Current Scholars

ARCS® Foundation Atlanta Chapter is honored to present the 2020-2021 Scholar Awards to these outstanding candidates from Emory University, Georgia Institute of Technology, Morehouse College, and the University of Georgia

Aaron Bosse

Glenn Award
Ph.D. Student, Organic Chemistry
Second Year ARCS Scholar
Research Interests: C–H functionalization applied to total synthesis and method development.

Ana Enriquez

Herz Global Impact Award
Ph.D. Student, Microbiology and Molecular Genetics
Third Year ARCS Scholar
Research Interests: elucidating the interactions between Mycobacterium tuberculosis and dendritic cells and its effect on T cells responses during infection

Amanda Gill

Donnell Award
Ph.D. Student, Immunology and Molecular Pathogenesis
Third Year ARCS Scholar
Research Interests: investigating the molecular mechanisms of T cell exhaustion and reinvigoration

Jessica Hoffman

Northside Hospital Award
Ph.D. Student, Molecular and Systems Pharmacology
First Year ARCS Scholar
Research interests: building computational models to predict stem cell therapy outcomes for pediatric heart disease patients.

Kate Holmes

Klamon/Reid Award
Ph.D. Student, Microbiology and Molecular Genetics
Second Year ARCS Scholar
Research interests: emerging and re-emerging zoonotic viral pathogens, and influenza virus diversity and evolution.

Steve Knutson

Carroll/ARCS Award
Ph.D. Student, Chemistry
Third Year ARCS Scholar
Research interests: RNA editing and synthetic biology.

Katie Labgold

Hawkins/Liss Award
Ph.D. Student, Epidemiology
Third Year ARCS Scholar
Research interests: how novel epidemiological methods can improve applied public health research.

Katie was interviewed for an NPR article about her COVID-19 research. Read the article here.

Kari Mattison

Gillin/Ritz-Carlton Award
Ph.D. Student, Genetics and Molecular Biology
Third Year ARCS Scholar
Research interests: the discovery of disease genes and elucidation of disease mechanisms, with particular interest in the role of a novel gene, ATP6V0C, in epilepsy.

Zerleen Quader

BlackRock Award
Ph.D. Student, Epidemiology
First Year ARCS Scholar
Research interests: to understand how social determinants of health and structural factors play a role in childhood cardio-metabolic health.

Elizabeth Sajewski

Herz Global Impact Award
Ph.D. Student, Environmental Health Sciences
Third Year ARCS Scholar
Research interests: the intersection of water infrastructure and infectious disease, with particular interest in using mathematical models to simulate enteric disease dynamics.

Sarah Strassler

Petter Award
Ph.D. Student, Biochemistry
First Year ARCS Scholar
National Science Foundation predoctoral fellow
Research interests: the structural basis of RNA-protein interactions, and bacterial enzymes that confer antibiotic resistance.

Nathan Brown

Siemens Award
Ph.D. Student, Aerospace Engineering
Second Year ARCS Scholar
Research interests: Plasma-material interaction. Nathan is developing a novel plasma diagnostic for electric spacecraft propulsion and fusion energy production.

Asheley Chapman

Herz Global Impact Award
Ph.D. Student, Biochemistry
Third Year ARCS Scholar
Research Interests: the development on nanoparticle-based vaccines and immunotherapies against bacterial and cancer targets.

Carmen Chen

Burke Award
Ph.D. Student, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
Second Year ARCS Scholar
Research interests: developing nanoporous materials to collect water vapor in the atmosphere.

Kenton Blane Fillingim

Graves Award
Ph.D. Student, Engineering Design
Second Year ARCS Scholar
Research interests: understanding the development and implementation of heuristics and biases in design.

Alli Gombolay

Herz Global Impact Award
Ph.D. Student, Bioinformatics
Second Year ARCS Scholar
Research interests: developing and applying computational tools to study DNA repair and genome stability.

Hannah Holmes

John and Mary Franklin Award
Ph.D. Student, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
First Year ARCS Scholar
Research interests: improving the efficiency of CO2 capture technologies using hollow fiber sorbents.

Amy Lynnae Luettich

Dodson/Plummer/ARCS Award
Ph.D. Student, Civil Engineering
Second Year ARCS Scholar
Research interests: urban stormwater management through the focus of Geo-Environmental Engineering.

Sydney Popsuj

Doyle/Easterly/ARCS Award
Ph.D. Student, Biology
Second Year ARCS Scholar
Research interests: the evolution and loss of photosensory systems in the development of certain species of tunicates

Ziad Rashed

Herz Global Impact Award
Ph.D. Student, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences
Second Year ARCS Scholar
Research interests: how to use tools from nonlinear/chaotic dynamics to gain a greater understanding of the complex interactions between glacier and ocean systems.

Kantwon Rogers

BlackRock Award
Ph.D. Student, Computer Science
First Year ARCS Scholar
Research interests: artificial intelligence and robotics with a focus on investigating the influences that prosocial deception has on human-robot interaction.

Watch a presentation of Kantwon's research here.

Sarah Sundius

Meet Sarah here.

Lundeen/Chambers/ARCS Award
Ph.D. Student, Quantitative Biosciences
Second Year ARCS Scholar
Research interests: developing novel mathematical models for dynamic microbial species interactions using both deterministic and stochastic approaches.

Tony Wang

Drummond Award
Ph.D. Student, Electrical and Computer Engineering
First Year ARCS Scholar
Research interests: to develop micro-robots to perform neurosurgery.

Erik Wijmans

BlackRock Award
Ph.D. Student, Computer Science
Second Year ARCS Scholar
Research interests: to develop fundamental techniques, algorithms, and large-scale systems for robotic assistants.

Katherine Young

Northside Hospital Award
Ph.D. Student, Biomedical Engineering
Second Year ARCS Scholar
Research interests: studying the correlation between single cell mechanics and gene expression to better understand cancer metastasis.

Caleb Baines

Georgia Pacific Award
Dual Degree Engineering/Computer Engineering Major
Second Year ARCS Scholar
Research interests: various fields of technology with a particular interest in machine learning.

Lewis Campbell

Goodhew/McGonigle Award
Dual Degree Engineering/Physics Major
Second Year ARCS Scholar
Research interests: fabrics, textiles and their topology, specifically looking at the effects of nonlinear elasticity on the structural and mechanical properties in complex systems. He is currently exploring knot motifs and algorithms for patternmaking.

Storm Chin

BlackRock Award
Computer Science and Mathematics Major
First Year ARCS Scholar
Research interests: neuroscience, data analytics and machine learning

Charles Coleman

Genuine Parts Award
Applied Physics Major with a concentration in Biomedical Engineering
First Year ARCS Scholar
Research interests: biomedical applications and biomaterials, as well as nanoscience and its applications

Dimitri Johnson

Glenn Leadership Award
Biology Major
Second Year ARCS Scholar
Research interests: genetics and neuroscience.

Christian Lubin

BlackRock Award
Chemistry Major
First Year ARCS Scholar
Research interests: designing and synthesizing new drugs for the pharmaceutical industry

Jabari McGinnis

Davis Award
Biology Major
First Year ARCS Scholar
Research interests: Alzheimer’s and Aging research

Jeffrey White

BlackRock Award
Biology Major, Neuroscience Minor
First Year ARCS Scholar
Research interests: Neglected tropical diseases that are endemic in low-income subpopulations of developing regions

Christian Andersen

Northside Hospital Award
Ph.D. Student, Toxicology
Third Year ARCS Scholar
Research interests: molecular mechanisms contributing to effects of chemotherapeutics on the female reproductive tract.

Alyssa Baugh

Sartain Lanier Award
Ph.D. Student, Microbiology
First Year ARCS Scholar
Research interests: genetically engineering bacteria to make biofuels. She hopes to do research on microbially-mediated bioremediation and bioproduction.

Amy Briggs

Olchowski/Potter Award
Ph.D. Student, Ecology
Second Year ARCS Scholar
Research interests: how humans and changing environmental conditions (e.g., rising temperatures and ocean acidification) affect ecosystems, working in coral reefs in the tropical Pacific.

Megan Douglass

Broscher/Hinkle Award
Ph.D. Student, Biomedical Engineering
Second Year ARCS Scholar
Research interests: the development of antimicrobial and blood-compatible surface modifications for biomedical devices.

Katie Duval

Leake/Boyd Award
Ph.D. Student, Genetics
First Year ARCS Scholar
Research interests: the establishment and regulation of chromatin states in vertebrate development.

Nicholas Haynes

Burtchaell Award
Ph.D. Student, Industrial-Organizational Psychology
Second Year ARCS Scholar
Research interests: the psycho-physiological pathways and outcomes of workaholism and workplace health interventions.

Emily Krach

UPS Award
Ph.D. Student, Genetics
Third Year ARCS Scholar
Research interests: working to integrate microfluidic technologies to better understand genetic pathways involved in fungal growth dynamics.

Mathew Liju ARCS Foundation University of Georgia

Liju Mathew

Dick Award
Ph.D. Student, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
First Year ARCS Scholar
Research interests: characterizing the molecular mechanism of a reaction pathway in pathogenic E. coli, with broader interests in enzyme structure-function relationships and natural products discovery.

Michael Mills

Herz Global Impact Award
Ph.D. Student, Microbiology
Second Year ARCS Scholar
Research interests: to understand and develop medicines against the organisms involved in the neglected tropical disease, Lymphatic filariasis.

Mariel Pfeifer

Henry/Wahlen Award
Ph.D. Student, Plant Biology
Second Year ARCS Scholar
Research interests: discovering the details of nuclear migration during rice plant infection by the fungus, Magnaporthe oryzae. Mariel’s biology education research focuses on the self-advocacy experiences of students with specific learning disabilities and/or ADHD in undergraduate STEM courses.

Kate Sabey

Herz Global Impact Award
Ph.D. Student, Infectious Diseases
Second Year ARCS Scholar
Research interests: combining her interests in genomics and veterinary medicine to investigate how the microbiome shapes infection processes in African wildlife.