20 Biochemistry Students Earn Campus Awards to Pursue Research

Twenty undergraduate students in the Department of Biochemistry have earned 2023 campus awards for research and scholarly excellence. The students are a mix of talented biochemistry majors and students whose research is in laboratories run by biochemistry faculty.

A list of this year’s recipients of the Hilldale Undergraduate/Faculty Research Fellowships and the Sophomore Research Fellowships in the Department of Biochemistry is below. Find a full list of campus-wide awards and recipients here. Congratulations to all who earned a 2023 campus award!

Hilldale Undergraduate/Faculty Research Fellowships

Hilldale Undergraduate/Faculty Research Fellowships support undergraduate research done in collaboration with a faculty or staff member. This award is open to students who have at least junior standing.The student receives a $3,000 stipend and the faculty or staff member receives $1,000 to offset the cost of the research. This year’s award recipients will present their research at next year’s Undergraduate Symposium.

  • Megan Berg, Biochemistry (Chad Rienstra)
  • Aaron Brekken, Biochemistry (Roseanne Clark)
  • Dev Desai, Biochemistry and Microbiology (David Hershey)
  • Christine Glitchev, Biochemistry and Neurobiology (Deric Wheeler)
  • Amory Griffin, Biochemistry, Biology, and Chemistry (Jennifer Schomaker)
  • Sophie Grunder, Biochemistry and Spanish (Catherine Fox)
  • Peter Hoferle, Biochemistry (Robert Kirchdoerfer)
  • Amogh Kalyanam, Biochemistry (Dawn Davis)
  • Erika Kay-Tsumagari, Biochemistry (Seungpyo Hong)
  • Brad Li, Biochemistry and Spanish (Ying Ge)
  • Ivy Lucier, Biochemistry (Michael Thomas)
  • Niharika Patankar, Biochemistry and Music (Jenny Gumperz)
  • Easton Prazak, Biochemistry and Chemistry (Daniel Weix)
  • Lars Schimmelpfennig, Biochemistry and Data Science (Samuel Gellman)
  • Victoria Tholkes, Biochemistry and Chemistry (Ci Ji Lim)
  • Natalie Zeps, Biochemistry (Aaron Hoskins)

Sophomore Research Fellowships

Funded by generous grants from the Brittingham Wisconsin Trust and the Kemper K. Knapp Bequest, the Sophomore Research Fellowships provide funding for students to undertake their own research project in collaboration with UW–Madison faculty or research/instructional academic staff. The fellowship includes a $2,500 stipend to each undergraduate student recipient and $500 to their faculty or staff advisors to offset research costs. This year’s award recipients will present their research at next year’s Undergraduate Symposium.

  • Tyler Chang, Undeclared (Aaron Hoskins)
  • Jessica Fernandez, Biochemistry (Susan Thibeault)
  • John Clinton Merrick II, Biochemistry and Neurobiology (Cynthia Czajkowski)
  • Mridula Srivathsan, Biochemistry and Data Science (Silvia Cavagnero)