PGFI Excellence in Genomics Undergraduate Student Award

In 2008, PGFI initiated an annual undergraduate award for graduating seniors who have conducted outstanding research in genomics and have demonstrated overall academic excellence during their undergraduate careers. PGFI recognizes these meritorious junior researchers with an award of $750.

The May 2012 recipients are featured below.

2012 Awardees

Alison Feder (BA in Mathematics) and Kevin Sun (BAS in Bioengineering) were nominated by faculty in SAS and SEAS to receive PGFI’s award for exemplary undergraduate scholarship in genomics.

Alison Feder

Penn Degree(s) Awarded:Bachelor of Arts

Major(s): Mathematics (Minor: Computer and Information Science)

Genomics Publications, Accomplishments and/or Research Projects while at Penn:

Papers
Lohmueller, KE; Albrechtsen, A; Li, Y; Kim, SY; Korneliussen, T; Vinckenbosch, N; Tian, G; Huerta-Sanchez, E ; Feder AF; Grarup, N; Jorgensen, T; Jiang, T; Witte, D; Sandbaek, A; Hellmann, I; Lauritzen, T; Hansen, T; Pedersen, O; Wang, J; Nielsen, R. (2011) Natural Selection Affects Multiple Aspects of Genetic Variation at Putatively Neutral Sites across the Human Genome. PLoS Genet 7(10): e1002326.

(In review at Genetics) Feder, AF, Petrov, DA, and AO Bergland, LDx: Maximum Likelihood Estimation of Linkage Disequilibrium from High Throughput Pooled Resequencing Data

Presentations
Talk: "The likelihood ratio statistic is overly liberal for detecting natural selection in genetic time series." NIMBioS Undergraduate Research Conference at the Interface of Biology and Mathematics. Knoxville, TN.

Posters: "An Investigation of Heuristic and Maximum Likelihood Approaches for the Detection of Natural Selection in Time Series Data" and "Estimating Linkage Disequilibrium from Pooled Paired-End Reads." Society for Molecular Biology & Evolution Annual Meeting, Kyoto, Japan.

Support: National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship 2012

Important Mentors: Joshua Plotkin, Dmitri Petrov, Rasmus Nielsen, Adam Peritz, Warren Ewens

Plans after graduation: M.Sc. by Research in Statistics at the University of Oxford under the supervision of Gilean McVean; Ph.D. in Biology at Stanford University (enrolling Fall 2013)

Kevin Sun

Penn Degree(s) Awarded: Bachelor of Applied Science in Bioengineering

Major(s): Biomedical Science

Genomics Publications, Accomplishments and/or Research Projects while at Penn:

Design of sol-gels for controlled release of DNA (Bioengineering Senior Thesis, Fall 2011/ Spring 2012) Mentor: Dr. Haibo Qu; PI: Dr. Paul Ducheyne

Surface energy determination of modified titanium surfaces (Bioengineering Independent Study, Fall 2011) PI: Dr. Francis Mante

Elucidating the M1 neuronal second messenger system through lipid-mediated transfection of mRNA (PGFI internship, Summer 2011) Mentors: Dr. Terri Schochet, Dr. Adam Peritz; PI: Dr. James Eberwine

The effect of powder rubber additions on the fracture toughness of Bis-GMA based dental resins (Bioengineering Independent Study, Spring 2011) Investigator: Dr. Francis Mante

Investigation of the mechanism behind nanoparticle immobilization of Caenorhabditis elegans (Bioengineering Independent Study, Spring 2011) Investigator: Dr. Chris Fang-Yen

Analysis of the behavior of an isoctyl-3-mercaptopropianate SAM on a gold surface through electrochemical methods (REACH internship, Summer 2009) Mentors: Dr. Lutz Stratmann, Dr Magdalena Gebala; Investigator: Dr. Wolfgang Schuhmann

Plans after graduation: I plan to take a gap year to perform dental/ biomedical related research before pursuing a DMD/PhD program.

2011 Award Recipients

2010 Award Recipients

2009 Award Recipient

2008 Award Recipients