Student Highlights
Take a look at our recent student achievements, events and activities!
Updated December 2, 2024
December 2024
Congratulations to former Graduate Students Julieta Gomez and Rachael Karm for their participation in this New York Times article on the dire problems of warming oceans due to climate change! Both Julieta and Rachael are former members of Dr. Brent Hughes's Lab. Rachel is currently working as a Researcher in Dr. Hughes's Lab and Julieta is a Kelp Restoration Specialist at Greater Farallones Association. We are extremely proud of these young scientists' hard work and dedication to kelp restoration!
October 2024
The Department of Biology is proud to announce Hua Lab undergrads Kieran Chiddix, Sarah Sanchez Hurtado and Patrick Swallow have been selected as part of the team to represent SSU at the 2024 COPLAC Virtual Midwest/West Regional URSCA Conference! The Conference will be held on Saturday, November 9th. Take a look at their YouTube videos below... Special shout out to SSU Communication Arts Department and Studio Blue for their help with these videos!
Way to go Kieran, Sarah and Patrick! Bring back the trophy!
Kieran Chiddix
Characterization of Centrosome Number in a Renal Cancer Cell Line
Video of Kieran's presentation on YouTube: https://youtu.be/MxDwszpZG9w?si=tQiTFMzPXSLyx29Y
Sarah Sanchez Hurtado
Characterization of Endothelial Protein Markers CD31/ PECAM and VE-Cadherin in Human Cells (with P. Swallow)
Video of Sarah's and Patrick's presentation on You Tube: https://youtu.be/ZGRRAd4hQGk
Patrick Swallow
Characterization of Endothelial Protein Markers CD31/ PECAM and VE-Cadherin in Human Cells (with S. Sanchez Hurtado)
Video of Sarah's and Patrick's presentation on You Tube: https://youtu.be/ZGRRAd4hQGk
August 2024
Aiyana Singh
Congratulations to Biology Graduate Student Aiyana Singh, who received a grant from the Sonoma County Fish and Wildlife Commission! Aiyana is a member of the Zippay Lab, and is currently our Graduate Student Rep for the Biology Department. Way to go, Aiyana!
Madison Stein
Biology Graduate Student Madison Stein, part of the Geist Lab, was recently invited to speak at the South West Partners in Amphibian and Reptile Conservation Conference at the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum! Her presentation, titled "Nesting Behavior in a Population of Western Pond Turtles" won second place for Best Student Presentation! Madison says, ...It was a great networking experience where I met other professionals, made great new contacts, and learned from very intelligent herpetologists. They even hosted a hike that allowed us to find, interact, and learn more about the reptiles and amphibians in Arizona and what they are doing to protect them... Congratulations, Madison!
October 2023
Congratulations to Christian Quintero, a 4th year Biology major in the Hua Lab was selected to represent Sonoma State in the Council for Public Liberal Arts Colleges (COPLAC) Undergraduate Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity (URSCA) Conference! Ten SSU students were selected to present their research for this conference November 4th, 2023.
Christian will present his undergraduate research: "Positioning of homologous chromosome 15 in Bloom's Syndrome"
Big thanks to StudioBlue at SSU in helping with this research presentation!
Christian Quintero
April 2023
The Biology Department is proud to announce Biology Grad student Rebecca Kopel (Geist Lab) has won the SSU Grand Slam 2023! Rebecca's presentation is titled “Bringing Back the Bugs--Using Benthic Macroinvertebrates to Assess Freshwater Environments”.
 Rebecca Kopel Photo Credit: Wendy St. John |  Courtesy of Rebecca Kopel |
Rebecca will go on to represent Sonoma State in the CSU Grand Slam Competition on May 5th. Congratulations Rebecca!
And kudos to all our Grads who participated: Justin Brasil, Alex Flores, Shelby Hotz, Christina Leport, Alex Martin, Kiona Parker, Beth Sabo and Vini Souza! Way to go BIOL GRADS!
March 2023
Biology Grad Students Rebecca Kopel (Geist Lab) and Vini Souza (Hughes Lab) have been selected to present their research at the CSU Student Research Competition next month at San Diego State University!
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| Rebecca Kopel photo credit: Wendy St. John | Vini Souza photo credit: Abbey Dias |
Rebecca's narrative describing her research is titled "Utilizing Benthic Macroinvertebrates to Assess Ecological Status of Urbanized Northern California Freshwater Ecosystems". Rebecca elaborates, "My project focuses on BMI population structure within several channelized Northern California streams. This method of biomonitoring permits assessment of urban impact on freshwater ecosystem condition in and around Rohnert Park, CA (DiFranco 2006)."
Vini's title for his narrative is "Population and Community Assembly Patterns Related to Remnant Bull Kelp (Nereocystis luetkeana) Forests Following a Catastrophic Decline". Vini says, "My research focuses on the population and community assembly patterns of remnant kelp patches along the northern CA coast."
Best of Luck to Vini and Rebecca! Bring back the Trophy!
January 2023
Congratulations to Vanessa Sanchez (Hua Lab), who received the 2023 Doris A. Howell Foundation – CSUPERB Research Scholar Award for her project “Using Trisomy 21 Down Syndrome cells to understand chromosome organization.” This competitive grant funds promising undergraduate student research projects in topics related to women's health. This is the first award made to SSU so we are SUPER proud of Vanessa!
August 2022
Congratulations to Hua Lab member Vanessa Sanchez who has been selected as a McNairs Scholar! The McNair Scholars Program is a federally funded program designed to prepare high achieving undergraduate students for admission into graduate schools to pursue advanced degrees. Way to go, Vanessa!
May 2022
The Biology Department is proud to announce undergrads Marcos Peech and Vanessa Sanchez were both selected as MESA/Genentech scholars to conduct summer research in the Hua Lab! Their projects focus on understanding chromosome organization in normal and diseased human cells. Congratulations Vanessa and Marcos!
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May 2022
CSU-wide Grand Slam Competition - May 6th, 2022: Congratulations to Biology Graduate Student, Alyssa Cooper who won the Audience Choice for her presentation: "Food Fight! Prey Competition between Two Important Marine Predators". Excellent Job Alyssa!
Slide from Alyssa's presentation
May 2022
SSU Week of Research and Creativity: Congratulations to Biology major Isahar "Isa" Guerrero Diaz, for winning Best Poster at the Science Symposium event! Isa's poster title is "Sudden Oak Death: California Bay Laurel Symptom Trials by Fire and Earth”. Way to go, Isa!
Isahar Guerrero Diaz
May 2022
Christian Quintero
CSUPERB - President's Scholar Award: Congratulations to Biology student Christian Quintero who won the prestigious President's Scholar Award at CSUPERB for his project, "Chromosome organization of Bloom’s Syndrome cells" - Christian is the first SSU Biology student to win this award! Way to go, Christian!
April 2022
SSU Grand Slam Competition: Our Grad students came through again this year, taking first and second place and heading to the CSU-wide Grand Slam on May 6th!
Zane's winning presentation was titled, "Examining the effects of tree structure on wildfire using voxelized terrestrial remote sensing data and computational fluid dynamics fire modeling" and Alyssa's title was "Food Fight! Prey Competition between Two Important Marine Predators". Congratulations to All!
April 2022
SSU's Week of Research and Creativity - Science Symposium: Congratulations to Biology senior Belle Ehrmantraut! Her poster, "Degradation of Polylactic Acid Bioplastic by a Thermophilic Microbial Consortium" won the Ongaro Green Science Grand Prize award! Way to go Belle!
Photo credit: Belle Ehrmantraut, Michael Cohen
Belle Ehrmantraut
April 2022
Congratulations to Biology Grad Student, Elliott Smeds, who successfully defended his Masters Thesis: "Exploring the genomic basis of thermal adaptation in the willow leaf beetle Chrysomela aeneicollis"
This is first in-person Thesis Defense in over two years! Well done, Elliott!
Elliott Smeds