Angelo State University

YooJin Choi, a senior physics major at Angelo State University, was selected to represent ASU and present her research project at the recent 2025 Texas Undergraduate Research Day at the Capitol event in Austin. Choi presented her research poster on her project titled "Capturing Cellular Dynamics: A Force Center Model Inspired by the Game of Life," which she completed under the mentorship of Dr. Michael C. Holcomb, assistant professor of physics. A native of Seoul, South Korea, Choi has also received two ASU Faculty Mentored Research Grants for various projects, has worked as a tutor in the Math Lab and served as a physics tutor in ASU's Supplemental Instruction peer-tutoring program. She has also held leadership positions in the Society of Physics Students, Women in Physics and STEM Nexus student organizations, and she has been inducted into the Alpha Chi and Sigma Pi Sigma national honor societies. Additionally, she has been active as a percussionist in the ASU Ram Band, Drumline and Symphonic Band. Choi is scheduled to graduate with her Bachelor of Science degree in May. She has been offered a Distinguished Graduate Student Assistantship at Texas Tech University and will head to Texas Tech this fall to pursue her doctoral degree in physics. See more details at angelo.edu/news.

Blythe Meacham of Frisco, a junior in the Angelo State University Honors Program, won the top prize for her research presentation at the recent 2025 Great Plains Honors Council (GPHC) Conference in Denton. An English major, Meacham earned a Dennis Boe Award for exceptional research and writing by an undergraduate honors student. She was presented a plaque and a $200 cash prize, and her work will be published in The Windmill, a scholarly journal featuring undergraduate research. Only three Dennis Boe Awards are presented annually to undergraduate students who are juniors or seniors. Meacham's oral presentation and paper detailed her research project titled "Beyond the Female Gothic: Wild Women in Charlotte Dacre's Zofloya and Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights." See more details at angelo.edu/news.

Angelo State University student Aramide Oladiran, a biology major from Midland, recently spent a month in Brazil as part of a 14-person research team, seeking out rare and new mammal species in remote sites along he Purus River in the Amazon Forest (Amazonia). He was accompanied by Dr. Edson Abreu of the ASU biology faculty. The group was led by Dr. Alexandre Percequillo, a professor at the University of Sao Paulo in Brazil, as part of his larger effort to survey previously unexplored areas in Brazilian Amazonia. The research team documented and collected specimens of mammals (mainly rodents, marsupials and bats) in four different locations along the Purus River, amassing over 300 specimens representing about 65 different species. The intensive field effort, using different kinds of mammal traps and diurnal and nocturnal hunting, allowed the collection of rare species and likely new species to science. See more details and photos at angelo.edu/news.

Angelo State University economics majors Maggie Brockman of Midland and Emma Krehbiel of Kerrville were selected to present their undergraduate research projects at the recent 48th annual meeting of the Association of Private Enterprise Education (APEE) in Las Vegas, Nevada. Fewer than 30 students nationwide were chosen through a competitive application process to make research presentations in the APEE conference's Undergraduate Research Competition. Brockman and Krehbiel are the first-ever ASU students to earn selection. Brockman's presentation was titled "Recessions and Creativity: How Economic Shocks Affect Musical Innovation," and Krehbiel's presentation was titled "Long-Term Effects of Public Debt." Their faculty research mentors are Dr. Bryan Cutsinger and Dr. Edwar Escalante, assistant professors of economics. See more details at angelo.edu/news.

Cameron Poole of Kerrville, a senior animal science major at Angelo State University, was selected to represent ASU and present her research project at the recent 2023 Texas Undergraduate Research Day at the Capitol event in Austin. The event only takes place in odd-numbered years when the Texas Legislature is in session. Each institute of higher education in Texas is allowed to select one student to present a research poster project. Poole presented her research poster on her project titled "The Effects of Chelated Minerals on Conception Rates in Rambouillet Ewes," which she completed under the mentorship of Audrey Meyer, ASU instructor in agriculture. Poole is scheduled to graduate with her bachelor's degree in May. She is minoring in biology and chemistry, and she plans to earn her ASU master's degree before heading to medical school. See more details at angelo.edu/news.

Halle Summers of Spring, a biology major at Angelo State University, won a research presentation award at the Beta Beta Beta (Tri-Beta) national biological honor society's South Central Regional Convention in Cedar Hill. Students from throughout the region delivered oral or poster presentations of their research projects in several different sessions. Summers won second place in her session for her oral presentation on her research project titled "DNA Barcoding of Peromyscus from the Davis Mountains in Texas." She and her fellow ASU chapter members were also named the Outstanding Chapter in District 2 for the 2022-23 academic year. District 2 includes all the college and university Tri-Beta chapters in Texas. Additionally, the ASU chapter won first place for its scrapbook entry in the Outstanding Chapter History competition, earned a first-place prize for Number of Delegates, and was also honored for acting as host for the regional convention. See more details at angelo.edu/news.

William Hennig of Paint Rock and Garath Vetters of Kingsland, both physics majors at Angelo State University, won top prizes for their research presentations at the 2022 Physics Congress (PhysCon) in Washington, D.C. PhysCon is held every three years and is the largest conference in the nation for physics and astronomy undergraduate students with more than 1,200 participants. Competing against about 400 other student research entries: Hennig was named Top Presenter in the Statistical/Thermal/Non-Linear/Complex Systems category for his poster and presentation on his project titled "Equilibration Times of 3D Edwards-Anderson Spin Glasses." Vetters was named Top Presenter in the 100 Years of Momentum category for his poster and presentation on his project titled "Detecting Cosmic Rays on Earth's Surface and Above." Both Hennig and Vetters received a $100 award and a year's subscription to the Wolfram Mathematica software system. Nicholas Swartz of Abilene was also a finalist for his project titled "Modeling, Constructing, and Testing an Electromagnetic Rail Gun with Python." See more details at angelo.edu/news.

Zoey Stormes of Keller, a biology student at Angelo State University, won a top prize for her research presentation at the recent annual meeting of the Texas Society of Mammalogists (TSM). An undergraduate student making her first presentation to a professional organization, Stormes won the Bobby Baker Award for best undergraduate oral presentation in mammalian molecular biology, evolution and systematics. Her research project is titled "Screening of genetic markers to distinguish morphologically-similar species of cottontail rabbit," and her award also includes a $400 honorarium. More details are available at angelo.edu.

Angelo State University undergraduate science majors Garath Vetters of Kingsland, Emily Maxey of Heber, Arizona, and Doyeon Kwon of South Korea all won top prizes for their research presentations at the recent annual meeting of the Texas Academy of Science hosted on the ASU campus. Vetters, a physics major, won first place in the Physics and Engineering Poster Contest for his presentation of his research project, "Constructing and Testing a Large-Scale Diffusion Cloud Chamber." Maxey, also a physics major, won first place in the Physics and Engineering Oral Presentation Contest for her presentation on her research project titled "Dipole Transition Calculations Between Hydrogen Quantum States." Kwon, a chemistry major, took second place in the Chemistry and Biochemistry Poster Contest for her presentation of her research project titled "Identification of Affibody Molecules that Target Phospholipase A2." Biology major Jiyun Jeong of South Korea also contributed to the project. The Angelo State students competed against research entries submitted by students from universities across the state. More than 150 research posters were displayed in ASU's Ben Kelly Center for Human Performance for the various student contests. See more details at angelo.edu/news.

Virginia Jaquish of Granville, Ohio, a graduate student in the Angelo State University Biology Department, won the top prize for her research presentation at the annual meeting of the Texas Society of Mammalogists (TSM) Feb. 8-10 at the Texas Tech University Llano River Field Station in Junction. Jaquish won the Robert L. Packard Award for Best Overall Oral Presentation and a $500 honorarium for her research project titled "Pollen Identification Provides Evidence that Pallid Bats Visit Agave Species in the Chihuahuan Desert." Read the full story on angelo.edu.