Council of Graduate Students
at The Ohio State University

2025 Winners - Edward F. Hayes Advanced Research Forum

Award Amounts | 2025 Hayes Advanced Research Forum 2025

Hayes Forum monetary awards are graciously provided jointly through the kind support of The Graduate School and the Enterprise for Research, Innovation, and Knowledge (ERIK). Postdoctoral awards are paid through the Office of Postdoctoral Affairs

Oral/Talk Presentation Award Amounts

1st Place - $600

2nd Place - $400

3rd Place - $200 

Honorable Mention - No Monetary Award

Poster Presentation Award Amounts

1st Place - $200

2nd Place - $150

3rd Place - $100

Honorable Mention - No Monetary Award


Winners | 2025 Hayes Advanced Research Forum

Winners' entries are listed with their names, department/program of enrollment, and the title of their winning Hayes Forum presentation. 

Please note: Honorable mentions are listed in alphabetical order.

Oral/Talk Winners

The Arts

1st Place – Zoey November, Dance, "Making the Audible Visible: Improving Accessibility in the Performing Arts Through the Artistic Design of Subtitles"

2nd Place – Nupur Manoj Sachdeva, Arts Administration, Education, & Policy, "Multilingual Voices In Art Education: Creative And Pedagogical Practices Of South Asian Women Artist-Educators In The U.S."

3rd Place - Lynn Robinson, Arts Administration, Education, & Policy, "Manifesting the Village: Black othermothering, arts-based interventions, and curriculum building toward educator efficacy"


Biological Sciences 

1st Place – Raven Vella, Biomedical Sciences Graduate Program (BSGP), "Machine learning software (RIGATonI) discovers novel biomarkers for immunotherapy in cancer"

2nd Place – Shannon Dixon, Earth Science, "Underwater Zooplankton Light Enhancement Array (UZELA) enhanced feeding coupled with dome-shaped settlement modules enhance coral juvenile survivorship and growth"

3rd Place - Sara Sequeira, Comparative Biomedical Sciences, "Filling the gaps: Why complete animal movement data is vital for animal and human health"

Honorable Mention - Katelyn Amstutz, Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology (MCDB), "Determining the role of a plant LINC complex in stomatal closure"

Honorable Mention - Gianni Giarrano, Ohio State Biochemistry Program (OSBP), "Engineered proteins containing domains from tripartite Motif Family Protein 72 (TRIM72) and the fragment crystallizable (Fc) from the human IgG1 protein increase plasma membrane repair to treat muscle diseases."


Business 

1st Place – Nikhil Sharma, Business Administration, "Regulating a Powerful Intermediary: The Effectiveness of Laws to Eliminate Adverse Pharmacy Benefit Manager Practices"

2nd Place – Angel Simon, Business Administration, "Revisiting the Relationship between SCM Executives and Firm Performance: The Role of Global Culture"

3rd Place - Yuan Lu, Business Administration, "Heterogeneous Endorsement Effect: Choose the Correct Endorser for the Correct Product Attribute"

Honorable Mention - Yiming Huang, Business Administration, "From Screen to Desk: How Evening Media Engagement Influences Next-Day Workplace Behaviors"

Honorable Mention - Hanho Lee, Business Administration, "The Cost of Augmentation-Based AI Usage: Impostor Thoughts and Their Consequences in the Workplace"


Education and Human Ecology 

1st Place – Andrew Perry, Educational Psychology, "Fitting In While Being First: Belonging and Academic Motivation Among FirstGeneration College Students"

2nd Place – Zhi Jie Lee, Educational Studies, "Uncovering Latent Classes in Secondary School Bullying Victimization in Malaysia: Insights from the Mixed Rasch Model"

3rd Place - Wonjoon Cha, Educational Psychology, "Exploring Mindset Theory in a Competitive Elite Korean High School Using a Mixed-methods Approach"


Engineering 

1st Place – Jenna Kline, Computer Science & Engineering, "Autonomous, Adaptive Vision-Based Remote Sensing System for Dynamic Field Animal Ecology Studies"

2nd Place – Syed Murtaza Arshad, Electrical & Computer Engineering, "EMORe: Motion-robust free-breathing volumetric cardiovascular magnetic resonance image reconstruction using Expectation-Maximization (EM) algorithm"

3rd Place - Snehal Patil, Chemical Engineering, "Catalytic and non-catalytic treatment of p-nitrophenol, a priority pollutant"

Honorable Mention - Manami Fujii, Biomedical Engineering, "The postural control system responds to three-dimensional pseudorandom perturbations"


Food, Agricultural and Environmental Sciences 

1st Place – Florentino Paz Jose da Silva, Animal Sciences, "The Role of Maternal Progesterone in Embryonic Attachment to the Uterus and Pregnancy Loss in Cows"

2nd Place – Ningzhu Bai, Environment & Natural Resources, "Identifying host intrinsic and extrinsic variables affecting tick infestation on Passerine Birds (Order: Passeriformes) in Ohio"

3rd Place - Matthiew Haines, Food Science and Technology, "Investigating odor-induced changes in taste perception in coffee"

Honorable Mention - Xinyue Fan, Food Science and Technology, "Development of a vibrant blue anthocyanin-based colorant for acidic food applications"

Honorable Mention - Megan Jamison, Environmental Sciences, "Nanoplastic Identification and Analysis in Lake Erie Sourced Drinking Water"


Health Sciences 

1st Place – Samuel Speaks, Biomedical Sciences Graduate Program (BSGP), "Gasdermin D promotes influenza virus-induced mortality through neutrophil amplification of inflammation"

2nd Place – Maria Ford, Biomedical Sciences Graduate Program (BSGP), "A Novel Protective Role for CD38 in Severe Allergic Airway Inflammation"

3rd Place - Ayushi Das, Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology (MCDB), "Characterization of a novel preclinical mouse model to identify antigen-specific immune responses in pancreatic cancer cachexia"

Honorable Mention - Madison Blake, Biostatistics, "Falls and Injuries in Autistic Older Adults"

Honorable Mention - Delaney Edwards, Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, "How do muzzle velocity, bullet mass, and overall kinetic energy influence fracture initiation and propagation patterns?"

Honorable Mention - Erica Howard, Clinical Psychology, "Structural Myelin Mapping in Repetitive Head Injury"


Humanities 

1st Place – Ai-Ling Lu, East Asian Languages & Literatures, "Beyond Q&A: Exploring Third Turns in Chinese as a Foreign Language Classroom Interactions"

2nd Place – Sydney Heifler, History, "Love with a Mission: World War II and Womanly Duty"

3rd Place - Sabrina Durso, English, "Drawing Crip Time in Relationality: The Experiences of Vision Loss in Dancing After TEN and The Impending Blindness of Billie Scott"

Honorable Mention - Samanta Buffa, Italian, "When Virtual Reality Enters the World Language Classroom: A Comparative Research Study of In-person and VR Instruction"


Mathematical and Physical Sciences 

1st Place – Adam Tjoelker, Geography, "Improved field surveys of debris-covered glaciers using drone-based groundpenetrating radar"

2nd Place – Ye Jin Choi, Statistics, "Analysis of Spatial Dependence in Functional Data and Shapes of Curves"

3rd Place - Jaclyn Rebstock, Chemistry, "Time-resolved SFG Vibrational Spectroscopy Reveals Surprises in the Stark Tuning Slope for CO on Copper"

Honorable Mention - Spencer Burton, Chemistry, "Electron Transfer from a Co(III) Photosensitizer with a Picosecond Charge Transfer Excited State Lifetime"

Honorable Mention - Kara Lamantia, Earth Sciences, "Global and Regional Methane Signals Captured in Ice Core Records from Nevado Huascarán, Peru"

 

Social and Behavioral Sciences

1st Place – Cameryn Cooley, Psychology, "Black Americans? Perception of Cognitive Change Strategies"

2nd Place – Lucy Brown, Communication, "Measuring the Fourth Wall: Prototypical Perceptions of Fictional Characters, Media Figures, and Personally Known Others"

3rd Place - Courtney Jewell, Speech and Hearing Sciences, "Tracking Stress in People with Aphasia: Insights from Ecological Momentary Assessments"

Honorable Mention - Kelsey Shearer, Anthropology, "Insulin Before Smores: The management and embodiment of diabetes at a summer camp for diabetic adolescents"


Postdoctoral: Arts, Humanities, and Social and Behavioral Sciences

1st Place – Sungjin Lee, Public Affairs, "Regulating a Powerful Intermediary: The Effectiveness of Laws to Eliminate Adverse Pharmacy Benefit Manager Practices"

2nd Place – Sahar Tarighi, Post-MFA Scholar, Studio Art, Ceramics, "Burdens of Resistance: Body, Labor, and Ecology in Kolberi"

3rd Place - Hoda Hashemi, Special Education, "The Efficacy of Training Staffs Using Behavioral Intervention Plan (BIP) to Address Challenging Behaviors of Individuals with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (IDD)"


Postdoctoral: Biological, Life, Health Sciences, and Biomedical Engineering

1st Place – Chenyang Wei, Geography and Environmental Studies, "GEDI-Informed Characterization of Temperate Vegetation Structure in Eastern North America"

2nd Place – Xilal Y. Rima, Diabetes and Metabolism Research Center, "Understanding the role of adipocyte interorgan signaling on obesity-associated diseases"

3rd Place - Sachin Naik, Postdoctoral Scholar, "Plant species and pH interactions shape rhizosphere bacterial diversity in peatbased systems"


Postdoctoral: Physical & Mathematical Sciences and Engineering

1st Place – Kaue Riffel, Welding Engineering, "Implementation of Software-Assisted Robot Programming and AI-Driven Toolpath Optimization for Metal Additive Manufacturing"

2nd Place – Tomaz Neves Garcia, Chemistry and Biochemistry, "Coupling the Capture of Carbon Dioxide with its Conversion to Hydrocarbons"

3rd Place - V Varagapriya, Engineering, "Multi-Horizon Stochastic Bounds in Power Systems"

Honorable Mention - Wendson Barbosa, Quantum Information Science and Technology, "Quantum Network and Secure Communication"


Poster Session Winners

Session 1: Engineering

1st Place – Ali Kaiss, Electrical and Computer Engineering, "Estimating Heart Rate Variability (HRV) Using a Wearable MagnetoCardioGraphy (MCG) Sensor"

2nd Place – Priya Jana, Chemical Engineering, "Scalable manufacturing of inorganic nanoparticles using jet-mixing reactors"

3rd Place - Manisha Muduli, Electrical and Computer Engineering, "Heterogeneous Integration of Antimonide-Semiconductors with Si for Infrared Sensors"

Honorable Mention - Pedram Ghassemi, Structural Engineering, "Advancing 3D Concrete Printing: Novel Insights into Interface Behavior for Sustainable Housing and Space Construction"

Honorable Mention - Sophie Mills, Electrical and Computer Engineering, "Transport in Sb-based APDs"


Session 2: Education & Human Ecology and Social & Behavioral Sciences

1st Place – Alexander Ryan, Agricultural, Environmental, and Development Economics (AEDE), "Financial risks in flooding: U.S. bank response to rising flood disaster risk"

2nd Place – Ahmad Ilderim Tokey, Geography, "Accessibility and Exposure: Using Probabilistic Time Geography to Analyze Potential Exposure During Active Transportation"

3rd Place - Marcella Gallmeyer, Educational Studies, "Flowcharts A Tool for Teaching Spelling Rules to 3rd Graders With or At Risk for Disabilities"

Honorable Mention - Alison Howell, Food Science and Technology, "Food Safety Risks from Licensed Food Establishments in Franklin County, Ohio: Do Community-Level Characteristics Affect Risk of Exposure to Foodborne Illness?"

Honorable Mention - Rika Mardiana, Teaching and Learning, "Indonesian Students? Cognition and Mental Models of Magnetism and Electricity and the Implications to Teaching and Learning"

Honorable Mention - Hyeseon Shin, Agricultural, Environmental, and Development Economics (AEDE), "Agricultural Trade, Migration and Climate Change"


Session 3: Biological & Health Sciences

1st Place – Annika Chura, Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology (MCDB), "Hepatocyte Growth Factor Is Overexpressed in AML and Remodels the Mesenchymal Stromal Cell Niche"

2nd Place – Ryan Huston, Microbiology, "Converge and Contrast: Leishmania donovani?s Impacts on Uninfected Bystander Cells by Life Stage"

3rd Place - Electra Coffman, Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology (MCDB), "Arvcf recruits Ankyrin-B and stabilizes the Cadherin-Catenin complex in the functional Aging Lens"


Session 4: Food, Agriultural, and Environmental Sciences

1st Place – Prabhjot Singh, Environmental and Natural Resources, "Impact of Different Inorganic Phosphorus (P) Fertilizer Rates on Soil P Pools"

2nd Place – Sandeep Dhakal, Food, Agricultural, and Biological Engineering, "Detection of High Plain Wheat Mosaic Virus (HPWMoV) infection in sweet corn using UAS multispectral imagery and deep learning"

3rd Place - Mostafa Aliabdelbary, Food Science, "Modulation of Shiga Toxin-producing Escherichia coli virulence during its adaptation to sprouts environment"

Honorable Mention - Ellie Kidwell, Animal Sciences, "Investigating the mechanisms for pregnancy maintenance and success in cattle"


Session 5: Math & Physical Sciences

1st Place – Nitesh Kumar, Organic Chemistry, "Dendritic molecular baskets for selective binding of toxic methotrexate"

2nd Place – Sagarika Taneja, Chemistry, "pH-responsive Rhodamine-dipeptide conjugates for cellular tracking and drug delivery"

3rd Place - Long Dinh, Chemistry, "Persistent organonickel complexes as general platforms for cross-coupling reactions"

Honorable Mention - Ipshita Roy, Chemistry, "Chiral pyrrolidines via an enantioselective Hofmann-L?ffler-Freytag reaction"

Honorable Mention - Evan Jenner Jahn, Astronomy, "An Atlas of the Entire Sky with Unprecedented Sensitivity"