Celebrating Research Week—Student Presenters and Past Winners
2026 Student Presenter Schedule
TBA
2025 Celebrating Research Week
Symposium Schedule and Winners
The Speakers Symposium sessions was held on Friday, April 4, 2025 and consisted of four sessions, as below. Each speaker gave a 10-minute presentation with 5 minutes of Q&A immediately following.
Natural Science 10-11:30 a.m.
- Alexander Cikanek
- Kelechi Ejiofor
- Jackson Gerew
- Miriam Herron (President's Award winner)
- Anna Roy
- Grace Widjaja (Deans' Award winner)
Engineering and Math Noon-1:30 p.m.
- Faizah Ahmmed (Deans' Award winner)
- Rachele Bachmann
- Nicole Cassara
- John Nguyen
- Kelvin Nguyen and Nathaniel Shaffer
- Stephanie Wang (President's Award winner)
Humanities 2-3:30 p.m.
- Leanna Birsner
- Guy Emrich
- Alayna Leestma
- Carmen Marshall (President's Award winner)
- George Mechalke (Deans' Award winner)
Social Science 4-5:30 p.m.
- Jacky Chen
- Albenys Diaz Hernandez
- Kendal Jordan
- Giselle Nestepny
- Isabella Rocha (Deans' Award winner)
- Navya Soogoor (President's Award winner)
2025 Lightning Talks
Wednesday, April 9, 2025, 5-7 p.m., Feldman Ballroom
FIRST PLACE WINNER: Hana Zhang
Health, Behavior, and Society
SECOND PLACE WINNER: Grace Widjaja
Biochemistry and Music
THIRD PLACE WINNER: Helene Miao
Psychology and Biology
PEOPLE'S CHOICE WINNER: Doreen Prempeh
Dance Studies and American Sign Language
Lightning Talk 2025 Presenters:
- Leah Tang - Molecular Genetics
- Giselle Nestepny - Psychology
- John Nguyen and Sree Chatterjee - Financial Economics and Mathematics; Computational Biology and Data Science
- Cadence Chan - Anthropology
- Miriam Herron - Geological Sciences
- Maveline Nguyen - Molecular Genetics
- Alexander Cikanek - Chemistry
- Carmen Marshall - Environmental Studies
- Claire Wilcox-Black - Classics
- Navya Koganti - Computational Biology
- Zhi (Monica) Qu - Computational Biology and Business
- Aidan Craner - Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
- Diana Sullivan - Chemical Engineering
- Claire Syverson - International Relations
Students may apply to present a Lightning Talk on their research. Presentations should be geared toward a lay audience. This competition will help hone research communication skills.
Rules:
- Presentations may be no longer than 3:00 minutes. A timer will be used, and presenters will get 1:00 minute, :30 second, and :15 second warnings.
- Only a single, static slide is permitted. No slide transitions or animations of any kind are allowed.
- No additional props are allowed.
- Presentations begin once the presenter starts talking.
A maximum of twenty students will be selected to give lightning talks. Judges will award a first prize, and audience members will select a “Viewers’ Choice” award. Awards will be presented immediately after the presentations. Each award will be a $100 Amazon gift card. While our competition is not a formal 3MT competition, students may find it helpful to view some of the resources that the University of Queensland provides:
- Tips on developing your slide
- Tips on putting together your presentation
- Videos of past finalists from 3MT competitions
2025 Poster Expo
The Poster Expo took place in the Feldman Ballroom in Douglass Commons from 1–3 p.m. on Friday, April 11, 2025.
The Poster Presentation Expo serves as a place for all undergraduate students who have conducted research in the last year to present their findings to the University community and beyond. See Printing Resources below for details and poster specifications.
2025 Awards Ceremony
The following Celebrating Research Awards were presented after the Poster Fair:
- President's Award: Awarded to the top oral presentation from each of the four disciplinary areas of the Speakers Symposium
- Natural Sciences: Miriam Herron '27 | Geological Sciences
- Engineering and Math: Stephanie Wang '25 | Honors Mathematics
- Humanities: Carmen Marshall '25 | Environmental Studies
- Social Sciences: Navya Soogoor '25 | Neuroscience, Psychology
- Deans' Award: Awarded to the second-place oral presentation from each of the four disciplinary areas of the Speakers Symposium
- Natural Sciences: Grace Widjaja '26 | Biochemistry, Music
- Engineering and Math: Faizah Ahmmed '25 | Engineering Science
- Humanities: George Mechalke '25 | Dance Studies
- Social Sciences: Isabella Rocha '25 | Political Science, Economics
- Professors' Choice Award: Awarded to ten students participating in the Poster Fair, two from each of the disciplinary areas
- Life Sciences
- 1st Place: Abby Eckert '25 | Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Environmental Studies
- 2nd Place: Laura Houle '26 | Neuroscience and Jasmine Cousin '26 | Neuroscience
- Physical Sciences
- 1st Place: Matthew Gleason '26 | Chemistry
- 2nd Place: Zechen Liu '26 | Physics and Astronomy
- Engineering and Math
- 1st Place: Hannah Rickert '25 | Biomedical Engineering
- 2nd Place: Allie Tay '25 | Biomedical Engineering
- Humanities
- 1st Place: Dina Garber '26 | Computational Biology
- 2nd Place: Leanna Birsner '25 | Neuroscience, Dance Studies
- Social Sciences
- 1st Place tie: Quinn Kubistek '25 | Creative Writing, Linguistics
- 1st Place tie: Abigail Pearlman '25 | Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Psychology
- Life Sciences
In addition, the Students' Association presented their Professor of the Year Awards.