Researchers of the Month
May 2019
Here are just some of the graduating seniors we will miss. ... We wish them all well with their future endeavors and pursuits!
Ononnah Ahmed - Biology major - Mentor: Dr. David Q. Matus, Biochemistry & Cell Biology
Kevin Catalan -Biology major - Mentor: Dr. J. Peter Gergen, Biochemistry & Cell Biology, Director
of Undergraduate Biology
Hung-Wei Bernie Chen - Psychology major - Mentor: Dr. Nicholas Eaton, Dr. Johanna Jarcho, Dr. Aprajita
Mohanty, Psychology; Dr. Jared Van Snellenberg, Psychiatry
Rohan Hofland - Biology, and Applied Mathematics and Statistics majors - Mentors: Dr. David Talmage,
Pharmacological Sciences; Dr. Lorna Role, Neurobiology
Pauline Huang - Chemistry major - Mentor: Dr. Tim Q. Duong, Radiology
Thomas Jaworski - Psychology major - Mentor: Dr. Eva Nagase, Asian and Asian American Studies; Dr.
Marci Lobel, Dr. Patricia Whitaker, Psychology
Ryan Kawalerski - Applied Math and Statistics, and Biochemistry majors - Mentors: Dr. Kenneth Shroyer,
Dr. Luisa F. Escobar-Hoyos, Pathology; Dr. Richard Moffitt, Biomedical Informatics
Andrea Londono - Physics major - Mentor: Dr. Eden Figueroa, Physics & Astronomy
Amal Lukose - Applied Math and Statistics, and Business Management (Finance) majors - Mentor: Dr.
Herbert Lewis, College of Business
Tyler Palmieri - History major - Mentor: Dr. Nancy Tomes, History
Rideeta Raquib - Biology major - Mentor: Dr. Lina Obeid, Medicine
Eric Rizzo - Chemistry major - Mentor: Dr. Ming-yu Ngai, Chemistry
Anastasiya Suratova - Civil Engineering major - Mentor: Dr. Frank Russo, NYS Center for Clean Water Technology;
Civil Engineering
Anna Zavodszky - Biology and Anthropology majors - Mentor: Dr. Gabrielle Russo, Anthropology
Ononnah Ahmed is a senior Biology major and Chemistry minor who plans to apply to medical school programs after a gap year of research. Under the mentorship of Dr. David Matus and Dr. Rebecca Adikes, her research is
focused on the cytoskeleton and mechanisms that control the migration and protrusive
behavior of sex myoblast (SM) cells in C. elegans. Ononnah currently investigates actin-rich protrusions and its relationship to the
SM cell’s positioning and membrane dynamics—linking the role of the cytoskeleton to
the proper uterine and vulva muscle cell formation. Her senior thesis focuses on identifying
the underlying mechanisms of sex myoblast migration to better understand the bigger
picture in other contexts, such as cancer metastasis. She has presented at the North
Eastern Society of Developmental Biology Conference; and the URECA symposium. In addition
, Ononnah is a student leader on campus, working as a Commuter Assistant for two years
and an integral member of the E-board for Bengalis Unite.
Kevin Catalan is a senior Biology major and an undergraduate researcher working with Dr. J. Peter
Gergen in the Department of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, and a participant in the
NIH-fundeded IMSD-MERGE program. His project is based on the mechanism of Runt-dependent
repression of cis-regulatory enhancers of the sloppy-paired-1 (slp1) gene. The slp1
proximal and distal early stripe elements (PESE and DESE) interact in a non-additive
manner to mediate regulation by Runt and other pair-rule transcription factors. He
is currently focusing on detecting similar use of dominant interference between the
PESE and DESE enhancers and an enhancer from the short-gastrulation (sog) gene that
is not thought to be regulated by pair-rule transcription factors. Kevin is interested
in the impact of disease and genetic mutations on embryonic development and how those
studies can be translated to humans. He has presented at the Annual Biomedical Research
Conference for Minority Students, as well as the annual URECA symposium; has served
as an INSPIRE (Include New Students through Peer Introduction to Research Experience)
peer mentor, and is the recipient of an Undergraduate Recognition Award for Leadership.
Kevin plans to pursue a PhD in Cellular and Molecular Biology at Johns Hopkins University
in the fall of 2019 and later go into industry or research.
Hung-Wei Bernie Chen is a Psychology major in the Psychology Honors Program, and is Chapter President
of Psi Chi, the International Honor Society in Psychology. His research training has
been influenced by Dr. Johanna Jarcho, Dr. Nicholas Eaton, Dr. Aprajita Mohanty, and
Dr. Jared Van Snellenberg . His honor’s project relates to identifying risk-factors
for perpetration and victimization of bullying. His main research interests involve
utilizing neuroimaging techniques to understand the developing adolescent brain and
the neural mechanisms of cognition underlying psychopathology. Bernie was awarded
a summer research fellowship from New York University Steinhardt, Department of Applied
Psychology, where he studied the adultification of young Black girls in the juvenile
justice system. His research has been presented in numerous conferences, including
the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology (ACNP), the Social & Affective Neuroscience
Society (SANS), the Flux Congress, the Association for Psychological Science (APS),
the Society for Personality and Social Psychology (SPSP), and the URECA symposium;
and he has received travel awards from the URECA and the SPSP. Bernie is also an activist
who promotes the health and wellness of Stony Brook students as a CHILL Peer Health
Educator and an Event Coordinator at the Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS).
He is a recipient of the 2019 Provost Award for Academic Excellence as well as the
Undergraduate Recognition Award for Academic Excellence. He will be pursuing his PhD
in Clinical Psychology at University of Delaware, Newark in Fall 2019.
Rohan Hofland is a Biology and AMS double major who started doing research the spring of his sophomore
year under the mentorship of Dr. Ashleigh Lussenden in the lab of professors David
Talmage and Lorna Role. He was a recipient of the 2018 URECA summer research award,
and presented his research at the URECA Research Symposium in April of 2019. His project,
titled “Type III Neuregulin 1’s Role in the Regulation of Neuronal Development in
the Cortex” is focused on the role of a gene whose mutation is strongly associated
with an increased likelihood of developing schizophrenia and how it works to foster
growth in the brain. He hopes that insights into how this gene functions can help
create novel therapies for treating patients with schizophrenia in the future. After
graduation, he is planning on attending an MD/PhD dual degree program. When he is
not in the lab, Rohan can be found teaching either math or emergency medicine. He
loves to dedicate his time to tutoring students in introductory math courses as a
lead tutor with the SBU ASTC. As the head training officer with the Stony Brook Volunteer
Ambulance Corps this semester and a dedicated member of the SBVAC instructional staff
for 3 years, he has had a hand in training over 50 EMS providers the ins and outs
of emergency medicine. When he has a moment to himself, he likes to unwind by playing
tenor saxophone with the Spirit of Stony Brook Marching Band. After graduation, he
will be attending the Albert Einstein College of Medicine to pursue his MD/PhD.
Pauline Huang is a Chemistry major with a minor in Biology from Queens. After taking part in the
Nuclear Chemistry Summer School program at Brookhaven National Lab in the summer of
her sophomore year, she developed an interest in radiology and oncology. Following
this, she joined Dr Tim Duong's lab and began working on projects related to multiple
sclerosis and breast cancer imaging. The latter grew into a large project that she
worked on into the following year. She presented her project "MRI staging of axillary
lymph nodes in breast cancer" at the 2018 URECA Research Symposium and her work will
also be featured at the International Society of Magnetic Resonance for Medicine's
annual conference later that year. She is very excited about imaging science and believes
that it can replace more invasive methods of medical testing. Outside of research,
Pauline is a TA for the Molecular Science sequence as well as Physical Chemistry 1.
She is also a member of ITS Fellows, a geriatric intern at Stony Brook Primary Care,
and a volunteer EMT at Port Jefferson EMS. After graduation Pauline plans to work
as a TA for her nuclear chemistry class and take a gap year before applying to medical
school.
Thomas Jaworski is a Psychology major with a minor in Japanese Studies. He has conducted research
in Dr. Marci Lobel’s Stress and Reproductive Psychology Lab, focusing on psychometric
coding of peer-reviewed and scholarly articles that utilize pregnancy-specific stress questionnaires
to analyze statistical validity of antenatal stress and its correlation with various behavioral
and birth outcomes. Thomas has also worked in Dr. Patricia Whitaker’s Integrative Neuroscience
research lab, where he helped conduct a study in which rats were administered paroxetine
(Paxil), a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor, during pregnancy, to look for subsequent
behavioral changes in their offspring that coincide with behaviors of autism. For
his minor thesis, Thomas collaborated with Professor Eva Nagase on a research project
that highlighted textual discrepancies between a Japanese novel, Ningen Shikkaku,
and its English counterpart, No Longer Human, to illustrate the various linguistic,
cultural, and philosophical nuances that exist between Japanese and American English.
The research for his minor thesis focused on the analysis of translation theories,
such as the Skopos Theory of Translation, to understand why nuances between two languages
exist. Thomas is currently co-authored on various poster publications for his psychological
research that has been presented at conferences such as the American Psychological
Association Annual Convention and the Society of Behavioral Medicine Annual Convention.
In fall 2019, Thomas will be attending New York University for his Master’s in Clinical
Neuroscience.
Ryan Kawalerski is a member of the Honors College dual-majoring in Applied Math & Statistics and
Biochemistry. For the past two years, he has worked with Drs. Kenneth Shroyer and
Luisa Escobar-Hoyos in Pathology to understand therapeutic vulnerabilities of the
oncogenic mechanism of Keratin 17 protein in pancreatic cancer. Concurrently, he has
been working with Dr. Richard Moffitt in Biomedical Informatics to validate a pancreatic
tumor subtype classification method in addition to contributing to the development
of a gene expression analysis user interface to facilitate investigation of large
transcriptomic datasets. He has presented his work at national conferences, including
the 2018 American Association of Cancer Research Pancreatic Cancer Special Conference
and the 2019 Experimental Biology Conference. Ryan was named a Goldwater Scholar in
2018 and received the 2019 Sigma Xi Stony Brook Chapter Undergraduate Research Award.
His summer research experiences have been supported by the PSEG Explorations in STEM,
URECA-Biology Alumni Research, and URECA-Chhabra awards. Ryan was also recently honored
with the SUNY Chancellor’s Award and will be attending The Johns Hopkins University
School of Medicine next year as a member of the MSTP program.
Andrea Londono is a Physics major with a specialization in Optics. Andrea has been working with
Dr. Eden Figueroa on projects relating to quantum information technology since sophomore
year. She presented her work on free-space quantum communication -- which was supported
in the last year through the LSAMP NASA space grant--.both in the summer 2018 URECA
symposium and the spring 2019 URECA symposium. Andrea is also an active member of
the Society of Physics students at Stony Brook. After graduation, she will be pursuing
her PhD at the University of Michigan in Applied Physics.
Tyler Palmieri is a History major and Philosophy minor who transferred to Stony Brook in fall 2017. He is a member of the Stony Brook Campus Community Emergency Response Team and Phi Alpha Theta, the history honor society. His research, overseen by mentor Dr. Nancy Tomes, focuses on a specific instance of domestic bio-terrorism which saw a group of spiritualists known as the Rajneeshees poison 751 people in Oregon with the bacteria Salmonella. His paper, titled "The Opera of Rajneeshpuram: A Curious Tale of Domestic Terrorism", was presented at the URECA symposium and looks to offer a new chronology under which to examine the modern history of terrorism and bio-terrorism in the United States. Following graduation Tyler intends to apply for law school to one day work as a family lawyer.
Rideeta Raquib is a senior, majoring in Biology and plans to pursue an MD/PhD in pediatric oncology.
She is the vice president of community service for the National Society of Collegiate
Scholars, a writer for the Stony Brook Young Investigators Review, an e-board member
for the Synthetic Biology Society, and holds the title of Science and Society (SSO)
Forever Fellow. She participated in International Genetically Engineered Machine (iGEM),
a synthetic biology research competition during the spring semester of her sophomore
year and throughout junior year. Currently, she is working in Dr. Lina Obeid’s lab
at Stony Brook Medicine and doing research on the sphingolipid pathway, where ceramide
is in the center and plays a role in activating effectors of programmed cell death.
Rideeta is a part of the Increasing Diversity in Undergraduate Cancer Biology Education
and Research (INDUCER) research fellowship. She presented at the Spring 2018 and 2019
URECA research symposiums, Annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minority Students
(ABRCMS), Gloria and Mark Snyder Cancer Symposium, and the SUNY Undergraduate Research
Conference. She is one the three recipients of the Sigma Xi Undergraduate Research
Award; and a recipient of the Provost Award for Academic Excellence.
Eric Rizzo is a Chemistry major and a member of the Honors College at Stony Brook University.
He has been doing research in organic chemistry with Dr. Ming-Yu Ngai for the past
two years. He has worked primarily on two projects during his time in Dr. Ngai’s lab.
The first project was on developing conditions for the β-selective aroylation of activated alkenes by photoredox catalysis. For his work on
this project, he is currently a coauthor on one peer-reviewed publication in Angewandte
Chemie International Edition. The second project was developing novel chiral catalysts
for asymmetric visible-light photocatalytic reactions. He received the ACS Division
of Organic Chemistry Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship last summer for this
work, and he presented his results to chemists and peers at Pfizer’s Groton, CT research
campus. Eric will be presenting his research at both the Honors College and chemistry
department senior research symposia. Eric is a three-time recipient of the Academic
Achievement Award that honors students with a 4.0 semester GPA and a recipient of
the Undergraduate Recognition Award for Academic Excellence. After graduating, Eric
plans on taking a gap year before applying to medical school.
Anastasiya Suratova is an international student from Belarus, majoring in Civil Engineering major, and
is a member of Women in Science and Engineering program. She and her team (including
Yanicel Fragoso Ramirez, Joseph Lubrano, Erlik Rodrigues, Alassane Thera) worked
closely with Anthony Tarantino from Reilly Tarantino Engineering, and presented their
CEAS Senior Design project, "Brooklyn Multi-Story Residential Building" at the URECA
symposium - both as a poster, and a talk for the CEAS Engineering Senior Design presentations.
Over the summer Anastasiya interned at a construction company where she got to see
how an 11 story residential building was being built. Her career goal is to be a Project
Manager, and had the opportunity to serve in this role for her senior design project.
After graduation Anastasiya plans to work at a construction company in the city.
Anna Zavodszky is a Biology and Anthropology double major and a member of the Honors College. She
first became interested in the field of biological anthropology after taking an introductory
course with Dr. Gabrielle Russo in her freshman year. Since then, she has been working
in Dr. Russo’s functional morphology laboratory for the past three years. Here, she
is completing a project studying the functional morphology of chevron bones in mammals.
She gave poster presentations of this project at both the 2019 URECA symposium and
the 2019 American Association of Physical Anthropologists conference. During the summers,
Anna has completed research at the University at Albany in the developmental biology
lab of Dr. Melinda Larsen studying the processes that regulate branching morphogenesis
in the salivary gland. After graduation, Anna plans on taking a gap year and subsequently
attending graduate school to pursue research in epidemiology.
Karen. How has doing research prepared you for your future career?
Bernie. Research experience is considered highly desirable across all career options. It
provides the training to be analytic and impartial – always let data narrate the story.
For example, as a future clinical psychologist, research has not only aided in my
understanding of brain functions but allowed me to rigorously examine clinical phenomena.
It enables me to ultimately develop the direction in treatments of mental disorders
to prevent or ameliorate the distress of psychiatric patients.
Rideeta. Research has helped me view the world in a new light. In the classroom, we learn
facts and how certain proteins or drugs have been discovered. We learn the techniques
that have been used to come up with these novel findings from textbooks, but conducting
these techniques provide a more comprehensive understanding of the time and effort
necessary to achieve that discovery. I wish to pursue an MD-PhD, hence research has
equipped me with the critical thinking skills necessary to continue independent research
as a PhD student. In terms of medicine, research has taught me the underpinnings of
how therapeutics arise in the first place before being administered to the patient.
Ryan. Above all, the opportunities I have had at Stony Brook have allowed me to further
develop the proper temperament to both succeed in and remain commitment to my research
work, especially in times of difficulty. Beyond gaining the skillset necessary to
be able to contribute meaningful work to science and medicine, these personal gains
have contributed greatly to my confidence as a future physician-scientist.
Karen. What's your favorite aspect of doing research?
Eric. I enjoy doing research because I am able to apply all of the concepts and theories that
I learned in my classes. Things that seem complicated in the classroom can turn out
to be quite simple when you encounter them in the lab and see their real-life applications.
Overall, I have learned so much more about chemistry and have developed a deeper appreciation
and understanding for the subject by performing research and working closely with
my mentor.
Amal. My favorite part of doing research is practical application of the skills and knowledge
that I picked up in class. The one on one time with my advisor has also made a huge
difference. The guidance and critique received during these meetings have made a significant
difference in improving my skills with Excel and VBA. I believe that this will be
very beneficial to my career.
Anastasiya. In classes we get to learn bits of everything and the theory behind things like
soil, steel and concrete. The best part of my project was putting the knowledge from
different classes together into one thing, being able to apply all the theory to a
real life situation and understand why and how it works. It is the best way to see
how much you've grown intellectually.
Ononnah. Once I joined the Matus Lab, I became part of a team. Aside from the joy of obtaining
significant results, being able to interact and learn from the other talented researchers
is just as rewarding. I have grown so much since joining this lab and would highly
encourage others to seek out these opportunities. I am constantly learning something
new each day and would like to thank everyone in the Matus Lab for making this experience
one I will never forget.
Tyler. My favorite aspect of research would definitely be sharing it with others. Working
on a research project requires quite a bit of time, effort, and dedication but once
its finished there is nothing better than sharing your hard work with your peers,
family, or just other like-minded intellectuals!
Rohan. My favorite aspect is watching multiple weeks worth of planning and execution pan out
into beautiful images under the microscope and subsequent data.
Karen. How did being involved in research enhance your education?
Kevin. By becoming involved in research, I began to grasp both the depth and breadth of applying
laboratory techniques and course-related knowledge towards my project. I became adept
at communicating my field of understanding and interweaving it with that of my peers’
to enhance my experience with the sciences. From this, I have become fascinated in
pursuing a PhD degree in cellular and molecular biology.
Karen. Describe what you've learned from your interactions with your mentor and colleagues in your lab.
Pauline. I work in an interdisciplinary lab and I think that's what makes my work enjoyable.
I work with doctors, engineers, and scientists to tackle problems from different angles. Though
interacting with people who are more knowledgeable and experienced than me was intimidating
at first, I find that it's improved my critical thinking skills and taught me how
to ask meaningful questions. In research, this skill is especially important because
it helps you plan a good project and communicate effectively. My research mentor Dr.
Tim Duong has always been supportive and helped me brainstorm ideas for projects. Some
ideas seem crazy at first but remember to stay open-minded and just go for it because
you don't know what you'll find. He's also great at editing papers and taught me how
to write academically. My colleagues in lab have helped me along as well by supplying
me with necessary skills, experience, and expertise. I would be so lost without them.
Karen. What advice about research do you have for other undergrads?
Andrea. My advice is to try to join a research group as soon as possible! It doesn’t matter
if you don’t have any previous experience... Professors will be interested in students
who are interested in their research and willing to put in the effort to work with
them. There are so many Stony Brook faculty doing research, so you are bound to find
someone who works on something you are interested in ...
Anna. Even if you don’t think you’ll like research, give it a try! There’s so many types and fields of research out there, you’re bound to find a topic that interests you and motivates you to learn and discover more. Finding a lab environment that is a good fit for you is also very important, and it’s ok if that takes a little while to find. Explore and see what’s out there, if there’s something you want to study there’s probably someone doing it! Finally, don’t be scared that you’re inexperienced or unqualified. What’s most important is that you’re enthusiastic and willing to learn.