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