Hogan, a STEM-teaching associate professor and UNC’s assistant dean of instructional innovation, was recently featured in an article that appeared in The Chronicle of Higher Education. The article is titled “Traditional Teaching May Deepen Inequality. Can a Different Approach Fix It?” Kelly’s journey to figure out how to best equalize student opportunities to successfully participate in the classroom is chronicled in this article.
Congratulations to Gidi Shemer, who has been selected to receive one of this year’s “Class of 1996 Awards for Advising Excellence.” The UNC Academic Advising Program will present Gidi with a plaque and cash award at the “Semester Welcome Meeting” on August 13. The cash award comes from a trust fund set up by the Class of 1996.
Congratulations to Bryan Reatini (Todd Vision’s lab), who has recently been awarded a “Fulbright Fellowship” and also a “Society for the Study of Evolution Graduate Research Excellence Grant (GREG)” – R.C. Lewontin Early Award.”
Congratulations to these Biology Honors students who received the indicated designations this spring upon completion of their Honors Thesis projects.
HIGHEST HONORS IN BIOLOGY: ALISON BONNER, ALEXANDER DAVIS, CLAIRE DRYSDALE, BRYAN GERBER (Fall 2017), TREVOR MCPHERSON, HALLE RONK, CATHLEEN RUECKEIS, LENO SMITH, CAROLINE TARALLO, LUYU WANG, SHAN YU, and CHASE YUAN.
HONORS IN BIOLOGY: SHAILY AGHERA, SETH ALEXANDER, MADISON BUTLER, SAMUEL CHAO, KIRSTEN CHEN, MARCO FANOUS, HANNAH JAGGERS, NICHOLAS KEITH, MAKAYLA LUND, FALECIA METCALF, CAITLIN MOFFATT, LYNDSEY MOORE, JEREMY MOROWITZ, REBECCA NOTINI, DANNY OH, ANNALEIGH POWELL, ADARSH RAO, CAROLYN RAPP, ZACHARY ROBBE, SCOTTIE SACKETT, SOPHIA SHWARTZ, DIVYA VENKATASUBRAMANIAN, and KRISTIN WEISS
Stephen Brantley Award – CLAIRE DRYSDALE
The Brantley Award is given to a senior biology major for excellence in research in molecular, cell, and developmental Biology.
Robert Coker Award – ALEXANDER DAVIS
The Coker Award is given to a senior biology major for excellence in research in organismal biology and ecology.
John Couch Award – LUYU WANG
The Couch Award is given to a senior biology major with interests in plant biology who has demonstrated the highest ideals of scholarship and research.
Lawrence Gilbert Award – KARA RITTERPUSCH and CAROLINE TARALLO
The Gilbert Award is given to two senior biology majors for excellence in serving as a supplemental instructor, peer mentor, or tutor in a Biology class.
Irvin Hagadorn Award – ALICIA CHEN
The Hagadorn Award is given to the top junior biology major based on academic and research excellence. (This award was presented by Chancellor Carol Folt at the Spring 2018 Chancellor’s Awards Ceremony.)
Frances LeClair Award – PATRICK WINNER
The LeClair Award is given to a senior biology major for academic excellence in biology with an emphasis in plant sciences.
Jane Pearce, a Junior Biology major, recently won first place and $1,500 in the 13th Annual American Association for Cancer Research Undergraduate Student Caucus and Poster Competition. This international meeting was held in Chicago and was attended by 22,000 cancer researchers. As the First Place Winner of the “Margaret Foti Foundation Undergraduate Prizes for Cancer Research,” Jane’s poster was judged based on her abstract, the research content of the poster, and on her ability to effectively answer questions about her work during the poster presentation. Jane works in the lab of Dr. Stephen D. Hursting in the Nutrition Department, UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health.