2026 Top Presenters

40th Annual Student Research Symposium Top Presenters

The 40th Annual Student Research Symposium, hosted by the Office of Graduate Studies, was a tremendous success, highlighting the creativity, innovation, and academic excellence of Chico State students. This year’s event featured 99 presentations, 103 student presenters, and nearly 200 attendees, making it one of our strongest Symposiums. 

The competition featured three distinct presentation formats:

• 10-Minute Presentation: Participants submitted a written summary, delivered a formal presentation on their research or creative project, and engaged in a Q&A session with judges and audience members.
• 3-Minute Presentation: A fast-paced challenge requiring students to distill their research or creative project into a concise, engaging talk using only a single static slide.
• Poster Session: A visually compelling format where students presented their work and answered questions from attendees.

Students from across disciplines took the stage to share their research and creative work, demonstrating both depth of knowledge and confidence in communicating their ideas to a broad audience. Faculty and staff judges—many of whom have supported the event for years—remarked on the exceptional quality of this year’s presentations and the professionalism of the students. Selecting top presenters was no easy task, and judges spent considerable time deliberating across all sessions.

Following careful review, 10 presentations from the 10-Minute sessions were selected to represent Chico State at the CSU Statewide Student Research Competition, to be held at San José State University on April 23–25. These students will go on to compete with top researchers from across all 23 CSU campuses.

The Symposium continues to serve as a cornerstone event for student research at Chico State—an opportunity for students to build confidence, refine their communication skills, and engage with a supportive academic community. We are proud of every student who participated and the meaningful contributions they are making in their fields.

We would also like to extend our sincere thanks to the College of Natural Sciences for hosting this year’s event in their beautiful facility, helping create an inspiring space for student scholarship.

Congratulations to all participants, and best of luck to those advancing to the statewide competition. We look forward to seeing even more groundbreaking work at next year’s Symposium.

List of all 2026 Student Presenters (PDF)

POSTER SESSION – UNDERGRADUATE

• FIRST PLACE
  Oscar Deleon, Plant and Soil Science
  Managing Resistance and Improving Outcomes- Herbicide Data from Rice Trials in the Sacramento Valley
  Faculty Mentor: Whitney Brim-DeForest

• SECOND PLACE
  Sienna Noftz, Animal Science
  Early Pregnancy Detection During the Peri-Implantation Period in Sheep Using PAGs
  Faculty Mentor: Ben Duran

POSTER SESSION – GRADUATE

• FIRST PLACE
  Sergio Palacios, Biological Sciences
  Targeted Disruption of Iron Oxidation in Leptothrix
  Faculty Mentor: Emily Fleming

• SECOND PLACE
  Sloane Tribble, Language Teaching
  Effects of Emotion-laden Texts on Second Language (L2) Word Learning
  Faculty Mentor: Friederike Fichtner

3-MINUTE PRESENTATIONS

SESSION 1 | UNDERGRADUATE

• FIRST PLACE
  Shasta Fox, Environmental Science
  Comparing Carbon Sequestration in California’s Regenerative and Conventional Agricultural
  Soil-Water
  Faculty Mentor: Sandrine Matiasek
   
• SECOND PLACE
  Madison Sunderman, History
  Midwifery in Early America: Culture, Competition, and Marginalization
  Faculty Mentor: Alisa Wade

SESSION 2 | GRADUATE

• FIRST PLACE
  Jessica Silveira, Biological Sciences
  The Effects of Developmental Nicotine Exposure on the Brain
  Faculty Mentor: Kodeeswaran Parameshwaran
  
  

• SECOND PLACE
  Rabia Virk, Kinesiology
  Exercise Timing and Its Effects on Metabolism in
  Night Shift Workers
  Faculty Mentor: Ryan Perkins

10-MINUTE PRESENTATIONS

SESSION 1 | UNDERGRADUATE

• FIRST PLACE
  Caleb Hearn, Economics
  Debt on Layaway: Buy Now, Pay Later and U.S. Consumer Finance
  Faculty Mentor: Jacob Jennings

• SECOND PLACE
  Alison Wolfenden, Art History
  Medieval Memes: A Cultural Looking Glass
  Faculty Mentor: Asa Mittman

SESSION 2 | UNDERGRADUATE

SESSION 3 | UNDERGRADUATE

• FIRST PLACE
  Akylai Murzakulova, Biochemistry
  Targeting Receptor Tyrosine Kinase AXL Palmitoylation for Sarcoma Cancer Treatment
  Faculty Mentor: Mingli Li

• SECOND PLACE
  Katie Adams, Geology
  The Ancient Stratovolcano Mt. Yana and its Reconstruction Through Lava Flow Emplacement, CA
  Faculty Mentor: Andrew Harp

SESSION 4 | UNDERGRADUATE

• FIRST PLACE
  

  Pablo Adame, Ariana McAvoy, Enrique Borgzinner, and Kyle Chen, Mechanical Engineering
  A Drag Coefficient Parameter Map for Predicting Apogee of a High-Powered Rocket
  Faculty Mentor: Dennis O'Connor

• SECOND PLACE
  

  West Brownlow, Benjamin Kanavalchuk, and Ishmum Nawar, Mechanical Engineering
  Design and Fabrication of PEGDA Microneedles for Insulin Delivery
  Faculty Mentor: Ozgul Yasar

SESSION 5 | GRADUATE

SESSION 6 | GRADUATE

• FIRST PLACE
  Grace Bronson, Psychological Science
  Punching Down: Triggered Displaced Aggression in Response to Low- vs. High-Status Targets
  Faculty Mentor: Patrick Johnson

• SECOND PLACE
  Leahana Mishelof, Psychological Science
  You Only Live Once: Effects of Mortality Salience on Condom Use in a Sexual Risk Scenario
  Faculty Mentor: Patrick Johnson

SESSION 7 | GRADUATE

• FIRST PLACE
  Aurora Barkley, Psychological Science
  Examining the Effects of Ketamine on Adolescent Binge Eating
  Faculty Mentor: Shawn Bates

• SECOND PLACE
  Cecille Guese, Psychological Science
  The Gender-Pain Exaggeration Bias: Investigating Perceiver Expectations of Pain Claimed
  Versus Pain
  Faculty Mentor: Shawn Bates

SESSION 8 | GRADUATE

• FIRST PLACE
  Shelby Bomke, Biological Sciences
  Go with the Flow: Transcriptional Responses to Fluid Shear Stress in Scoliotic Osteoblasts
  Faculty Mentor: Kristen Gorman

• SECOND PLACE
  Nate Dailey, Data Science and Analytics
  Structure-Level Fire Risk Model for 2025 Palisades and Eaton Fires
  Faculty Mentor: Kathy Gray

SESSION 9 | GRADUATE

CSU Statewide Research Competition Delegates

The following students have been selected to represent Chico State at the 40th Annual Statewide CSU Student Research Competition, which will be held at San Jose State on April 23-25, 2026. They will compete against local winners from all 23 CSU campuses. We wish them the best of luck!

Student Delegates

Symposium Judges

A special thanks to the faculty judges for the time, care, expertise, and commitment they devote to this special student event. Without them, the Student Research Competition would not be possible.

• Sharon Barrios, Dean, Graduate Studies
• Kwadwo Boakye, Public Health
• JoAna Brooks, Graduate Studies
• Skylar Cotnam, Library Research, Instruction, and Outreach
• Michael Ennis, Psychology
• Ben Duran, Agriculture
• Andreas Garcia-Penagos, Psychology
• Robert Griffin-Nolan, Biology
• Shelley Hart, Child Development
• Feng He, Kinesiology
• Joanna Herrera, McNair/Grad Studies
• ChengTu Hsieh, Kinesiology
• Lijiao Hu, Agriculture
• Kim Jaxon, English
• Kristen Kaczynkski, Earth and Environmental Sciences
• Raquel Krach, Agriculture
• SeungJu Lee, Social Work
• Micah Lehner, Philosophy, Graduate Studies
• Steve Lewis, History
• Mingli Li, Biology
• Italo Lima, Animal Science
• Stephanie Machado, Public Health
• Greg Madonia, Economics
• Jennifer Malkowski, Communication Studies
• Sandrine Matiasek, Earth and Environmental Sciences
• Michele Mittman, CEMUR Program 
• Lindsey Nenadal, Child Development
• Celina Phillips, Animal Science
• Michael Pratt, MPA/Grad Studies
• Parsa Saffarinia, Biology
• Dylan Sanders, Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering
• Russell Shapiro, Earth and Environmental Sciences
• Samuel Siewert, Computer Science
• Neesa Sonoquie, McNair Scholars
• Matt Thomas, Political Science and Criminal Justice
• Paul Viotti, Political Science
• Zhaohong Wang, Electrical and Computer Engineering
• Bo Teong Won, Psychology
• Ozgul Yasar-Inceoglu, Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering
• Sooyeon Yi, Earth and Environmental Sciences
• Jinsong Zhang, Chemistry

This event is generously supported by the Student Learning Fee and Instructionally Related Activities.