Travel Grant Award
The Biology Department Undergraduate Travel Grant program offers students the opportunity to receive funding for travel and participation in research conferences or other professional development activities that support their education and career path. Financial support for this grant is made possible through annual Giving Day donations. Read testimonials from previous recipients of the Travel Grant Award here.
Spring 2026 recipients: Samuel Rekulak, Sehrish Hasanali, Alexander Pissios, Alden Pixley, Diya Pamidimukkla, Clarissa Fomunung, Aparna Deokar
Spring 2025 recipients: Max Wertheimer, Minh Le, Kayla Valladares, Pamela Yang, Sofia Weaver, Marko Radulovic, Cheng Yang Shi
Spring 2024 recipients: Iqra Amin, Noam Aviv, Pamela Yang, and Max Wertheimer
Spring 2023 recipients: Grace Beery, Jason Zeng
Fall 2019 recipients: Cesar Diaz, David Guarin, Gianna Grob, Victoria Jordan, Bryanna Malbouf, Zachary Milot, Kareemah Ni, Yemi Osayame, Tony Pham, Nicholas Shapiro, Konrad Skubisz, Yalan Wu, Najila Zaman, Rose Zhao
Biology Department Undergraduate Research Award
The awards listed below are given to graduating seniors who are nominated by Biology faculty members.
The Biology Research & Honors Committee gives this annual award to outstanding seniors of any major who are performing research in Biology Department labs.
A stipulation for receiving the award is that the candidate present an overview of their research at one of the weekly Biology Department Seminars. The winners are also given a monetary gift from the Department.
2025 recipients: Marcus Kankkunen (Ho lab), Christian Mei (Wunderlich lab), Emma Parker (Knott lab)
2024 recipients: Oliwia Jasnos, Anna-Maria Marinescu, Erika Meagher
2023 recipients: Isabelle Frenette and Ines Picard
2022 recipients: Russell Laman (Kaufman lab), Jamie Li (Celenza lab), and Maria Salgado (Cruz-Martín lab)
2021 recipients: Elena Gomez (Warkentin lab), Anthony Khoudary (Gavornik lab), and Katie Tiemeyer (McCall lab)
2020 recipients: Rose Zhao (Siggers lab), Jasmine Clevenger (Otchy lab), and Madison Pacaro (Buston lab)
2019 recipients: Eva Fandozzi (Traniello lab), Christopher Petty (Naya lab), and Emma Martin (Rotjan lab)
Scarlet Achievement Award
The Biology Department gives out this award to graduating Biology seniors who had a large increase in GPA from freshman to senior year (e.g. increase of >0.3 GPA points)
The recipient can be nominated by peers, faculty, or a student can self-nominate with an additional letter of support from faculty.
2025 recipient: Jason Zeng
2024 recipient: Clifton Johnson
M. Spelleken & G. Bauer Memorial Award
The Biology Department gives out this award to graduating seniors from the Department of Biology who have performed research on insects or freshwater/marine ecology for at least 1 semester. Candidates are required to be nominated by their research supervisor.
2025 recipient: Aziza Barkuschwabe (Strickland Lab)
2024 recipient: Douglas Alvarado (Buston Lab)
Excellence in Scholarship Award
The Biology Department gives out this award at graduation to a few seniors to honor their academic achievements. The recipients are also given a monetary gift from the Department.
2025 recipients: Afzalbek Fayzullaev, Matthew Keating
2024 recipients: Alice Chen, Thierry Edwards, William Fan, Amanda Franco, Timothy Liu, Tahreem Nawaz, Juneau Wang, Anna Wozniak
2023 recipients: Alexandra Grudzinski and Jason Hristopoulos
2022 recipients: Riley Magane and Cecilia Webber
2021 recipients: Mary Kate Brennan and Vikram Daesety
2020 recipients: Olivia Iverson and Sunny Lin
2019 recipients: Sipei Fu and Jean Luc Germany
Academic Achievement Award
The Biology Department bestows this award at graduation on a few seniors to honor their academic achievements and contributions to the Biology Department. The recipients are also given a monetary gift from the Department.
2025 recipients: Pamela Yang, Akiva Zeff, Katherine Beran
2024 recipients: Sarah Osman, Selby Vaughn
2023 recipients: Emma Kraus, Lauren Walsh, Zhenhao Yan
2022 recipients: Alyssa Helmling, Anna Natrakul, Vivian X. Shen, Xingpei Zhang
2021 recipients: Yi Cao and Tiffany Voon
2020 recipients: PK Kaushik and Jack Yang
2019 recipients: Kevin Liu Kot and Eileen Nolan
Senior College Prize for Excellence in Biology
The Biology Department gives out this award to the senior who, through a combination of scholarship and service, has had the greatest impact on the BU Biology community. The recipient is recognized at the CAS Dean’s Awards and Recognition Ceremony as well as at the Biology Convocation. A monetary gift is given by the Department.
2025 recipient: Carly McDermott
2024 recipient: Juneau Wang
2023 recipient: Alexandra Grudzinski
2022 recipient: Regan Shanahan
2021 recipient: Cairo De Souza
2020 recipient: Arnaldo Franco
2019 recipient: Melissa Inge
Previous Awards
Dr. Marion R. Kramer Scholarship
This award provides support for high-achieving female juniors and seniors majoring in Biology. The award was established in 2001 in honor of Dr. Marion Kramer who earned her Bachelor’s degree in Biology from Boston University in 1963 and went on to a long and satisfying career in biology and medicine. Students are nominated by Biology faculty members for this award.
2022/2023 recipients: Hannah Axten, Alanna Carey, Yuan Tian
2021/2022 recipients: Vivian Shen and Alyssa Helmling
2020/2021 recipients: Kadesh Daniels and Meaghan Connolly
2019/2020 recipients: Victoria Lagasse and Seoyoung Kim
2018/2019 recipients: Joana Barbosa Teixeira and Rose Zhao
2017/2018 recipients: Billie Goolsby and Elena Newmark
Allen H. Pachtman Research Awards
These awards were established in 2023 by Biology alumnus Allen H. Pachtman (CAS ’75), a distinguished physician at Providence Hospital in California. Dr. Pachtman is a strong advocate of undergraduate research and mentoring.
Each award supports a high-achieving Biology undergraduate for their research project by funding their UROP salary. Interested students should apply through UROP: http://www.bu.edu/urop/apply/funding/.
2024 recipients: Caoimhe Bodnar, Regina Torres, Audrey Wong, Alexa Woodrow
Loren E. Wold Research Awards
These awards were established in 2019 by Biology alumnus Dr. Loren E. Wold (CAS ’97), a distinguished research scientist and Professor at Ohio State University. Dr. Wold is a strong advocate of undergraduate research and mentoring.
Each award supports a high-achieving Biology undergraduate for their summer research project by funding their UROP salary and a $200 Conference Travel Award. Four awards will be given annually. Interested students should apply through UROP: http://www.bu.edu/urop/apply/funding/.
2023 recipients: Clifton Johnson, Foranoce Luciano, Jason Shi, Nicole Zakskorn
2022 recipients: Evelyn Harper, Erica Broeker, Judy Wong, Douglas Alvarado
2021 recipients: Kelley McCutcheon, Kimberly Tran, Katherine Sotiropoulou, Helen Feng, Niharika Desai, and James Lu
2020 recipients: Sarah Anwar, Kylie Blake, Kurt Castro, and Megan Sheeran
2019 recipients: Rose Zhao, Audrey Tran, Cairo De Souza, and Madison Pacaro
Outstanding Learning Assistant Award
The Biology Department annually bestows this award on a group of Undergraduate Learning Assistants of any major whose poster presentation best outlines procedures for improving teaching in our undergraduate laboratories. Financial support for this award was made possible by Professor Emerita Elizabeth Godrick.
Spring 2022 recipients: Khalid AlSabhan, Buthaina Alshihabi, Aixin Wu, Hongli Zheng
Fall 2021 recipients: Cayla Bilyeu, Isabel Jang, Vaughn St. Marie, and Nikolas Martinez
Spring 2021 recipients: Kaitlin Farias, Tara O’Brien, Careena Uppaluri, and Rebecca Yu
Fall 2020 recipients: Sophia Aburida, Genesis Bolado, Madison Homsey, and Akhila Sonti
Fall 2019 recipients: Krithi Gopalan, Khushali Mashruwala, Lydia Simon, and Ben Skross
Spring 2019 recipients: Chloe Cho, Joseph Distefano, Taylor Epstein, and Dimitri Moshovitis
2018 recipients: Louis Beers, Phanirekha Chandra, Fernanda Neri Mini, and Alexander Nguyen