Pawliczak, a mechanical engineering doctoral student at Binghamton University, has won several prizes, most recently in October, when she received the Best Student Poster Award during the 56th International Symposium on Microelectronics, held by the International Microelectronics Assembly & Packaging Society in San Diego.

Pawliczak’s research involves electrospray technology — employing electricity to disperse a liquid or fine aerosol — to create a thin (as in nanoparticle thin) film for electromagnetic interference (EMI) protection in electronics manufacturing. The silver film provides a low-cost, space-conscious way to protect against EMI.

“There is a push in the industry to miniaturize devices, from cell phones to hearing aids, so it’s important to maximize the available internal space,” Pawliczak says. “The idea is that electrospray will open the doors for many different applications of this technology.”

Pawliczak conducts her work in the Microfluidics and Multiphase Flow Laboratory of Paul R. Chiarot, professor and chair of the Department of Mechanical Engineering. This research was a new direction for Chiarot’s group when the Semiconductor Research Corp., a research consortium that promotes collaborations among academic institutions, technology companies and government agencies, presented the research opportunity in 2020.

“Emma took on this project and ran with it, and at this point now has complete ownership of it,” Chiarot says. “She directs it herself, interacts with company liaisons at Texas Instruments, NXP Semiconductors and Intel, and she’s gone on to make great contributions in this space. She is a very careful and thoughtful scientist.”

The New Hampton, N.Y., resident knew from an early age that she wanted to pursue mechanical engineering. “I watched my father bring home drawings and documents throughout my life, coming up with creative solutions to complex problems,” she says. “Instead of looking at obstacles as work, he looked at them like puzzles. So I wanted to be like my dad. I thought I was going to go into construction, but now I work on a much different size scale, in the micro and nano range.”

It was an easy decision to attend Binghamton when she first toured the campus as a high school junior. “It was an immediate connection. I loved the energy of the campus,” she says. “As soon as I got my early action acceptance letter, I confirmed my enrollment the same day.”

Pawliczak received her undergraduate degree in mechanical engineering from Binghamton in 2020 and then stayed to continue her graduate studies. Her career, so far, includes three peer-reviewed journal publications and seven conference paper publications. She has given more than 20 conference talks and poster presentations across the country.

She hopes to complete her doctorate in 2025.

“I will be interning at Intel this summer and I am extremely excited for the experience,” Pawliczak says. “I often go back and forth between entering industry or pursuing a career in academia, but I look forward to any and all paths my degree may lead me.”

Writing about an extraterrestrial world full of automatons is Samantha Sylvain’s favorite pastime — when she isn’t in a lab observing protein-protein interactions.

Growing up, Sylvain knew she was going to be a scientist. She had always been interested in research and made sure to gain lab experience early, spending a large chunk of high school in the New York BioForce program. It allowed her to aid a Cornell University biophysicist in protein visualization research, igniting a passion within her for biological studies. It only made sense for her then to join Binghamton University, an R1 institute housing a First-Year Research Immersion Program that would open the door to boundless research opportunities. 

STEM wasn’t the only thing on her mind. A Queens-born poet and author, Sylvain also wanted to develop as a writer. She’s now writing a story that explores her love for scientific exploration and works to intertwine the structures of her favorite authors: William Blake and Mary Shelley.

“My story is a book of prose and poetry,” Sylvain says. “I incorporated ideas such as rebelling against rigid systems … discussed the perils of discovery and scientific innovation. I also examined the concept of technological and antiquated virtual realities.”

Sylvain believes the humanities play a large role in scientific research. She has learned to make her research accessible to groups that may be unfamiliar with scientific language, a skill she cherishes as it allows scientific discovery to become widespread. 

“You have to have a level of cognizance of how you’re writing and for what purpose,” says Sylvain, a member of the class of 2024. “You can get too fixated on writing in a specific way and structure using certain jargon — like in scientific research papers — and it can become difficult to adapt that writing style to a broader audience.” 

Her academic duality has allowed her to dive into a variety of programs on campus. Besides FRI, Sylvain was also involved in the College-in-the-Woods (CIW) Environmental Action and Studies living community, which went hand-in-hand with her McNair Scholars prospectus and her Summer Scholars and Artists Program study. Her living community’s collegiate professor — Stephen Ortiz, now the assistant vice provost for academic enrichment — became her mentor due to her involvement in so many of his realms. They’d meet weekly following the CIW sophomore colloquium, where he watched her present her study, and was in awe of her work ethic. 

“She is simply as smart, as hard-working, as thoughtful as a student can be,” Ortiz says. “I think the world of her.”

His admiration led to Ortiz recommending her to be a speaker before an audience of donors and alumni. The vice president for advancement was looking for someone who could speak to the things they’ve gotten out of Binghamton University for major benefactors, Ortiz recalls. “And in front of about 500 potential donors and alumni, she nailed it and everyone I talked to afterwards was like, ‘Thank you for bringing her to our attention, she did so awesome!’” he says. 

One of the projects Sylvain addressed during her speech was the linked work for FRI and the Summer Scholars and Artists program. Sylvain’s team conducted a study into the prevalence of the hemlock woolly adelgid (HWA), an invasive insect ravaging the Northeast. By the end of the summer, Sylvain realized in order to truly research the issue of the HWA, they would need dedicated land and more time and guidance. 

Despite the challenges she encountered, she looks at the work in a positive light. 

“That’s how I know I love research. It did infringe upon well-being and health, but I learned on the job and before the job — it was fun.” Sylvain says. “I didn’t understand that this was part of the research experience, you need to find if the project is feasible, then you can do the preliminary research, and then you figure out the larger applications. You can’t just release beetles and fungi into an area. It was very enlightening.”

She is part of biochemist Sozanne Solmaz’s lab, where she’s studying the interactions between proteins dedicated to developing the brain.

“I just fell in love with them [proteins] because I thought they were kind of cute and looked like little nanomachines that conduct various activities,” Sylvain says with a laugh. “There’s a significant amount of work that can be done to study them that relates to larger real-world issues; like neuronal migration disorders, which is the application of my research at the Solmaz lab.”  

One of Sylvain’s tasks within the project was to uncover what molecular mechanisms existed between primary proteins involved in nucleus movement during neuronal development. Through a technique used to detect physical interactions between proteins, she found that the lab’s hypothesis was correct: The proteins form spirals around one another to transport the cell nuclei.

Her next steps include an honors thesis, which will pertain to her protein research but also add in her interests within astrobiology and chemistry. 

“I’ve just begun doing research on inherently disordered proteins and how they may impact protein-protein interactions under conditions you see in extraterrestrial environments,” Sylvain says.

Undergraduate Eliza Klos has already crafted a sturdy foundation to flourish as a physician. 

One of Klos’ first pivotal steps when she got to Binghamton University was declaring a major in neuroscience — an interesting choice for a pre-health student. Klos said she sought a concentration that would allow her to learn about people holistically. 

“I wanted something that was going to be different,” says Klos, a member of the class of 2024. “I like that (neuroscience) is interdisciplinary and it involves more than just biology. It has more of a human-basis so it’s been a really good fit for me so far.”

The next step Klos took was getting involved in research early — even before getting into college.  Klos grew up in Buffalo, which is where she discovered her passion for helping others. Through a high school summer program at the Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Institute, Klos was able to gain her first taste of what it would mean to be a physician and a researcher. She was given an independent project where she examined a type of cancer called mantle cell lymphoma, which targets the lymphatic system. 

“The summer before my senior year, I worked in a lymphoma and myeloma cancer research lab,” Klos recalls. “My research focused on examining a potential mechanism for resistance of the cancer to chemotherapy drugs. If the pathway can be discovered, it could be targeted with drugs, hopefully eliminating the problem of resistance.”

As a First-Year Research Immersion Program (FRI) participant and a member of Binghamton University’s Scholars Program, Klos has had plenty of research experiences since then. For FRI, her project focused on creating a novel model of the effect coronavirus-related stress had on children. Their chosen schematic? Rats.

“This was the first time this project was done in the neuroscience stream,” Klos says. “Really we were trying to find a way to model what that kind of stress that came for kids during the time of COVID-19 would look like in rats. So that involved socially isolating the rats for short periods of time and then analyzing both their behavior and their neurochemistry.” 

Following her last semester in FRI, Klos knew she wanted to continue doing research, so she emailed several professors with similar interests. That’s how she landed her next research opportunity as an undergraduate research assistant in Assistant Professor Laura Cook’s biology lab. 

The lab’s main focus is on streptococcus A, the bacteria that may cause strep throat symptoms in some patients, but not in others. It’s important to understand differences between bacteria that require treatment and those that don’t. As a means to deter the onset of antibiotic resistance, physicians need to be able to narrow down whether certain patients need to be prescribed antibiotics, even despite their strep tests coming back positive.

Within the Cook lab, Klos is something of a head researcher, helping with the organization of the lab’s undergraduates, training them and keeping Cook informed on their progress. According to Cook, she’s also in charge of collecting samples, testing them, reporting all the data and forming training initiatives. 

“She’s a leader, both socially and scientifically,” Cook says. “We had some issues with contamination, especially with all of the new workers, but she’s been helping us troubleshoot that. She streamlined the undergraduates and their processes, taught them sterile technique and suggested training. She always goes above and beyond!”

Klos serves as the vice president of the American Medical Women’s Association on campus. It’s an organization devoted to advancing women and others in medical careers. 

“It’s really meant for anyone who has an interest in medicine, whether they’re hoping to go into medicine or just find it interesting,” Klos says. “We try to be open to everyone.”

Klos’ antibiotics research did not stop in the Cook lab. As a university scholar, she had access to the Guthrie Scholars Premedical Internship, where besides helping with research, she also had the chance to shadow different doctors and present a research lecture before a panel. Her main focus for the lecture was her collaboration with an orthopedic surgeon, studying the necessity of antibiotics among elective foot and ankle surgery patients.

“One of my favorite things [about research] has been communicating it to other people,” Klos says. “I’ve done quite a few presentations and a pretty big research lecture at Guthrie, and it’s very exciting to share the research I’ve been working on. I’m very proud of all of it and it’s so nice to get positive feedback and bounce ideas off of different people who are even more knowledgeable than I am.”

While she isn’t set on any one medical career yet, Klos knows medical school is her next step following graduation. Anesthesiology has been the most interesting focus for her, given the personable nature of the position.

“Being an anesthesiologist involves talking with patients at a high-stress time for them, so you have to focus on making sure patients are comfortable,” Klos says. “It’s been one of my favorite specialties so far, but I still have more to explore.”

Can violence ever be justified? What if it’s in the name of revolution? These are among the questions Chloe Cairncross asks when looking at the bloody results of large-scale battles like the 1973 Chilean coup d’état and the 1979 Salvadoran Civil War. 

Cairncross, a senior double-majoring in anthropology and philosophy, is studying “Just War Theory” and the ethics of revolution.

Philosophy was always her thing. In high school, she loved debating ethical quandaries and falling into rabbit-hole existential discussions with her classmates. However, it was only after she participated in the Source Project during her freshman year at Binghamton University that she truly realized her passion in political and cultural studies.

“I just found it fascinating to sort of talk with people and to learn about other cultures,” Cairncross says. “That’s what brought me to anthropology and it just clicked. The combination of anthropology and philosophy is all about studying people — why we do what we do and how we interact with people.” 

The same semester the war in Ukraine began, Cairncross was accepted into the philosophy department’s Pell Honors Program, meaning she would write a thesis and present her work to a panel of judges. At that point, she was enrolled in an ethics course that zoomed in on moral dilemmas. Its political relevance to Ukraine made her want to delve more deeply into the subject and its relation to war and conflict as a potential research focus. In conjunction with the terrorism and extremism course she took while studying abroad in the United Kingdom, she had a lot of material to work with. 

“There’s something really special to be found because you’re stripping away all these layers and finding out what’s really at the core of what makes us human,” Cairncross says. “The classes pushed me toward interesting questions like: How do we justify using violence? How do we justify doing things that are ‘immoral’ or seen as bad?”

Combining her wide range of anthropological interest was proving to be complex but under the guidance of her mentor, Associate Professor Mattias Iser, she found a connecting piece: the justifications for violent revolution in relation to human rights violations. More specifically, she wants to provide evidence that governmental rulings considered to be lesser rights violations are equally as detrimental to a community and its succeeding generations as major rights violations are. 

“There are major harms, which would be things like if your government is actively killing people, maiming them or torturing them,” Cairncross says. “Lesser harms are more so restrictions of  freedom, speech or movement. Really just all these layers upon layers of saying, ‘Hey, the government’s watching you and if you step out we may hurt you, but as long as you stay in line, you’re OK.’”

Iser referred Cairncross to literature and theorists related to her study, and he found that her high level of engagement with her research sets her apart from other students. While she looks for works that align with her stance, she also makes sure to find differing opinions. 

“She really takes her research seriously, it’s not just a thought experiment,” Iser says. “She looks at the real-world implications and wants to contribute something so that we can understand the moral problems, the political problems, in a more insightful way. I think that’s where she really stands out.”

For the seminar, Cairncross navigated archives to do with “Just War Theory,” or the belief that war is not always the worst option to gain peace. Cairncross noticed that two theorists in particular, David Rodin and Jeff McMahan, concluded that lesser rights violations do not justify violent revolutions. In her opinion, they hadn’t fully examined the harmful implications any rights violation may have on society. 

“A lot of theorists don’t believe lesser harms are as bad as they were since there was no violence actually happening,” Cairncross says. “I actually emailed one of the philosophers that I wrote about. I said ‘Hey, I have some issues with your theory and some questions. I don’t think you take into account lesser harms and it makes me angry.’ He emailed me back a really long conversation and he even agreed with me about the shortcomings of his own theory. It was so gratifying.”

Being aware of methods to rights violations and their effects is important because it allows people to recognize an infraction and plan a response in advance. 

“It’s important to think about what you want to do when you think that your rights have been violated,” Cairncross says. “The government’s supposed to be this steward of our rights and protect them for us, but we also have to stand up when they’re being violated. And a lot of the time they are — it’s a really big issue for a lot of social groups in the United States right now.”

The best part of the Pell program for Cairncross was the culminating presentation she did at the December colloquium. A week before the judging, she reworked her speech as she realized she wanted it to be as accessible as possible — the crowd was going to include philosophers as well as families and friends. Cairncross felt her message was just as important for them to understand. 

“The presentation was the pinnacle of things I’ve done so far,” Cairncross says. “That’s one thing I really appreciate, no matter who I talk to about my thesis or research, they’re always really interested. The positive responses of other people encourage me to go on and [tells me] that my ideas are interesting.”

Cairncross is revising her thesis and hopes to publish it. She’ll be returning for a master’s degree following graduation this spring. 

“I have committed to doing a master’s degree here at Binghamton, in Genocide and Mass Atrocity Prevention, so my interest in conflict and war is only getting deeper and deeper in a way,” Cairncross says. “I think trying to figure out what drives us toward evil and what drives us for good is a really important thing to know, and I just find it absolutely fascinating.”

An Illinois native, Franks came to Binghamton University to realize her dream of living on the East Coast and her goal of becoming a doctor. Now, she’s a graduating senior majoring in biochemistry and minoring in music, finalizing her enrollment in SUNY Upstate Medical University, which she chose in part due to its proximity to an orchestra.

Her enthusiasm for research stems back to a high school experience with her older brother. Both were a part of their specialized school’s Student Inquiry and Research (SIR) program, which allowed them to collaborate with different STEM labs and health clinics. Franks worked with CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing tools and mixed lineage leukemia in breast cells. It was the project that set her on the path of cancer research.

“My brother had done the SIR program at our high school and did a really cool project about looking for differences in brain structure of those with Alzheimer’s,” Franks says. “He got to work with rat brains and present his project at conferences so I decided I wanted to do that too.”

With graduation on the horizon, Franks is focused on completing her duties in the labs where she works. At the Guthrie Clinic, she and her mentor, Gastroenterology Fellow Alex Miller, are narrowing down methods to increase the rates of hepatitis A and B vaccinations, specifically among adult patients with Chronic Liver Disease (CLD). Miller’s original goal for the project was to look at the overall population of those with CLD and to raise the vaccination rates holistically. Franks introduced the idea of finding groups within the population who may need the vaccine more urgently than others, and potentially targeting them first.

“She very thoughtfully brought in additional components that we could look at simultaneously,” Miller says. “She took us a step further and said, ‘Why don’t we introduce different types of healthcare disparities out there? That way we can see if there’s one population more vulnerable and not only increase vaccine rates but also try to focus on those in the highest need.’”

This opened the team up to looking into patient demographics, giving the researchers more insight into the types of aid and communication they would need to administer alongside the vaccination. Due to her significant contribution, Franks is in charge of data extraction for the project.

“A lot of people can learn different aspects of medicine, but what I appreciated from Miriam is that she was always willing to learn, always willing to help out however she could, and she would actively seek out tasks,” Miller says. “That’s not something that can be learned — it’s innate.”

Besides her work at Guthrie, Franks is also involved in a biochemistry lab under Susan Bane, biochemistry program director. Franks emailed her the summer before her freshman year.

“I’ve had a couple hundred undergraduate research students over the years, and never have I been contacted that early,” Bane says. “She’s planning a long way ahead and is someone who’s thought carefully about what she wants to do and the steps she needs to get there. Yet, she also focuses on what she wants to do at the moment. She isn’t doing research just to get into med school; Miriam does it because she genuinely loves it.”

In that lab, Franks is working with a partner to isolate tumor overexpressed gene (TOG) proteins from genetically modified Escherichia coli cells. They have to grow the cells themselves and then break down their membrane walls, resulting in the release of TOG protein. This is all done as a way to harvest tubulin, the main constituent of living cells’ microtubules and a primary target for many cancer medications. It’s foundational research but Bane calls it critical, as the lab had yet to attempt to collect microtubules from cancer cells.

Franks has mastered the art of splitting her attention between her two passions: research and music. When she isn’t in the lab, she’s playing the flute. She took up the instrument at age 7 and has continued to play during her college career, most notably in “The Child and the Enchantments” and “The Magic Flute.”

“I’ve been playing the flute for 16 years,” Franks says. “I started originally because my mom played the flute when she was younger so we already had one in the house. It was natural for me to follow in my mom’s footsteps so I started band in the second or third grade and I’ve been in band or orchestra ever since. I was in a few community orchestras once I got a bit older and I really found my place in it.”

Franks says she is grateful so many people at Binghamton have invested in her success. “The grad students have been amazing whenever I’m facing setbacks,” she says. “They helped me learn how to use equipment and I can ask them how to do certain equations. Of course, Dr. Bane, as well, she’s been pivotal to this entire experience. At Guthrie, working with Dr. Miller and getting to shadow him as he went through his daily tasks as a fellow really solidified for me that I want to do that, too.”

Order, the oldest of three siblings, always knew he wanted to work with children. He also had a deep curiosity about developmental disabilities, but it wasn’t until the Long Island native came to Binghamton University that he decided to combine these interests. Now he’s a junior majoring in psychology with a concentration in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and a minor in education.

“I always had an interest in understanding behavior,” Order says. “In regards to ASD, that was introduced when I got to Binghamton and that’s where my interest piqued, but prior, I did a lot of work with children with developmental disabilities through a few programs they had at my high school. I always had a lot of involvement volunteering with kiddos and it’s something I’m very passionate about.”

Before college, Order didn’t have a particular interest in any one disability. It wasn’t until he met his mentor, psychology Professor Jennifer Gillis Mattson, that he decided to focus on autism. The duo have worked together on two large projects within the Institute for Child Development (ICD), where Order is a teacher’s aide and writing a program evaluation report with graduate student Jessica Granieri.

The report focuses on his independent research project for the Summer Scholars & Artists Program, a unique examination of the use of augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) strategies and devices. Order wanted to gauge how well children would use the devices in a naturalistic environment, like a playground, instead of a classroom.

Because many autistic children have communication difficulties or are non-speaking, at the institute, most students use AACs to make requests and answer questions from those around them. AACs can range from apps on iPads and mobile devices to whole communication boards or small binders containing multiple pictures and words, all of which allow a child to use digital or physical pictures, symbols and sentences for communication. But bringing a tablet or binder on slides, swings and other playground equipment can be a safety hazard and get in the way of the fun.

Order wondered if there was a way for children to communicate about their playground experiences without having to go back and get their AAC device. He noticed that some playgrounds had added communication boards to be more inclusive, but it was unclear if adding them would be helpful to children at the institute, given the limited research about their use.

Order worked closely with the institute’s speech language pathologists (SLPs) to develop AAC supports available throughout the playground and to examine what types of additional support might be needed.

At the end of the summer, Order’s research concluded with an unexpected finding — that just having AAC supports available (even if children know how to use them) does not facilitate use of the supports for communication. The staff needed to be trained in encouraging the students to communicate using the AAC supports on the playground. Once this happened, there was much more communication success.

“Derek was involved in all aspects of this project. He made all of the materials, consulted frequently with the SLPs, collected data, problem-solved the inevitable hiccups in applied work, and evaluated the outcome of the project,” Gillis Mattson says.

Although the experiment was conceptualized and conducted by Order, his proudest achievement at the institute is the friendships he has made with children.

“Genuinely, regardless of the research — which I am grateful for — I have always just loved interacting with the kids and building rapport,” Order says. “I work in a classroom with 3- to 5-year-olds and 9- to 10-year-olds, and the relationships with the kids are so pure and they make me so happy. The thing I love the most is just hanging out with them, but if I can also do research that might aid them in some way and help foster independence, I am quite fulfilled by that.”

Order plans to pursue a doctorate in school psychology following graduation. One of his larger goals for his research is to find more ways to support and amplify the voices of self-advocates in the ASD community, while also encouraging continued learning for teachers and school administrators. He believes everyone should be willing to meet children with autism halfway, as opposed to trying to make them behave more “typically.”

Beyond the institute, Order has also found success as a peer consultant with the Fleishman Center for Career and Professional Development. He helps students with resumes and cover letters, along with advising first-year psychology majors about what steps they should take to reach their goals effectively.

“If you’re interested in research or getting involved, go and talk to people, go talk to your professors,” Order says. “If I didn’t go to Dr. Gillis’ office hours and talk about what I wanted to do after college, my life would be totally different. Experience doesn’t just fall from the sky, I had to put myself in the position to get lucky. It’s important to talk to the pros, those who know and feel what you’re going through!”

Lisa Foreman has been an active participant in multiple research programs on campus since her freshman year. Now, in her third year, she has effectively incorporated her passions for political science and Russian studies into her research.

Foreman was able to pave her own path with her studies, thanks in large part to the Source Project, a first-year honors research program in which students can choose between various streams of study, ranging from education to sustainability in art, to complete research in the humanities.

“When I saw other people doing research, I was like ‘Oh man! I need to start researching!’ Foreman says. “By the time I was accepted to Binghamton and to the Source Project, I was already so excited because this was what I was waiting for, now it was my turn to join the scholarly conversation.”

Foreman, who grew up on Staten Island, developed her core research interests as a first-year student. She also credits the program with allowing her to continue research in Russian studies.

“Before I had even accepted my enrollment to this school, I was already attending info sessions and learning about what it would be like to be in the specific track that I was interested in,” she says. “I felt like I was appreciated immediately, and I felt like I was really understood as an applicant.”

In addition to her research projects, Foreman is involved with TEDxBinghamton University. As the director of content, she plays a significant role in organizing the annual conference in the spring, and encouraging student speakers, alumni speakers and professionals who want to share their message on the TEDx stage.

“We tap into every corner of the University possible, while also bringing something new to them,” Foreman says.

During the summer of 2022, Foreman took part in the Summer Scholars and Arts Program, conducting research in sentiment analysis in relation to the Russian-Ukrainian conflict. She was referred to the program by a former professor, Mikhail Filippov, who now serves as her advisor.

“We have already started to work on her 80-page honors thesis and I have no doubts that she will complete it successfully,” says Filippov, a professor of political science. “Overall, it is a very rewarding experience for me, largely because Lisa acts as a highly motivated, excellent student with self-discipline.”

Foreman uses a research plan, inspired by her work in the Source Project, to analyze tweets selected from the Twitter accounts of influential political leaders such as President Joe Biden and U.S senators.

Foreman identifies key words and phrases that correlate with sentiment. A single tweet is analyzed for its polarity, as in whether it is positive or negative, as well as the degree at which this is expressed, which is considered as its subjectivity. For example, a tweet with positive polarity and high subjectivity would have a positive sentiment.

As she outlines the background, methods and question of inquiry in her fundamental work, Foreman is able to improve the guidelines and accuracy of her project.

“By unpacking certain cross sections of social media, information and conflict, my research can be used to expand awareness regarding political social media,” she says. “I amalgamated so much knowledge and understanding of this process, but things can definitely be narrowed.”

Foreman says she has had a unique experience studying Russian literature during a time of war in the region. Through her classes, Foreman experienced the Russian-Ukrainian conflict from a humane and scholarly perspective.

“I was in a Russian language course at that point, and one of my classmates was Ukrainian,” she says. “It was spoken about a lot within the Russian department, and even outside of that. It was interesting to not only discuss it in a casual sense, but to really be exposed to people who were directly affected by it, while also considering it as an academic.”

The application of computer programming in her project introduced a new aspect that allowed for greater creativity, Foreman says. “With an essay you write until you feel like your argument is complete, but that’s kind of ambiguous,” she says. “Coding felt more artistic and creative, more so than any other math or science class I had taken before, as well as how much you can do with it.”

Foreman intends to explore the role of social media in conflict and how computer-aided text analysis can be used to understand it. She hopes that her project will contribute to the growing discussion of how social networking platforms present global affairs.

“Social data science is an emerging discipline that my project fits into,” Foreman says. “I’m just trying to keep up with the curve and contribute something to this discussion while tying it into another fairly new discipline.”

Junior Alejandro Wiltshire has been interested in conducting research for as long as he can remember. Now he works in the Biological Soft Matter Mechanics Laboratory (BSMM) with Guy German, associate professor of biomedical engineering.

“I think of it as a skin lab, even though it’s more than just that,” Wiltshire says. “It’s a very versatile biomedical engineering lab. Most of the time when people think of biomedical engineering, they think of cells or creating some sort of vaccine, whereas this is the more mechanical aspect of it. It’s a great place to learn about skin and to learn about a different aspect of mechanical engineering.”

Wiltshire joined the lab his freshman year. With German’s guidance, he has refined his skills in research and laboratory methods.

“Alejandro is committed, rigorous, and an asset to my team,” German says. “He has integrated well with my team of graduates and undergraduates, has learned the varied techniques required for his research quickly and efficiently, and has shown me he can perform effectively independently and as part of a team.”

Wiltshire is part of two research projects. His work on the rate of infection resulting from surgical sites has broad implications in helping regions of the world where infection rates are higher than average.

“If we can figure out how bacteria enters wounds, we can hopefully prevent this from happening,” Wiltshire says. “We are hoping that through this research, we can actually improve the pre-operative procedures, in order to lower the rate of surgical site infections.”

Wiltshire examines the rate of bacterial infection by making observations through imitation. Using a powerful microscope, Wiltshire shared images of his biomechanical model in detail. A substrate plays the role of the skin, while fluorescent beads mimic bacteria.

He included visuals in the demonstration, which allowed for a deeper, more comprehensive understanding of his investigation.

“I think a lot of science is visuals, like you need to see it in order to understand it,” he says. “I’m more of a visual learner myself, so I like to show things and explain along the way.”

Wiltshire’s second project relates to wrinkle formation as a result of aging. Using a series of complicated instruments, Wiltshire works to determine the individual mechanical and structural properties of skin and how this relates to the formation of wrinkles.

The experiments use skin samples from human cadavers. Within four to six days, members of the lab conduct rigorous experimentation on the samples to gain a better understanding of how wrinkles develop over time and how collagen fibers in the skin alter the shape of the wrinkles.

As a member of an artistic family, Wiltshire knew his interests differed greatly from the people around him, but that didn’t deter him from finding a balance between his love for engineering and his appreciation for art.

“I try to take everything in my life and tie it together,” says Wiltshire, who grew up in Hempstead on Long Island. “I think my purpose was kind of trying to tie the things that I enjoy in science and STEM with the artsy side of my life and the things that I view as being artsy.”

Through his position as the STEAM chair of the Binghamton Art Club, Wiltshire hopes to bring awareness to the intersection of art and engineering, and encourage students to pursue and enjoy both paths.

Wiltshire says his experiences in the lab, including a project as part of the Summer Scholars and Artists Program in 2022, have improved his understanding of complex concepts in his undergraduate engineering classes.

“I’m not a classroom learner, I’m more of a hands-on learner,” he says. “So I’ve realized that the more time I spend in the lab, the more that I actually learn here and that I can apply it to the classroom as opposed to the other way around.”

Wiltshire hopes to pursue a doctorate in biomedical engineering at Binghamton after he graduates.

“I’m always investigating something that I didn’t know before,” he says, “and that, to me, is what I want to do.”

Dylan Richmond, a fourth-year doctoral student in the Materials Science and Engineering Program, conducts research focused on identifying innovative materials and processes to produce reliable, low-cost, low-waste flexible electronic devices. His research group prints and builds circuits onto adaptable plastic materials.

“My favorite part of this work is definitely printing the materials and making something go from a design to an actual circuit and then building upon that and making the whole device,” Richmond says.

He has worked with Binghamton’s Center for Advanced Microelectronics Manufacturing, or CAMM lab, for two and a half years. The laboratory is directed by Mark Poliks, a SUNY distinguished professor of systems science and industrial engineering. Richmond works alongside Poliks on several projects.

“Dylan is a highly motivated individual who is always willing to accept new and challenging responsibilities,” Poliks says. “It has been my privilege to see him develop into an independent professional scientist.”

The CAMM produces devices that are made to withstand high temperatures and large influxes of energy. They can flex onto virtually any curved surface seamlessly, all while adopting the flexibility of a Band-Aid.

In traditional electronics manufacturing, copper or another conductive metal coats the entire plate and excess materials are etched away to leave behind the circuit. However, the CAMM focuses on printing through additive manufacturing. This process reduces waste and is a cost-effective alternative.

“In additive manufacturing, you only print what you need,” Richmond says. “So you print just the design of the circuit.”

While growing up in Owego, Richmond favored the complex nature of math and science over all other elementary subjects. His initial curiosity and appreciation ultimately paved the way for his future as an engineer.

During his final year at SUNY Oswego, where he received his bachelor’s in physics, Richmond had an opportunity to conduct research at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln on perovskite solar cells. Perovskite is a low-cost, high-energy material that can be used to power electronic devices.

Flexible hybrid electronics combine printed electronic circuits and the flexibility of plastic materials with the efficiency of thinned semiconductor devices to produce a new form of electronics.

“Flexible electronics should be able to adapt to locations and environments where they are needed. The key word here is adapting,” Richmond says. “You want them to not be a nuisance to you. You want to barely notice that they’re on you. So the challenge is making them so thin, so light-weight, so that you barely notice that you’re wearing them and they’re not getting in the way of your daily activities.”

Printed electronics are still novel and fundamental work still needs to be done. As the field of materials science gains more traction, Richmond says that he is less interested in competition and more interested in sharing his knowledge with like-minded peers in the engineering community.

“There’s a lot of people that are interested in this right now, and I just want to contribute to it,” he says.

The influence of the Green Revolution has motivated Richmond to hope for a future in the renewable energy sector. He aspires to combine his knowledge and experience in materials science with his passion for printing and green energy, to create his own renewable energy company in the future.

“Many of our projects involve collaboration with colleagues at major corporations and other universities,” Poliks says. “Dylan has had the opportunity to develop the skills needed to work in a complex team environment. As a result he is now well prepared to work in a highly competitive research and development laboratory.”

“The AHA is such a big and well-respected organization, so it is a nice validation to see that they value my research and ideas,” says Weiss, a biomedical engineering doctoral student who received a competitive two-year pre-doctoral fellowship.

Weiss conducts her work in the lab of Tracy Hookway, assistant professor of biomedical engineering. The team uses cell culture, 3D modeling of stem cells and live imaging of tissue for regenerative medicine therapy.

“Natalie has been a huge asset to my lab,” Hookway says. “She’s incredibly intelligent and very ambitious, and she’s not afraid to ask questions.”

Weiss’ research involves creating working models of human hearts and then testing various drugs and therapies with the goal of resolving or improving cardiac fibrosis. She uses stem cells derived from human skin to make heart muscle cells and then combines them with proteins, sugars and a gel polymer, which is then piped into a 3mm donut ring mold (of sorts). The process takes about a week and a half, but once the cells are added to the mold, the ring forms overnight into a simplified, beating human heart model.

“By testing on these models, it saves time, money and testing on animals,” Weiss says, adding that she often has 40 rings going at a time. “What I’m hoping to do, once the models are a little more advanced, is replicate the stiffness of cardiac fibrosis in the model and then test a couple of drugs and see if it responds in a positive way.”

As a high school student in East Meadow, Long Island, Weiss knew she was interested in the medical field. She volunteered in an emergency room and got her EMT certification.

“I’ve also always loved problem solving — taking things apart and figuring out how they worked,” she says. “I wasn’t aware I could put those two interests together until a biomedical engineering major kept popping up again and again as I was researching college programs.”

She received her undergraduate degree in biomedical engineering at Stony Brook University in 2019, and then started her graduate career at Binghamton that fall. She selected the program because she was impressed with Hookway, who would become her advisor.

“I wanted someone who I can connect with,” Weiss says. “Dr. Hookway really seemed like someone who would advocate for her students, so I knew she was going to care about my progress and help me out.”

Once Weiss completes her doctorate, she hopes to complete a post-doctoral fellowship and then become a professor and run her own research lab.

The behavioral neuroscience doctoral student at Binghamton was among 28 winners of the 2022 SUNY Graduate Research Empowering and Accelerating Talent (GREAT) Award, designed to encourage undergraduate and graduate SUNY students to apply for competitive graduate fellowships to fund their master’s or doctoral studies. The prize provides $5,000 in flexible funding from the SUNY Office of Research and Economic Development, and is given to students who have already received national recognition from either the National Science Foundation’s Graduate Research Fellowship Program or the NIH’s National Research Service Awards.

Towner, who expects to finish his degree in December, plans to use his GREAT Award funding to attend research conferences, which will help him network and potentially secure a postdoctoral position in another research lab. “After three to five years, the end goal is to become a tenure-track faculty member,” the San Diego, Calif., native says. “I’ve always wanted to be a professor and to have that face-to-face connection with students, seeing the future faces of the field.”

Towner, a first-generation college student, earned his undergraduate and master’s degrees in psychology at California State University San Marcos. His initial experience in a preclinical lab involved researching adolescents and the long-term effects of drugs of abuse. “It was an area of interest that was close to home for me,” he says. “A lot of my friends and family experienced substance or alcohol use disorders.”

That research experience helped prepare Towner for the rigors of Binghamton’s program, says David F. Werner, associate professor and director of graduate studies for the Psychology Department and member of the Center for Development and Behavioral Neuroscience. “Trevor was able to hit the ground running,” he says. “He is very motivated and independent, and he is integral to a lot of research in the lab. Trevor is one of the most productive individuals to date.”

Towner’s current research in Werner’s lab focuses on long-term behavioral and neural consequences associated with adolescent, binge-level alcohol exposure. “The research is important because of the staggering number of people who start drinking in adolescence,” Towner says. “We need to understand how our behavior and brains might change as a result of repeated exposure to ethanol during this time when the brain is undergoing substantial maturation.”

Alcohol exposure can lead to an increase in habit formation in adulthood, greater anxiety-like behavior and increases in risk taking. “What is that neural mechanism that is driving that behavioral change?” Towner asks. “Is it something that is a great enough issue to be corrected, potentially through pharmaceutical and behavioral treatment? Only through conducting the experiments will we have a better insight into future directed therapies.”

Gauck, a biological anthropology student at Binghamton, was among 28 winners of the 2022 SUNY Graduate Research Empowering and Accelerating Talent (GREAT) Award. The prize encourages undergraduate and graduate SUNY students to apply for competitive graduate fellowships to fund their master’s or doctoral studies.

The GREAT Award comes with $5,000 in flexible funding from the SUNY Office of Research and Economic Development, and is given to students who have already received national recognition from the National Science Foundation’s Graduate Research Fellowship Program or the National Institutes of Health’s National Research Service Awards.

Gauck received an honorable mention from the NSF, and was delighted to discover she had won a GREAT Award. “I wasn’t anticipating it, so it was a nice surprise,” says the Pilot, Va., resident. “I would definitely encourage students to apply for national fellowships. Even if they don’t get the ‘big one,’ they still have a chance to receive funding and support from the SUNY system.”

After earning her bachelor’s degrees in anthropology and biological sciences at East Tennessee State University in 2018, Gauck considered medical school but decided she didn’t want to simply treat patients: “I realized I was more interested in looking at ‘why’ — Why are some people more likely to get sick than others? Why do we still have diseases after thousands of years?”

Gauck completed her master’s degree in biological anthropology at Binghamton and is in the first year of her doctoral studies. She works in the lab of Katherine Wander, associate professor of anthropology, which supports research in anthropology and global health. The lab works in collaboration with multiple research institutes and universities on questions involving nutrition, infectious disease risk and chronic disease risk in infants, children and adults. The team has ongoing projects in Tanzania, Nigeria, Bangladesh, China and the islands of Vanuatu.

Gauck’s current research looks at the risk factors and health consequences associated with co-infections of intestinal parasites and tuberculosis in northeastern Tanzania. She plans to use her GREAT Award funding to travel to Kilimanjaro and to purchase kits so she can conduct biomarker assays. Her goal is to create a pilot program as the potential basis for her dissertation, which would then allow her to gain funding through larger grants.

“Meg is a creative and insightful researcher and a joy to collaborate with,” Wander says. “Her ideas are innovative, pulling together insights from many fields to answer important questions about human biology that anthropology alone cannot answer.”

When Gauck graduates, she plans to work in the field of infectious disease. “I’m very interested in tuberculosis, so who knows where that will take me,” she says. “I could go into academia or I could work for research labs in the private or public sector. More than anything, I’d like to continue researching and finding ways to apply what I’m finding either through public health policy or teaching.”

“The piece displays all the hallmarks of a very promising artist, with a unique fusion of playfully complex rhythms, surprising harmonies and genre-crossing riffs that is ‘very Julian,’” says Daniel Thomas Davis, associate professor of music. “Beyond that, it’s particularly special to see and hear a student create a major new composition for an ensemble in which they’ve been a performing member for a number of years.”

When Cubeiro, a vibraphonist with the ensemble, asked the group’s director about the possibility of performing an original composition last fall, he agreed to it without hesitation. “Julian is an incredible jazz musician and his level of ability on the vibraphone from the get-go was extremely high,” says Michael Carbone, director of jazz studies. “The first read-through of the piece was, ‘Wow … this is incredible.’ The piece is so well put together and colorful.”

It took Cubeiro 60 hours to compose “Kolymbithres,” which is named after a beach on the island of Paros in Greece. It’s where he spent his summer break with friends, getting “into the weeds” of composing, drawing inspiration from the beach and the emotions that came with that — relaxation, happiness and bliss.

The Flushing, Queens, resident taught himself how to play and harmonize on the piano starting at age 3, and later expanded into percussion and electric bass. Cubeiro didn’t experience playing in a band until he was a senior in high school, but since he was already comfortable with percussion, he found the vibraphone a natural fit: “I could see the keyboard in front of me so it was a colliding of those two worlds.”

His first love will always be piano, though, and it is key to his creative process: “Playing the piano is almost meditative or therapeutic. I enjoy just playing something without thinking,” Cubeiro says. “I like to sit down without a goal and just play chords. And when I play something memorable, I build on it.”

He didn’t start creating his own music until he was teenager, writing his first song during his junior year of high school. Cubeiro initially learned about composition by taking existing songs and recreating them in a free, open-source musical notation software called MuseScore.

He has hundreds of voice memos on his phone that run from a mere 10 seconds to 25 minutes, named after their key, an emotion or another artist, just so he has an idea of what’s saved.

“‘Kolythimbres’ was initially named something like ‘Warm night melody in E major,’” he says, “and it came from a 10-second snippet that I recorded in October 2020. I’m not the greatest when it comes to naming things. It’s last in the process for me.”

Cubeiro has about 30 completed songs, and he hopes to compose music for video games, movies or television shows and to teach music.

His compositional strength is pulling together genres and styles that don’t seem to belong together, Davis says, “and he creates something deeply personal in the process — video game aesthetics, minimalistic repeating figures, Big Band color and harmonies, and ear-catching tunes all woven together into a dynamic tapestry of sound.”

Her research involves understanding how people with psychopathic personality traits obtain “successful outcomes” — such as achieving occupational success (i.e., promotions, awards) or getting away with “bad behavior” (i.e., being unethical or having criminal behaviors).

The I-Corps program provides a month-long intensive course where participants discover the commercial potential behind their research or innovation and what their ideal customer base might be. It is designed for faculty, students, postdocs, researchers and startups with a research project that has real-world applications, a prototype or an early-stage product or technology.

The regional program provides a $3,000 grant to conduct customer interviews and further any prototypes; the national program provides a $50,000 grant.

Welsh’s work is conducted under the guidance of Mark F. Lenzenweger, distinguished professor of psychology, in his laboratory of experimental psychopathology. Together they co-authored “Psychopathy, charisma, and success: A moderation modeling approach to successful psychopathy,” which was recently published in the Journal of Research in Personality.

“Some psychopathic individuals who have been quite successful have been described as charming or charismatic,” Welsh says. “We wanted to know if charisma serves as a protective or moderating factor that allows psychopathic individuals to be more successful. Our most recent project suggests that psychopathic individuals who are highly charismatic are able to get away with ‘bad behavior’ and avoid punishment more often than psychopathic individuals who are less charismatic.”

Before joining the I-Corps program, Welsh thought her research, if used in a screening tool, might attract the interest of law enforcement, human resources and other hiring departments. After holding 20 customer discovery interviews with people from various industries, she found that her first adopters would likely be talent acquisition and recruiting agencies or staff who screen candidates for senior- and executive-level positions for moderate-sized to large organizations.

Anyone involved in personality science, organizational behavioral/industrial psychology or personnel selection and business administration scholars will find Welsh’s research to be instructive and rich with insights, Lenzenweger says.

“I see Emma making notable contributions to our understanding of psychopathy that will influence how many of the leading workers in the area will conceive of this disorder,” he says. “She is an engaged and creative emerging psychological scientist who brings her own ideas to research challenges, and this emphasis on originality makes her a clear standout.”

Welsh, who did her undergraduate work at New York University, says she appreciates how Lenzenweger encourages his graduate students to generate original and creative ideas. “Working with Mark has been absolutely wonderful because he encourages you to pursue your passion,” she says. “He wants his students to build their own program of research.”

Welsh, who grew up in Alpharetta, Ga., is staying open-minded about where her career path may take her.

“My findings through the I-Corps program have shown me that my research has a lot of potential industry applications, so the job I might want may not exist yet. I may need to create it. There is a gap and I can fill it,” she says. “I love both my clinical work and my research, so I hope to be able to continue to do both and merge my interests.”

Adiel Felsen, a junior dual majoring in computer science and mathematics, studies machine learning.

“Machines make mistakes but they make mistakes less often, especially if they’re trained properly,” Felsen says. “And there can be a lot of dangers in that if you start fully relying on only machines, but I really think machine learning is a great way forward for science in general.”

He has always had an interest in doing research, which played a part in his attraction to Binghamton and the Freshman Research Immersion program.

“I was interested before I went into the program, because the program is part of what attracted me to Binghamton,” Felsen says. “But it definitely allowed me to learn about topics that I wouldn’t otherwise learn until maybe senior year of school.”

FRI helped Felsen develop an understanding of data and machine learning. He categorizes data as anything from random images to letters and numbers. As a part of FRI, he worked on computer vision, a field of study where researchers teach computers how to complete simple tasks such as determining whether an image shows a cat or dog.

During his sophomore year, Felsen returned to FRI as a teacher assistant. In that role, Felsen not only assisted other students in understanding the basics of how to conduct research, he also solidified his own love for research.

Now working under Kenneth Chiu, associate professor of computer science; and Frank Lu, assistant professor of biomedical engineering, Felsen conducts research on biomedical imaging. He and his lab colleagues segment nuclei from cancer cells for SRS imaging.

SRS imaging, or stimulated Raman scattering microscopy, provides a detailed view of a cell. The method does not require the cell to be stained or dyed. Although it’s very fast, SRS imaging does not capture good contrast of DNA, and in biomedical imaging researchers need to be able to detect cell nuclei. Through machine learning algorithms, Felsen and his colleagues can improve the images’ contrast and see the nuclei.

One of Felsen’s mentors describes him as dynamic. “He has persistence and is always exploring new ideas,” Chiu says. “Those are the key things for research.”

Felsen will continue to develop his understanding of data and its many uses this summer as an intern at Mars Inc. He’ll work on projects dealing with data science for the chocolate company.

Felsen does not allow himself to be frustrated by minor setbacks because of what he sees as the impact of his work.

“Our research has the potential to help speed up the process of brain surgery, and it likely has a long way to go before it is actually implemented in the operating room,” Felsen says. “However, our research demonstrates that machine learning algorithms can improve the contrast of SRS images to look similar to stained cells. Hopefully, other researchers will see this promise and will be inspired to pursue similar work.”

“What I would do, and I thought it was research, is to Google the terms that I hear on TV,” Soliman says. “And when I did that, the first result that you will get is Wikipedia. So I’d get into Wikipedia, and I got a small notebook. … And I would copy and paste, write down definitions.”

Soliman, a Fulbright scholar and graduate student in biological sciences at Binghamton, has been a researcher ever since. An evolutionary biologist interested in the formation of new and distinct species in Mimulus plants, Soliman studied biotechnology and molecular biology as an undergraduate at Cairo University.

Also known as monkeyflowers because some of its species have flowers resembling a monkey’s face, plants from the genus Mimulus are one of the model organisms used to study evolution.

In trying to answer how different Mimulus plant species are formed, Soliman and her colleagues complete basic plant care such as watering, repotting and fertilizing. Next, they conduct artificial crosses, where they move pollen from one plant to the female parts of another plant. This enables them to explore the reproductive isolation of the two plant species. They also study how much the hybrid seeds produced from those crosses suffer from reduction in fitness compared to their parents. This can help in understanding how separate species are created and maintained over time.

While she’s acclimated now, when Soliman began her master’s program in the fall, her new environment introduced a multitude of obstacles.

“Whenever I thought of my family, I would immediately cry,” she says. “And then I would think, no, I’m not sad. I’m just homesick. But you miss the food, you miss the family. You miss whatever activities you all used to do.”

Soliman eventually found ways to maintain that close connection with her family, making being away from them much easier to manage.

The close relationship Soliman has with her family extends to her education. Due to family influence and cultural norms, she neglected some of the subjects she initially wanted to study.

“In Egypt, astronomy is not a field that will bring you money and food on the table,” Soliman says. “You have to work in the medical field to get money. Because people care about medicine.”

Considering multiple fields chosen through culture and family influence, even researching evolution was risky for Soliman. Still, during her senior year of college, she took an evolutionary genetics course. At that moment, she knew no other topic piqued her interest like this one.

“I started to see in color, like everything before was black and white. Before, I didn’t pay attention, I just did the work to get my A plus,” Soliman says. “But this is when I began bothering and nagging my professor with constant questions.”

As she grew determined to study evolution, Soliman spoke with her professors and learned of the Fulbright scholars program from a chemistry teacher at her school.

This determination to understand more has also translated into Soliman’s work ethic as a researcher at Binghamton. James Sobel, an associate professor of biological sciences and Soliman’s mentor, describes her as unique.

“She is the kind of person who asks questions constantly. She has this drive to know things and a curiosity that is overwhelming,” Sobel says. “That is the only thing I can’t teach a student — or at least I haven’t figured out how to — that intrinsic motivation. It’s one of those things that some students develop, but as a graduate student you either have it or you don’t.”

After completing graduate school in the spring of 2022, Soliman plans to teach at her alma mater. She ultimately wants to continue her research in evolution and obtain a doctorate in the United States.

“Pursue your dreams and do whatever you like even if it’s against the odds,” Soliman says. “Just do the hard work, and everything will come to you.”

Even though the Johnson City resident will be focusing on geology with an emphasis on saltwater intrusion on aquifers and groundwater, it was her experience as an independent study student in the lab of Weixing Zhu, professor of biological sciences at Binghamton, that helped her discover her love of research.

She joined his lab in the summer of 2019 and has been working with doctoral student Vashti Mahadeo to collect, sort and identify ground arthropods (beetles, spring tails, mites and spiders) to compare biodiversity in urban and rural riparian (forested or wooded lands adjacent to a body of water) zones.

“She’s not even a biology major, but my work together with her interest in ecology overlap,” Mahadeo says. “She brings her geology background in and it meshes well.”

During the winter, Sprague-Getsy examined soil samples from these zones for pH and conductivity. She collected them with Mahadeo last summer. “She is almost like a graduate student in my lab because she is so highly dependable,” Zhu says.

“I’ve gotten so much out of the experience, from learning how to read papers to presenting research,” Sprague-Getsy says. “I get treated as an equal by Dr. Zhu and Vashti even though I’m an undergraduate student. I’ve really appreciated that and it has helped build my confidence.”

She presented her research on the biodiversity of coleoptera (beetles) in urban and rural riparian zones during the Illinois TRIO McNair Virtual Symposium in July 2020. Federal TRIO programs are educational opportunity outreach programs designed to motivate and support students from disadvantaged backgrounds. Sprague-Getsy was accepted into the competitive Ronald E. McNair Postbaccalaureate Achievement Program in 2020, which provides research opportunities to disadvantaged undergraduate students with strong academic potential in preparation for doctoral studies.

During her Binghamton career, Sprague-Getsy has also been a student research collaborator at Brookhaven National Laboratory, a Binghamton University Acres farm intern, and a tutor and TRIO mentor through Student Support Services. She also completed an independent study under the supervision of Joseph Graney, professor of geological sciences and environmental studies, where she and another student tested the impacts of road salt and the combustion of wood chips at the campus heating plant and the resulting atmospheric emission of wood fly ash on the soils on and adjacent to the campus.

Zhu says he’s proud to be part of Sprague-Getsy’s success.

“She has used Binghamton University to its full advantage of what we can offer, and my lab is just one example,” he says. “If you look at her résumé, she is really engaged in different activities, particularly as a mentor. She’s a role model and an example, and she is exceptional at using the resources available to her to achieve a goal.”

That research has now become a line of study in the lab of her mentor, Marvin R. Diaz, associate professor of psychology. “Rhea is an excellent example of a highly motivated and driven student who will achieve great things in her career,” he says. “Her dedication was contagious and she made a significant impact in my research program.”

Marfatia first approached Diaz about his work when she was a freshman, and she became one of his research assistants as a sophomore. Diaz’s Alcohol and Development Lab, part of the Developmental Exposure Alcohol Research Center, looks at neurobiological, physiological and behavioral adaptations that occur during development as a result of alcohol, drug and stress exposure.

Marfatia initially researched prenatal ethanol exposure and its effects on anxiety-like behaviors in offspring by conducting breeding, drug exposures and behavioral and data analysis. After she received the Summer Scholars and Artists award in the summer of 2019, she designed her own research project involving prenatal methadone exposure and its effects on learning and memory in offspring.

“The opioid epidemic is obviously increasing at an alarming rate, and there are understudied aspects in pregnant women and the effects on their offspring,” Marfatia says.

Methadone, a medication used to treat opioid use disorder, can also be prescribed for pain management. Although in utero exposure to opioids does not cause birth defects, some babies may experience withdrawal, also known as neonatal opioid withdrawal syndrome. Methadone maintenance therapy in pregnant women can help improve opioid withdrawal in newborns. However, the long-term effects from methadone maintenance therapy in the offspring on areas such as cognitive development, motor skills, physical growth and social/emotional status are not yet fully known.

In Diaz’s lab, Marfatia developed an animal model of prenatal methadone exposure and picked three specific age points (juvenile, adolescence and adulthood) to observe any learning and cognitive deficits as a result of exposure. Her research showed that effects didn’t become apparent until adulthood.

“It’s really exciting that the research is progressing past the framework that I created,” Marfatia says. “I didn’t have much experience or opportunity to work in research until I was in Dr. Diaz’s lab, but it really confirmed that it’s something I’m good at and something I’m interested in. I couldn’t have asked for a better professor and mentor. He knows how to guide students to be the best version of themselves.”

Marfatia graduated summa cum laude in December 2020 with a B.S. in integrative neuroscience with distinguished independent work, an accomplishment completed in 3.5 years. She was on the Dean’s List each semester, worked as a teaching assistant, was part of the Binghamton University Emerging Leaders Program, and was the vice president of finance for Phi Delta Epsilon, the professional pre-medical fraternity.

Marfatia plans to enroll in Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at the University at Buffalo this fall. For now, she’s working full time on campus at Decker Student Health Services’ COVID-19 rapid testing clinic.

“People don’t often discover the course until they are older,” she says. “I had no idea what nursing research was like, but I wanted to dip my toes in it. I really discovered I liked working with kids and I learned how to better communicate with them.”

Vilda was part of a group that used data analysis to determine whether asthma education helps elementary-aged children better manage their health. Their findings were presented during Binghamton Research Days. She completed training in working with human subjects, became a facilitator through the American Lung Association’s Open Airways for Schools program, and then went to a local elementary school and taught children with asthma how to detect the warning signs of asthma, avoid their triggers and make decisions about their health.

That research experience, along with a three-month student nursing externship in the pediatric intensive care unit at NYU Langone Medical Center, helped influence her career aspirations: Vilda hopes to work in a pediatric emergency department after graduation.

“I just really love that population and the diversity of cases you see. You have to think on your feet and really use your critical thinking skills,” she says. “And I love treating the person rather than the idea that you’re treating a patient with a medical diagnosis. It’s why I chose the profession in the first place. You’re treating the mind, body and spirit, and I try to focus on that every time I have a patient interaction.”

The New Windsor resident knew nursing was her calling by the time she was in high school.

Binghamton University was the first school out of the 30 that she visited. “It was the gold standard for all of the other visits going forward,” she says. “I fell in love with the campus and the welcome I got from the nursing program advisors. Without a doubt, I know I made the right decision. It’s one of the best in the state and as a New York resident, it’s a great value.”

When Vilda graduates from the Decker School of Nursing this spring, she will also leave behind a legacy of mentorship, professional development and networking that will help future students pursue healthcare careers.

The Nursing Student Association, like so many organizations on campus, had to limit traditional social gatherings this school year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, Vilda saw it as an opportunity to encourage her peers to develop relationships with older classmates and alumni so they might feel better prepared applying for externships or future jobs.

As the outgoing president of the NSA, Vilda oversaw the creation of a professional development chair position. She also designed a series of networking and mentoring events, including a collaboration with the Fleishman Center for Career and Professional Development for nursing-specific workshops on resume-writing and LinkedIn. There was also a summer job/externship event where seniors shared their experiences with younger students and an alumni week that featured a virtual panel discussion.

“Alyssa takes pride in serving as a role model to current and future nursing students, and her leadership is valued and respected,” says Sara Wozniak, senior assistant dean for the Decker College of Nursing and Health Sciences. “She is passionate, outgoing, reliable and has an amazing ability to bring people together.”

Gabriella Quartuccia won a $1,000 Theodore Roosevelt Memorial Fund research grant for her project, “Genomic variation in a species complex of ecologically important ants.”

The seed money supports researchers focused on wildlife conservation or related fields of North American fauna. Quartuccia will use the funding to support her dissertation fieldwork this summer, when she plans to collect five worker ants from 30 different colonies in 10 northeastern deciduous forests.

She studies population-level genetic variation in the lab of Thomas Powell, assistant professor of biology. His research focuses on understanding the origin and maintenance of biodiversity — specifically plant-feeding insects and how environmental changes affect evolutionary responses leading to speciation, the evolutionary process where populations evolve to become distinct species, and adaptation.

“One of the things that Gabby is doing well as an innovative young researcher and biologist is blurring the lines between biological processes at ecological and evolutionary scales,” Powell says. “Gabby’s dissertation work is moving us towards a more nuanced understanding of how new species form and how newly formed diversity plays out in ecosystems.”

Quartuccia was a natural fit for Powell’s lab based on her experience and interests in evolutionary genetics and speciation biology. As an undergraduate student at the University at Buffalo, she examined the evolution of brown, black and polar bears using computer modeling. After graduating with a biological sciences degree in 2016, she worked as a veterinary assistant and research technician in a cardiometabolic genomics lab.

Researching ants was not on Quartuccia’s radar until she joined Powell’s lab. Several wildflower seed-dispersing ants in the genus Aphaenogaster are closely related genetically and so similar in appearance that the boundaries between “species” are often unclear. These ants are responsible for up to 74% of ant-mediated seed dispersal events in the northeastern United States, which means they help shape ecological outcomes of deciduous forests. Add in climate change, deforestation and other human interference, and there are a lot of potential reasons why these ants may be in a state of “incomplete speciation.”

“They were a system that Tom had known about and had questions about in the back of his mind, and so he posed the system to me,” Quartuccia says. “I ran with it because it hits all of the things that I’m interested in. It just kind of fell into my lap, and I’ve grown to love working with ants.”

The Manhattan native had not conducted any fieldwork before she arrived at Binghamton three years ago. Her first day in the field came with a tick bite and a steep learning curve.

“She is a city girl at heart and had some initial trepidation about going out in the woods, but now she’s doing all this ant research by herself in state forests several hours away,” Powell says. “She’s really grown as a natural historian and field biologist, and is doing an amazing job.”

Quartuccia is not sure yet whether she wants to focus on research, teaching or both once she completes her degree, but she does know that she wants to work somewhere she can inspire the next generation of scientists, especially women.

“I wish I had had that exposure when I lived in the city,” she says.