15th Annual Graduate Student Recognition Celebration

The Graduate Student Recognition Celebration, which began in 1999, recognizes students who receive prestigious fellowships and awards. These honorees are providing leadership that is making a significant contribution to the mission of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and to a wide variety of fields of study.

The event was held on April 10, 2013, beginning with research poster presentations at 3 p.m., followed by the awards ceremony at 4 p.m. and a reception directly following the ceremony.

The honorees included the following:

• IMPACT Awards
• Boka W. Hadzija Award for Distinguished Service
• Dean's Award for Significant Contributions to Graduate Education
• Dean's Distinguished Dissertation Award
• Council of Graduate Schools/ProQuest Distinguished Dissertation Award
• University Research Day Awards
• Honor Society Inductions
• External Fellowships and Awards

2013 GEAB Impact Award Winners for Research Benefitting the State of North Carolina

• Lorraine Ahearn, Journalism and Mass Communication, Windows to the Past: People, Places and Memory in Downtown Greensboro
• Andrea Anton Gamazo, Environment and Ecology, Ecology and Evolution of the Lionfish Invasion of the Caribbean: Resistance, Adaptation and Impacts


Will Boone, Musicology, received a 2013 Impact Award for his project titled "Hearing Faith: Experience, Belief and Popular Music in the Lives of African-American Spirit-Filled Christians."

• John Paul Balmonte, Marine Sciences, Assessing the Impacts of Hurricanes on Riverine Microbial Community Composition and Their Consequent Effects on Water Equality
• Rebecca Bauer, Toxicology, The Role of the Inflammasome in Virus- and Pollutant-Induced Asthma Pathogenesis
• Will Boone, Musicology, Hearing Faith: Experience, Belief and Popular Music in the Lives of African-American Spirit-Filled Christians
• James Byrne, Pharmaceutical Sciences, The Creation of Minimally Invasive Electric-Field Assisted Drug Delivery Devices for the Treatment of Solid Tumors
• Liheng Cai, Applied Sciences and Engineering, Structure and Function of Airway Surface Layer of the Human Lungs and Mobility of Probe Particles in Complex Fluids
• Joey Crosswell, Environmental Sciences and Engineering, Air-Water CO2 Fluxes in the Neuse River Estuary-Pamlico Sound and Implications for Regional and Global Carbon Budgets
• Corey Cusack, Neurobiology, The Molecular Intersection Between Neuronal Apoptosis and Axon-Specific Degeneration
• Rishi Desai, Pharmaceutical Sciences, Medication Errors During Patient Transitions into Nursing Homes: Characteristics and Association with Patient Harm
• Alison Doernberg, Maternal and Child Health and Social Work, Supporting North Carolina Families Facing Cancer: A Community-Engaged Exploration of Assets, Barriers and Needs
• Jennifer Donnally, History, The Politics of Abortion and the Rise of the New Right
• Shellie Ellis, Health Policy and Management, Receipt of NCCN Guideline-Concordant Prostate Cancer Care Among African- and Caucasian-American Men in North Carolina
• Benjamin Goerger, Human Movement Science, The Effect of Anterior Cruciate Ligament Injury and Reconstruction on Lower Extremity Biomechanics, Coordination and Variability
• Alexander Gorzalski, Environmental Sciences and Engineering, Identification of Membrane Foulants and Optimum Cleaning Strategies for Nanofiltration and Reverse Osmosis Membranes Treating Groundwaters from the Castle Hayne and Peedee Aquifers
• Adam Gracz, Cell and Molecular Physiology, The Role of SOX4 in Intestinal Crypt Homeostasis
• Christine Hajdin, Chemistry, Identifying Structural Motifs for Future Antiviral Targeting Sites
• Dan Hertz, Pharmaceutical Sciences, Discovery and Validation of Pharmacogenetic Predictors of Taxane-Induced Peripheral Neuropathy
• Zachary Kerr, Epidemiology, Municipal Pedestrian and Bicycle Planning to Support Safety in North Carolina
• Mary Kohn, Linguistics, Childhood and Adolescent Development Across the Ethnolinguistic Divide
• Ashley Kranz, Health Policy and Management, Comparing the Effect of Delivery Models for Preventing Dental Caries in Young Children
• Andy Lavender, Chemistry, High-Throughput Characterization of Three-Dimensional RNA Structure
• Patricia Lenhart, Cell and Molecular Physiology, RAMP3 Modulation of GPR30 Trafficking and Function in Cardiovascular Disease
• Lucia Leone, Nutrition, Development and Evaluation of an Environmental Intervention to Increase Access to Fresh Fruits and Vegetables in Lower-Income Neighborhoods
• Amy Lerner, Education, Toward Successful Integration: Partnering with Local Schools to Assist Refugee Students
• Meghan Lewis, Public Health Leadership, Evaluating the Utilization of the Community Health Assessment: Cabarrus County, North Carolina
• Ward Lyles, City and Regional Planning, Stakeholder Network Influences on Local-Level Hazard Mitigation Planning Outputs
• Kyle Messier, Environmental Sciences and Engineering, Integrating Address, Geocoding, Land Use Regression and Spatiotemporal Geostatistical Estimation for Groundwater Tetrachloroethylene
• Jennifer Moss, Health Behavior, Improving Uptake of Human Papillomavirus (HPV) Vaccine to Reduce Disparities and Improve Cervical Cancer Outcomes
• Maya Nadimpalli, Environmental Sciences and Engineering, Carriage of Antibiotic-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus by Livestock Workers and Household Members in North Carolina


Jasmine Talameh, Pharmaceutical Sciences, received a 2013 Impact Award for her project titled "Genetic and Pharmacogenetic Associations with Heart Failure Patient Survival."

• Kevin Park, City and Regional Planning, North Carolina Housing and Mortgage Lending Data/State of North Carolina's Cities
• Eliza Peterson, Biochemistry and Biophysics, Inhibitors of RecA and EndA: Toward Novel Adjuvants to Improve the Success of Antibacterial Treatment of Infections
• Andrea Richardson, Nutrition, Dynamic Environments and Obesity: Risky Genes?
  
• Reid Roberts, Microbiology and Immunology, Programming Immune Responses with Materials Science
• Alison Sanders, Environmental Sciences and Engineering, Towards Prenatal Biomonitoring in North Carolina: Assessing Arsenic, Cadmium, Mercury and Lead Levels in Pregnant Women
• Jessica Sorrentino, Toxicology, The Investigation of Mechanisms of p16INK4a Expression in vivo in Response to Toxicological Exposures
• Anisha Steephen, City and Regional Planning, Building Integrated Communities
• Jasmine Talameh, Pharmaceutical Sciences, Genetic and Pharmacogenetic Associations with Heart Failure Patient Survival
• Bethany Walton, Pathology, Contribution of the Fibrin(ogen) Gamma Prime Chain to Clot Formation, Structure and Stability
• Jackie White, Environment and Ecology, The Impact of the Altered Floodplain Hydrology of the Lower Roanoke River on Tree Regeneration and Floodplain Forest Composition
• Alyssa Wittenborn, City and Regional Planning, Agricultural Nutrient Management in the Neuse River Basin: Exploring the Links Between Mandates, Motivations and Behavior

Boka W. Hadzija Award for Distinguished University Service by a Graduate or Professional Student

• Stephanie Baker, Health Behavior

Stephanie Baker, a doctoral student in Health Behavior, received the 2013 Boka W. Hadzija Award for Distinguished University Service by a Graduate or Professional Student. She is pictured with her colleagues in the Gillings School of Global Public Health's Office of Student Affairs.

Dean's Award for Significant Contributions to Graduate Education

• Chancellor Holden Thorp, UNC-Chapel Hill

Chancellor Holden Thorp accepts the Dean's Award; in presenting this honor, Dean Steve Matson said, "Holden Thorp has been a graduate student, he has trained graduate students and he has found ways to support graduate students."

Dean's Distinguished Dissertation Awards

• Steven Michael Gaddis, Sociology
  2013 Dean's Distinguished Dissertation Award, Social Sciences
  The Effects of College Selectivity on Labor Market Success: Race, Gender, Class and Horizontal Stratification in Higher Education
  
• Ryan Gessner, Biomedical Engineering
  2013 Dean's Distinguished Dissertation Award, Mathematics, Physical Sciences and Engineering
  Improving Ultrasonic Assessments of Cancer Presence and of Tumor Response to Therapy
  
• Sean Gregory, Microbiology and Immunology
  2013 Dean's Distinguished Dissertation Award, Biological and Life Sciences
  Relationships Between KSHV and the Host Immune Response
  
• Ricky Law, History
  2013 Dean's Distinguished Dissertation Award, Humanities and Fine Arts
  Knowledge Is Power: The Interwar German and Japanese Mass Media in the Making of the Axis

Council of Graduate Schools/ProQuest Distinguished Dissertation Award

• Björn B. Brandenburg, Computer Science
  Recipient in the category of Mathematics, Physical Sciences and Engineering
  Scheduling and Locking in Multiprocessor Real-Time Operating Systems

2013 University Research Day Honorees

Oral:

• Physical Sciences
  

  John Paul Balmonte, Marine Sciences

  Humanities

  Christopher Reali, Musicology

  Biology and Health Sciences (first session)

  J. Elliott Robinson, Neurobiology

  Biology and Health Sciences (second session)

  Julie Lauffenburger, Pharmaceutical Sciences

  Social Sciences

  Ken Reddix II, Economics

Kevin Park, Impact Award winner, describes his research.

Poster:

• First Session

  Natalie Cohen, Marine Sciences

  Second Session

  Loneke Blackman, Nutrition

Honorary Society Inductees

Frank Porter Graham Honor Society

• Kiran Bhardwaj, Philosophy
• Ben Bolling, English and Comparative Literature
• Zerita Buchanan, Dentistry
• Karen Carver, Dentistry
• Daniel Crona, Pharmaceutical Sciences
• Ashley Hall, English and Comparative Literature
• William Hannah, Medicine
• Julie Lauffenburger, Pharmaceutical Sciences
• Taylor Livingston, Anthropology
• Allison Mathews, Sociology
• JoEllen McBride, Physics and Astronomy
• Katherine Moga, Chemistry
• Lindsey Smith, Nutrition
• Richard Watkins, Microbiology and Immunology
• Honorary:
• Oswaldo Estrada, Romance Languages and Literatures
• Brian Sturm, Information and Library Science

The Order of the Golden Fleece

• Dane Emmerling, Health Behavior
• Justin Harlow, Dentistry
• J. Elliott Robinson, Neurobiology and Medicine

Hundreds of faculty and staff members, students and friends of graduate education attend the Graduate Student Recognition Celebration each year.

The Order of the Grail-Valkyries

• William Hannah, Medicine
• Ashley Klein, Law

Prestigious External Fellowship Winners