The 2024 Summer Undergraduate Research Program
The 2024 Summer Undergraduate Research Program (SURP) at Queens College included 34 students. The summer program directly funded 28 students through three funding sources, including CUNY Immersive Research Experience (CIRE), Coordinated Undergraduate Education (CUE), and the Sherman Fairchild Foundation. Other students were funded by the Transfer Student Success Program (TS3) and faculty-funded projects.
Beginning on July 1st and concluding on August 21st, SURP offered a structured, immersive eight-week experience in which students dedicated 35 hours per week to their research. Alongside their research commitments, students attended weekly seminars designed to build skills in research methodologies, academic writing, and professional development. The program culminated with the Queens College Summer Undergraduate Research Symposium, where students showcased their work in a final poster presentation.
Students Accepted Into the Program
Total Students Funded
Students Funded by SURP
%
Students Successfully Completed the Program
%
Average Seminar & Workshop Attendance
Meet our 2024 Summer Cohort
CUNY Immersive Research Experience (CIRE)
David Young
Research Focus: Collective Behavior of Daphnia
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Oleg Kogan, Physics, Queens College, CUNY
Research Area: Biophysics
Gabriela Sedano
Research Focus: Investigating Sleep and Awake Activity Among Infants at High and Low Risk for Autism Spectrum Disorder
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Kristina Denisova, Psychology, Queens College, CUNY
Research Area: Psychology
Grace Park
Research Focus: Discovery of Selective Inhibitors of CK1ẟ and CK1𝜀 with a Tetra-Substituted Pyrazole Scaffold
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Jun Yong Choi, Chemistry and Biochemistry, Queens College, CUNY
Research Area: Chemistry
Melanie Mejia
Research Focus Impact of IQ, Age, Sex, and Mutation Status on Reaction Time and Accuracy on Attention Network Test
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Veronica J. Hinton, Psychology, Queens College, CUNY
Research Area: Psychology
Selassie Mawuko
Research Focus: Brain Extracellular Matrix Plasticity Following Peripheral Neuropathy
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Maral Tajerian, Biology, Queens College, CUNY
Research Area: Biology
Swan Yi Htet
Research Focus: Characterizing Crowdedness in TESS Images
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Keaton J. Bell, Physics, Queens College, CUNY
Research Area: Computational Astrophysics
Sherman Fairchild Foundation Scholarship
Alan Cantos
Research Focus: How BMP Signaling Executes its Fat Regulatory Function at the Subcellular and Molecular Levels
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Cathy Savage-Dunn, Biology, Queens College, CUNY
Research Area: Biology
Antonella Chiriboga
Research Focus: Environmental Enrichment and Its Effect on Heroin-Seeking in Rats
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Robert Ranaldi, Psychology, Queens College, CUNY
Research Areas: Psychology
Avraham Zion Kuighadush
Research Focus: Female Mate Choice in Astatotilapia Burtoni: Familiarity or Something Else?
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Sebastian Alvarado, Biology, Queens College, CUNY
Research Areas: Biology, Neuroscience, and Neuroepigenetics
Brian Limbu
Research Focus: Task Difficulty Impacts Adult Neurogenesis in the Zebra Finch Model System
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Carolyn Pytte, Psychology, Queens College, CUNY
Research Areas: Biology, Psychology
Brittany Pompey
Research Focus: The Impact of Maternal PTSD on Early Childhood Temperament and Hair Cortisol Levels
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Yoko Nomura, Psychology, Queens College, CUNY
Research Area: Psychology/Neuropsychology
Evelyn Chimbo
Research Focus: Iodine-Catalyzed Preparation of Dihydrofurans from Benzylacetonitrile and Styrene
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Yu Chen, Chemistry and Biochemistry, Queens College, CUNY
Research Area: Organic Chemistry
Jiaming Li
Research Focus: Efficient Synthesis of Poly-Substituted Asymmetric Cyclooctatetraene via Palladium-Catalyzed Cascade Reaction
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Yu Chen, Chemistry and Biochemistry, Queens College, CUNY
Research Area: Organic Chemistry
Jonnathan Saavedra
Research Focus: Automation in the Laboratory
Faculty Mentors: Dr. John Dennehy, Biology, Queens College, CUNY and Dr. Fabrizio Spagnolo, Life Sciences, Long Island University Post
Research Area: Computer Science, Automation
K. Sharon Vemu
Research Focus: The Association Between Sympathetic: Vagal Ratio and Internalizing and Atypical Behaviors in 5-Year-Olds
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Yoko Nomura, Psychology, Queens College, CUNY
Research Area: Neuropsychology
Lara Althawadi
Research Focus: Understanding the Neural Circuits Underlying Motivation and Cue-Driven Behavior in Oxycodone Addiction: A Mice Model Study
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Jeff Beeler, Psychology, Queens College, CUNY
Research Areas: Biology, Psychology
Kevin Bedoya
Research Focus: Computational Modeling of Intracellular Transport Using Python
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Oleg Kogan, Physics, Queens College, CUNY
Research Areas: Theoretical Biophysics, Computer Science
Manha Bulbul
Research Focus: Isolation and Purification of Bacteriophages for Anaerobic and Aerobic Bacteria
Faculty Mentor: Dr. John Dennehy, Biology, Queens College, CUNY
Research Area: Microbiology
Sara Lifshitz
Research Area: α/β-Tubulin as a ‘Toggle Switch’ in Human Breast Cancer
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Susan Rotenberg, Chemistry and Biochemistry, Queens College, CUNY
Research Areas: Chemistry, Biochemistry
Shaunakay Palmer
Research Focus: Development of Nek4 Biosensors for Monitoring Cellular Activity
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Sanjai Kumar Pathak, Chemistry and Biochemistry, Queens College, CUNY
Research Areas: Chemistry, Biochemistry
Coordinated Undergraduate Education (CUE)
Cynthia Gan
Research Focus: The Changing Syllabification of Yod
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Bill Haddican, Linguistics and Communication Disorders, Queens College, CUNY
Research Area: Linguistics
Sujal Kumar
Research Focus: Product Mix and the Markups of US Companies
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Stefan Pitschner, School of Business, Queens College, CUNY
Research Areas: Economics, Computer Science
Tam Nguyen
Research Focus: Modeling Spillovers in Credit Riskiness of Sovereigns
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Suleyman Taspinar, Economics, Queens College, CUNY
Research Area: Economics
Tao Wu
Research Focus: Auto-classification of arXiv Articles Via Neural Networks
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Nicholas Vlamis, Mathematics, Queens College, CUNY
Research Area: Mathematics, Computer Science
William Park
Research Focus: Development of Nek4 Biosensors for Monitoring Cellular Activity
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Sanjai Kumar Pathak, Chemistry and Biochemistry, Queens College, CUNY
Research Areas: Chemistry, Biochemistry