Congratulations to the Excellence in Research Award Recipients
2026 Postdoctoral Category
First Place
Aishwarya Rengarajan, PhD, Merck
“Human iPSC-Mesendoderm Differentiation Model Reveals Possible Novel Off-Targets of Cereblon-Based Molecular Glues Related to Developmental Toxicity Outcomes”
2026 Graduate Student Category
First Place
Nneamaka Iwobi, PhD Candidate, University of California, Irvine
“Single-Cell Transcriptomic Profiling of Bisphenol-Induced Disruption in Human Embryonic Stem Cell Osteogenesis”
Mentor: Nicole R. Sparks, PhD
Previous Award Recipients
Open All
No awards given
Excellence in Research Award
1st Place (Postdoctoral)—D M Isha Olive Khan, Michigan State University
“Single Cell Transcriptomics Reveals Key Phenotypic and Signaling Alterations with TCDD (2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin) in an In Vitro Model of Human Hematopoiesis”
1st Place (Graduate Student)—Dowlette-Mary Alam El Din, Johns Hopkins University
“Chronic Low-Dose Domoic Acid Exposure Influences Neuronal Network Function in hiPSC Derived Brain Organoids”
Mentor: Lena Smirnova, PhD
Excellence in Research Award
1st Place (Postdoctoral)—Luke Liu
1st Place (Graduate Student)—Dowlette-Mary Alam El Din
Excellence in Research Award
1st Place (Postdoctoral)—Anke Tukker
1st Place (Graduate Student)—Hyunjin Kim
Excellence in Research Award
1st Place (Postdoctoral)—Lisa Prince
1st Place (Graduate Student)—Amy Tran
2nd Place (Graduate Student)—Itishree Kaushik
Excellence in Research Award
1st Place (Postdoctoral) [Tie]—Nicole Sparks
1st Place (Postdoctoral) [Tie]—Souvarish Sarkar
1st Place (Graduate Student)—Tasha Thong
2nd Place (Graduate Student)—Kendra Prutton
Excellence in Research Award
1st Place (Postdoctoral)—Monica Langley
1st Place (Graduate Student)—Zunwei Chen
2nd Place (Graduate Student)—Sharavan Ramachandran
Excellence in Research Award
No awards given
Excellence in Research Award
1st Place (Postdoctoral)—Joseph Shearer
1st Place (Graduate Student)—Rachana Nitin
Excellence in Research Award
1st Place (Postdoctoral)—Ntube Olive Ngalame
2nd Place (Postdoctoral) [Tie]—Ngome Makia
2nd Place (Postdoctoral) [Tie]—Xiaozhen Dai
1st Place (Graduate Student)—Monica Langley
2nd Place (Graduate Student)—Qin Wang
Excellence in Research Award
1st Place (Postdoctoral)—Joshua F. Robinson
2nd Place (Postdoctoral)—Chia-I Ko
1st Place (Graduate Student) [Tie]—Joseph Shearer
1st Place (Graduate Student) [Tie]—Qin Wang
Excellence in Research Award
1st Place (Postdoctoral)—Joshua F. Robinson
2nd Place (Postdoctoral)—Ntube N. O. Ngalame
1st Place (Graduate Student)—Andrew Tidball
2nd Place (Graduate Student)—Everett Tate
Excellence in Research Award
1st Place (Postdoctoral)—Ntube N. O. Ngalame
2nd Place (Postdoctoral)—Jayanta K. Das
1st Place (Graduate Student)—Eric Beier
2nd Place (Graduate Student)—Surendra Singh