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@bsciumd Terp Spotlight: OLIVIA VELASQUEZ Recipient of the Appleman-Norton Award for Plant Biology Mentor: Dr. Charles Delwiche BSCI Specialization: General Biology Dr. Delwiche’s comments: “Olivia Velasquez has been working in the De
@bsciumd Terp Spotlight: OLIVIA VELASQUEZ Recipient of the Appleman-Norton Award for Plant Biology Mentor: Dr. Charles Delwiche BSCI Specialization: General Biology Dr. Delwiche’s comments: “Olivia Velasquez has been working in the Delwiche lab, primarily supervised by postdoc John Mattick, since early 2024. In that time, she has shown great capability with benchwork and cell culture work, and has made significant intellectual contributions experimental design and troubleshooting. She has two main projects: first, expressing and characterizing an archaeal homologue of the plant (+)-gamete protein HAP2 in Haloferax volcanii to understand how the eukaryotic life cycle evolved during the origin of eukaryotes; and second the sequencing and characterization of novel Dunaliella species. Dunaliella is a halophilic green algae related to Chlamydomonas, and we have isolated novel strains from Salt Flats in the South San Francisco Bay (California).” “In her time in the lab, Olivia has isolated single colonies of both Haloferax and Dunaliella from plates that she made herself, designed and executed growth and fluorescence experiments using our plate reader, and has performed DNA isolations as well as helped run the Oxford Nanopore long-read sequencer to determine the genome of these new isolates.” “Her knowledge and technique is exemplary, and she has shown the ability to perform successful experiments without direct supervision. Her time in the lab has directly contributed to multiple successful experiments characterizing growth, mating, and the genomics of diverse halophilic organisms.” Olivia is pictured with Dr. Delwiche in slide one. CONGRATULATIONS OLIVIA!
@bsciumd Terp Spotlight: OLIVIA VELASQUEZ Recipient of the Appleman-Norton Award for Plant Biology Mentor: Dr. Charles Delwiche BSCI Specialization: General Biology Dr. Delwiche’s comments: “Olivia Velasquez has been working in the De
@bsciumd Terp Spotlight: RUHAMA DEMISSIE Recipient of the Appleman-Norton Award for Plant Biology Mentor: Dr. William Snell BSCI Specialization: Cell Biology & Genetics (CEBG) Dr. Snell’s and Hibba Hussain’s comments: “Ruha
Fall / Winter 2024 & SPRING 2025 BSCI GRADUATES! @umdscience
From BSCI Faculty & Staff: CONGRATS Fall / Winter 2024 and SPRING 2025 Graduates! @umdscience
@bsciumd TERP SPOTLIGHT: JERRY SHEN, GENB & STAT double major. ANGELA TAN, PHNB & CMSC double major. “We’re part of something much bigger,” said Angela Tan, a junior who serves as co-president with Jerry for Maryland Scien
CONGRATULATIONS to SARIKA KAPADIA on earning Departmental High Honors from UMD’s Department of Cell Biology & Molecular Genetics (CBMG) Honors Program! Last Fall, Sarika successfully defended her thesis titled: 𝘧π˜ͺ𝘬𝘬 Gene Expression Spe
Science Terps Aditri Gadigi and Anushka Poddar are leading a @bsciumd course this Fall! BSCI238I, Machine Learning for the Life Sciences (1 credit). Swipe right and/or contact the co-instructors to learn more. Discuss registration with your assign
Shoutout and congratulations to @bsciumd Terp and incoming graduate Emma Wachter who recently defended her Honors thesis via the Biology Honors Program (administered by UMD’s Department of Biology). Emma works on mathematical modeling in viral
CONGRATULATIONS to @bsciumd Terp Vainavi Gambhir, named 2025 University Medalist. At UMD's Main Commencement Ceremony on May 21, 2025, Gambhir will receive the University Medal, honoring a graduating senior demonstrating academic distinction, outsta
Bats are known for their impressive lifespan and unique immunity. Inflammation typically increases with age, but would this be the case in such a long-lived mammal? @bsciumd Terp Jillian Kaiser, with her mentor Dr. Gerald Wilkinson, found that a biom
@umdcbmg is delivering a panel for BSCI Terps to learn more about Pathways to Graduate Research on MAY 1st! Sign up to register with the link in our bio.
Bats are a cool new model for aging because they live a lot longer than expected. To understand why this is, Ana Cunningham—@bsciumd Terp— measured how the immune system and the transcriptome (all the RNA in a cell) of the greater spear-
The Biology Honors Program is an independent study program for advanced, highly-motivated undergraduate students interested in research in the biological sciences. Students in the program engage in an independent research project working closely wi
Griffin Beckley, Junior BSCI Terp studying in the ECEV Specialization has returned to Maryland from a trip abroad in Northern Tanzania. Griffin completed an independent research study on the spatial distribution and water holding capacity of elephan
Incoming SUMMER 2025. Consult with your Academic Advisor about registering.
Incoming FALL 2025. Consult with your BSCI Advisor about registering.
FALL ‘25 COURSE OFFERING: BSCI366, Environmental Physiology of Animals In this class, we explore how animals—in their rich and dazzling diversity—survive and thrive across the extremely diverse environments of our planet. Althoug
IT’S HERE! Giving Day is a 24-hour fundraising event held on March 5 for all members of the University of Maryland community. Let’s come together for Science Terps. Even small gifts can have a huge impact on our biosci community. LINK
INCOMING THURSDAY. Many of the employers at the ENGR Career Fair are also looking to hire and recruit BSCI Terps! Show up and out, March 6th.
INCOMING WEDNESDAY, two days away! Giving Day is a 24-hour fundraising event held on March 5 for all members of the University of Maryland community. Students, alums, faculty, staff, parents and friends join the largest day of giving because when t

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