Celebrating Undergraduate Research Excellence 2026
Credit: Photo taken by Matthew B. Hamilton PhD
Chapman Award winner and honorable mentions: Sophia Farmer, Aly Jeffrey, Emily Moses, Omar Anwar, Ethan Maconochie, John Henry Lotz-McMillen (left to right in the picture of the nominees), Audrey Agyin and Matt Gardiner also received an honorable mention but are not pictured.
The Department of Biology recently hosted its annual departmental award ceremony, coming together to proudly celebrate the extraordinary accomplishments of its top undergraduate researchers and scholars. The event highlighted the critical role that undergraduate innovation plays in the department’s vibrant scientific community.The Taylor-Weber award, an
alumni-endowed prize, is for the student or students who enter the senior year with the highest academic record among majors and is named for two outstanding teachers in the Department’s history. This year’s recipient was Pallavi Bommareddy.
Each of the majors from the Department presents an award to a student exhibiting academic excellence, research engagement, and service to the department. This year, John Henry Lotz-McMillen received the Biology Award, Andrea Esquivel received the Biology of Global Health Award, Daisy Fynewever received the Environmental Biology Award, and Sophie Wignall-Dillon received the Neurobiology Award. These students were each recognized at the Tropaia Ceremony.
The Chapman Medal is designed to recognize a student who has demonstrated unparalleled excellence, dedication, and insight in their scientific pursuits, and is the department’s most prestigious undergraduate research honor. It is awarded to the individual with the most outstanding research project. This year, Aly Jeffrey was named the Chapman medal winner for her research on development, maturation and function of the retinal pigment epithelium as well as investigations into drugs that could be used to treat retinal degeneration and vision loss.
Congratulations to all of our students!