2025-26 Wyoming Research Scholars

 

Stephen Christensen   Hometown: Casper, WY Major: Psychology, Biology Stephen is working with Dr. Erin Harrington, looking at strategy use as a stress reliever in relation to PM in older adults.

John Crider   Hometown: Sheridan, WY Major: Mechanical Engineering, Minor in Electrical Engineering John is working with Dr. Jonathan Naughton on combining time variant and field range data for a robust analysis of jet flow. He is also working with Dr. Ankit Saxena on developing particle dampening technologies to reduce seismic vibrations in small mobile nuclear reactors.

Camille Gott   Hometown: Colorado Springs, CO Major: Microbiology Camille Gott is an undergraduate assistant in the Hoberg Research group. She is currently working on developing organic molecules for the specialized extraction of rare-earth elements.

Brody Greene   Hometown: Beaver, PA Major: Mechanical Engineering, Minor in Honors Brody is working with Dr. Xiang Zhang (Mechanical Engineering) to examine the behavior of advanced composite materials in solid modeling software. Simultaneously, Brody is studying how to produce these materials via experimental 3D printing.

Lily Marie Hitchcock   Hometown: Lander, WY Major: Physiology Lily Marie works in the Alex French Lab studying psychedelic signal transduction in mice as it relates to alcohol use disorder. The lab aims to differentiate the therapeutic and hallucinogenic pathways of various psychedelics to pave the way for their clinical applications in addiction treatment.

Wren Hyberston   Hometown: Boulder, CO Major: Environment & Natural Resources, Environmental Systems Science, Geographic Information Science Wren is working with Rachel Watson, studying lichen morphology related to air pollution, and is also interested in tying entomology into the project.

Jordan Kinney   Hometown: Cheyenne, WY Major: Animal Science with a Pre-Vet concentration Jordan is working with Dr. Mariela Srednik to study Mycoplasma in dogs through nasal swabs. In this research, she is investigating if Mycoplasma is apart of the natural bacterial flora or if it is infectious.

Skyler LaRosa   Hometown: Moose, WY Major: Wildlife & Fisheries Biology and Management Skyler is working with Dr. William Fetzer  and PhD student Tristan Blechinger to look at the age and growth patterns of various White Sucker and Utah Sucker populations in Wyoming's major reservoirs. She's interested in how different these fish populations are in response to environmental conditions, management actions, and food web structures.

Ryley Maurer   Hometown: Hulett, WY Major: Animal & Vetrinary Sciences, Biology Ryley is working with Dr. Jeremy Block (Animal Science) to study how embryo dissociation - the separation of an 8-cell embryo into either individual cells or pairs of cells - affects subsequent development and differentiation. Her work also involves assessing whether treatment with a growth factor, insulin like growth factor-1, improves embryo development following dissociation.

Kathryn McCarty   Hometown: Casper, WY Major: Anthropology, Music Under the guidance of Dr. James Johnson, Kathryn’s research focuses on the spatial analysis of mortuary practices, specifically burial mounds, in eastern Europe. She is also working in the field in Wyoming to explore how prehistoric people lived.

Logan Opsal   Hometown: Cheyenne, WY Major:  Biology; Wildlife and Fisheries Biology and Management Logan is working with Dr. William Fetzer to evaluate resource use and niche partitioning of stocked salmonid species in several Wyoming reservoirs using stable isotopes.

Riley Ovard   Hometown: Evanston, WY Major: Environmental System Science; Environment and Natural Resources Riley is working with Dr. Grete Gansauer. Riley's research aims to better understand the network of food security organizations in Laramie, WY, and the structure of their relationships. The project focuses on social capital, how it is expressed through the 'community food network', and identifying the key strengths of the system.

Olivia Poore   Hometown: Douglassville, PA Majors: Environmental Systems Science, Environment and Natural Resources, and Wildlife Biology Olivia is working with Annabella Helman in the Goheen lab.

Cassidy Powers   Hometown: Cheyenne, WY Majors: Mechanical Engineering Working with Dr. Ankit Saxena on the development of a dual-arm robotic system with integrated sensors for nondestructive structural integrity analysis of materials.

Hannah Qualm   Hometown: Buffalo, WY Major: Wildlife and Fisheries Biology and Management Hannah is working with Molly Caldwell in the Merkle lab. Hannah is working to analyze bison grazing site photos from the Yellowstone area. The direction of this research will be to assess and test potential AI tools for analyzing species presence and other key factors.

Ted Rittle   Hometown: Laramie, WY Major: Biology Ted is currently working with Masters student Sam Peña in Dr. Sarah Collins's lab, looking at harmful cyanobacteria blooms in Wyoming lakes, the factors that influence the prevalence of these blooms, and the distribution of the cyanobacterial species and the toxins they release!

Marjie Schmitt   Hometown: Mitchell, NE Major: Physiology Marjie is working with Dr. Nellie Bruns in the HEART lab, Studying the effects of PAD2 on the female aging heart. The lab uses new mouse models, histology, and echocardiography to quantify changes in heart function with age and how this changes with loss of PAD2.

Kaitlyn Elayne Schultz   Hometown: Sheridan, WY Major: Astrophysics & Physics Kaitlyn is working with Dr. Daniel Dale. Kaitlyn's current project is to analyze the ages of stellar populations (individual stars) inside bubbles in NGC 628 (a nearby spiral galaxy).

Max Seibold   Hometown: Parker, CO Major: Chemistry, Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences Max conducts research in Dr. Ana Clara Bobadilla's lab at the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, focusing on investigating the neurobiological mechanisms that contribute to relapse to drugs of abuse.

Christopher Taylor   Hometown: Green River, WY Majors: Wildlife and Fisheries Biology/Management Christopher is working with Dr. Lusha Tronstad to see how Beaver Dam Analogs (man-made beaver dams) affect native fish diets, species abundance, and distribution in the Muddy Creek watershed in Southern Wyoming.

Kyra Waldron   Hometown: Jackson, WY Major: Physiology Kyra is working with Dr. Tak Suyama in the chemistry department. Her research is focused on the discovery of novel antifungals from the tardigrade microbiome.

Lucas Wall   Hometown: Laramie, WY Major: Molecular Biology Lucas is working with Dr. Dan Wall (Molecular Biology). Lucas is working with a virus that infects a type of bacteria called streptococcus mutans. These bacteria are the leading microorganism responsible for dental decay.

Josephine Walton   Hometown: Sheridan, WY Major: Chemistry and Biology Josephine is working under Dr. Thomas Boothby in the Wyoming Water Bears Lab. Josie is studying how the gut microbiome of Ramazzottius varieornatus contributes to its survival under extreme stress, such as radiation and desiccation.

Kira Welch   Hometown: Shreveport, LA Major: Zoology and Art Kira is working with Dr. Sean Harrington, looking at hybridization within Milk snake groups from Kansas, and studying their ancestry.