Department of Biological Sciences Congratulates 2024-2025 Graduates

The University at Albany celebrated its 181st commencement with a series of ceremonies held from Thursday, May 15, through Sunday, May 18. Nearly 5,000 students marked the occasion with family, friends, and peers including approximately 3,000 undergraduates and 1,900 graduate students.

On Thursday, May 15, and Friday, May 16, the University at Albany held its Undergraduate Recognition Ceremony at the Broadview Center celebrating the achievements of UAlbany’s undergraduate majors from all departments and programs. This year’s Recognition Ceremony for approximately 141 graduating Baccalaureate Biology majors was scheduled Thursday, May 15 from 10:00 pm to 12:30pm. On Saturday, the University-wide undergraduate ceremony was held from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. The Class of 2025 student speaker and recipient of the Outstanding Senior Award was Maria C. Villacreses Valarezo, an Undergraduate Research Fellow mentored by Biology Professor Andy Berglund at the University at Albany’s RNA Institute.

On Saturday May 17, nine Biology Doctoral students were honored during the Doctoral Hooding Ceremony while four Biology Department’s Master’s students were acknowledged on Sunday, May 18. The Department of Biological Sciences proudly congratulates Dr. Maurice Petroccione as the recipient of the University at Albany’s 2024-2025 Distinguished Doctoral Dissertation Award. This prestigious award recognizes the most outstanding dissertation across all disciplines within the University at Albany’s College of Arts and Sciences (CAS). Maurice’s dissertation, entitled " The Multifaceted Role of Glutamate at Excitatory and Inhibitory Synapses," which was nominated by Dr. Annalisa Scimemi and selected as the top dissertation in this year's College of Arts and Sciences competition.

As noted by Professor and Dean Altarriba in the award letter, Maurice “You are a credit to the Department of Biological Sciences, and it is clear you have developed into a mature scholar with a promising future.”.

Congratulations to all the Department of Biological Sciences 2024-2025 Graduates!

Doctorate Degrees:

Awarded

Sawyer Michael Hicks, Ph.D., Biology
Advancing Small Molecule Therapies for Myotonic Dystrophy Type 1
Dissertation Chair: Prof. Andy Berglund

Jennifer Marie Morrissey, Ph.D., Biology
Remediating Fibrosis to Restore Salivary Gland Function
Dissertation Chair: Prof. Melinda Larsen

Dana L. Woodstock, Ph.D., Biology
Resources to Study the Isoforms of the P53 Family of Transcription Factors
Dissertation Chair: Prof. Morgan A. Sammons

Candidates

Enrico Amato, Ph.D., Biology
Unveiling the Cell Composition of the Olfactory Migratory Mass: Perspectives on Terminal Nerve Formation, Olfactory Development, and Migration of the GnRH-1 Neurons
Dissertation Chair: Prof. Paolo E. Forni

Sean M. Bialosuknia, Ph.D., Biology
Evaluating the role of West Nile virus genotype and co-infection in transmissibility in New York State
Dissertation Co-Chairs: Profs. Ing-Nang Wang & Alexander T. Ciota

Nimmy Sara John, Ph.D., Biology
Elucidating the underlying molecular mechanisms of environmental and physiological conditions on stem cell regulation in vivo
Dissertation Chair: Prof. ChangHwan Lee

Kristen Kaytes, Ph.D., Biology
Conserved A-rich regions in the 3’ UTR of Zika virus differentially affect viral gene expression
Dissertation Chair: Prof. Cara T. Pager

Abigail McCann, Ph.D., Biology
DNA and protein determinants for p63 transcriptional activity
Dissertation Chair: Prof. Morgan A. Sammons

Maurice Petroccione, Ph.D., Biology
The Multifaceted Role of Glutamate at Excitatory and Inhibitory Synapses
Dissertation Chair: Prof. Annalisa Scimemi

Kathryn Piper, Ph.D., Biology
Diversity within species: mechanisms, evolution and implications in bacterial disease
Dissertation Chair: Prof. Cheryl P. Andam

Master’s Degrees:

Awarded

Cameron Ferri, M.S., Biology
Cellular Senescence and the remediation of salivary gland function via nanoparticle delivery models
Dissertation Chair: Prof. Melinda Larsen

Anaya Jackson, M.S., Forensic Science and Investigation
Identification of Fentanyl Analogs from Urine Samples of Vulnerable Populations in Central and Capital regions, New York State
Research Chair: Ryan Thurman, Ph.D.

Diego Mendoza, M.S., Forensic Science and Investigation
Validating reduced reaction volume of the Yfiler™ Plus STR PCR amplification kit for potential protocol implementation
Research Chair: Brian Kozlowski, M.S.

Bryanna Howes, M.S., Forensic Science and Investigation
Polydrug Abuse in Addiction Patients: A Statistical Analysis of Toxicology data.
Research Chair: Ryan Thurman, Ph.D.