Each year, the Department recognizes a graduating Genetics major with the Outstanding Undergraduate Thesis Award. Any faculty supervising extraordinary undergraduate work in genetics for a thesis may nominate one student project for the award. The nominated student must be a Genetics major that graduated or will graduate during the academic year (i.e., for the 2026 award, this would be a student that graduated in Summer or Fall 2025 or will graduate in Spring 2026). The research that forms the basis of the thesis may have been completed anytime during the student’s tenure, but the student must have completed the thesis by graduation. Completed applications will contain material from faculty nominations and student nominees. The Undergraduate Affairs Committee will choose the recipient and present the Award at the annual graduation celebration for Genetics majors. The recipient receives a cash award and the student's name is engraved on a plaque that hangs in the Genetics office. The award is made possible through the generosity of an anonymous donor. Nominations for this award are accepted in the Spring. Contact the Director of Undergraduate Studies for information. Past winners of the Outstanding Undergraduate Thesis Award 2026 Savanna Wachter Title of Thesis: PepA, a multifunctional aminopeptidase, promotes susceptibility to cell envelope-targeting antibiotics in Pseudomonas aeruginosa Faculty Mentor: Dr. Katherine Hummels 2025 Ethan Mingoia Title of Thesis: Foundational resources for the construction of a minimal plant genome in Arabidopsis thaliana Faculty Mentor: Dr. Robin Buell 2024 Christian Ona Title of Thesis: Worldwide Genetic Diversity of Nothopassalora personata via Whole Genome Resequencing Faculty Mentor: Dr. Marin Brewer 2024 Riya Patel Title of Thesis: Investigating the Role of ACE2 and the Effects of Temperature and Drugs on Ciliary Motility Faculty Mentor: Dr. Jonathan Eggenschwiler 2023 Caroline Beuscher Title of Thesis: Freezing Tolerance across Elevation and Ontogeny in Boechera stricta Faculty Mentor: Dr. Jill Anderson 2022 Ethan Smith Title of Thesis: Locating and Correcting Regions of Compression Within the Toxoplasma Gondii Reference Genome Assembly Faculty Mentor: Dr. Jessica Kissinger 2021 Anvith Reddy Title of Thesis: Clarifying the Relationship between Pericentromeric Hypomethylation, DNA Damage and Malignancy: Insights from Zebrafish Models of Immunodeficiency, Centromeric Instability, and Facial Anomalies (ICF) Syndrome Faculty Mentor: Dr. Mary Goll 2020 Barquiesha Madison Title of Thesis: The Characterization of Female Meiosis and Synaptonemal Complex Length in Threespine Sticklebacks Faculty Mentor: Dr. Michael White 2019 Rachel Keener Title of Thesis: Wolbachia and its Effects on Reproductive Phenotypes in a Novel Drosophila Host Faculty Mentor: Dr. Kelly Dyer 2018 Alison Adams Title of Thesis: Density-Dependent Selection Model for the Evolution of Sociality of Ceratina (Neoceratina) australensis Faculty Mentor: Dr. David Hall 2017 Atul Lodh Title of Thesis: Investigating the Role of Cyanogenic Glycosides as a Potential Defense for Passiflora incarnata against Agraulis vanillae Faculty Mentor: Dr. Rodney Mauricio 2016 Thomas Layman Title of Thesis: Experimental evolution and sperm competition in Drosophila recens and D. subquinaria Faculty Mentor: Dr. Kelly Dyer 2015 Amy Webster Title of thesis: Abnormal Chromosome 10 Causes Meiotic Drive in a Teosinte Subspecies Faculty Mentor: Dr. Kelly Dawe 2014 Austin Garner Title of thesis: The Genetics of Hybrid Lethality Between Two Species of Mimulus. Faculty Mentor: Dr. Andrea Sweigart
