Velay Fellowship Videos 2026

Taelyn Albrecht
Physics, Astronomy majors

Mentor
Dr. Navid Vafaei-Najafabadi (Physics)

Project
Analysis of Electron Beam Quality Though Focusing by One Dimensional Plasma Lens

Jaymie Grant
Physics, Mathematics majors

Mentor
Dr. William Holt (Geosciences)

Project
What Limited Earth’s Elevation During the Archean?

Mariam Hassan
Biochemistry major

Mentor
Dr. Martin Kaczocha (Anesthesiology)

Project
GPCR Mediated Potentiation of Calcium Channel

Haya Hussain
Chemistry, Applied Math & Statistics majors

Mentor
Dr. Carlos Simmerling (Chemistry)

Project
Training a Neural Network to Replace Explicit Water in Biomolecular Simulations

 

Mariami Kochiashvili
Biology, Psychology majors

Mentor
Dr. Sima Mofakham (Neurosurgery)

Project
Functional Mobility and Postural Control in Central Nervous System Lesions: A Comparative Study of Myelopathy and Hemiplegia

 

Madalyn McDowall
Astronomy, Planetary Sciences majors

Mentor
Dr.  Will Farr (Physics & Astronomy)

Project
Kozai-Lidov-Driven Binary Black Hole Mergers: A Parameter Sweep of Hierarchical Triple Systems

 

Nashlie Morales
Earth & space sciences major

Mentor
Dr.  Troy Rasbury (Geosciences)

Project
Tracking Wastewater Pollution in Long Island Estuaries Using Boron Isotopes

 

Aria Mukhopadhyay
Biology major

Mentor
Dr. Elizabeth Watson (Ecology & Evolution)

Project
The  Impact of Saltwater Intrusion on Coastal Forest Structure 

 

Amelia Mae Nelson
Chemistry major

Mentor
Dr. Jeffrey Gustafson (Chemistry)

Project
Atroposelective Nucleophilic Aromatic Substitution (SNAr) to Synthesize Atropisomerically Stable Benzamide Analogs

 

Maria Sazonova
Physics major

Mentor
Dr. Jesús Pérez-Ríos (Physics & Astronomy)

Project
Rotational Quenching of Molecular Systems

 

Nicole Wang
Chemistry major

Mentor
Dr. Christopher Johnson (Chemistry)

Project
Probing the Ligand Cooperativity of Atomically Precise Biicosahedral Gold Nanoclusters