2026 Lightning Talk Finalists
Petr Máca, PhD (First Place) (Virginia Tech)
"BLASTEX - Increasing BLAST Resistance of Concrete Structures with TEXtile Reinforced Concrete"
Kelsey Watts, PhD (Second Place) (UVA)
"Developing Sex-Specific Treatments for Cardiovascular Disease"
Christopher Welker, PhD (Second Place) (UVA)
"Building belonging: Friends of friends as a pathway to post-move well-being"
Nasim Akhtar, PhD (Third Place) (Virginia Tech)
"Lighting Up Cancer Earlier: Smart Molecules for Detection and Surgical Precision"
Yumeng Zhang, PhD (Third Place) (UVA)
"A New Strategy to Treat Dry Skin: Insights from Skin's Natural Repair Cells"
Audience Choice Award: Petr Máca, PhD (Virginia Tech)
"BLASTEX - Increasing BLAST Resistance of Concrete Structures with TEXtile Reinforced Concrete"
Blandine Baffert, PhD (UVA)
"Super ELMO to the rescue: How This Protein Protects Your Kidneys"
Dennis Chan, PhD (UVA)
"Alzheimer's Disease Inflammation Predicts Functional Network Behavior"
Gislane de Almeida Santos, PhD (UVA)
"From Hero to Villain: How Aging Changes Immune Memory in the Lungs"
Valentina Ekimova, PhD (UVA)
"Life on Thawing Ground: Arctic Risk Seen from Field and Space"
Hajarooba Gnanagobal, PhD (Virginia Tech)
"Mapping small RNA-target mRNA interactions in Brucella abortus"
Sidra Khan, PhD (UVA)
"What Bacteria Teach Us About Human Immunity"
Adrienne Resha, PhD (UVA)
"Embiggen! Kamala Khan's Ms. Marvel Grows (Up) the Superhero Genre"
Joe Siev, PhD (UVA)
"The Cross-Context Design: Using AI for Transparent Archival Research"
Alexia Simon, PhD (UVA)
"Recreating Cosmic Ice in the Laboratory: Tracing the Chemistry of Planet Formation"
2025 Lightning Talk Finalists
Konica Konica, PhD (First Place) (UVA)
"Taking Out the "Cellular Trash': A Chemical Approach to Treating Neurodegenerative Diseases
Ke Wang, PhD (Second Place) (UVA)
"Positive emotions and harmful health behavior: Implications for theory and public messaging campaigns"
Caitlin S Wiafe Kwakye, PhD (Third Place) (UVA)
"Exploring the Role of a Toxin in Group B Streptococcus Disease"
Cassidi L Richmond, PhD (Third Place) (UVA)
"Research to Reality: Designing a Literacy Intervention for Adolescents"
Steven Rolland, PhD (Audience Choice Award) (UVA)
"Colon Under Attack: Investigating How Shigella Invades and Spreads"
Katie Moosic, PhD (UVA)
"Can Understanding Cancer 'Extinguish the Flame' of Arthritis?"
Pedro Soto, PhD (Virginia Tech)
"Enhancing Distributed Computing Resilience and Efficiency via Coding Techniques"
Jia Ma, PhD (UVA)
"What Happens When Teachers Get the Right Support?"
Pawel Rubach, PhD (UVA)
"Big Data in Protein Science: Millions of Protein Structures with Knots and Lassos and how to find them?"
Miki Kume, PhD (UVA)
"Understanding how bacteria from our gut can influence autoimmunity"
Matthew J Roberts, PhD (UVA)
"Use of a Dilution Refrigerator for Low-Energy Nuclear Physics Experiments"
Lindsay S Miles, PhD (Virginia Tech)
"Bed bug genome-wide patterns of population expansion mirrors human global expansion"
David Delgado Diaz, PhD (UVA)
"A three-dimensional biomimetic model of the human endocervix to study Chlamydia trachomatis infection"
2024 Lightning Talk Finalists
Amber M. Henry, PhD (First Place)
The Politics of Paradise: Caribbean tourism as a tool for peacebuilding in Colombia
Mélisse Bonfand-Caldeira, PhD (Second Place)
“Unveiling the cosmic origins of life”
Jacopo Pavan, PhD (Third Place)
“Using digital twins to optimize insulin therapy in children with Type 1 Diabetes”
Prem Sagar Menghwar, PhD (Audience Choice Award)
”A Framework for Understanding and Resolving Pseudoscience Crisis”
Mina Ostovari, PhD
“Leveraging Remote Health Monitoring Systems for Improving Cancer Pain Tracking and Management”
Pawan Kumar Kanaujia, PhD
“Green and Sustainable End-of-Life PV Module Recycling of Si-Solar Cells”
Irene Sánchez Brualla, PhD
“Preventing Sudden Unexpected Death in Epilepsy by understanding impairments on breathing function”
Daniel Rau, PhD
“Multi-material 3D printing of highly stretchable elastomeric composites”