Recognitions

Student and faculty participation in national professional meetings, leadership opportunities, and competitions are supported through departmental, USU, and research sponsored funds.

Two major national and international professional events emphasized by the BE Department include the Institute of Biological Engineering (IBE) Annual Conferences and the international Genetically Engineered Machine Competition (iGEM). In addition to IBE and iGEM events, BE Department faculty and staff are recognized in several other events.

2022 Awards and Recognitions

2022 National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellows

Andrew Kjar ’21 (Fellow), Biomedical Engineering, Vanderbilt University
Caleb Thomson ’20 (Fellow), Biomedical Engineering, University of Utah
A.J. Walters ‘20 (Fellow), Biomedical Engineering, Rice University

2016 Awards and Recognitions

Institute of Biological Engineering Meeting

The BE Department made a high positive impact at the 2016 International Annual Conference of the Institute of Biological Engineering, which was held in Greenville, South Carolina, from April 7 through 9. BE was represented by ten students and six faculty members.

Graduate Research Poster Competition:

Lei Sun “Production of Novel Polyketides in E. coli by Supplementing Exogenous Nutrients,”
Chad Nielsen “LacoWare: Programming Lactic Acid Bacteria to Fight Malicious Viruses,”
Jason Peterson“BioMethane Production from Wastes Augmented with Algae.”

Undergraduate Research Poster Competition:

Alan Hodges “Reduction of Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Septic Tanks via Compost Biofiltration,”
Tyler Marlar “Optimization of Lipoprotein Extraction Procedure for Wastewater Cultivated Algae,”
Zachary Fica “Effects of Temperature and Organic Carbon Concentration on Algae-Based Biofilm Biomass Productivity and Treatment of Dairy Wastewater.”

Platform Presentations:

Jay Barlow “Hydrothermal Liquefaction of Algae from A Biofilm Cultivation System,”
Anna Doloman “Qualitative Analysis of the Microbial Community during Anaerobic Digestion of Algae Biomass.”

PhD student Anna Doloman received an award (3rd place) for her research poster “Microbial Dynamics During Anaerobic Digestion of Algae Biomass and Sodium Acetate in an Upflow Anaerobic Sludge Blanket Reactor.”

NSF Graduate Research Fellows for 2016

Sean Bedingfield’14 (Fellow), Biomedical Engineering, Vanderbilt University
Kyle Isaacson ‘15 (Honorable Mention), Bioengineering, University of Utah

2015 Awards and Recognitions

Institute of Biological Engineering Meeting

Students from Biological Engineering brought home three of eight awards at the Institute of Biological Engineering Annual Conference in St. Louis, Mo, March 5-7. There were a total of about 60 posters, with 37 in the graduate student division and 23 in the undergraduate student division.

Graduate Poster Competition:
Grand Prize:

Jonathan Wood
Tyler Gladwin

Third Place in the Graduate Student Division: Spencer Williams and Anhong Zhou, “Simultaneous Electrochemical Detection of Metal Ions in Water Using a Six-electrode Microfluidic Device.” Spencer Williams is working on this MS degree.

iGEM Competition

North American Western Region Jamboree at Boston, MA

Undergraduate Poster Competition:
2nd Place: "LactoWare"

Sarah Gertsch
Ryan Putman
Dallon Christensen
Cody Maxfield
Asif Rahman

NSF Graduate Research Fellows for 2016:

Sean Bedingfield ’14 (Fellow), Biomedical Engineering, Vanderbilt University
Kyle Isaacson ‘15 (Honorable Mention), Bioengineering, University of Utah

2014 Awards and Recognitions

Institute of Biological Engineering Meeting

National Conference in Lexington Kentucky

Graduate Poster Competition:
Grand Prize: "Production of Polyhydroxyalkanoates in Escherichia coli from alternative carbon sources"

Asif Rahman
Ryan J. Putman

3rd Place: "Pathway Pioneer: a tool for metabolic network visualization and flux analysis"

Sumit Kumar Singh
Harsh Dosi
Vipul Oswal
Nicholas S. Flann

Undergraduate Poster Competition:

1st Place: "Production and purification of antimicrobial peptides in E. coli using synthetic biology"

Ryan J. Putman
Charles Barentine
Neal Hengge
Andrea Halling
Tyler Gladwin
Cody A. Tramp
Asif Rahman

3rd Place: "Vapor phase deposition and silane functionality to address issues in silane Capping of ZnO nanoparticles for use in neurological disorder treatment"

Sean Bedingfield
Kyle Isaacson
Rachael Mansell
Taylor Robins

Leadership Recognitions:

Ryan Putman – Serving as the National Undergraduate Student Representative
Asif Rahman – Serving as the National Graduate Student Representative
Dr. Jixun Zhan - Serving as a Councilor on the Governing Board of IBE
Dr. Charles Miller - Serving as a Councilor on the Governing Board of IBE
Dr. Yue Cui - Serving as a member of the IBE Awards Committee

iGEM Competition

North American Western Region Jamboree at Boston, MA

Undergraduate Poster Competition:
6th Consecutive Gold Medal.

2013 Awards and Recognitions

Institute of Biological Engineering Meeting

National Conference in North Carolina

Graduate Poster Competition:

Grand Prize:

Kandy Napan, PhD student

1st Place:

Asif Rahman, PhD student

3rd Place:

Joshua Ellis, PhD student

Undergraduate Poster Competition:
Grand Prize: iGEM Team of 9 undergraduate students, 4 graduate students, and one high school student
Leadership Recognitions:

Ryan Putman – Serving as the National Undergraduate Student Representative
Asif Rahman – Serving as the National Graduate Student Representative
Dr. Jixun Zhan - Serving as a Councilor on the Governing Board of IBE
Dr. Ronald Sims- Residing as Past-President on the IBE Executive Council
Dr. Yue Cui - Serving as a member of the IBE Awards Committee

iGEM Competition

North American Western Region Jamboree at Toronto, Canada

Undergraduate Poster Competition:
5th Consecutive Gold Medal.
Other Recognitions:
Asif Rahman (Grad Student) – Awarded USU International Student of the Year

2012 Awards and Recognitions

World Competition at MIT

World Title. "Biomanufacturing" Division

North American Western Region Jamboree at Stanford University

3rd Place. USU iGEM
4th Consecutive Gold Medal
"Best Engineered BioBrick Part"

Institute of Biological Engineering Meeting

National Conference in Indianapolis, IN

Graduate Student Poster Competition: 1st Place

Josh Ellis, PhD Student

Leadership Recognitions:

Ryan Putman - Elected to be National Undergraduate Student Representative
Asif Rahman - Elected to be the National Graduate Student Representative
Dr. Soonjo Kwon –Elected Chair of the International Relations Committee
Dr. Ron Sims - Elected IBE President

iGEM Competition

Western Region Conference, Logan, UT

Platform Competition

1st Place. iGEM Team
2nd Place (tie). Cameron Copeland, PhD student
2nd Place (tie). Siyuan Wang, PhD student

Graduate Poster Competition

1st Place, Swathi Swaminathan, PhD student
2nd Place, Richard Decker, MS student
3rd Place, Chauncey Tucker, MS student

Undergraduate Poster Competition

1st Place, iGEM Team
2nd Place, David Gage
3rd Place, Katherine Glaittli

Other Recognitions:

USU Society of Black Engineers Chapter wins the National Society of Black Engineers Consulting Design Olympiad
American Society of Microbiology, Neal Hangge, undergraduate, awarded Competitive Research Fellowship
Algae Biomass Conference, Denver, CO, Katerine Napan, PhD student, awarded 2nd place
NanoUtah Conference & Exhibition, Arther Hart & Joshua K. Israelsen, undergraduates, awarded 3rd place in the poster competition

2011 Awards and Recognitions

Institute of Biological Engineering Meeting

World Championship Jamboree at MIT

3rd Consecutive Gold Medal
National Conference in Atlanta, GA Undergraduate Poster Competition:
2nd Place

Aaron Winder

Grand Prize

Nhean Dawance Chea
Kalie McCulloch

Special Recognition by the Korean Society of Biotechnology and Bioengineering (KSBB)

Leadership Recognitions:

Kirsten Sims, MS student, elected national IBE Graduate Student Councilor for a 3rd consecutive term
Dr. Soonjo Kwon elected IBE Councilor at large and appointed chair of the International Relations Committee
Dr. Ron Sims elected President-elect

iGEM Competition

Western Region Conference

Graduate Platform Presentation Competition

1st Place

Angela Dixon takes, MS student

Undergraduate Poster Competition

1st Place

Katherine Glaittli

2010 Awards and Recognitions

Institute of Biological Engineering Meeting

World Championship Jamboree at MIT

2nd Consecutive Gold Medal
iGEM Competition

National Meeting in Cambridge, MA

Bioethics contest
1st Place:

Alex Hatch, Undergraduate student

2nd Place:

Kirsten Sims, Graduate student

2009 Awards and Recognitions

Institute of Biological Engineering Meeting

Santa Clara, CA

Graduate Student Poster Competition:

First place: Elisabeth Linton & Trent Mortensen - “Efficient Systems for Monitoring and Recovering Polyhydroxyalkanoates”
Third place: Trent Mortensen - “Inhibitory Effectiveness of St.-Johns-Wort-Derived Compounds Against Mycobacterial Isolates”

Undergraduate Student Poster Competition:

Second place: Sarah Bailey - “Strategies for Nutrient Removal from Municipal Wastewater and Biodiesel Production through Controlled Algae Growth”
Third place: Eric Monson & Andrew Vanderwerf - “Novel Copy Number Variation (CNV) Detection Methodology for Complement Genes C4A and C4B Utilizing SYBR Green Dye Chemistry”

National Bioethics Essay Contest:

Third place: Kirsten Sims (MS) - “Need for a National Code of Ethics for the Biological Engineering Community”

Leadership Recognitions:

Kirsten Sims (MS), elected national IBE Graduate Student Councilor

iGEM Competition

National Meeting at MIT, Cambridge, MA

2nd time BE participated in the iGEM Competition
1st Gold Medal - “BioBricks without Borders: Investigating a Multi-host Vector and Secretion of Cellular Products”

2008 Awards and Recognitions

iGEM Competition

National Meeting at MIT, Cambridge, MA

1st time BE participated in the iGEM Competition
Bronze Medal - “Efficient Systems for Monitoring Polyhydroxybutyrate Production in Microorginisms”