Bridge to Graduate School Fellows
2023 Bridge Fellows
Our Bridge to Graduate School program hosted two former RI-INBRE SURF students’ research during this summer and both are both enrolled in graduate school at Brown University in the fall.
- Joseph Leszczynski’s summer undergraduate research in 2022 focused on “Chromosome Organization and Dynamics: Mechanisms of Cancer” and was
mentored by Dr. Steven Weicksel, at Bryant University. This summer his fellowship was mentored by Dr. Aditya Khanna and Dr. Philip Chan at Brown University. Joseph’s research examined STI Prevalence among men who have sex with men aged 55+. Leszczynski is enrolled in the Master of Public Health program at Brown and plans on pursuing research that align with his research interests in infectious disease epidemiology and LGBTQIA+ healthcare. Joseph shared, “The INBRE program gave me support throughout undergraduate and graduate research, providing key resources and mentorship opportunities that guided me through both projects.”
- Three-time RI-INBRE research fellow (‘20 SURF, ‘21 SURF+, ’23 Bridge) Jameson Pommenville performed his undergraduate research in polymer chemistry at Rhode Island College, mentored by Dr.
Elizabeth Kiesewetter, and presented his findings at several RI Summer Undergraduate Research Symposiums that included his honors thesis entitled “Computational Analysis and Synthesis of Functionalized Monomers with Applications in Drug Delivery”. He was also President of the RIC’s Physical Sciences Club and a very popular department peer tutor. “The research experiences provided to me as an undergraduate through RI-INBRE were fundamental in establishing my career as a researcher. SURF funding has allowed me to explore and find a passion for conducting research, and the Bridge to Graduate Fellowship provided me the invaluable experience to dive head-first into graduate-level research prior to the start of my Chemistry Ph.D. program. I am extremely grateful for the financial and professional support that I have received through the RI-INBRE grants over the years!”
This summer, Jameson worked in Dr. Benjamin McDonald’s lab at Brown University and this fall will join Brown’s PhD Chemistry program. Dr. McDonald shared, “Hosting Jameson as a summer fellow was a pleasure. He adapted to the new environment remarkably quickly and was able to identify new chemistry that our group is excited to follow-up on. The Bridge to Graduate Fellowship program is a valuable opportunity for students to gain confidence in their abilities and smoothly transition to graduate school.”
2023 Winter Update
Giovannia Barbosa received the Outstanding Poster Presentation award from the
Division of Chemical Toxicology in August 2022, for her research poster “Effect of nucleosome occupancy on base excision repair.” Congratulations! Gio completed her Research Proposal Defense in March 2022 and officially became a Ph.D. candidate in Chemistry working in Dr. Sarah Delaney’s lab researching Chemistry and Biology of DNA Repair at Brown University. Barbosa was a RI-INBRE Bridge to Graduate School Fellow in Delaney’s lab the summer following the completion of her B.S. degree in Chemistry from Rhode Island College (2020). She was also a SURF student in Dr. Karen Almeida’s lab at Rhode Island College in 2018.
2022 Bridge Fellows
This year two students participated in our Bridge to Graduate School program, which provides summer research support for previous RI-INBRE SURF students to complete research projects the summer before they start graduate school at the University of Rhode Island or Brown University.
- Miguel Martinez Guzman participated in SURF in 2020 and 2021 at Rhode Island College under the mentorship of Dr. William Holmes. This summer Miguel performed research with Dr. Sarah Delaney at Brown University, where he will attend in the fall to pursue his Ph.D. in Biochemistry.
- Alan Ardito participated in the 2021 SURF program at the University of Rhode Island
under the mentorship of Dr. Niall Howlett. Alan continued his research at the University of Rhode Island this summer with Dr. Howlett. This fall he will attend Brown University this fall to pursue his Ph.D. in Therapeutic Science.