As the school year comes to a close, the ISA would like to congratulate its students on their incredible accomplishments! Visit the award websites to read more.
| Student | Program | Award/Event | Title/Description |
| Braden Carne | Latham Fellow | SURF 2026 | Electron Behavior Across the Alfvén Surface: Recent Findings from Parker Solar Probe |
| Seren Castellano | Science Alliance | ISA Scholar Symposium | Characterizing Sleep in New Zealand Freshwater Snails |
| Nathan Clack | Former Latham student | NSF-GRFP | The NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP) is one of the nation's most prestigious fellowship programs, providing three years of financial support, over five years, to graduate students who have demonstrated potential for significant achievements in research. |
| Avery Eckhardt | Science Alliance | SURF 2026 | Virasoro Geodesics |
| Emily Formella | Science Alliance | 2025 Capture Your Research 2nd Place Winner ISA Scholar Symposium | The Capture Your Research! is an image competition where Engineering students, faculty, and staff can submit one image that captures the essence of their research. Scholar Symposium presentation title: Impact of simulated microgravity on chorioretinal cell fate and epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition |
| Alayna Gallery | Science Alliance, Latham Fellow | ISA Scholar Symposium | pCREB Expression in Spinal Dopamine D1-Receptor Expressing Neurons During the Transition to Chronic Pain |
| Kylee Harford | UI-IINSPIRE | SURF 2026 | Risk Management and Curation of Collections in Museums |
| Klaertje Hesselink | MARC, Science Alliance | ISA Scholar Symposium | The NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP) is one of the nation's most prestigious fellowship programs, providing three years of financial support, over five years, to graduate students who have demonstrated potential for significant achievements in research. Scholar Symposium presentation title: Engineering of Mixed Metal Oxide Nanoparticles |
| Riley McCoy | UI-IINSPIRE | SURF 2026 | Prenatal poly(I:C) exposure leads to social deficits and hypoactivity of brain network regulating social behavior |
| Alexi Michanicou | Science Alliance | SURF 2026 | Extracting Luminosity Metrics from Pulsating Aurora |
| Abby Myroth | Science Alliance | ISA Scholar Symposium | SURF presentation title: The Developmental Emergence of Sleep Spindles in Juvenile Rats Scholar Symposium presentation title: Whiskers, fingers, trunks, and snouts: Why does sleep-related twitching persist into adulthood? |
| Zachary Niemasz | Science Alliance | ISA Scholar Symposium | Neurotoxicant, Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCB) Exposure Leads to Long-Term Spatial Memory Deficits in Adult Mice |
| Keegan Nissen | Science Alliance | SURF 2026 | Bridging the Gap: Barriers, Impacts, and Pathways to Addressing Rural Hearing Healthcare Inequities in Iowa |
| Peter Nitsche and Adriana Castellano | Latham Fellow | SURF 2026 | Tentacle Tales: How Genome Architecture and Nutrient Availability Shape Tissue Regeneration in a Freshwater Snail |
| Odysseus Orr | past MARC and IBA scholar with ISA | Research Publication | Even when reward is guaranteed, animals may resist becoming creatures of habit. University of Iowa researchers found that pigeons balanced repetition with exploration — behaving, in the researchers’ words, “at the edge of chaos.” |
| Nina Osborne | Incoming Latham Fellow | Goldwater Scholar | In 2026, the Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Foundation proudly celebrates 40 years working to support talented college sophomores and juniors who aspire to become this nation’s next generation of researchers in science, engineering, and mathematics. |
| McKinley Sanders | Science Alliance | Presentation: American Society of Microbiology North Central Branch 84th Annual Meeting ISA Scholar Symposium | Graduate and undergraduate students from the University of Iowa’s Department of Microbiology and Immunology were recognized for their outstanding research and science communication at the 85th annual ASM North Central Branch Meeting held in Cedar Falls, Iowa Nov. 7-8th. Scholar Symposium presentation title: Human Pegivirus Reduces Low-Level HIV Replication and Viral Blips |
| Bhoomika Shettigar | UI-IINSPIRE | ISA Scholar Symposium | fNIRS Evidence for Transitional Frontal-Parietal Connectivity in Early Symbolic Number Acquisition |
| Kassandra Sigafus | Science Alliance | ISA Scholar Symposium | Investigating the Novel Disaggregase, ABCF-1, as a Member of the Processing Body Assembly Pathway |
| DeAndre Steger | Science Alliance | Distinguished Student Leader Certificate, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences ISA Scholar Symposium | The prestigious Hancher-Finkbine Medallions are presented each year to students, faculty, staff, and an alumnus or alumna of the University of Iowa. The medallions, first awarded in 1964, are inscribed with the words “learning, leadership, and loyalty,” summarizing the award’s criteria. SURF and Scholar Symposium presentation title: Evaluating the Convergent Validity of Digital Processing-Speed Assessments: An Analysis of DSST, Letter Comparison, and Pattern Comparison Tasks |
| Ellie Wojcikowski | Science Alliance | ISA Scholar Symposium | SURF presentation title: A Psychometric Evaluation of Heart Rate Variability to Index Social-Emotional Functioning in Schizotypy Scholar Symposium presentation title: Heart Rate Variability as a Marker of Social and Emotional Functioning in Schizotypy |
| Isabelle Yoder | Science Alliance | SURF 2026 | Distinguishing Mild Cognitive Impairment from Normal Aging: Domain-Specific Cognitive Differences |
| Christina Yu | Science Alliance | In a research presentation for the University of Iowa Performing Arts Division, Christina shared “The Loneliest Generation,” a photo piece created in response to performing Lágrimas do Paraíso for Dance Gala 2025, exploring themes of collective loneliness in a digitally connected world. The work layers screenshots from a single rehearsal video to emphasize how art is increasingly mediated through screens. SURF presentation title: The emergence and development of sleep-related ocular activity in infant rats |