2025 Department of Biochemistry Spring Awards

2024-25 Faculty Awards, Promotions, and Acknowledgements

Vikki Weake has been promoted to Full Professor
Scott Briggs received a 2024-2025 Trustee Teaching Award for his leadership and teaching by Indiana University School of Medicine.
Professor Jim Forney has retired after 36 years at Purdue! During that time, he’s worn many hats; Department Head, Adjunct Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at IU School of Medicine and Director of our REU summer research program. More about Jim Forney.
Dr. Feng Wang joined our department in January of this year.
Dr. Lisa Mydy will be joining our department this August

University Awards

2025 Excellence in Postdoctoral Mentoring Award

Jiaxin Long (Ogas lab) was one of five awardees are selected from nominees in colleges across campus for this award presented by the Office of the Vice Provost for Graduate Students and Postdoctoral Scholars.

2025 Bilsland Dissertation Fellowships

Justin Gregor (Briggs/Hall lab) and Zhi-Wei Luo (Chapple Lab) received this award is presented by the Office of the Vice Provost for Graduate Students and Postdoctoral Scholars in conjunction with the College of Agriculture. This competitive fellowship assists graduate students who are within their final year of completing their PhD degree.

3 Minute Thesis Competition

Sydney Beechboard (Mesecar Lab) won this year’s 3-minute Thesis Competition. She presented years of research in three minutes using 1 slide. She competed against 9 other graduate students and postdocs.

Department of Biochemistry Awards

The following awards and scholarships are given by the department. Read more about the award criteria on our Awards page.

Howard Zalkin Extramural Training Award in Biochemistry

Zhi-Wei Luo (Chapple lab) received funding to virtually attend the National Center for Genome Resources' 2025 Pangenomics Workshop. Previous awardees were Michelle Lihon and Grace Meng.

Outstanding Teaching Assistant (TA) in Biochemistry

Robin Chen who is working in Dr. Andy Mesecar’s lab, has been a TA for BCHM 307 this semester, and BCHM 322 in Fall 2024. Robin has edited and uploaded step-by-step instructions for Western Blot transfer based on available materials and lab constraints, she has created problem sets for students to practice on difficult concepts and provided step-by step to address common confusions in student assignments.

Beach Family Travel Grant Awardees

Jacob Olson (Dilkes lab) will attend the Plant Biology 2025 American Society of Plant Biologists Conference in Milwaukee WI. Lois Luo (Tao lab) will attend the 73^rd ASMS Conference on Mass Spectrometry and Allied Topics in Baltimore Maryland.

Henry Weiner Travel Grants

Jiaxin Long (Postdoc, Ogas lab) will attend the Epigenetics Society Special Symposium 2025 in Chicago, Illinois

Yi Kai Liu (Tao Lab) will attend the 73^rd ASMS Conference on Mass Spectrometry and Allied Topics in Baltimore, Maryland

Henry A. Moses Award

Yi Kai Liu (Tao Lab) has so far published 7 first/co-author papers from his graduate work. His recent first author manuscript titled “One-Pot Analytical Pipeline for Efficient and Sensitive Proteomic Analysis of Extracellular Vesicles” was published in Journal of Proteome Research.

AK Balls Award

Sarah Stanhope (Weake lab) has published 4 first/co-author papers in top journals from her graduate research, including Redox Biology, Genes, PLoS genetics, and Frontiers in Epigenetics and Epigenomics. She was an Eli Lily Research and Development intern Fall 2024.She was an invited speaker at the Annual Darwin Festival, presented her work at the Signal Transduction Data Club and NIH T32 Drug Discovery Meeting.

Don Carlson Award

Dr. Subhransu Sahoo started as a postdoc in October 2019 in the Kazemian lab, which has resulted so far in four publications from the Kazemian laboratory in high impact journals including Nature Comm (2024), Communications Biology (2024) and, currently has a co-first author article submitted to Nature. Dr. Sahoo has also mentored five graduate students and seven undergraduate students. He has also served as a judge at the Office of the Interdisciplinary Graduate Program’s spring scientific conference, peer review for top-tier journals.

PhD students presented with folios

Congratulations to all our first-year PhD students who identifed permanent labs this year.

Audrey Bates (M. Hall Lab)
Jacob Czaicki (Briggs Lab)
Lauren Dome (Puthiyaveetil Labs)
Isabelle Juhler (Cottrell Lab)
Lucas Kramer (Weake Lab)
Amirhesam Mashaollahi (Tao Lab)
Misa Meadows (Mesecar Lab)
Reed Smith (Mattoo Lab)
Tommy Sheeley (Kirchmaier Lab)
Troy Sievertsen (Mesecar Lab)
Jyh Hern Tan (Wang Lab)

2025 Biochemistry Undergraduate Scholarships

We are fortunate to have many generous alumni who donate funds to make our departmental scholarships possible. The following students received scholarships for 2024-25.

The Bernard Axelrod Memorial Scholarships

Maren Eaton a sophomore from Texas. She is working in the Chapple lab, and hopes to pursue graduate school after graduation.

Zhiyuan Chen is a sophomore dual major with ABE. He conducts research in the labs of Matthew Tegtmeyer (Biological Sciences) and Taimoor Qazi (Biomedical Engineering)

Ray W. Fuller Memorial Scholarship

Kaaya Sharma is a junior from California. She is doing research in the Kazemian lab and will pursue medical school after graduation.

Dr. Stephen P. and Charlotte A. Coburn Scholarship

Stephanie Maari a sophomore from Illinois. She is currently doing research in the Tao lab, and hopes to pursue medical school after graduation.

Edwin Mertz Scholarship awardees

Edwin T. Mertz Memorial Scholarships

Anya Piarowski is a sophomore from Illinois and is currently doing research in the Liu lab.

Bella Mayr is a junior from Maryland and is doing research in the Watts lab in MCMP.

Brooke Tran is a sophomore from NY. She is currently working in the Ogas lab and plans to pursue med school after graduation.

Reyna Woodruff is a sophomore from Ohio, and has already participated in an internship with Lilly.

Jamie Bryan is a junior participating in research in the Tran lab and hopes to attend medical school after graduation.

Scheible Scholarship Recipients

The David and Mary Scheible Scholarship in Biochemistry

Justin Walder is a junior from Wolcott, IN and is doing research in the Widhalm lab.

Kavin Karthikeyan is a sophomore from West Lafayette, IN and is doing research in the Doudareva lab. He plans to attend medical school after he graduates.

Haley Imus is a freshman from Elkhart, IN and plans to attend medical school after graduation.

Tanvi Nadimpalli is a sophomore from Greenwood, IN. She is doing research in the Kazemian lab and hopes to go to graduate school after graduation.

Amanda Schoonmaker is a sophomore from West Lafayette, IN. She would like to pursue a career in forensic science.

The Patrick C. Matchette Scholarship

Laurie McIntyre is a freshman from Illinois. She is participating in research in the Ogas lab and plans to attend dental school after graduation.

Kwok Yip Tso Scholarship

Garrett Grossman is a freshman from West Lafayette, IN and is participating in research in the Hana Hall lab and plans to go to medical school after graduation.

Zhao-Herrmann Scholarship in Biochemistry

Louis Delaby is a freshman from Carmel, IN and is doing research in the Hana Hall lab. He plans to go to medical school after graduation.

Donald and Rita Weeks Scholarship

Manya Soni is a junior from Canada. She is doing research in the Chen lab in the Food Science department. She plans to attend a professional school after graduation.

Zygmunt Family Scholarship in Biochemistry

Ethan Tuttle is a junior from Crown Point, IN. He is currently working in Mark Hall’s lab. Ethan plans to attend medical school after graduation.

Christine Habib is a junior from West Lafayette, IN. She hopes to attend medical school after graduation.

Niah Patel is a junior from Kokomo, IN. She is doing research in the Deering lab in Food Science and plans to pursue a PhD after graduation.

Elysia Uggen is a sophomore from Noblesville, IN. She is currently doing undergraduate research in the Ogas lab and plans to go to graduate school after graduation.

Anna Fisher is a sophomore from Indianapolis, IN. She is a dual major with linguistics and is doing research in the Dudareva lab.

Alice Westermann Villwock, a junior from Plainfield, IN. She is working in the Ogas lab and hopes to pursue a PhD in biochemistry.

Reagan Fortwendel is a sophomore from Jasper, IN. She is participating in undergraduate research in the Chopra lab in the Chemistry department. She plans to attend veterinary school after graduation.

Maclain Clock is a sophomore from Columbus, IN. He hopes to attend a dental school after graduation and is doing research in the Dudareva lab.

Lauren Connors is a sophomore from Avon, IN. She is working in the Briggs lab and plans to pursue a PhD after graduation.

Madolyn Jarrett is a junior from Noblesville, IN and is doing research in the Weake lab. She plans to pursue a PhD after graduation.

Cooper Williams is a freshman from Greensburg, IN and plans to go to vet school after graduation.

Caroline Donaldson is a freshman from Cedar Lake, IN and is interested in going to graduate school.

Elise Denger is a sophomore from New Palestine, IN. She is currently working in the Ekenstedt lab in the veterinary school and she plans to pursue veterinary school upon graduation.

Jane Taylor Indiana Challenge Match Scholarship in Biochemistry

Ellie Ketcham is a junior from Westfield, IN and is doing research in the Plaut lab. She plans to attend medical school after graduation.

Daniel E. Walker Undergraduate Scholarships

Setsbileg Batbold a freshman from California.

Crystal Lee is a freshman from Taiwan and will be doing undergraduate research in the Mark Hall lab.

Additional Awards

Martin Ag Scholarship is awarded by the Office of Academic Programs in the College of Ag to students who demonstrate high academic performance, quality research contributions and a desire for continued learning about research in agriculture.

The following students received this award for the 2025-2026 academic year

Alice Westermann-Villwock (Ogas lab)
Maren Eaton (Chapple lab)
Elysia Uggen (Ogas lab)
Anna Fisher (Doudareva lab)

Honor Society of the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Inductees

Jenna Schoonmaker
Mindy Navarrete
Caroline Chandler
Shelby Sliger
Danny Kanj

American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Chapter of the Year

Our Biochemistry Club led by faculty mentor, Dr. Orla Hart, was awarded Chapter of the Year at the annual conference held this year in Chicago. We had 25 undergraduates present posters, and 2 of our students, Nina Wilson and Nathan Henderson were awarded Honorable Mention in the poster competition.

Group of Biochemistry students holding up award certificates

BIOCHEMISTRY OUTSTANDING STUDENTS

Each year, the department selects one student as the outstanding student from each class on the basis of excellence in academics, research and service. These students are then nominated for the college-level awards, which are announced last night at the College Spring Awards Banquet. Our outstanding students this year are: