During this year’s annual Undergraduate Research Day on April 17, undergraduate candidates nominated by faculty research advisors for the Office of Undergraduate Research’s inaugural Excellence in Research Awards (ERAs) were evaluated by a diverse group of UMD community members, including faculty and staff. The final award selection was determined by students’ meaningful engagement in their research disciplines, exhibiting resilience, creativity & creative problem-solving, and excelling in cross-field research communication.
The following Honors students were among this year’s ERA awardees.
College of Agriculture & Natural Resources
- Animal Sciences: Ying-Rong (Megan) Liu (’25, ILS) (Defining how two avian dsRNA viruses affect lipid droplet formation in vitro)
- Plant Sciences: Dalia Chen UH (’24, UH) (The effect of temperature on a plant fungal pathogen.)
College of Computer, Mathematical & Natural Sciences
- Chemistry: Shannon Ganley (’24, GEMS) (Cavity Ringdown Spectroscopy System Design for Astrochemical Applications)
A. James Clark School of Engineering
- Aerospace: Nathan Roy (’25, GEMS) (Affordable Natural Disaster Relief Robotics (ANDRR))
- Bioengineering: Udit Gupta (’24, ILS) (The impact of matrix stiffness on brain endothelial cell-cell junction stiffness)
- Bioengineering: Anushka Poddar (’27, UH) (Advanced Single Cell and Bacteria Tracking in Host-Pathogen Interactions)
- Fire Protection: Nicholas Mertz (’25, UH) (Creation of Cool Diffusion Flames on Earth and their Applications)
Photo credit: Tiffany Fowler.
