UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH AWARDS
(presenters’ names are in bold; * denotes high school student collaborator; ** denotes graduate student collaborator; post-doc collaborator and faculty names are underlined; unlabeled denotes undergraduate collaborator; research awards/fellowship stated beside the presentation).
2024:
Isolation and biochemical characterization of a new Microbacterium species that is a vitamin B auxotroph. Chukwuemeka Okpala, Logan Chastain, Ellye Puckett, Kevin Nguyen and Mautusi Mitra, GA-AL-LSAMP Annual Symposium, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA, April 13th 2024. (2nd place in the oral presentation competition).
2019:
Investigation of Bacterial Contamination on Acetate Agar Media Plates of Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. Seth Hamby, Kevin Nguyen, Taylor Box, *Taylor Berry Erin Duckett and Mautusi Mitra. University of West Alabama Research Symposium, Livingston, Alabama, March 5th. (Poster presentation; Seth and Taylor received a travel grant fromUniversity of West Alabama to present at the meeting).
2018:
Molecular characterization of two high light sensitive Chlamydomonas reinhardtii mutants, defective in a novel functionally uncharacterized gene LSR1. Kenneth Kim, Kevin Nguyen, Joseph Okafor, Ja’von Swint, Joel Page III, Katherine Smith, Tai Truong, and Mautusi Mitra. Plant Biology 2018, Montreal Canada, 14th July -18th July. (ASPB-SURF poster presentation; Kenneth Kim was awarded a summer undergraduate research fellowship from the American Society of Plant Biologists in 2017)
2016:
Identification and Molecular Characterization of a High Light-Sensitive Chlamydomonas reinhardtii mutant, 10E35. Kevin Nguyen, Betkens Senesca, Joel Page III, *Paula Martinez-Feduchi, Kasey Swilley, Katherine Smith, Tai Truong, **Phillip Grovenstein, and Mautusi Mitra. NSF-funded GA-AL-LSAMP Symposium, Clark Atlanta University, Atlanta, GA, April 16th. (Poster presentation, third place award winner in the poster presentation competition)
Identification and Molecular Characterization of a High Light-Sensitive Chlamydomonas reinhardtii mutant, 10E35. Kasey Swilley, *Paula Martinez-Feduchi, Kevin Nguyen, Katherine Smith, Tai Truong, Betkens Senesca,**Phillip Grovenstein, and Mautusi Mitra. UWG COSM Research Day, March 24th. (Oral presentation, won the second place in the COSM research oral presentation competition)
2015:
Functional Genomic Characterization of a light sensitive Chlamydomonas reinhardtii mutant defective in photosynthesis. Katherine Smith, Tai Truong, Tashana Haye, Precious Ajala, Zachary Nofs, Precious Ajala, Ewan Petersen, Rigoberto Segovia, **Phillip Grovenstein, Bernhard Grimm and Mautusi Mitra, GA-AL-LSAMP Symposium, UWG, campus, April 11th. (Oral presentation, second place award winner in the research presentation competition).
Functional genomic characterization of a light sensitive Chlamydomonas reinhardtii mutant, 10E35, that is defective in photosynthesis. Tai Truong, Katherine Smith, Tashana Haye, Precious Ajala, Kiana Brown, Ewan Petersen, Zachary Nofs, Rigoberto Segovia, and Mautusi Mitra. COSM Research Day, UWG campus, March 26th. (Oral presentation; Tai won the First place in the competition and was selected to present research on the UWG Big Night at campus on April 14th).
2014:
Identification and Molecular Characterization of a Novel Chlamydomonas reinhardtii Mutant that Lacks Detectable Chlorophyll. Tashana Haye and Mautusi Mitra. College of Science & Mathematics, Research Day, March. (First place, $250 cash award and a certificate). (Oral presentation)
Identification and Molecular Characterization of a Novel Chlamydomonas reinhardtii Mutant that Lacks Detectable Chlorophyll. Tashana Haye and Mautusi Mitra. Georgia Undergraduate Research Conference (GURC), Columbus, GA, January 24th- 25th. (Oral presentation; Tashana won the best research paper presentation award).
2013:
Characterization of two Chlamydomonas reinhardtii mutants which are defective in chlorophyll biosynthesis and photosynthesis under different irradiance conditions. Kathryn Lankford, Darryel Wilson,**Phillip Grovenstein, *Abigail R. Lennox, Kelsey Gaston, Pawel Brzezowski, Bernhard Grimm and Mautusi Mitra. American Society of Plant Biologists, southern sectional (SS-ASPB) meeting, Little Rock, Arkansas, April 3rd - 6th. (Poster presentation; awarded first place in the undergraduate research poster competition; competed with research students from R1 institutions )
UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH FELLOWSHIPS
2024:
DOE-Visiting Faculty program (VFP) research-track student fellowship for 10 weeks at the Oak
Ridge National Lab (ORNL), USA: Evaluation of novel bacteria for lignin and plastic upcycling;
$7,000 + housing expenses ($2,500) awarded to my undergraduate research student Mr.
Chukwuemeka Okpala to work in my DOE-VFP research project at ORNL in summer 2024.
(competitive external peer-reviewed fellowship)
2017:
American Society of Plant Biologists Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (ASPB-SURF) April. ($5,275) (competitive external peer-reviewed fellowship); awarded to Mr. Kenneth Kim (student) and Mautusi Mitra
2010:
Surangi Perera was awarded the LSU-HHMI summer research fellowship (May-July 2010); submitted by Surangi Perera.