On Friday, April 25, the College of Graduate Health Sciences hosted its annual Graduate Research Day and Awards Ceremony, celebrating a year of outstanding research and academic achievement. The event featured morning and afternoon platform presentations, poster sessions, and an awards ceremony recognizing excellence across the college.
During the poster competition, students presented and discussed their research in an open, interactive format. In the platform competition, participants delivered 10-minute presentations highlighting their research findings.
The day also included the presentation of the 2025 Graduate Health Sciences Awards, honoring a faculty member for outstanding mentorship and recognizing exceptional students across the college’s degree programs.
Research spanned a wide range of disciplines, including pharmacology, addiction sciences and toxicology; molecular and translational physiology; nursing sciences; pharmaceutical sciences; biomedical engineering; cancer and developmental biology; microbiology, immunology and biochemistry; epidemiology; speech and hearing science; and genetics, genomics, and informatics.
“The 2025 Graduate Research Day was a resounding success due to the abstract submissions by students from each of our programs (a record 55 submissions), the participation of our faculty as attendees and judges, our students and postdoctoral scholars who attended, and the exceptional organization by the Graduate Student Executive Council,” said Don Thomason, PhD, dean of the College of Graduate Health Sciences. “We were very fortunate that students and faculty from our Speech and Hearing Science PhD program in Knoxville could attend and present and get to know some of the students on this side of the state.”
The event was organized by Maggie Bohm, president of the Graduate Student Executive Council (GSEC). “We are very proud to have put together an event that reflects the wide breadth of research happening across our college,” Bohm said. “The award winners certainly showcase that diversity. Graduate Research Day serves as the capstone event for any GSEC board, and it is entirely student-run. We are grateful to the college for its support in letting us run with our ideas.”
The 2025 College of Graduate Health Sciences award winners were:
- Dean’s Award: Eddie Brown, Jr., and Margaret Bohm
- Student Success Award: Perry Johnson, Jr.
- Mentor Award: Tim Saltuklaroglu, PhD
- Presentation Awards:
- 1st place (tie): Matthew Grosman and John Marendes, Jr.
- 2nd place: Andrew Shaw
- 3rd place: Aijun Zhang
- Poster Awards:
- 1st place: Rachel Sinclair
- 2nd place: Eddie Brown, Jr.
- 3rd place (tie): Marjana Kahill, Emaya Moss, and Arvind Ramesh
- Outstanding Student Awards:
- Biomedical Engineering: Bailey Bond
- Biomedical Sciences, Cancer and Development Biology: Micheala Meehl
- Biomedical Sciences, Genetics, Genomics, and Informatics: Flavia Villani
- Biomedical Sciences, Microbiology, Immunology, and Biochemistry: Margaret Bohm
- Biomedical Sciences, Molecular and Translational Physiology: Bahar Meshkat
- Biomedical Sciences, Pharmacology, Addiction Science, and Toxicology: Shiwani Thapa
- Epidemiology: Daniel Gehle
- Health Outcomes and Policy Research: Alexandria Boykins
- Nursing Science: Nicole Schumacher
- Pharmaceutical Sciences: Harrison Thorn
- Pharmacology: Lohita Basa
- Speech and Hearing Sciences: Taylor Stone