The 2026 CBE Schoenborn Research Symposium & Exhibition took place Thursday and Friday, October 15-16, at the McKimmon Center.

The annual symposium showcases the talent and accomplishments of Ph.D. students and select undergraduate researchers in the department through poster sessions and a 3-Minute Thesis Competition.

Award Winners

3-Minute Thesis

1^st Place: Arpan Tapdiya (Hall)
2^nd Place: Nikki Hammond (Pfaendtner)
3^rd Place: Yara AbuDahab (Genzer)

Poster Session 1

Biotechnology: Huong Huynh (Crook)
Catalysis & Kinetics: Ehsanul Hoque (Li)
Computational: Taimima Mahbub (Hall)
Materials 1: Charlie Capitano (Dickey)
Materials 2: Megan McDonald (Khan)
Undergraduate: Carly Miller (Easley, Dickey)

Poster Session 2

Biotechnology: Selen Dalgan (Wei)
Catalysis & Kinetics: Casey Killmer (Li)
Computational: Haoyu Wang (Hall)
Materials 1: Seyedamin Razavi (Li)
Materials 2: Darshana Malusare (Khan)

Congratulations to all our award winners!

Additionally, the symposium included a keynote presentation by Asima Health founder and CEO, Shalini Gupta (Ph.D. ’07), who spoke about her career journey from academia to entrepreneurship.

Young alumni Sahand Saberi Bosari (Ph.D. ’20), Jessica Lee (Ph.D. ’21) and Dennis Lee (Ph.D. ’19) also spoke to our students about their experiences in graduate school and respective careers.

Thank you to all the judges, departmental and McKimmon Center staff that made the event possible. And a special thank you to Russ and Susie O’Dell who established the Edward M. Schoenborn Graduate Student Fund endowment, which funds the monetary prize for oral and poster winners.

View the 2026 photo album.