Lena Vincent started her career as a graduate student with big questions: How did life begin? Does life exist elsewhere in the universe?
“Realizing that you can turn these existential questions that everyone asks themselves into a scientific career was really exciting,” said Vincent, a PhD student in David Baum’s lab at UW–Madison.
Geoscience graduate student Yihang Fang will test whether protein control is the mechanism helping leaf-cutter ants form a layer of mineral “armor” as a fellow at the Smithsonian Institute National Museum of Natural History.
UW–Madison geography PhD candidate Allen Xiao has been awarded a Charlotte W. Newcombe Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship from the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation. Xiao’s dissertation explores how residents of Lagos, Nigeria, tell stories of and relate to their life experiences in the largest city in Africa.
Graduate student Katarina Braun and Gage Moreno’s work with sequencing the 2019 novel coronavirus has helped scientists better understand how the virus has traveled in Wisconsin and whether the protective equipment and safety protocols used in local hospitals are effective.
The death of George Floyd has deeply affected all members of our community, especially our Black and Brown students and colleagues. I would like to echo Chancellor Blank’s message, express how moved I was by Deputy Vice Chancellor Sim’s message, and reiterate our institutional commitment to combat racism, hate, and violence.
Art history PhD candidate Fernanda Villarroel has received two national fellowships that support her scholarship exploring the concept of the feminine through historical and contemporary art in Africa.
In her dissertation, anthropology PhD student Sarah Bruno uses bomba as a site and a method for exploring the emotions of Afro-Puerto Rican women on the island of Puerto Rico and throughout its diaspora. She has received a 2020 Mellon/ACLS Dissertation Completion Fellowship for this work.
Mathematicians use algorithms to identify cases of gerrymandering, but even computer-generated results can be biased. PhD student Lorenzo Najt’s work aims to identify the signatures of deliberate algorithm manipulation to prevent the extreme excesses of gerrymandering.
Three graduate students have been honored with Peer Mentor Awards. The awards, sponsored by Graduate School Office of Diversity, Inclusion, and Funding, recognize stellar mentorship qualities on- and off-campus.
Dozens of University of Wisconsin–Madison students have been awarded a Graduate Research Fellowship from the National Science Foundation (NSF) in this year’s competition. The 31 awardees from UW–Madison include undergraduate and graduate students as well as recent alums who have continued working on campus before starting graduate school.