2024 Winners
Celia Bisbach
Postdoctoral Researcher
Dept of Ophthalmology & Visual Sciences, SMPH
Mentor: David Gamm
Project title: “Design of potent Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor (VEGF) degrader molecules for treatment of neovascular Age-related Macular Degeneration (nAMD)”
Madison Dillerud
Graduate Student
Dept of Neuroscience, SMPH
Mentor: Timothy Gomez
Project title: “Dissecting the Molecular Basis for Age-dependent Loss of Human Photoreceptor Terminal Motility”
Wei Lin
Graduate Student
Dept of Electrical & Computer Engineering, COE
Mentors: Andreas Velten
Project title: “Spatial-Temporal Image Pyramid for Motion Estimation in High Frame Rate Low-Light Imaging”
Piper Rawding
Postdoctoral Researcher
Dept of Ophthalmology & Visual Sciences, SMPH
Mentor: Sarah Gong
Project title: “Optimizing non-viral vectors for retinal genome editing”
Andrew Schultz
Graduate Student
Dept of Neuroscience, SMPH
Mentor: Raunak Sinha
Project title: “Investigating the role of synaptic ribbons in retinal function”
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2023 Winners
Theodore Bucci
Graduate Student
Department of Neuroscience, SMPH
Mentor: Raunak Sinha
Project title: “Effects of Rhodopsin Phosphorylation Perturbation on Sensitivity and Timing of the Retinal Output”
Bikalpa Ghimire
Graduate Student
Department of Neuroscience, SMPH
Mentor: Xin Huang
Project title: “Neural processes of motion integration and segmentation in the primary visual cortex (V1)”
Jake Khoussine
PhD/MD Student
Dept of Ophthalmology & Visual Sciences, SMPH
Mentors: M. Hoon and J. Rogers
Project title: “Combining adaptive optics, electrophysiology and serial electron microscopy to investigate photoreceptor integrity in retinitis pigmentosa”
Michele M. Salzman
Graduate Student
Department of Surgical Sciences, SVM
Mentor: Freya Mowat
Project title: “In utero cadmium exposure: effects on murine retinal development and postnatal function – a pilot study”
Tania Sharmin
Graduate Student
Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, SMPH
Mentor: Colleen M. McDowell
Project title: “Role of Integrin α4 and α9 in the development of elevated IOP and trabecular meshwork damage”
2022 Winners
David Barnett, MD
Postdoctoral Researcher
Dept. of Surgery, SMPH / Surgical Sciences, SVM
Mentors: Michelle Ciucci and Freya Mowat
Project title: “Translational Visual System Biomarkers in a Mouse Model of Parkinson Disease”
Mason Shipley
Graduate Student
Department of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine, SMPH
Mentor: Donna Neumann
Project title: “Knockdown of HSV-1 Latency Associated Transcripts for Prevention of Recurrent Viral Ocular Disease”
Praveen Susaimanickam, PhD
Postdoctoral Researcher
Waisman Center (VCRGE)
Mentor: David Gamm
Project title: “Identification and Utilization of Selective Cell Surface Markers for Human Cone Photoreceptor Isolation and Transplantation”
Serena Wisner
Graduate Student
Neuroscience Training Program, SMPH
Mentor: Mrinalini Hoon
Project title: “Role of Photoreceptor Input for Synapse Formation Across Inner Retinal Neurons”
Ruosen “Alex” Xie, PhD
Postdoctoral Researcher
Department of Ophthalmology & Visual Sciences, SMPH
Mentor: Shaoqin “Sarah” Gong
Project title: “Developing Non-Viral Vectors for Gene Therapy in the Retina”
2021 Winners
Jennifer Heyward
Veterinary Medicine Student
Comparative Biomedical Services, SVM
Mentor: Freya Mowat
Project title: “Evaluation of choroidal perfusion and risk for hypercoagulability in a naturally occurring cause of onset blindness in dogs”
Jenna Nagy
Graduate Student
Cellular and Molecular Pathology, SMPH
Mentor: Raunak Sinha
Project title: “Elucidating the effects of dendritic and axonal GABAA mediated presynaptic inhibition on adaptation to luminance in the ONa GC circuit”
Ziyun Ye
Graduate Student
Dept of Ophthalmology & Visual Sciences, SMPH
Mentor: Donna Neumann
Project title: “Manipulating anterograde transport of HSV-1 to the cornea to prevent recurrence of viral ocular disease.”
Clementine Zimnicki
Graduate Student
Dept of Psychology, College of L&S
Mentor: Karen Schloss
Project title: “Understanding inferred mappings for colormap data visualizations.”
2020 Winners
Allison Ludwig
Veterinary Medicine Student
Dept of Ophthalmology & Visual Sciences, SMPH
Mentor: David Gamm
Project title: “Development of a photoreceptor enrichment protocol to advance cell replacement therapies”
Kushin Mukherjee
Graduate Student
Dept of Psychology, College of L&S
Mentor: Tim Rogers
Project title: “Understanding how visual communication shapes the structure of visual concept representations”
Aindrila Saha
Graduate Student
Neuroscience, SMPH
Mentor: Raunak Sinha
Project title: “Understanding cone signaling in primate fovea and the characterization of light responses in hPSC-derived organoid cones.”
Kara Vogel
Postdoctoral Researcher
Neuroscience, SMPH
Mentor: Gillian McLellan
Project title: “LTBP2: the mechanistic underpinnings of glaucoma.”
2019 Winners
Anjani Chakrala
Graduate Student
Neuroscience
Mentor: Xin Huang
Project title: “Neural Representation of Overlapping Motion Surfaces Located at Different Depths in Visual Area MT: Effects of Selective Attention on this Representation”
Ralph Nelson
Graduate Student
Kinesiology
Mentor: Andrea Mason
Project title: “The Assessment of Dual-Task Interference Using Walking and Carrying Tasks in Children With and Without Autism Spectrum”
Abhilash Sawant
Graduate Student
Neuroscience
Mentor: Raunak Sinha
Project title: “Understanding the Mechanism and Function of Postsynaptic Inhibition in the Mouse ON-Alpha Retinal Ganglion Cell”
2018 Winners
Michael Landowski
Post-Doctoral Student
Medical Genetics
Mentor: Aki Ikeda
Project title: “A role of TMEM135 in retinal glucose and lipid metabolism”
Kazuya Oikawa
Graduate Student
Comparative Biomedical Services, SVM
Mentor: Gillian McLellan
Project title: “Optic nerve head neuroinflammation in a spontaneous large animal model of glaucoma”
2017 Winners
Thomas Lawler
Graduate Student
Nutritional Sciences
Mentor: Julie Mares
Project title: “The association between early life exposure to carotenoids lutein and zeaxanthin and macular pigment optical density in adulthood”
Dwani Patel
Graduate Student
Cell Biology, Neurobiology, and Anatomy
Mentor: Daniel Lipinski
Project title: “Utilizing laser speckle contrast imaging (LSCI) to detect pre-clinical markers of retinal vascular dysfunction in diabetic rat models”