5,000+

Shanel Byas earned her B.S. in
Chemistry from the University of
Maryland Eastern Shore (UMES)
in 2010. In addition to being an
LSAMP student, she also was a
MARC U*STAR student at
UMES. As and undergraduate,
she conducted research entitled Human Embryonic Stem Cells
Maintain Pluripotency after E-Cadherin Expression
Knockdown. Currently, she is enrolled in a Ph.D. program in
the Department of Physiology and Biophysics at the Virginia
Commonwealth School of Medicine.
Erwin M. Cabrera earned his B.S. in
Biological Sciences from the University of
Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) in
2010. As an undergraduate, he conducted
research guided by his mentor, Dr. Phyllis R.
Robinson, Professor in the Department of
Biological Sciences at UMBC, entitled
Probing the Structure of Rhodopsin and
Human Green Opsin Using Site Directed Spin Labeling. He
currently is enrolled in a Ph.D. program at New York
University.
Patrick Carlos is a Ph.D. student in
Applied Mathematics and Scientific
Computation at the University of
Maryland, College Park (UMD). He was
awarded a 2008-10 LSAMP Bridge to the
Doctorate Fellowship. He completed his
undergraduate education, receiving three
degrees, from UMD. He earned his B.S. in Computer Science
in 2003 and his B.S. in Mathematics and Economics in 2008.
After completing his Ph.D., he plans to work in academia.
Carlos Casarez expects to
complete his B.S. in Mechanical
Engineering with a minor in
Physics from the University of
Maryland, College Park in May
2013. As a participant in the
LSAMP Undergraduate Research
Program, he has worked on
improving the efficiency of jumping millirobots. In the
summer of 2011, he conducted research on a test apparatus for
a climbing robot in the Center of Integrated Nanomechanical
Systems Undergraduate Research Program at the University of
California, Berkeley. He plans to submit undergraduate work
to robotics conferences and earn a Ph.D. in engineering with a
research focus on robotics.
Kimberly Cephas earned her B.S in
Biology with a minor in Nutrition from
the University of Maryland Eastern
Shore in 2009. She presented her
research on “Growth and Survival of
Vibrio vulnificus in postharvest
American Oysters” at the Association
of Research Directors, Inc.
Conference. She is completing her
master’s thesis in Nutritional Sciences at the University of
Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). She received first
place for her poster presentation at the 2011 UIUC Nutritional
Sciences Graduate Student Association (NSGSA). She is
currently working as a Dietetic Intern and Graduate Research
Assistant for the Division of Nutritional Sciences at UIUC.
Kira Castellon earned her B.S. in Biology
from the University of Maryland Eastern
Shore in 2005. As an undergraduate, she
conducted research entitled Reliability of a
Video-based Modified Fugl-Meyer Scale
Following Stroke and Uupper-limb Motor
Dysfunction at the University of Maryland
School of Medicine. She continued to a Ph.D. program in
Physiology at Howard University.
Daniel Chenet earned his BS. summa cum
laude in Mechanical Engineering (ME)
from the University of Maryland, College
Park in 2006. After briefly working at
Brookhaven National Laboratory, he began
graduate school at Columbia University
where he completed his M.S. in ME in
2011 and expects to complete is Ph.D.
program in ME in 2014. He is funded by a
Presidential Fellowship through the university as well as a
GEM Fellowship. He conducts research in the lab of James C.
Hone, Ph.D. His research focus is on single-molecule devices
utilizing carbon nanotubes and DNA-directed self-assembly.
Sean A. Colbert-Kelly earned his B.S.
magna cum laude in Mathematics with a
minor in Computer Science from the
University of Maryland, Baltimore
County (UMBC) in 2005. As an
undergraduate at UMBC, he was
actively involved with the National
Society of Collegiate Scholars, Pi Mu Epsilon, Phi Beta
Kappa, Golden Key International Honor Society, National
Society of Black Engineers, and the Student Events Board
(Vice-President and Board Member). He is currently a Ph.D.
candidate in Applied Mathematics with a concentration in
Computational Science at Purdue University where he also
teaches courses and is active with the Alliance for Graduate
Education and Professoriate (AGEP), Society for Industrial
and Applied Mathematics, and the American Mathematical
Society.
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