UW–Madison welcomed five exceptional scholars into its chapter of the Edward Alexander Bouchet Graduate Honor Society during a ceremony Dec. 1.
The 2025-26 inductees are:
- Brandon E.J. Cortez, PhD candidate, Electrical & Computer Engineering
- Morgan L. Henson, PhD candidate, Sociology
- Héctor Lopez Moreno, PhD candidate, Plant Breeding and Plant Genetics
- Pablo Moreno-Yaeger, PhD candidate, Geoscience
- Marquel Norton, PhD candidate, Counseling Psychology
These scholars also join a national network with 20 chapters across the U.S. and are invited to present their work at the Bouchet Annual Conference at Yale University in the spring.
The Bouchet Society commemorates Edward A. Bouchet, who was the first person of African heritage to earn a PhD in the United States when he earned his doctorate in physics from Yale University in 1876. The Bouchet Society serves as a network for scholars that uphold the same personal and academic excellence that Dr. Bouchet demonstrated. Members of the society must exhibit the same quality of scholarship, character, leadership, service and advocacy he exhibited both inside and outside the academe.
Read more about each scholar below.
Brandon E.J. Cortez
PhD, Electrical & Computer Engineering
Academic/Faculty Advisor & Induction Speaker: John H. Booske, PhD, Keith & Jane Morgan Nosbusch Professor Emeritus in Electrical & Computer Engineering
Brandon Elias Joshua Cortez earned his bachelor of arts degree in Physics and Applied Mathematics, as well as his master of science degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Wisconsin–Madison. He is now an Electrical Engineering PhD candidate, with a Physics doctoral minor, and National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow at UW–Madison. His research focuses on developing next-generation x-ray communications (XCOM) to eliminate the mission-critical blackout period that plasma sheaths induce during spacecraft atmospheric re-entry. His dissertation work involves creating new modulation strategies and evaluating novel electron sources for x-ray-based systems, and he also contributes to broader research in high-power microwave vacuum electronics. Cortez has presented his work at multiple international conferences, including the IEEE International Conference on Plasma Science (ICOPS) and the International Vacuum Electronics Conference (IVEC), where he was a Best Student Paper Award Finalist in both 2024 and 2025. He is passionate about using his experience to give back, actively serving in organizations like the Graduate Engineering Research Scholars (GERS) and McNair Scholars programs to help the next generation of scholars navigate their academic paths and avoid the challenges he has overcome.
Morgan L. Henson
PhD, Sociology
Academic/Faculty Advisor: Jessica Calarco, PhD, Professor of Sociology
Induction Speaker: Lynne Prost, PhD, Assistant Dean for Graduate Student Academic Affairs, College of Letters & Science
Morgan L. Henson (he/him) is a Sociology PhD candidate with a doctoral minor in Political Science. He earned his bachelor of arts degree in History from Fordham University and dual master’s degrees in Global Policy Studies and Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies from the University of Texas at Austin. His scholarship investigates the convergence of racial hierarchies, nationalism, and digital infrastructures in fueling contemporary far-right movements. His research employs trilingual digital ethnography to analyze how extremist groups adapt to platform censorship and legal repression. He is deeply committed to translating sociological research into public good; he has given whiteness talks to community organizations, authored institutional microaggression policies for businesses in Madison, Wisconsin, and published articles and op-eds on geopolitics and racism. His foundational work on “Russian Racial Logic” has been presented at major conferences like the Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies, serving as an influential analysis of racial formation in “raceless” societies. His research on transnational extremism has been supported by Foreign Language & Area Studies Fellowships, Gullickson Teaching Fellowships, and a research award from the Center for German & European Studies. In addition to his research, Morgan has a passion for teaching. As a Project Assistant for the College of Letters & Science’s Teaching Assistant Training & Support Team, he strengthens instructional quality by creating resources and mentorship frameworks for new and established teaching assistants. For his dedication to student success and inclusive pedagogy, he received the 2022 Honored Instructor Award from the University of Wisconsin–Madison’s College of Letters & Science.
Héctor Lopez Moreno
PhD, Plant Breeding and Plant Genetics
Academic/Faculty Advisor & Induction Speaker: Juan Zalapa, PhD, Professor of Plant & Agroecosystem Sciences
Héctor Lopez Moreno is a PhD candidate in Plant Breeding and Plant Genetics at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, originally from Oaxaca, Mexico, and proudly Mixtec (Ñuu Savi). He earned his bachelor of science degree in Agronomy with honors from the Chapingo Autonomous University, Mexico’s leading agricultural university. As an undergraduate research assistant in a Physalis breeding program, he conducted thesis research developing a molecular marker-based method for detecting virus resistance. He later obtained his master of science degree in Plant Biotechnology from the Advanced Genomics Unit of Langebio–Cinvestav. His master’s research focused on the genetics and genomics of Capsicum domestication to elucidate the genetic changes underlying this “short-rapid” evolutionary process, which led to dramatic phenotypic shifts and ultimately gave rise to the cultivated forms that sustain global agriculture today. This work resulted in a first-author publication in Frontiers in Genetics. Currently, his doctoral research integrates genetic mapping, multi-omics, and microscopy approaches to uncover the genetic and biological bases of fruit quality in American cranberry. To date, his work has yielded two first-author publications (with a third currently under review), four co-authored papers, and another in submission related to his ongoing research. Héctor has presented his work at national and international conferences and contributes to outreach and extension for the international Vaccinium community through the Vaccinium Coordinated Agricultural Project (VacCAP). His commitment to open science, community service, and inclusion is reflected in his contributions to open-source computational tools for high-throughput phenotyping, his service as a peer reviewer for scientific journals, and his active involvement in student organizations.
Pablo Moreno-Yaeger
PhD, Geoscience
Academic/Faculty Advisor & Induction Speaker: Brad Singer, PhD, Vilas Distinguished Professor of Geoscience
Pablo earned his master of science degree in the Department of Geoscience at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, where he is now a PhD candidate. He holds a bachelor of science degree in Geology and a minor in Renewable Energies from the University of Chile and a Teaching Diploma from the Universidad Catolica de Temuco (Chile), where he lectured and mentored dozens of students. His research focuses on the response of volcanoes to ice sheet growth and decay. Findings thus far indicate that volcanoes erupt less frequently during glaciation and more frequently following ice loss. Pablo seeks to answer how and why glaciation and deglaciation impact volcanic eruptions. Notably, Pablo has shown that glaciation temporarily inhibits eruptions, but that magma beneath a volcano erupts violently once the ice retreats. Because the research links climate and ice changes to volcanic activity, Pablo has been interviewed by several news media, including the BBC, CNN, and The Guardian. His work has been published in the Geological Society of America Bulletin, the Journal of Geophysical Research, and the Bulletin of Volcanology, which are very high-impact journals in geosciences. Besides mentoring students on and off campus, Pablo is collaborating with several researchers on the impacts of ice in volcanic eruptions and on modeling the response. As part of this research, Pablo also leads a summer program for community college students in Temuco (Chile) and Oregon that shows them how their interests align with geosciences and the connections between different systems (such as volcanoes and ice) in nature.
Marquel Norton
PhD, Counseling Psychology
Academic/Faculty Advisor & Induction Speaker: Stephanie Budge, PhD, Professor of Counseling Psychology & Director of Clinical Training in the Department of Counseling Psychology
Marquel Norton (they/any) is a doctoral candidate in Counseling Psychology at the University of Wisconsin–Madison whose scholarship bridges Black trans liberation, affect theory, and participatory action research. Their dissertation, Black Trans Youth Rising: A Study of Black Gender Expansive Youth Affectivism, explores how Black trans youth transform emotion into collective strategy through art, organizing, and healing-centered community practices. Building upon this foundation, Marquel co-founded and participates in the Black Trans Youth Rising Collective, a collective of gender-expansive community-based scholars implementing participatory youth fellowship series. Marquel’s transdisciplinary research advances models of wellness and leadership to resist extractive approaches to the study of marginalized communities. Their work has been featured in presentations at the American Psychological Association, the National Trans Health Summit, and the Association of Black Sociologists. They have co-authored publications on colonization, gender-expansive identities, and critical analysis and approaches to gender-affirming care and psychotherapy, as seen in the Psychology of Sexual Orientation and Gender Diversity, American Psychologist, and the Journal of Counseling Psychology. They are currently seeking to publish more scholarship on critical consciousness, liberation psychology, youth participatory action research, and healing justice in their field. As both scholar and practitioner, Marquel’s clinical and pedagogical approaches emphasize community accountability, collective care, and embodied methods of resistance. Their ongoing commitment is to transform psychology’s research and training infrastructures through Black trans–centered methodologies that redefine how knowledge, care, and power circulate within and beyond the academy.