Tag: awards

Ph.D. student with Dr. Jennifer Mason, Zane Tolbert, was awarded second place for his poster presentation titled, “Nascent strand degradation and genomic instability in FANCD2 and FANCA deficient cells requires RAD54L-mediated fork reversal” at the Inaugural Symposium on Genome Integrity and Chromatin Regulation at UNC-Charlotte.

Dr. Michael Sehorn received the Clemson University National Scholars Program Award of Distinction.

Biochemistry alum Adam Gatch ’25 has received a Fulbright research award to study abroad in Munich, Germany at Ludwig Maximilian University. Adam has respectfully declined the Germany Fulbright offer after earning a Churchill scholarship earlier in the spring.

Drs. Heidi Anderson, Michael Harris and Todd Lyda have been promoted to senior lecturer.

Ph.D. student under Dr. Stephen Dolan, Jessica Aycock was honored with the Cell Press Best Poster Award at the Gordon Research Seminar & Conference on Microbial Adhesion and Signal Transduction in Newport, RI.

Dr. James Morris was quoted in the Washington post article “Brain-eating amoebas are rare. But hot weather increases the risk” regarding his expertise in the brain-eating amoebas Naegleria fowleri.

Graduate student Xiaotong Chen was awarded the first prize for poster presentation competition in the 2025 Society for In Vitro Biology Meeting.

Dr. Robert Anholt joined the Advisory Board of the Blackland Charity Initiative, Ghana.

Graduate student Bibhu Simkhada attended the summer course on Neurobiology of Drosophila at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratories. He also won second place in the Clemson iGRADS video competition and the people’s choice award for his video on Sanfilippo disease.

Dr. Kim Paul recently celebrated 20 years with Clemson Univeristy.

Naegleria fowleri is a rare and complex infection that is severely underresearched. After a case was confirmed in the state, the news outlet WYFF reached out to Clemson University’s Eukaryotic Pathogen’s Innovation Center and its post doctoral fellow Dr. Jillian MeKon, who focuses on these organisms.

At the 2025 Spring Research in Symposium (RIP) Genetics and Biochemistry graduate meeting, the G&B Graduate Student Association honored their outstanding students with awards.

• Outstanding 1st Year: Shafi Mondal
• Outstanding Masters Student: Jordyn Hock
• Outstanding Junior (2nd/3rd year) Ph.D. Student: Jessica Aycock
• Outstanding Senior (4+ year) Ph.D. Student: Bharath Kunduru
• Most Invovled: Sabrina Pizzaro
• Most Graduate Spirit: Arohi Singhal
• Research Rockstar: Zane Tolbert

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.

Alison Starr Moss – Dean’s Distinguished Lecturer Award

James Morris – Dean’s Distinguished Professor Award

Heidi Anderson – Excellence in Teaching Award

Rick Moseley – Outstanding Staff Member Award

G&B Advising and Registration Services Team – Oustanding Team Award

Trudy Mackay, the director of the Clemson University Center for Human Genetics, is widely recognized as one of the world’s leading authorities on the genetics of complex traits. Her groundbreaking research uses the common fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster to discover the genetic roots of complex traits — traits that are influenced by multiple genes — that are important to human health.

This impactful research has led Dr. Mackay to be honored by the Linnean Society of London with the Darwin-Wallace Medal, one of the top international prizes in evolutionary biology.

“I was surprised and delighted to learn that I am the recipient of the 2025 Darwin-Wallace Medal. It is a great honor to join the ranks of the celebrated evolutionary biologists who are recent and past recipients of this prestigious award,” Mackay said.

The Darwin-Wallace Medal was originally awarded in 1908 to commemorate the anniversary of the reading of a joint paper, which introduced the idea of evolution through natural selection, by Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace at a meeting of the Linnean Society on July 1, 1858. The first medals awarded in 1908 were awarded to Wallace himself and six others. The awards were given every 50 years until 2010, when the Linnean Society began awarding it to one person annually in recognition of the growing importance of research on evolutionary biology.

“Dr. Trudy Mackay’s receipt of the 2025 Darwin-Wallace Medal is a remarkable achievement and a testament to her pioneering contributions to evolutionary genetics,” said Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost Robert H. Jones. “Her groundbreaking research continues to shape our understanding of complex traits and inspire the global scientific community. Trudy’s work exemplifies the excellence we strive for at Clemson, and this honor further underscores the transformative impact of her scholarship on human health and the future of genetic research.”

Read more in the Clemson News article.

Director of the Eukaryotic Pathogens Innovations Center (EPIC) and professor of Genetics and Biochemistry Dr. Kerry Smith has taken a role with the Clemson University School of Health Research (CUSHR) as campus research director for the Prisma Health Education and Research Institute (PHERI).

Dr. Robert Anholt served on NIGMS COBRE Phase 1 reviews – Special Emphasis Panel/Scientific Review Group 2024/10 ZGM1 RCB-T (C1).

Ph.D. student in Dr. Jim Morris’ lab Sabrina Pizarro has been awarded an EPIC Graduate Translational Research Assistantship.

Dr. Alex Feltus was interviewed by WYFF4 about artificial intelligence and using it in the classroom and beyond.

Authority Magazine recently highlighted Professor Shahid Mukhtar’s work and career journey in science in the article, “AgTech: Shahid Mukhtar of Clemson University on The New Technologies That Are Revolutionizing Agriculture.”

At the American Society of Microbiology Joint Branch Meeting of South Carolina, biochemistry and molecular biology master’s student Bryson Woodard received an Honorable Mention for his poster presentation titled, “Construction and Characterization of Transgenic Cell Lines for the Analysis of Glycosome Heterogeneity in Trypanosoma brucei“.

At the Clemson vs Virgina game on October 19th, Dr. Trudy Mackay was featured as professor of game.

Dr. Robert Anholt was invited to deliver a virtual scientific presentation skills workshop for the University of Chile in Santiago. In addition, he has been appointed a guest professor, in the Master in Genetics Program and Program of Human Genetics at the Institute of Biomedical Sciences within the Department of Neuroscience at the University of Chile.

Elizabeth Caldwell, senior genetics major, was selected as a finalist for the Rhodes Scholarship, one of the most prestigious and selective major fellowships available to American college students.

At the American Society of Microbiology Joint Branch Meeting of South Carolina, biochemistry undergraduate Hayeon Cho received an Honorable Mention for her poster presentation titled, “Determination of the role of one cathepsin C-like protease, TgCPC2, in Toxoplasma gondii infection.”

Dr. Alex Feltus and Ph.D. candidate Xusheng Ai released open-source generative AI software called GEMDiff that can “deep fake” gene expression in diseased tissue to look like gene expression in normal tissue.

Dr. Robert Anholt is a member of the Intellectual & Real Property Committee of the Greenwood Genetic Center and serves on the planning committee for the 2025 NIDA Animal Genetics Consortium meeting.

Clemson News featured an article spotlighting Drs. Trudy Mackay and Robert Anholt’s research of how fruit flies could help find treatment for “childhood Alzheimer’s.”

Two members of the Department of Genetics and Biochemistry team were honored with awards at the recent College of Science Faculty and Staff Awards ceremony: senior lecturer Dr. Kimberly Métris and office manager Meredith Bradley. 

Dr. Kimberly Métris was awarded the College of Science Excellence in Student Engagement Award, which honors a faculty member who has demonstrated excellence in service and innovation in teaching, with emphasis on the most recent three years. 

She has developed a Creative Inquiry, a new experiential learning course and a project with a new, unique presentation method, all while mentoring at least 30 graduated students. Dr. Métris’ students thrive in and out of the classroom with at least six of her undergraduate students conducting field, lab, and bioinformatics research and five winning university awards over the last few years.

A student wrote, “As I told Dr. Métris, she was truly born to teach.”

Meredith Bradley was awarded the endowed 2024 Hattie B. Wagener Award, which is named after Hattie Boone Wagener, a long-time administrative staff member at Clemson. The award recognizes an individual who readily and routinely exceeds stated job expectations and presents a positive work attitude.

Meredith came to the department with a wealth of experience in administrative support roles in business environments in October 2021 as the administrative assistant. Department chair David Clayton said he quickly came to appreciate her capacity for thinking strategically about what needed to get done, why and when.

In just a couple short years, Meredith was juggling two jobs for the department: one the role for which she was first hired and the other by covering more duties for the department’s human relations and payroll liaison. After the HR person resigned in summer of 2023, Meredith quickly stepped into the role while continuing to serve as the chair’s direct administrative assistant.

Meredith has become the go-to person for the faculty and staff of the Genetics and Biochemistry Department. She leads the office with purposefulness and consistently exceeds expectations.

Congratulations to both Dr. Métris and Meredith on their accomplishments. We can’t wait to see what you achieve in the future! 

Read more in the Clemson News article.

Genetics graduate student Bharath Kunduru was awarded the Graduate Student Government’s Outstanding Graduate Research Assistant Award at their awards ceremony on April 4th. 

Gracie Dellinger, an honors college student who is double-majoring in genetics and microbiology, has been awarded a National Science Foundation Graduate Student Research Fellowship. 

Graduate student Debarati Majumdar was awarded a competitive RNA Society Travel Fellowship to attend the 2024 RNA Society Meeting in Edinburgh and present a poster.

Graduate students Jessica Aycock (Dolan Lab) and Colm Roster (Morris lab) were recognized for their posters at the South Carolina Branch of the American Society of Microbiology Spring meeting. Aycock earned first place with her poster titled, “Pseudomonas aeruginosa detects fungal toxins using a novel regulatory cascade.” Roster earned a third place with his work titled, “Enolase inhibitors are potent therapeutic leads against Trypanosoma brucei.”

Genetics student Katie Barfield was named a 2024-25 Dixon Global Policy Scholar, a selective and intensive program for high-achieving honors college students with a demonstrated interest in major national or global issues.

Professor Hong Luo received the 2024 Society for In Vitro Biology Fellow Award, which recognizes society members who have provided outstanding service in helping the society develop and carry out its program.

Senior genetics major and student-athlete, Hogan Morton received the Danny Lee Ford Academic Achievement Award.

Ph.D. student Sky (Xinya) Lu, has been selected as the 2024 recipient of the Hope E. Hopps Award and the Society for In Vitro Biology Student Travel Award to present her research at the 2024 World Congress on In Vitro Biology. 

Graduate students Bharath Kunduru (Sekhon lab), Joshua Turner (Mason lab), Rodgrigo Catalan-Hurtado (Smith lab) and Austin Herbert (Lackey lab) were each awarded an Interdisciplinary Graduate Fellowship in recognition of their accomplishments and interdisciplinary nature of their research.

Two biochemistry students, Caroline Argenti and Adam Gatch received 2024 Goldwater Scholarships, which is one of the most prestigious and highly competitive national award for students with the potential to advance research in mathematics, natural sciences and engineering. 

Alum and last year’s winner of the Marcotte Award Danielle LaVigne received a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship for her studies at Washington University Medical Center in St. Louis. 

Arohi Singhal, Ph.D. student in Kerry Smith’s lab, won the iGRADS competition. In addition, she also received the People’s Choice Award.

Jim Morris received the 2024 University Research, Scholarship and Artistic Achievement Awards (URSAAA). The URSAAA were established in 2018 to celebrate the exceptional accomplishments of Clemson University faculty members.

Two EPIC students recently attended the IDeA South Eastern Region Conference in Columbia, South Carolina and brought home awards for their posters. Sabrina Pizzaro’s poster titled, “Use of Peroxisomal Targeting Sequences in Drug Delivery,” won first place in the Chemistry and Biochemistry category. Alanna Scoggins’ poster titled, “Role of Mitochondrial Carriers in Cryptococcus neoformans,” received an honorable mention in the Cellular and Molecular Biology category.

Dr. Julia Frugoli was named Alumni Distinguished Professor at Clemson’s recent academic convocation.

Amber Hackler, a Biochemistry major who graduated on May 8, was recognized at the graduation ceremony with the Algernon Sydney Sullivan Award, one of two given out at Clemson University to “…individuals who possess the characteristics of heart, mind, and conduct as evince a spirit of love for and helpfulness to the men and women.” Amber was also recognized with the Faculty Scholarship Award, which is made to the member or members of the graduating class with the highest scholastic achievement.