2024 College of Science Outstanding Graduate Student Awards

Congratulations to the following graduate students who were selected as 2024 CBC Outstanding Graduate Service Award recipients.

The College of Science Outstanding Graduate Student Awards (in Scholarship, Service, and Teaching) are offered annually. Each selected student will receive a departmental award as well as a nomination for the College Award in that category.

Nick Lauta – Graduate Outstanding Teaching

"I received my B.S. in Biochemistry at Florida Gulf Coast University before heading to The University of Arizona to pursue a PhD in Chemistry under Jon Njardarson. As a synthetic chemist, my work has primarily focused on the development of new methodologies along with a large focus on the development of new total syntheses of Apomorphine, a US FDA approved Parkinson's drug. In my free time I love to cook and ferment foods while listening to death metal."

Megan Laham – Graduate Outstanding Service

Megan works in Dr. Thatcher's lab studying nuclear hormone receptors to develop nonlipogenic ABCA1 inducers. Megan is also the CBC graduate council chair and the outreach chair for PAWS. Through PAWS she has organized various events with the Tucson community to share STEM demos with K-12 students. One event this year that Megan was grateful to be a part of was the visit to Baboquivari High School on the Tohono O'odham reservation this past fall. Megan says her passion for outreach really started at her undergraduate college which encouraged students to volunteer with the local community as well as nationally through various service trips.

Lilia Koelemay – Graduate Outstanding Scholarship

I am currently a fifth-year graduate student in the Ziurys Research Group in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, where I explore the chemistry of the interstellar medium through radio astronomy. My research focuses on identifying radical gas-phase molecules in the circumstellar envelopes of evolved stars and searching for organic molecules at the edge of the Milky Way Galaxy. I have detected two new interstellar molecules, silicon phosphide (SiP) and iron carbide (FeC), around the star IRC+10216. These findings were both presented at American Astronomical Society (AAS) and International Symposium on Molecular Spectroscopy (ISMS) meetings, and were published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters. I also discovered phosphorus-bearing molecules, phosphorus monoxide (PO) and phosphorus nitride (PN), in the Outer Galaxy. This work not only suggests an alternate pathway for phosphorus nucleosynthesis but also implies broader habitability criteria within our galaxy. These discoveries were also presented at AAS and ISMS meetings and have been featured in a recent publication in Nature. Because of my research, I have been awarded the Carl S. Marvel Memorial Scholarship, the Chemistry and Biochemistry Graduate Scholar Award, and the Mensch Prize in Astrobiology.