The annual Department of Biochemistry Student Awards Reception on April 29, 2026 celebrated outstanding undergraduate and graduate biochemistry students. 52 students were awarded scholarships, fellowships, and support this year, thanks to generous donations and support from the department and campus sources.
Rick Amasino, biochemistry chair and professor, presented the awards. “Congratulations to our outstanding undergraduate and graduate student awardees,” said Amasino. “The department is fortunate to have such exceptional students who support innovative research with their hard work and creativity. I want to give a special thank you to the many donors who provide support for our students, enabling us to engage even more students in research.”
This year, 14 undergraduate students were issued departmental awards to support their research. The awards include the Undergraduate Summer Research Awards and Mary Shine Peterson Awards.
The Undergraduate Summer Research Awards are supported by generous gifts to funds that support undergraduate research. Biochemistry majors who receive these awards are provided a stipend to work in a faculty member’s lab over the summer, giving the students full-time experience working in a lab and performing research. This year’s awards are supported by the Henry A. Lardy Undergraduate Research Fund, the Marc A.T. Muskavitch Undergraduate Research Fund, the Carl Krieger Memorial Fellowship Fund, the Stuart L. Feldman Biochemistry Scholarship Fund, and the Ezra L. Totton Scholarship in Biochemistry.
The Mary Shine Peterson Awards are sponsored by the Mary Shine Peterson Scholarship in Biochemistry Fund and donors to the award. Many undergraduate students use the award to fund time performing research at another university. Others use it to fund a trip to present their research at a scientific conference.
This year’s recipients are listed below, with faculty advisors named in parentheses.
- Undergraduate Summer Research Awards: Jonathan Buscher (Robert Landick), Jake Chung (Robert Kirchdoerfer), Wangqin Ge (Ying Ge), Laniya Hinton (Brian Pfleger), Amelia Rancour (Jessica Lang), Kierstin Schlevensky (Becky Richards), Paige Sikora (Aaron Hoskins), Bonnie Tran (Eric Johannsen)
- Mary Shine Peterson Awards: Jiaqi Chen (Ying Ge), Samanyu Jadhav (Muhammed Murtaza), Hanna Kusmirek (Samuel Butcher), Charles Lipscomb (Xinyu Zhao), Carolyn Winder (David Harris), Elliott Weix (Scott Coyle)
At the campus level, 16 undergraduate biochemistry students earned Hilldale Undergraduate/Faculty Research Fellowships, and seven undergraduate biochemistry students earned Sophomore Research Fellowships.
Hilldale Undergraduate/Faculty Research Fellowships include a stipend to each student and to their faculty advisors. These fellowships are granted by the Hilldale Foundation and the Wisconsin State Legislature. Sophomore Research Fellowships include a stipend to each student and to their faculty advisors. These fellowships are funded by grants from the Brittingham Wisconsin Trust and the Kemper K. Knapp Bequest, with additional support from the Universities of Wisconsin, the Chancellor’s Office, and the Provost’s Office.
This year’s fellows majoring in biochemistry are listed below, with faculty advisors named in parentheses. View the full list of Hilldale Undergraduate/Faculty Research Fellowships and Sophomore Research Fellowships here.
- Hilldale Undergraduate/Faculty Research Fellowships: Ava Berdelman (Elizabeth Wright), Jonathan Buscher (Robert Landick), Jiaqi Chen (Ying Ge), Jake Chung (Robert Kirchdoerfer), Samanyu Jadhav (Muhammed Murtaza), Brock Peyton (Rozalyn Anderson), Benjamin Pralat (Aaron Hoskins), Amelia Rancour (Jessica Lang), Kierstin Schlevensky (Becky Richards), Paige Sikora (Aaron Hoskins), Katherine Genevieve Wahr (Zsuzsanna Fabry), Elliott Weix (Scott Coyle), Carolyn Winder (David Harris), Abigail Wu (Jean-Michel Ané), Zhaoyang Xiang (Jeff Martell), Keira R. Ylvisaker (Kavi Mehta)
- Sophomore Research Fellowships: Michael Cherevatsky (Matyas Sandor), Katelyn Doehrmann (Susanna Widicus Weaver), Devyn Iglesias-Fuller (Andrea Putnam), Jack Marsh (Eric Yen), Ryan Smithana (Nader Sheibani), Aurora Swissdort (María Virumbrales-Muñoz), Yuva Vijaykumar Shunmugapriya (Dustin Deming)
The Department of Biochemistry Graduate Fellowships also were announced at the reception. Graduate student fellowships cover a student’s tuition and stipend for an academic year, providing students flexibility in their research endeavors by not being tied to a specific grant. This year’s graduate fellowships are sponsored by the Steenbock Predoctoral Fellowships in Biochemistry, Stephen Babcock Agricultural Chemistry Research Fellows, E.W. Hopkins Fund, James Chieh-Hsia Mao Wisconsin Distinguished Graduate Fellowship Fund, Dr. Shang-Chen Pan Fund in Biochemistry, William H. Peterson Fellowships in Biochemistry, Sam C. and Dorothy J. Smith Graduate Fellowship Fund in Biochemistry, and Denis R.A. Washburn and Martha Wharton Fund.
The 14 graduate fellows, advisors in parentheses, are listed below.
- Department of Biochemistry Graduate Fellowships: Kaitlyn Abe (Ci Ji Lim), Dennis Bolshakov (Scott Coyle), Juyeong Cho (Snehal Chaudhari), Heidy Elkhaligy (Tim Grant), Hayley Hirsch (Elizabeth Wright), William Leiter (Amy Weeks), Robert Mejia (Brian Fox), Carlos Mellado Fritz (Jing Fan), Charles Opara (Alan Attie), Zoë Semersky (Monica Neugebauer), Tulika Sharan (Vatsan Raman), John Shuster (Judi Simcox), Connor White (Aaron Hoskins), Cizhang Zhao (Hannah Wayment-Steele)
Graduate student Sourav Agrawal (Ci Ji Lim Lab) was awarded a College of Agricultural and Life Science (CALS) 2026 Louis and Elsa Thomsen Wisconsin Distinguished Graduate Fellowship. The year-long fellowship was established in 1999 by the estate of Elsa Thomsen to support CALS graduate students who demonstrate excellence in research.
Departmental awards are coordinated by a Biochemistry Department awards committee. Members of this year’s facilitation and review committee are Professors Paul Friesen, Scott Coyle, Tim Grant, Robert Kirchdoerfer, James Ntambi, and Michael Sussman, and Staff Bre Sinotte Wang.
Congratulations to all the students recognized at this year’s ceremonies!