Annual Celebration of Graduate Student Achievements

Anna Grummon, Health Behavior

2020 Dean’s Distinguished Dissertation Award, Social Sciences

Individual- and Population-Level Impacts of Sugar-Sweetened Beverage Health Warnings

Dissertation Adviser: Noel Brewer

“Policymakers in five U.S. states have proposed requiring health warning labels for sugary drinks, but skeptics worry these policies won’t be effective. I found that sugary drink warning labels help consumers make healthier choices about what beverages to buy and that implementing these warning labels nationwide could reduce obesity prevalence.”

Jeff Ratzloff, Physics and Astronomy

2020 Dean’s Distinguished Dissertation Award, Mathematics, Physical Sciences and Engineering

Designing and Building the Evryscopes, Fast Transit Search Results

Dissertation Adviser: Nicholas Law

“We built a new type of telescope called the Evryscope that sees the entire sky continuously and uncovers fast, rare astronomical events that are unreachable with conventional instruments. I designed and built the Evryscope, searched its data, and analyzed the numerous discoveries including two new types of exotic stellar remnants.”

Allison Somogyi, History

2020 Dean’s Distinguished Dissertation Award, Humanities and Fine Arts

The Bitter End: Life and Survival in the Holocaust Diaries of Young Jewish Women in Budapest Under the Arrow Cross Regime, October 1944–February 1945

Dissertation Adviser: Chad Bryant

“My dissertation looks at everyday life through the perspective of young Jewish women who kept diaries in Budapest during Arrow Cross rule (October 1944 – February 1945) to enhance our understanding of Jewish decision-making, strategies for survival, and agency during the Holocaust in Hungary.”

Hanna Trzeciakiewicz, Biochemistry and Biophysics

2020 Dean’s Distinguished Dissertation Award, Biological and Life Sciences

The Regulation of Tau Pathogenesis in Neurodegeneration

Dissertation Adviser: Todd Cohen

“Tauopathies are a group of progressive neurodegenerative diseases marked by the accumulation of aberrantly modified tau proteins. In particular, acetylated tau has been recently implicated in neurodegeneration and cognitive decline. Interestingly, acetylation abundantly decorates the microtubule binding region, thereby inducing the pathophysiological conversion of microtubule binding tau to aggregated tau. However, it remains unclear which enzymes regulate neuronal tau acetylation. While histone deacetylases (HDACs) are implicated in aging and neurodegeneration, we show that HDAC6 in particular mediates tau deacetylation. We discuss the implications of HDAC6 as a critical regulator for the status of tau acetylation, pathogenesis, and cognitive function. Our results shed light on the therapeutic utility of targeting HDAC6 in Alzheimer’s disease and other related tauopathies.”

Christian Agosto-Burgos

Christian Agosto-Burgos, a doctoral student in pathology, is the 2020 recipient of the Boka W. Hadzija Award for Distinguished University Service by a Graduate or Professional Student. Read statements from two nomination letters:

“Even graduate students from other labs who are further along in their training than Christian seek his advice on their fellowship proposals, a testament to his scientific acumen and leadership qualities. I have also witnessed the respect Christian receives from other faculty and clinicians involved in his research project, which speaks to his collegial qualities and ability to work in a team towards a common goal.”
—Dominic Ciavatta, Ph.D., associate professor of genetics

“Christian has proven his dedication and success as an advocate for diversity and inclusion at Carolina, and is continuing to grow in his success as a scientist.”
— Ronald Falk, M.D., Nan and Hugh Cullman Eminent Professor and chair of the Department of Medicine

Sandra Lazo de la Vega

Sandra Lazo de la Vega, student services coordinator for the city and regional planning department, is the 2020 recipient of the Excellence in Graduate Student Services Award. Thirty-one individuals campus-wide were nominated for this year’s award. This year’s honoree was nominated by 42 individuals. Here is one of the nomination statements:

“Sandra goes above and beyond every day to make sure this department runs smoothly. She sends out weekly newsletters, flags scholarships, knows the answer to almost everything you could have a question on, and if she doesn't know the answer, she'll have it to you within 15 minutes. Sandra is a huge asset to our department due to her skills, knowledge, and background as a planner.

Outside of her job performance, she is also one of the nicest people you'll meet. She always has a smile on her face and is ready to show you an adorable picture of her dog, Mac. If you're having a bad day, there's always chocolate on her desk and her to tell you that you're working really hard and to hang in there.”

Lori Evarts

Lori Evarts, director of graduate studies for the Public Health Leadership Program in the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health, is the 2020 recipient of the Faculty Award for Excellence in Graduate Student and Academic Program Support. Graduate students submit a nomination letter, in addition to a letter expressing faculty support. From the student nomination letter:

“Lori has shown consistent and enthusiastic dedication to her students during her time at the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health. For those of us who have been lucky to have her as an advisor and then mentor, she has gone above and beyond her expected duties. While she is always responsive and available to her students, she excels in communicating her genuine desire for us to succeed academically, professionally and personally. She is always available to help students determine how to best fit academic responsibilities into one’s life and meet long-term goals.”

Steven W. Matson

Dean Suzanne E. Barbour, Ph.D., has selected Steven W. Matson, Ph.D., as the 2020 recipient of the Dean’s Award for Significant Contributions to Graduate Education. Matson served as dean of The Graduate School from 2008 to 2019, and he received the Council of Graduate Schools’ Debra W. Stewart Award for Outstanding Leadership in Graduate Education in 2018. He is a professor of biology at UNC-Chapel Hill.

“For me, there is no one more deserving than Steve Matson to receive the Dean's Award for Significant Contributions. Not only has he served Carolina's graduate community as a faculty member, department chair, mentor and longtime dean of The Graduate School, he worked tirelessly to advance the interests of graduate education at a national level as well, so much so that his contributions were recognized with the 2018 Debra W. Stewart Award for Outstanding Leadership in Graduate Education from the Council of Graduate Schools.”
—Suzanne E. Barbour, Dean

Alison Mercer-Smith

Alison Mercer-Smith, an M.D./Ph.D. student who is completing her doctoral work in the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy’s Division of Pharmacoengineering and Molecular Pharmaceutics, won the UNC-Chapel Hill Three Minute Thesis (3MT) competition in fall 2019. She went on to compete in the regional competition, held at the Conference of Southern Graduate Schools’ Annual Meeting in March 2020 — and she placed first.

Here’s what she had to say about the regional competition experience:

“It was an excellent experience to participate in the interdisciplinary regional 3MT competition and to meet so many other talented students. The interdisciplinary nature of the conference really pushed me to focus on how to clearly communicate with a non-specialist audience. These are particularly important skills for clinical and translational research, as patients are often asked to understand complex medical conditions and treatments, and so I appreciated the opportunity to hone these skills.”

View Alison Mercer-Smith's campus 3MT presentation.