Graduate Research Symposium

 

CLICK HERE for the Graduate Research Symposium Program

Symposium Schedule – December 5th, 2025 in CIBC Hall

Coffee and Breakfast:   8:30am – 9:00am
Opening Remarks: Welcome, Overview, Address from Dean of Graduate Studies   9:00am – 9:10am
Dr. John Valliant, Keynote Speaker:   9:10am – 10:00am
Lightning Poster Presentations:   10:00am – 10:30am
1	Almila Bahar (Neuroscience)	7	Keegan Howden (Chemical Biology)	13	Victor Pop (Physics & Astronomy)
2	Alysha C. D’Souza (Kinesiology)	8	Khyla Wiltshire-Mateer (Biology)	14	Yi Xiong (Computational Science and Engineering)
3	Arman Parham (Chemistry)	9	Nicole Tais Frohlich (Neuroscience)	29	Tang Tang Guo (Psychology, Neuroscience and Behaviour)
4	Erica Li (Psychology, Neuroscience and Behaviour)	10	Olivia Velenosi (Chemistry)
5	Heider Al Mashalah (Computational Science and Engineering)	11	Paul E. Fitzsimons (Physics & Astronomy)
6	Jonathon Kirsh (PNB)	12	Shane Seheult (Psychology, Neuroscience and Behaviour)
Coffee Break #1 & Posters:   10:30am – 11:00am
Contributed Talks, Session 1:   11:00am – 12:20pm
	Aishwarya Patwardhan (She/Her): Autism-Risk Gene Mutations Alter Oxytocin Modulation of Social Stimulus Encoding in the Nucleus Accumbens (Psychology, Neuroscience and Behaviour)
	Joanna Misquitta (She/Her): The Effects of Height and Sex on Two-Person Team Lifting (Kinesiology)
	Vanessa Nicole Parise (She/Her): Exploring Sensory Processing Difficulties and Their Impact on Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder: A Mixed-Methods Study (Neuroscience)
	Uriel Garcilazo Cruz (He/Him): The use of Large Language Models for Embedding-Based Regression in Molecular Structure Analysis (Computational Science and Engineering)
	Esha Patel: Layers of the Brain: Fabricating Stackable Biomimetic 3D in vitro Neocortical Tissue Models to Explore Neuronal Durotaxis in a Multilayered System (Neuroscience)
	Daniel Fernando Calero Osorio (He/Him): Seniority-Zero Canonical Transformation Theory: Reducing Truncation Error with Late Truncation (Chemistry)
	Hayden Simm (He/Him): Determining How Climate Change Stressors Affect the Toxicities of Chemical Pollutants in Aquatic Animals (Biology)
	Simaya Rosenbloom (She/Her): Avalanche dynamics in a tumbling drum (Physics & Astronomy)
BREAK – Posters & Lunch:   12:20pm – 1:20pm
1	Almila Bahar(Neuroscience)	12	Shane Seheult (PNB)	23	Lucas Beckering Vinckers Stofer (Earth and Environmental Sciences)
2	Alysha C. D’Souza  (Kinesiology)	13	Victor Pop (Physics & Astronomy)	24	Molly Dobrik (Biology)
3	Arman Parham (Chemistry)	14	Yi Xiong (Computational Science and Engineering)	25	Nazneen Meethal (Chemistry)
4	Erica Li (PNB)	15	Andrei Alexe (Neuroscience)	26	Yoon Lee (Chemistry)
5	Heider Al Mashalah (Computational Science and Engineering)	16	Anna Do (Chemical Biology)	27	Taraneh Ghandi (Computational Science and Engineering)
6	Jonathon Kirsh (PNB)	17	Anjali M. Bedi (Kinesiology)	28	Reyad Malakh (PNB)
7	Keegan Howden (Chemical Biology)	18	Brandan Wilson (Kinesiology)	29	Tang Tang Guo (PNB)
8	Khyla Wiltshire-Mateer (Biology)	19	Curtis Goosney (Radiation Sciences)	30	Sasha Cognigni (Biology)
9	Nicole Tais Frohlich (Neuroscience)	20	Echo Terrell (Chemistry)	31	Danielle MacNeil (Biology)
10	Olivia Velenosi (Chemistry)	21	Emily DeLeon (Radiation Sciences)
11	Paul E. Fitzsimons (Physics & Astronomy)	22	Joshua Cherubini (Kinesiology)
Contributed Talks, Session 2:   1:20pm – 2:20pm
	Adrian Yu (He/Him): Accelerating Biomaterials Discovery via High Throughput PET-RAFT Polymerization (Chemical Biology)
	Riley Mantulak (She/Her): From Swimming to Signaling: Exploring the role of estrogen-related receptors on exercise training in zebrafish (Danio rerio) (Biology)
	Jeffrey Marshall-Milne (He/Him): An invitation to knot theory and the Greene-Howie Theorem (Math & Stats)
	Jaskiran Garcha: Alphafold: Pushing the envelope of computational modelling. (Chemistry)
	Aneesa Rabbani: “Not an alluvial fan: Steep gradient, coarse grained meandering tributary channels systems, Cretaceous Dunvegan Formation, Liard basin, NWT, Canada” (Earth and Environmental Studies)
	Kirstin Davidson (She/Her): Monte Carlo to Correct Synchrotron XRF Images of Lead Absorption in Porcine Skin (Radiation Sciences)
Coffee Break #2 & Posters:   2:20pm – 2:50pm
Contributed Talks, Session 3:   2:50pm – 3:50pm
	Paulo Chu (He/Him): Giant Vesicles as Microbial Traps: Toward Characterizing the Flow Fields of Encapsulated Bacteria (Physics & Astronomy)
	Noah Britt (He/Him): The impact of race as a social category is revealed through observers’ selective attention to faces (Psychology, Neuroscience and Behaviour)
	Libby Tunney (She/Her): Origins of Life’s Building Blocks: Nucleobase Clues from Meteorites (Earth and Environmental Studies)
	Tory Hartley-Cox (She/Her): Evaluating the Effects of Forest Management Practices on Habitat Quality and Breeding Success of an Endangered Woodpecker in British Columbia, Canada (Biology)
	Kevina Chavda: Improving clinical translation of 18F-radiopharmaceuticals: a straightforward method for the automated synthesis of radiolabelled neuroendocrine tumor imaging agents for positron emission tomography (PET) (Chemical Biology)
	Caroline Lowisz: Effects of Lighter-Weight Resistance Training and Protein Quality on Body Composition and Glycemic Control in Older Adults with Overweight or Obesity (Kinesiology)
Concluding Remarks & Awards Presentation