RRSP External Awards

Blake Yuenger is a chemistry major from Murfreesboro, Tennessee pursuing the Bachelor of Science in Chemistry and Master of Science via the Accelerated Master's Program. He currently works with Dr. Kevin Shaughnessy of the department of chemical engineering, studying the activation of air stable palladium-acyl complexes for cross-coupling catalysis using labile ligand substitution between TMEDA and SPhos. Previously, he studied fentanyl trace analysis methods using eosin Y, a phosphate buffer, and FT Raman at Middle Tennessee State University, as well as synthesizing new emulsifiers for thermally stable emulsions at Nelson Brothers. He hopes to using the Hollings scholarship to understand how these cross-coupling reactions could simplify various synthetic routes used during industrial synthesis and its environmental impact. Outside of research, he is part of the JOSHUA editorial team and enjoys playing jazz guitar in the Tuscaloosa Big Band. He plans to attain a Ph.D. in chemistry.

Gabrielle Kowkabany is a Randall Research Scholar in the Honors College studying chemical and biological engineering. She is currently working with Dr. Yuping Bao to investigate the use of natural products to treat cancers and neurodegenerative diseases. Kowkabany plans to pursue a doctorate degree in clinical and translational science, focusing on developing new cancer therapeutics. She plans to be a principal investigator at a top research hospital conducting clinical trials. Outside of the classroom, Kowkabany is an Honors College ambassador and head case manager of the UA club Dare to Diagnose. She is also a member of the American Chemical Society and American Institute of Chemical Engineers.

Michael Zengel is a recent physics and math graduate from New Orleans, Louisiana. His first research experience was studying machine learning applications in Density Functional Theory calculations for 3 years of high school in Tulane University’s Physics Department. At the University of Alabama, he worked with Dr. Hauser, researching structural and electronic properties of novel Heusler materials. In the summer of 2023, he researched terahertz radiation generation at Justus Liebig University in Germany through the DAAD RISE program. In summer 2024, he interned at CERN in Geneva, Switzerland. He is now pursuing his Ph.D. in physics at MIT where he continues to study condensed matter systems, after which he plans to become a professor.

Zach is a Chemical Engineering and Chemistry dual major at the University of Alabama. He does research on fuel cells, a promising method of renewable energy to replace fossil fuels in civilian vehicles. He enjoys hiking, kayaking, and volunteering at conservation efforts for the black warrior watershed.

Zach is a Chemical Engineering and Chemistry dual major at the University of Alabama. He does research on fuel cells, a promising method of renewable energy to replace fossil fuels in civilian vehicles. He enjoys hiking, kayaking, and volunteering at conservation efforts for the black warrior watershed.

The Randall Research Scholars Program has made me who I am today. I cannot imagine my experience at the University of Alabama without it, from the incredible support we get from our directors, to the uplifting student community I am surrounded by. With the program behind me, I have been enabled to set and reach goals that I could not do without RRSP, and I will be forever grateful for my involvement in the program.

Aparna Bhooshanan is a computer science major and Chinese minor from Madison, Alabama. She is a Critical Language Scholarship and Boren Scholarship winner and will spend Summer 2024 as well as the 2024-2025 academic year studying in Taiwan. In addition to being a Randall Research Scholar and Witt University Fellow, Aparna is the current President of UA's chapter of the Society of Asian Scientists and Engineers. In the past two summers, Aparna has interned at Lockheed Martin as a software engineer and participated in an NSF-sponsored Research Experience for Undergraduates at the University of North Texas, where she used natural language processing (a field that unites linguistics with machine learning) techniques to measure how China's reputation as a country has changed since the pandemic. She is currently leading a research project alongside UA's Dr. Yanyu Xiong and Dr. Xiang Zhang that employs AI methods to support Chinese heritage language speakers' language acquisition. This year, Aparna was named UA's Outstanding Sophomore. Additionally, she was recognized by the Modern Languages and Classics department for Excellence in Second-Year Chinese. Aparna aims to use her knowledge of Mandarin and natural language processing to contribute to the machine translation field and to develop methods to combat digital misinformation in different countries.

Nicholas Hayes, Long Valley, NJ, is a senior at the University of Alabama, where he majors in Applied Mathematics and German. He also did an intensive course in Swahili language and culture in Tanzania as a Boren Scholar. An ultramarathoner, he was named the outstanding junior at the University of Alabama on the basis of scholarship, leadership and service. Nick edited an undergraduate science journal, interned at NOAA in fisheries science and has published in academic journals in politics and biology, and also published poetry, and translates between English and Swahili. Nick will do the MSC in Mathematical Science and the MSt in Linguistics, Philology and Phonetics at Oxford.

Originally from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, UA senior Jackson Foster studies religion and history, with minors in the Blount and Randall Research scholars programs. Jackson has published extensively in early-modern English history—namely, on Tudor criminal law—and the global-critical philosophy of religion, where he uses machine learning to map inclusive futures for the field. He is co-founder and Editor-in-Chief of the Crimson Historical Review, and he spent last year earning his bureaucratic stripes as an intern at the National Endowment for the Humanities. Before the covid-19 pandemic, Jackson was slated to plan and teach a class at the Tuscaloosa Juvenile Detention Center—carceral education and reform being long-standing passions of his. In his free time, Jackson plays tennis, soccer, and cricket, dyes his hair, listens to punk music, and paints. As a Marshall Scholar, he will pursue a master degree in medieval and early modern studies, then another in data science for the digital humanities, at Durham University.