2025 MGI Awards Ceremony honors outstanding students
Thirty-three exceptional students from MSU’s Department of Microbiology, Genetics, & Immunology were honored at a departmental awards ceremony held on April 22 at the Interdisciplinary Science and Technology Building. More than 100 faculty, students, donors and parents joined to celebrate this year’s recipients.
"Our awards ceremony honors our past as much as it does our present: alumni, former faculty, and friends have shared their resources to enable us to recognize excellence among our current students,” said Victor DiRita, Rudolph Hugh Endowed Chair and MGI department chair. “We don't want to forget who makes this all possible, so we make sure to highlight the people behind the awards as much as we do the people receiving them."
MGI has 20 individual endowments which fund both undergraduate and graduate awards, and the criteria for the awards are delineated in each specific endowment document.
“We have descriptions of each endowment and what the donor wanted us to look for in the students,” said Amber Bedore, graduate program coordinator for MGI. “It could be based broadly on their research excellence or on their professional development or academic achievements. We also look at each student’s CV to see how active they are in presenting and communicating their research to various audiences, and what outreach activities they are involved in.
“It's inspiring to read the nomination letters that are sent by the nominators, and very rewarding to show the recipients how valued they are by the department."
For the graduate awards, nominations are solicited in the fall from the department’s faculty and include a letter of support as well as the student’s CV. The graduate committee reads through all the nominations and makes the final selections.
Undergraduate award nominations are requested directly from the students.
“Undergraduates pursuing majors in MGI are invited to submit an application to be considered for an award,” said Jeannine Scott, MGI director of undergraduate studies. “Students must write an essay describing their experience in MGI and request a letter of recommendation from a faculty member or, most often, their research mentor. These materials, along with their academic records, are reviewed by the awards committee in order to select the most deserving students based on academic and research excellence, and whose situations most closely match the intentions of the award donors.”
Jasper Gomez, an MGI doctoral student in Chris Waters lab, was this year’s recipient of the Ralph Evans award which is endowed by MGI Hannah Distinguished Professor Rich Lenski and his wife, Madeleine in honor of their friend, Ralph Evans. The award honors Evans’ legacy as a brilliant scientist with a passion for microbial evolution and a gentle sense of humor.
“I am truly honored to have received the Ralph Evans Award this year, especially as a former student from Dr. Rich Lenski’s lab,” said Gomez. “As an undergraduate, I was mentored by Drs. Kyle Card and Rich Lenski, who nurtured my curiosity about microbial evolution. This curiosity now drives my graduate research on how viruses evade microbial host defenses and the ecological and genetic consequences of these interactions.
“The financial support from this award will help me continue my research and provide the opportunity to present my work at an international conference. I am deeply grateful to Dr. Rich Lenski and his wife, Madeleine, whose generosity makes this award possible and supports students like me working to advance research in microbial evolution.”
To see photos from the ceremony, visit: https://www.flickr.com/photos/202659015@N07/albums/72177720325702168/
For more information about the specific awards, please visit the MGI website.
Here is the full list of this year’s recipients:
Graduate Awards
Berttina Wentworth Award
Beth Ottosen
Charles Whitehead-Tillery
Ralph Evans Award
Jasper Gomez
Rudolph Hugh Award
Alex Wessel
Hunter North
Edith Hsiung & Margaret Everett Kimball Award
Kendall Mara
C.A. & Sasikala Reddy Endowed Award
Manos Kokarakis
Marvis A. Richardson Award
Soledad Soverina
Vanessa Estrada
Thomas S. Whittam Graduate Student Award
Tom Kim
Graduate & Undergraduate Awards
Russel & Dorothy Duvall Award
Undergrad:
Madison Enviya
Sophia Burke
Grad:
Jared Godfrey
Sarah Gonzalez Henao
Philipp & Vera Gerhardt Award
Undergrad: Bryce Waller
Grad: Veronica Albrecht
Eleanor L. Gilmore Endowed Excellence Award
Undergrad: Ashlynn Linet
Grad:
Joel Marty
Sergio Hernández-Ortiz
Frank Peabody Microbiology Student Research Award
Undergrad:
Carol Hogan
Elizabeth Anderson
Grad: Heather Murdoch
Undergraduate Awards
Dietrich C. Bauer Award
Graham Jackson
Isabelle Ratcliffe
Karen & David Gloss Award
Jayadeep Yedla
Norman & Hanna Kelker Undergraduate Research Scholarship Award
Abigail Lippert
Ryan Corfixsen
Theodore & Alice Rykala Scholarship Award
Caitlin Dougherty
William S. Sayer Award
Sam Snowden
Amber Cody Springman Memorial Scholarship Award
Bryce Delaney
Jessica Bailey
Richard & Susan Van Frank Undergraduate Research Fund Award
Lana Wheatley
Logan Sheard
