Announcing the CAS Dean’s Scholars for the 2025-2026 academic year
These 25 students have received expense stipends to work with faculty mentors on independent studies.
Published
Announcing the CAS Dean’s Scholars for the 2025-2026 academic year
Published
Dean Renée Baernstein is proud to announce the selection of the 2025-2026 CAS Dean’s Scholars. These ambitious students are rising CAS seniors who have successfully conceived and proposed a project that is endorsed by a faculty mentor.
Students will each receive a $500 professional expense stipend to conduct their independent study, in addition to academic credit. They will present their work at a professional conference and/or Miami's Undergraduate Research Forum next April. In addition, faculty mentors are granted a $500 expense stipend to work with their student on the project.
The 2025-2026 CAS Dean’s Scholars, along with their sponsoring departments, faculty mentors, and project titles are:
Zachary Ahmed
Sponsoring Department: Biology
Faculty mentor: Paul Harding
Project Title: Western Blot Analysis of TNFɑ in Genetically Reprogrammed BAT-like Cells
Lucas Atherton
Sponsoring Department: Anthropology
Faculty mentor: Kelsey Ellis
Project Title: Vocal behavior of turn-taking sequences of woolly monkeys (Lagothrix lagotricha)
Aiden Atkinson
Sponsoring Department: Biology
Faculty mentor: Paul Harding
Project Title: Western Blot Analysis of ADRB1 in Cellular Reprogrammed BAT-like Cells
Kendra Cassiday
Sponsoring Department: Chemistry and Biochemistry
Faculty mentor: Cory A. Rusinek
Project Title: A Fluorescence Spectroelectrochemical Sensor Coupled with Cloud Point Extraction for Detecting 1 Hydroxypyrene as a Biomarker of PAH Exposure
Lillian Champagne
Sponsoring Department: Geology and Environmental Earth Science
Faculty mentor: Jason Rech
Project Title: Using Freshwater Mussel Assemblages to Inform Modern Conservation Efforts in the Midwestern US
Vivian Conran
Sponsoring Department: Psychology
Faculty mentor: Elizabeth Kiel
Project Title: Identifying Dysregulated Fear in Infancy
Jade Dunaway
Sponsoring Department: Psychology
Faculty mentor: Elizabeth Kiel
Project Title: Relations among behavioral inhibition, error-related negativity, and perfectionism across childhood
Elayna Foor
Sponsoring Department: Psychology
Faculty mentor: Jennifer Quinn
Project Title: A Role for PVT Input to Lateral Septum in Mediating the Expression of Safety
Jade Ghanayem
Sponsoring Department: Biology
Faculty mentor: Katia Del Rio-Tsonis
Project Title: Molecular Mechanisms of FGF-Induced Retina Pigment Epithelium Reprogramming
Natalie Hicov
Sponsoring Department: Chemistry and Biochemistry
Faculty mentor: Dominik Konkolewicz
Project Title: Polymer Lipid Nanodisc for Membrane Proteins Using Maleic Acid Polymers of Cyclohexyl Vinyl Ether and Ethylene Glycol Vinyl Ether
Hope Keane
Sponsoring Department: Philosophy
Faculty mentor: Elaine Miller
Project Title: Female Selfhood Through a Loving Eye
Jada Kramer
Sponsoring Department: Psychology
Faculty mentor: Vaishali Raval
Project Title: Perceived Mental Healthcare Barriers in Prague
Claudia Kupec
Sponsoring Department: Philosophy
Faculty mentor: Facundo Alonso
Project Title: Self-Governance Through a Platonic Lens
Donovan Lundy
Sponsoring Department: Biology
Faculty mentor: Joyce Fernandes
Project Title: Examining the role of three glial layers in neural and behavioral plasticity in a genetic model organism, Drosophila melanogaster
Thomas McKenzie
Sponsoring Department: Physics
Faculty mentor: Mahmud Khan
Project Title: The structural effects of Ga doping in ZrNi2Ga1-xGex
Samuel Neitzke
Sponsoring Department: Psychology
Faculty mentor: Terri Messman
Project Title: Pathways to Psychological Distress from Childhood Emotional Maltreatment: The Role of Trauma-Related Shame and Fear of Self-Compassion in Adults
Maura Newhouse
Sponsoring Department: Biology
Faculty mentor: Michael Robinson
Project Title: Effects of FOXE3 Expression in Chick Olfactory Placode Development
Glenn Ochsner
Sponsoring Department: Physics
Faculty mentor: Imran Mirza
Project Title: Examination of exotic states of photons in two-dimensional lattices of spinning ring resonators and their applications in quantum computing
Gabby Piper
Sponsoring Department: Anthropology
Faculty mentor: Kelsey Ellis
Project Title: Feeding Strategies of Woolly Monkeys Across Age, Sex, and Reproductive Stages
Andrew Rossi
Sponsoring Department: Spanish
Faculty mentor: Russell Simonsen
Project Title: Spanish Collocations to Develop an Advanced Corpora
April Sanders
Sponsoring Department: Geology and Environmental Earth Science
Faculty mentor: James Leong
Project Title: Sequential Extraction of Nickel (Ni) and Cobalt (Co) in Various Ultramafic Rocks for Economic and Environmental Geology Applications
Lillian Wahl
Sponsoring Department: English
Faculty mentor: James Bromley
Project Title: Destabilizing Politics of Empire in Shakespeare's Roman Plays
Emily Wang
Sponsoring Department: Chemistry and Biochemistry
Faculty mentor: Rock Mancini
Project Title: Glycometabolic Alterations in Melanoma with Incremental Chemoresistance
Thomas Williams
Sponsoring Department: Psychology
Faculty mentor: Jennifer Quinn
Project Title: Social buffering of acute early life stress in male and female rats
Ella Zawoyski
