Slepecky Award Winners

Year  Name   Department  Title of Paper  Advisor   Award ($) 
2003  No prize given this year   n/a  n/a  n/a  n/a 
2004   Danielle Jensen  Biochemistry  n/a  n/a  $750 
2004   Kate Kowalski   Civil and Environmental Engineering   The Effects of Acidic Deposition on the Diversity and Recovery of Microbial Communities  Dr. Andrea Costello-Staniec  $100 
2005  Danielle Schuehler  Chemistry  n/a  n/a  $750 
2005   Tiffany Jones  n/a  n/a  n/a  $50 
2006  Lisa Lahtinen  Comm Sciences & Disorders  The Effect of Contralateral Acoustic Stimulation on DPOAE with special attention to differences in DPOAEs for lower and higher-level noises  Dr. Prieve  $750 
2007  Kelsey Breen   Biology  The Role of Estrogen Receptor Beta in Neonatal Oocyte Development  Dr. Melissa E. Pepling  $750 

 

2008   Lindsay Avery  Chemistry  Using Functionalized Dihydropyrones to Control Diastereoselectivity in the Dihydropyrone Diels-Alder Reaction.  Dr. Nancy Totah  $750 
2008  Stephanie Gindlesperger  Civil and Environmental Engineering  The Evaluation of Historical Changes in Mercury in Onondaga Lake, New York.  Dr. Charles Driscoll  $250 
2008  Jemella C. Raymore  Biology  The Role of Estrogen Receptor Alpha in Early Mouse Oocyte Differentiation.  Dr. Melissa Pepling  $200 
2008  Amy N. Otuonye  Chemistry  Multifunctional Nanomaterials for the Absorption and Release of Drugs.  Dr. Teddy Asefa  $200 
2009  Caitlin Keating-Bitonti  Earth Science  How warm was the early Eocene? Paleotemperature Reconstructions for the U.S. Gulf Coast from the Shells of Venericardia (Bivalvia)  Dr. Linda Ivany  $750 
2009  Megan Anne Larson  Biology  The Geographic Distribution of Polyploidy in A Pacific Northwest Plant  Dr. Kari Segraves  $300 
2009  Kelly Whitenack  Chemistry  The Synthesis and Characterization of Novel Microporous Hybrid Organic/ Inorganic Materials with the Potential of Hydrogen Storage.  Dr. John Zubieta  $300 
2010  Jessica L. Ebert  Civil and Environmental Engineering  The Dynamics of Hydrology and Mercury in Onondaga Creek During Storm Events  Dr. Charles Driscoll  $750 
2011  Kristin Waller  Civil and Environmental Engineering  Recovery over TIME: The long-term response of lakes in the Adirondack region of New York to decreases in acidic deposition  Dr. Charles Driscoll  $500 
2011  Danielle Hare  Earth Science  The effect of beaver dams on geochemistry of the hyporheic zone at varied depth and location over a range of discharges during flood recession  Dr. Lauren Lautz  $250 
2012  Vivian Yaci Yu  Chemistry  Expression and Purification of Recombinant Saposin B for Coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10) Purification  Dr. Robert Doyle  $750 
2012  Samantha Balakirsky  Biology  Investigating the Roles of Lhx1a/Lhx1b/Lhx5 in Zebrafish Spinal Cord Interneuron Specification and Function  Dr. Katherine Lewis  $300 
2013  Korrie L. Mack  Chemistry  Reprogramming EF-HANDS for Design of Catalytically Amplified Lanthanide Sensors.  Dr. Ivan V. Korendov-ych  $750 
2013  Nikolay I. Rrodionov  Biomedical & Chemical Engineering  Charge Distribution & Resurace Properties of the Tobacco Mosaic Virus 4-NM Central-Port  Dr. Shalabh C. Maroo of MAE dept  $350 
2014  Katy Austin  SUNY ESF, Env’tal & Forest Biology  Effects of Nitrogen Deposition on Nitrogen Acquisition by Sarracenia purpura in the Adirondack Mountains, New York, USA  Dr. Mark Teece  $750 
2014  Cambria Ziemer  SUNY ESF, Environmental Resources Eng.  Boundary Layer Conditions of a Shrub Willow Evapotranspiration Cover  Drs. Wendong Tao (ESF) and Tony Eallondar-do (OBG)  $350 
2014  Kristin Susan Weeks  Biology  Nutrient Limitation of Bean Plant Performance Under Co-Stress: Herbivory and Soil Halogenation  Dr. Mark E. Ritchie  $350 
2015  Kewei Xu  Chemistry  Computations on the Primary Photoreaction of Br2 With CO2: Stepwise vs. Concerted Addition of Br Atoms  Dr. Mark Braiman  $750 
2015  Emily Tucci  Biomedical & Chemical Engineering  A Comparison of Two Different Push-up Styles for Use in Rehabilitation Practices  Drs. Angela Zachman (ECS) & Frederick Werner (Upstate)  $350 
2015  Jessica Ciesla  ESF – Chemistry  Fatty Acid Content in Four Octocorals and Two Scleractinian Corals in Relation to Species and Depth  Dr. Jonathan Cohen  $350 
2016  Snigdha Chatterjee – joint 1st place  Biology  DDR1, An Arabidopsis Histone Demethylase Negatively Regulates Cell Death, Drought and Defense Against Pseudomonas Syringae  Dr. Ramesh Raina  $750 
2016  Samantha A. Usman – joint 1st place  Physics  Observation of Gravitational Waves from a Binary Black Hole Merger  Dr. Duncan Brown  $750 
2017  Albanie Hendrickson-Stives – 1st place  Chemistry  Direct and Indirect Photolysis of Aromatic Pollutants in Aqueous Solution  Dr. Tara Kahan  $750 
2017  Genevieve Starke – joint 2nd place  Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering  Directionality and Pulsing of Acoustic Propagation to the Far-Field of a Supersonic Jet Flow  Dr. Jacques Lewalle  $350 
2017  Anniya Gu – joint 2nd place  Biology  UBR-5, a Conserved Hect-Type E3 Ubiquitin Ligase, Negatively Regulates Notch-Type Signaling in Caenorhabditis Elegans  Dr. Eleanor Maine  $350 
2018  Katie Duggan – 1st place  Civil and Environmental Engineering  Analyzing the Toxicity of Cationic Polyacrylamide vs Cationic Starch on Aquatic Life  Drs. Shobha Bhatia & Katharine (Kate) Lewis  $750 
2018  Meghan Lentz – 2nd place  Physics  Floquet Formalism and Perturbation Theory in the Low-Frequency Limit.  Dr. Jay Hubisz  $350 
2019  Yongna Lei  Biology & Chemistry  Effects of ALS-Linked Mutations on the Liquid-Liquid Phase Separation Behavior of Ubiquilin-2  Dr. Carlos Castañeda  $750 
2020  Julia Riley – 1st place  Biology  Elucidating Cellular Stress Responses of ALS-Linked Biomolecular Condensates  Dr. Carlos Castañeda  $750 
2020  Heather Sosnoski – 2nd place  Biology  Cysteine Transporter Compensation Occurs in the Brains of System xc- Null Mice  Dr. Sandra Hewett  $350 
2021  Laurel White – 1st place  Physics   

The Effect of Spin Priors, on the Determination of the Neutron Star Equation of State Using Gravitational-Wave Signals 

Syracuse Stories article 

 

Dr. Duncan Brown  $750 
2021  Aliza Willsey – 2nd place  Aerospace Engineering  Investigation of Mycelium Growth Network as a Thermal Transpiration Membrane for Thermal Transpiration Based Pumping and Power Generation  Dr. Jeongmin Ahn  $350 
2022  Amber Vandepoele  Forensic Sciences and Biochemistry  Maximizing the Value of Evidence Through the Phylogenetic Differential Separation of Environmental Samples  Dr. Michael Marciano  $750 
2023    Ruohan XU      Civil and Environmental Engineering    Design, manufacture, and testing of customized sterilizable respirator    Dr. Zhao Qin    $750 

 

2024 Mariana Isabel Perez Lugo Nutrition Science Fish Oil Supplementation Mitigates Paternal Obesity and Enhances Offspring Metabolic Health in Obese Mice through its Effects on Adipose Tissue Dr. Latha Ramalingam $750