The Graduate School is proud to announce the winners of this year’s Post-Doctoral Datablitz competition. After an intense half-hour of deliberation by our panel of judges, Veronica Makowsky, Jaci Vanheest, Anne Oeldorf-Hirsch, Michael Finiguerra, and Kay Gruder, three prizes were awarded:

1st place, and the people’s choice award, went to Rebecca A. Campbell-Montalvo’s “The Birthplace of Errors in Education Statistics: The Overlooked Site of K-12 School Registration

2nd place went to Islam Mosa’s “Life-lasting Power for Cardiac Pacemakers”

3rd place went to Mary Himmelstein’s “At the Heart of Chronic Disease: Weight Discrimination Increases Risk for Cardiometabolic Disease”

Rebecca A. Campbell-Motalvo, 2018 Datablitz Winner and People’s Choice Award

Islam Mosa, DataBlitz 2018 Second Place Winner

Mary Himmelstein, Datablitz 2018 Third-Place Winner

Sarah McAnulty of the University of Connecticut’s Department of Molecular and Cell Biology has received a American Association of University Women American Dissertation Fellowship. With this award, Sarah will conduct her thesis work on the Hawaiian bobtail squid and its symbiosis with a bioluminescent bacterium, Vibrio fischeri. Sarah’s work is uncovering how animal immune cells distinguish between their beneficial bacteria and others they encounter. For more information about AAUW Fellowships, please visit: https://www.aauw.org/what-we-do/educational-funding-and-awards/

Marc Reyes of the University of Connecticut’s Department of History has received a Fulbright U.S. Student Program Award to India from the U.S. Department of State and the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board. Reyes will conduct research in Delhi, Mumbai, and Ahmedabad. He will be affiliated with Jawaharlal Nehru University’s School of International Studies. His project, “In the Circle of Great Powers: India, the United States, and the Postcolonial Atomic State, 1947-1974” examines the political and cultural contexts of India’s atomic energy program and U.S. involvement in the development of their nuclear weapons program.

Colleagues, students, family, and friends gathered recently at a reception to celebrate with Professor Maria Luz Fernandez, this year’s recipient of the Edward C. Marth Mentorship Award.  This award, established by the UConn AAUP to honor Ed Marth, former Executive Director of the UConn AAUP chapter, recognizes a faculty member for outstanding leadership and dedication to excellence in mentoring graduate students. As a professor in the Department of Nutritional Sciences, Dr. Fernandez has epitomized all of the qualities celebrated by this award.  Not only is she a world-renowned scholar, but she is also a tireless advocate for graduate students and graduate education more generally.  She has supervised over 50 graduate students (PhD and MS), regularly publishing with student co-authors, and has played a prominent role in the recruitment and retention of minority graduate students at UConn. Dean Kent Holsinger from The Graduate School presided over the ceremony conferring this award to Dr. Fernandez and led the toast honoring her many contributions.