Will Anderson
Hometown: Casper, WY
Major: Biology
Will is working with Audrey Lindsteadt in the Tronstad Invertebrate Zoology lab studying aquatic insects in Yellowstone’s glacier streams and hot springs.
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 Austin Barth
Hometown: Burns, WY
Major: Zoology
Austin is a member of Dr. Patrick Kelley's (Zoology and Physiology) Behavioral Complexity Lab. Austin is working in Panama on
a research project involving chestnut-backed antbirds. Austin's research explores
the role of competition in shaping vocal behavior and spatial use among this tropical
antbird species. Using a combination of detailed field observations and bioacoustic
data, he is seeing how these birds alter their songs in competitive contexts and how
these changes impact access to valuable resources.
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Allyson Cardine
Hometown: Casper, WY
Major: Chemistry
Allyson is working with Dr. Elliott Hulley designing and synthesizing flavin derivatives to mimic Monoamine Oxidase (MAO) metabolic
activity. Our project goal is to utilize these synthetic flavins to evaluate the kinetics
of their oxidation chemistry with tryptamines, which are a class of compounds that
include the neurotransmitter serotonin, as well as psychedelics such as psilocybin
and LSD. This project is part of a larger research effort to increase fundamental
understanding of the chemistry of tryptamine-based psychedelics alongside the increasing
interest in their development as drug candidates.
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Stephen Christensen
Hometown: Casper, WY
Major: Psychology, Biology
Stephen is working with Dr. Qian-Quan Sun and Dr. Erin Harrington, looking at strategy use as a stress reliever in relation to PM in older adults.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Riley Heindl
Hometown: Lovell, WY
Major: Wildlife & Fisheries Biology & Management
Riley is working with Dr. Riley Bernard, looking at hoary bat ( Lasiurus cinereus) habitat use during their fall migration season in Wyoming. Hoary bats fly through
Wyoming during their seasonal migration, but little is known about which types of
habitats they are using during this time. Additionally, hoary bats make up a significant
portion of wildlife fatality reports and wind farms across Wyoming and North America.
Understanding where hoary bats go during migration can help reduce fatalities from
wind turbines.
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Gustavo Hernandez
Hometown: Rock Springs, WY
Major: Physiology
Gustavo works with Dr. Emily Schmitt (Kinesiology and Health) and studies how scheduled exercise re-entrains disrupted
circadian rhythms—measuring SCN activity markers (c-Fos, NPY, AVP) in mice—to boost
overall health.
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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.
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Ainsley Hokanson
Hometown: Gillette, WY
Major: Molecular Biology
Ainsley is working with the Schoborg Lab to understand how mitotic spindle proteins contribute to microcephaly. She uses fruit
flies as a model to study brain development at a cellular level.
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Wren Hybertson
Hometown: Boulder, CO
Major: Environment & Natural Resources, Environmental Systems Science, Geographic Information
Science
Wren is working with Dr. David Tank and Marguerite Trost in the Rocky Mountain Herbarium.
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Samantha Killmer
Hometown: Portage, MI
Major: Biology and Spanish
Samantha is a member of Dr. Riley Bernard's research lab, investigating the efficacy and accuracy of AI software in determining bat use and
activity at cave roosts in Wyoming. This work is a component of a broader research
project aimed at filling data gaps in the ecology of the Townsend’s Bigeared bat.
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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.
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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.
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Ivan Martin
Hometown: Worland, WY
Major: Computer Science and Economics
Ivan is working with Dr. Amy Banić in the Interactive Realities lab on the Kinetic Skin project, a novel input device
that detects the bending of the joints. He is interested in making it more robust
and reliable, as well as studying it's ability to recognize microgestures as well
as it's effectiveness as a 3d input device. In addition to it's use in the field of
kinesiology.
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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.
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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.
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Reuben McGuire
Hometown: Cheyenne, WY
Major: Mechanical Engineering
Reuben is working with Dr. Xiang Zhang in the Computations for Advanced Materials and Manufacturing Laboratory in the Mechanical
Engineering Department at the University of Wyoming. Reuben is currently developing
and implementing real-time monitoring and control algorithms and hardware to advance
an energy-efficient composites printing technique based on a novel curing strategy
called frontal polymerization.
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Sam Mitchell
Hometown: Phoenix, AZ
Major: Mechanical Engineering
Sam is working with Dr. Ankit Saxena on developing particle damping technologies and charecterizing their effectiveness
by examining their audio signatures.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Hannah Qualm
Hometown: Buffalo, WY
Major: Wildlife and Fisheries Biology and Management
Hannah is working with Rebecca Levine in the Monteith Shop. She is processing and analyzing camera collar videos of moose near Meeteetse, Wyoming,
to study the activity budgets and behavioral states of female moose.
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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!
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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.
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Kiara Schofield
Hometown: Gillette, WY
Major: Molecular Biology and Microbiology
Kiara is working with Dr. Eunsook Park in the Molecular Biology department to create
antifungal therapies for the fungal infection Candida auris by targeting essential survival pathways and virulence factors.
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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).
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Max Seibold
Hometown: Parker, CO
Major: Chemistry, Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences
Max conducts research in Dr. Thomas Boothby's Lab.
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Taylor Stevens
Hometown: Rivertion, WY
Major: Physiology
Taylor is a member of the Roberts Lab, where they are studying how sleep and metabolic disruption changes the development
of brain-body physiology.
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Tavia Ossa
Hometown: Casper, WY
Major: Wildlife and Fisheries Biology/Management and Rangeland Management
Tavia is working with Macy Jacobson and the Monteith Shop to assess whether beaver-modified riparian systems served as refugia for moose during
the 2020 Mullen Fire.
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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.
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 Eleanor Veauthier
Hometown: Casper, WY
Major: Chemistry
Eleanor is working in the Bedford lab under the supervision of graduate student Danielle Taylor. She is investigating the
relationship between tissue abnormalities and changes in peripheral nervous system
functioning in aging mice.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Isabelle Wasseen
Hometown: Rock Springs, WY
Major: Zoology
. Isabelle is currently researching with Dr. Sreejayan Nair with the School of Pharmacy studying neuroinflammation. Isabelle is currently working
on projects aimed at targeting the iRhom2 protein in Diabetic Neuropathy and in targeting
this protein in neuroinflammation looking at how this impacts symptoms of cognitive
decline.
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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.
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