Dr. Trudy Mackay, the director of the Clemson University Center for Human Genetics, was honored by the Linnean Society of London with the Darwin-Wallace Medal, one of the top international prizes in evolutionary biology.
Elizabeth Caldwell, senior biochemistry honors student and Truman Scholar, was invited to give a Clemson TED Talk. The title of Elizabeth’s talk was “Now You See Me: Recognizing Invisible and Dynamic Disabilities.”
Dr. Robert Anholt was named as a 2025 Member of the Advisory Board of the Blackland Charity Initiative in Ghana.
Biochemistry student Gabbie Gardiner was recogniozed with an award certificate for submitting a DAAD RISE Intrenship application in the 2024-25 academic year.
Biochemistry Honors student Elizabeth Caldwell received the Norris Medal, Clemson’s highest undergraduate student honor for best all-around graduating senior.
Associate professor Michael Sehorn was awarded the Ted G. Westmoreland Faculty Excellence Award, which honors a faculty member who has made outstanding contributions in the area of undergraduate student success.
Genetics graduate student Adeyemi Akinade received a scholarship to attend a summer course in statistical genetics in Atlanta.
Senior biochemistry major Albash Kahan recieved first place in the 2025 J.T. Barton Jr. Memorial Ethics Award, which recognizes outstanding students who show exceptional ethical leadership and a commitment to advancing good decision-making on campus.
Bibhu Simkhada, Ph.D. student under Drs. Trudy Mackay and Robert Anholt, came in 2nd place at the iGrads competion with his talk titled “Genetic architecture of variation in senescence.” In addition, Bibhu won the people’s choice award by popular vote from the iGrads audience members and recieved the Graduate Award for Scientific Communication from the RNA Society of South Carolina.
Alumni Dr. Phyllis MacGilvray ’96, a family medicine practitioner of over 20 years, has been named dean of The University of South Carolina School of Medicine Greenville.
Undergraduate researcher in Dr. Stephen Dolan’s lab Mallory Murphy, a microbiology major and psychology minor, has been selected for the prestigious Blue Key Academic and Leadership Award, which honors one student from each college at Clemson for excellence in academics and leadership.
On Thursday, May 1, the College of Science celebrated its faculty and staff with awards and recognition at its annual awards ceremony. Many genetics and biochemistry departmental members were honored with nominations and awards.
- Dean’s Distinguished Lecturer Award : Dr. Alison Starr-Moss
- Dean’s Distinguished Professor Award: Dr. James Morris
- Excellence in Teaching Award: Dr. Heidi Anderson
- Outstanding Staff Member Award: Rick Moseley
- Oustanding Team Award: G&B Advising and Registration Services Team – Britney Maston, Alyssa Taylor and Kimi Brown
The Greenville Journal released an article highlighting genetics doctoral student Sriya Pothapragada’s love for both her studies and skydiving.
Alumni Christine Hart ’18 and biochemistry major Caroline Argenti were recognized by the prestigious National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship Program, receiving three years of financial support for graduate study.
Each year, the Department of Genetics and Biochemistry give out departmental awards to someof their most exectional students. Below are the awards for the 2024-25 academic year.
- Dr. William Marcotte Outstanding Undergraduate Research Award: Elizabeth Caldwell
- Outstanding Junior in Biochemistry: Yashvi Patel
- Outstanding Junior in Genetics: Brooke Dillingham
- Outstanding Senior in Biochemistry: Griffin Thomas
- Outstanding Senior in Genetics: Elizabeth Caldwell
- Outstanding Undergraduate in Discovery, Biochemistry: Adam Gatch
- Outstanding Undergraduate in Discovery, Genetics: Dylan Carroll
- Outstanding Graduate Student in Teaching: Jiayin Liu
- Outstanding Graduate Student in Discovery: Bharath Khunduru
Senior biochemistry major Kaylee Board was selected to write an “IfYou’reReadingThis” Letter to the Clemson University community.
Albash Khan was part of the team that came in 3rd place at this year’s College of Science Catalyst Competition for their self-heating and cooling lunchbox, ThermaChill.
Dr. Stephen Dolan’s lab attended the Spring 2025 South Carolina Branch Meeting of the American Society for Microbiology and three students took home awards.
- Jessica Aycock (second year Ph.D. student) received Best Graduate Student Poster Prize for her presentation, “Pseudomonas aeruginosa activates a novel defense cascade in response to fungal toxins”
- Muhammad Shafiul Alam Mondal (first year Ph.D. student) was awarded the Best Graduate Student Talk Prize for his talk, “Aspergillus fumigatus demonstrates species-dependent physiological modulation in polymicrobial biofilms”
- Cameron Kennedy (freshman) earned Best Undergraduate Student Poster Prize for her work, “Parallel Evolution of Pseudomonas aeruginosa in Polymicrobial Interactions with Fungi and Chronic Lung Infections”
Senior biochemistry major Kristen Gulbrandsen placed 1st at the 20th annual Focus on Creative Inquiry (FoCI) event, which is Clemson’s university-wide poster forum that showcases undergraduate research, service-learning and other experiential learning activities supported by the Creative Inquiry program. Kristen’s poster presentation was titled “Enterococcus faecalis Inhibits Clostridium innocuum In Vitro Under Multiple Conditions.”
