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Contact: Landon Gibson

STARKVILLE, Miss.—Mississippi State graduate students conducting innovative and meaningful research alongside world-class faculty recently showcased their spring-semester work during the 19th Graduate Student Research Symposium.

Presented by the university’s Graduate School and Graduate Student Association, the event gave 55 master’s and doctoral students a forum to present their research, with 37 receiving cash prizes. Oral presentations and poster projects were classified across four categories—arts and humanities; life and biomedical sciences and engineering; physics, mathematics, computer science and engineering; and social and behavioral sciences.

A team of 31 campus faculty members, representing a cross-section of academic disciplines, served as judges.

This year’s winners include:

POSTERS

SOCIAL AND BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES DOCTORAL STUDENTS

FIRST—S.M. Asger Ali, an earth and atmospheric sciences doctoral student from Khulna, Bangladesh, for “Spatial exploration of social vulnerability and COVID-19 related health outcomes in Mississippi.”

SECOND—Jasmine Gray, an educational psychology/school psychology doctoral student from Jackson, Tennessee, for “Show me the money: A token economy social skills intervention.”

THIRD—Jasmine R. Sorrell, an educational psychology/school psychology doctoral student from Senatobia, for “Using Virtual Discrete Trial Training to teach emergency contact information.”

SOCIAL AND BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES MASTER’S STUDENTS

FIRST—Taylor A. Emery, an applied anthropology master’s student from Rochester, Minnesota; and Cassandra M. DeGaglia, an applied anthropology master’s student from Santa Cruz, California, for “Examining vulnerability to the 1918 influenza pandemic amongst individuals institutionalized in the Mississippi State Asylum.”

SECOND—Allison G. “AlliGrace” Story, a food science, nutrition and health promotion master’s student from Starkville, for “Effect of family social support on adolescent mental health.”

THIRD—Sierra W. Malis, an applied anthropology master’s student from Tucson, Arizona, for “A case study of the environmental and political-economic causes of linear enamel hypoplasia at Mississippi State Asylum.”

ARTS AND HUMANITIES MASTER’S STUDENTS

FIRST—Eric H. Anderson, an applied anthropology master’s student from Loxley, Alabama, for “The Future is Coming: Osteometric laser.”

SECOND—Darcie C. Badon, an applied anthropology master’s student from Florence, Alabama, for “Evidence of biological resiliency in the Mississippi State Asylum: An osteobiographical case study of Burial 40.”

LIFE AND BIOMEDICAL SCIENCES DOCTORAL STUDENTS

FIRST—Rebecca Bracken, a forest resources/wildlife, fisheries and aquaculture doctoral student from Austin, Texas, for “Assessing the effect of forest stand stage on over-wintering avian species diversity in a private working forest.”

SECOND—Casey Iwamoto, a forest resources/forestry doctoral student from Seattle, Washington, for “Potential benefits of biochar and mycorrhizal fungi on shortleaf pine in northcentral Alabama.”

THIRD—Brantley K. Ballenger, a kinesiology/exercise science doctoral student from Hoover, Alabama, for “Is Vector Magnitude vs. Vertical Axis more accurate at predicting oxygen uptake in adults with and without Down Syndrome?”

LIFE AND BIOMEDICAL SCIENCES MASTER’S STUDENTS

FIRST—Elizabeth Baach, a forestry master’s student from Carmel, Indiana, for “Using Forest Inventory Data (FIA) to explore the relationship between functional diversity and productivity in Mississippi forests.”

SECOND—Camden D. Oglesby, a plant and soil sciences/agronomy master’s student from Petal, for “Agronomic optimum nitrogen rate for corn production in Mississippi.”

THIRD—Luke J. Tucker, a biomedical engineering master’s student from Tupelo, for “Fosfomycin concentration improves physicochemical but not antimicrobial properties of Thermosensitive Chitosan Hydro-gel.”

PHYSICS, MATHEMATICS, COMPUTATIONAL SCIENCES AND ENGINEERING DOCTORAL STUDENTS

FIRST—Omar Es Sahli, an aerospace engineering doctoral student from Guercif, Morocco for “Noise footprint of UAS delivery networks.”

SECOND—Somayeh Bakhtiari Ramezani, a computer science doctoral student from Starkville, for “Empowering compartmental modeling with mobility and shelter-in-place analysis.”

THIRD—Amali H. Herath, a chemistry doctoral student from Kurunegala, Sri Lanka, for “Iron/titanium oxide-biochar composite (Fe2TiO5BC) a versatile photocatalyst for removal of aqueous methylene blue.”

ORAL PRESENTATIONS

ARTS AND HUMANITIES EDUCATION DOCTORAL STUDENTS

FIRST—Sadia Alam Shammi, an earth and atmospheric sciences doctoral student from Narayangonj, Bangladesh, for “Impact of climate change on crop yield, irrigated versus nonirrigated.”

SECOND—Jannatul Ferdush, an earth and atmospheric sciences doctoral student from Dhaka, Bangladesh, for “Determining the effects of elevated carbon dioxide on soil inorganic carbon, weathering potential and acidification: A case study with Mississippian soils.”

THIRD—Robert B. Kolbila, a sociology doctoral student from Dhaka, Bangladesh, for “Kolbila, R., Read-Wahidi, M.R., Ragsdale, K., Asigbee, M., Atiim, P., Tamimie, C., Goldsmith, P. (2021). Exploring household-level hunger among 3,394 smallholder farmers in Ghana’s Northern Region across four ‘hunger seasons.’”

ARTS AND HUMANITIES EDUCATION MASTER’S STUDENTS

FIRST—Keri L. Porter, an applied anthropology master’s student from Greenville, Texas, for “‘Sim’-ulating archaeology in the digital world: Archaeological representation in the Sims™ franchise.”

LIFE AND BIOMEDICAL SCIENCES AND ENGINEERING DOCTORAL STUDENTS

FIRST—Yoonsung Hu, a biological sciences doctoral student from South Korea, for “Identification of host receptors of Streptococcus pneumoniae adhesin A protein (PsaA) in colonization on nasopharyngeal epithelial cells.”

SECOND—Zully E. Contreras-Correa, an agricultural science/animal and dairy sciences doctoral student from San Juan, Puerto Rico, for “Examining melatonin-induced changes in uterine blood flow and vaginal temperatures in nutrient restricted pregnant heifers.”

THIRD—Varsha Singh, a plant and soil sciences doctoral student from Haryana, India, for “Allelopathic sweet potato varieties for reducing Palmer amaranth growth.”

LIFE AND BIOMEDICAL SCIENCES AND ENGINEERING MASTER’S STUDENTS

FIRST—Darcey A. Collins, a forestry master’s student from Bauxite, Arkansas, for “Crown lifting of Loblolly Pine.”

SECOND—Nitant Rai, a forestry master’s student from Kathmandu, Nepal, for “Mapping forest restoration in Lower Mississippi Alluvial Valley.”

PHYSICS, MATHEMATICS, COMPUTER SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING DOCTORAL STUDENTS

FIRST—Gulbahar Bahsi Kaya, a forest resources/sustainable bioproducts doctoral student from Batman, Turkey, for “Synthesis of Cellulose Nanofibril based microcapsules containing a phase change material for thermal energy storage.”

SECOND—Somayeh Bakhtiari Ramezani, a computer science doctoral student from Starkville, for “A novel compartmental model to capture the nonlinear trend of COVID-19.”

THIRD—Saja A. Teeti, a physics doctoral student from Palestine, for “Global study of separable pairing interaction in covariant density functional theory.”

PHYSICS, MATHEMATICS, COMPUTER SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING MASTER’S STUDENTS

FIRST—Taylor B. Ray, a computer science master’s student from Olive Branch, for “Using sentiment analysis techniques to discover emotions conveyed on Twitter and Reddit.”

SOCIAL AND BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES DOCTORAL STUDENTS

FIRST—Courtney J. Bolstad, an applied psychology/clinical psychology doctoral student from Fergus Falls, Minnesota, for “Pets and a Pandemic: An exploratory mixed method analysis of how the COVID-19 pandemic affected dogs, cats and owners.”

SECOND—Ha Nguyen, a curriculum and instruction doctoral student from Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, for “Extended School Closure: The perspectives from a rural school community.”

SOCIAL AND BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES MASTER’S STUDENTS

FIRST—Shannon K. Allen, an agricultural and extension education master’s student from Gassaway, West Virginia, for “Assessment of social media support efforts for extension educators.”

SECOND—McKenzie L. Carvalho, an agriculture/ag economics master’s student from Maxwell, California, for “Examining the economic well-being of the southern United States.”

THIRD—Alexis K. Turnipseed, an agricultural and extension education master’s student from Weir; and Leah E. Gann, an agricultural and extension education master’s student from Amory, for “Teachable or inherent: Identifying leadership traits for volunteers.”

For more information about MSU’s Graduate School and Graduate Student Association, visit .

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