2017-18 WYOMING RESEARCH SCHOLARS

Hanna Ahuja

Hometown: Rock Springs, WY

Major: Physiology

Hanna is a UW senior and a transfer student from Western Wyoming Community College. She is also an INBRE transition fellow.

Nathan Barrus

Hometown: Worland, WY

Major: Zoology

Nathan is a UW senior and is working with Dr. Frank Rahel (Zoology and Physiology) on a project involving identifying appropriate taxa as baselines for stable isotope ecology in aquatic systems.

Rebecca Brenner

Hometown: Harrisburg, NE

Major: Physiology; Molecular Biology

Rebecca is a UW senior and is working with Dr. Zhaojie Zhang (Zoology & Physiology) on a project exploring the colony development of budding yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae). Specifically, she studies the possible function of N-Acetylgalactosamine, which is necessary for intercellular communication, and is concentrated in sensory nerve structures in humans, in the formation and possible protection of yeast colonies. She employs sophisticated, high-resolution microscopic imaging techniques for this study. Her research could influence our understanding of yeast and how we might use yeast to study the perineuronal net within the human brain. 

Bradon Bryngelson

Hometown: Gillette, WY

Major: Astronomy & Astrophysics

Bradon is a UW sophomore.

Amanda Christensen

Hometown: Buford, WY

Major: Chemical Engineering

Amanda is a UW junior working with Dr. Amy Navratil (Zoology & Physiology) to determine the role of the reproductive hormone prolactin on milk production by looking at the changes it causes in mammary proteins. She is focusing on histone proteins that alter gene expression and ultimately the proteins produced in the milk, and architectural proteins of the mammary gland.

Olivia Croft

Hometown: Sundance, WY

Major: Secondary Education--Biology and Earth Sciences

Olivia is a UW senior researching with Dr. Amy Krist (Zoology and Physiology); her research is centered around the interactions between parasites and the freshwater snail Pyrgulopsis idahoensis, in Polecat Creek in Grand Teton National Park. More specifically, Olivia is interested in how snail behavior in a temperature gradient may influence their infection rate by trematode parasites. Through this research, she hopes to better understand how climate change may influence parasitism of snails and thus the greater freshwater ecosystem.

Emma Dixon

Hometown: Lawrence, KS

Major: Environmental Systems Science

Emma is a UW freshman who is working with Dr. Ramesh Sivanpillai (Botany and WyGISC).  They are analyzing peer-reviewed articles about the human-elephant conflict found near Coimbatore, India to create a synthesis article on the subject. She hopes to travel to India to conduct her own research on human-elephant conflict by interviewing famers and other citizens affected by this issue.

Logan Eicholzer

Hometown: Liverpool, NY

Major: Environmental Systems Science; Environment & Natural Resources

Logan is a UW senior and is working with Dr. Ramesh Sivanpillai (Botany and WyGISC) on mapping WY water bodies using satellite images.

Sydnie Fossberg

Hometown: Las Cruces, NM

Major: Biology

Sydnie is a UW sophomore and is working with Dr. Matthew Carling (Zoology & Physiology) to study the health of hybrid birds in the Great Plains area, specifically indigo and lazuli buntings. Isotopic analysis and physical evaluation is being used to determine how effectively the birds are able to devote energy to growth and physical maintenance. She is also observing the birds' behavior around molting and migration seasons to see if their hybrid nature is causing them to molt irregularly or migrate in a different direction than either parent species.

Olivia Glassock

Hometown: Buffalo, WY

Major: Kinesiology

Olivia is a UW sophomore who is working with Dr. Guanglong He (School of Pharmacy). Understanding that obesity causes adverse effects on the cardiovascular system, their lab is utilizing mice to understand whether knocking out certain proteins that code for the inflammation reaction in the cardiovascular system cause beneficial or detrimental effects to the mice. 

Avery Hanks

Hometown: Wheatland, WY

Major: Physiology

Avery is a UW junior who is working with Dr. Kara Pratt (Zoology & Physiology) studying the behavior and biology of the Xenopus tadpole. She is currently using a cryostat to see cross-sections of the Xenopus brain.  This technique is used to establish gradients and observe protein expression in general.

Grace Hartman

Hometown: Newtown, PA

Major: Environmental Systems Science

Grace is a UW senior who is working with Dr. David Williams (Botany). She is interested in glacial recession research and her study area is located in the Dinwoody Cirque of the Fitzpatrick Wilderness. She collects and filters snow samples from surrounding snowfields and glaciers for black carbon particulate analysis (Light Absorbing Heat Method).  She is also looking into the relationship of lichen growth on cacti relative to fog proximity found in the Atacama Desert of South America.

Ryan Jardee

Hometown: Parker, CO

Major: Petroleum Engineering

Ryan is a UW sophomore and an Engineering Honors student.

Bryant Jerome

Hometown: Rawlins, WY

Major: Physics

Bryant is a UW senior and is working in Dr. Aidhy’s Computational Microstructure Group on understanding how much energy it takes to form small imperfections, namely irradiation-induced point defects, in uranium nitride (UN). UN is a candidate accident-tolerant nuclear fuel for next-generation nuclear reactors. By modeling these point defects, we can gain a greater understanding of the thermo-mechanical properties of the nuclear fuel, and directly contribute to explaining recent experimental observations.

Paul Mathews

Major: Chemistry

Paul is a second bachelors student majoring in Chemistry, with interest in food science. He is working in Dr. Bledar Bisha's (ANSC) microbiology lab, in conjuncture with Dr. Jill Keith (FCSC), using molecular techniques to investigate metabolite and microbiology profiles of kimchee, a traditional Korean fermented food. Kimchee is often considered a functional food, with high probiotic and nutritional potential, but more studies are needed to validate health claims.

Aylin McGough-Peker

Hometown: Huntsville, AL

Major: Physics; Astronomy & Astrophysics

Aylin is a UW senior and is studying exoplant photometry with Dr. Henry Kobulnicky (Physics & Astronomy) on the construction of FHiRE, a high-velocity-precision spectrograph that will be installed and operated at WIRO. FHiRE will accompany NASA's TESS mission, an all-sky exoplanet transit survey, with precise ground-based follow-up observations.

Alexa Milbradt

Hometown: Palmer, AK

Major: Psychology

Alexa is a UW senior in the psychology department and honors college. She is conducting her honors thesis on neural correlates of personality and spatial navigation abilities. She is working under the supervision of Dr. Meredith Minear in her Cognitive Neuroplasticity and EEG Lab.

Tyler Myers

Hometown: Sheridan, WY

Major: Chemistry

Tyler is a UW senior and is working with Dr. Michael Taylor (Chemistry).

Isabel Noyes

Hometown: Laramie, WY

Major: Molecular Biology

Isabel is a UW junior and is working with Dr. Grant Bowman (Molecular Biology).  She is studying the specific binding capabilities of the bacterial protein PopZ, using DivL protein to gauge specific binding whether through a certain structure or sequence. 

Kianna Olson

Hometown: Laramie, WY

Major: Astronomy & Astrophysics; Physics

Kianna is a UW senior working with Dr. Michael Brotherton (Physics & Astronomy) on the MAHA Project. With the MAHA project, they are doing reverberation mapping, a technique that will allow us to better determine the size of Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN).  Another key interest of this project is to search for binary supermassive black holes.

Reid Olson

Major: Zoology; Computer Science

Reid is a second bachelor's student and is working with Dr. Katie Wagner (Botany) investigating the potential role of hybridization in the cichlids of Lake Kivu from the East African Rift Lakes.

Tatiana Rice

Hometown: Casper, WY

Major: Physiology; Spanish

Tatiana Rice is a UW sophomore and is working with Dr. Kara Pratt (Zoology & Physiology). As a member of the Pratt lab, she is studying the development of the Xenopus tadpole visual system, specifically their preference towards different colors.

Sarah Rich

Hometown: Powell, WY

Major: Chemistry

Sarah is a UW senior and a tranfer student from Northwest College. She is working with Dr. Brian Leonard (Chemistry) to explore rare-earth element doped quantum dots with enhanced optical and magnetic properties.

Aeriana Roth

Hometown: Parker, CO

Major: Electrical Engineering

Aeriana is a UW sophomore and an Engineering Honors student.

Frederick Slane

Hometown: Fort Collins, CO

Major: Physics

Frederick is a UW senior and is working with Dr. William Rice (Physics & Astronomy), looking for photoluminescence in InSb quantum dots as an indication of multi-exciton generation.

Josephine Tagestad

Hometown: Thornton, CO

Major: Biology

Josephine is a UW senior and is working with Dr. Corey Tarwater (Zoology & Physiology) and Dan Albrecht-Mallinger researching the display calls of red-capped manakins at lek sites in Panamá in an effort to understand identity, variation, and recognition. This will result in a deeper knowledge of population assessment, recruitment, climate change, and bioacoustics.

Rachel Tenney

Hometown: Casper, WY

Major: Chemistry; Physics

Rachel is a UW senior and a transfer student from Casper College. She is working with Dr. Elliott Hulley (Chemistry) on a project involving organometalliccomplexes used in studying the generation of protons from carbon-hydrogen bonds (heterolytic C-H activation).

Narisse Trippel

Hometown: Worland, WY

Major: Mechanical Engineering; Energy Systems Engineering

Narisse is a UW junior and is working with Dr. Erica Belmont (Mechanical Engineering) on using various types of biomass samples to create biochar and bio oils to test the feasibility of a particular biomass for regular use as alternative fuels.

Tanner Warder

Hometown: Sheridan, WY

Major: Wildlife & Fisheries Biology & Management

Tanner is a UW junior and is working with Dr. Matthew Kauffman (Wyoming Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Unit) to research Wyoming's Red Desrt to Hoback mule deer migration, which takes place every spring and fall. Some of these ungulates travel nearly 150 miles between their summer and winter range, and Tanner is looking to assess their interactions with fences and other barriers along their migration corridor using trail cameras.