2019 Texas Stem Conference Award Winners

Twelve awards were distributed at Lamar University’s Seventh Annual Texas STEM conference, held on Nov. 2, 2019.

Students from Lamar University, the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley and Louisiana Tech University presented 46 presentations - 18 talks and 28 posters.

First, second and third place awards were given to both graduate and undergraduate students for best oral presentation and best poster presentation. Awards went to:  

Undergraduate Oral Awards:

First place:  Kyle Delk, Biology, Lamar University, 2019 Presidential Fellow
Topic: “Effects of Vitamin D on Human Meibomian Gland Epithelial Cells”
Co-Author: Carolina Lema, University of Houston
Mentor: Rachel Redfern, University of Houston, College of Optometry, The Ocular Surface Institute

Second place: Katherine Harmon, Biology, Lamar University
Topic: “siRNA Silencing of VPS32 in Tritrichomonas foetus”
Co-Authors: Peter Connolly, Guadalupe Cisneros, Diana Dang, Khushi Malani, Emily McCall, and Duy Vo
Mentor: Dr. Ashwini Kucknoor, Department of Biology, Lamar University

Third place: Matthew Johnson, Physics, Major in Electrical Engineering, Lamar University
Topic: “A Study of Current Data on Fast Radio Bursts. “
Mentor: Dr. Cengiz Sen, Department of Physics, Lamar University

Undergraduate Poster Awards:

First place:  Emily Ingram, Chemistry and Biochemistry, Lamar University
Topic: “Analysis of the Catalyst Effect on Bulk Ammonia Borane-Polyethylene Oxide Hydrogen Storage Composites”
Co-Authors: Caitlyn Clark, Krishna Karel, Riqiang Fu and Dr. Ozge Gunaydin-Sen
Mentor: Dr. Ozge Gunaydin-Sen, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Lamar University

Second place: Donna Fleming, Chemistry and Biochemistry, Lamar University
Topic: “Theoretical Calculations of Epoxyketene to Lactone Thermal Rearrangement Transition States and Kinetics”
Mentor: Dr. Christopher B. Martin, Department of Chemistry and Bio-chemistry, Lamar University

Third place:  Kyleigh Dixon, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Lamar University
Topic: “Development of an Algal-based Landfill Leachate Treatment System”
Mentor: Dr. Thinesh Selvaratnam, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Lamar University

Graduate Oral Awards:

First place:  Mukunda Khanal, Mechanical Engineering, Lamar University
Topic: “An Analysis of Baking Schedules for Highly Moisture Sensitive Electronic Components”
Mentors: Dr.  Xuejun Fan and Dr. Jenny Zhou, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Lamar University

Second place:  Divine Sebastian, Mechanical Engineering, Lamar University
Topic: “Multiscale investigation of corrosion on super-hydrophobic aluminum alloy using electrochemical techniques and in-situ AFM”
Mentor: Dr. Chun-Wei Yao / Department of Mechanical Engineering / Lamar University

Third place: Ashiqur Rahman, Ph.D. candidate in Chemical Engineering, Lamar University
Topic: “Biosynthetic Conversion of Ag+ to Colloidally Stable Ag0 nanoparticles by Chlamydomonas
Reinhardtii: A Mechanistic View of the Light-Induced, Extracellular Polymeric Substances-Mediated Synthesis Process”
Co-authors: Shishir Kumar, Adarsh Bafana and Julia Lin, Nanobiomaterials and Bioprocessing Laboratory (NABLAB), Dan F. Smith Department of Chemical Engineering, Lamar University; Si Amar Dahoumane, School of Biological Sciences and Engineering, Yachay Tech University,Hacienda San José s/n, San Miguel de Urcuquí 100119, Ecuador; 
Mentor: Clayton Jeffryes, Nanobiomaterials and Bioprocessing Laboratory (NABLAB), Dan F. Smith Department of Chemical Engineering, Lamar University and Center for Advances in Water & Air Quality, Lamar University

Graduate Poster Awards:

First place:  Seyedsaeid Hosseini, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Lamar University
Topic: “Influence of Pulverized Bottom Ash on Nano-Mechanical Properties of Interfacial Transition Zone and Bulk Matrix”
Mentor: Dr. Nicholas A. Brake, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Lamar University

Second place: Shanglei Pan, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Lamar University
Topic: “Evaluation of a thermo-tolerant acidophilic alga, Galdieria sulphuraria, for landfill leachate treatment”
Mentor: Dr. Thinesh Selvaratnam, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Lamar University

Third place:  Anton Gribovskiy, Physics, Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Texas Rio Grande Valley
Topic: “RF Spectroscopy with Nonlinear Si Integrated Microring Resonators”
Mentor: Dr. Malik Rakhmanov, Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Texas Rio Grande Valley