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With Dr. Brian Bolton, the Graduate School and the Division of Research, Innovation, and Community Development at the �����Ƶ of �����Ƶ at Lafayette are proud to announce the recipients of the fourth round of Sustainable Development Research Awards, now transitioning to the �����Ƶ Impact Awards.

This round of competition recognizes the work of 11 faculty members and 25 graduate �����Ƶs, as well as several undergraduate �����Ƶs and postdoctoral scholars, for innovative projects spanning disciplines from engineering and computer science to communicative disorders and English.

Since 2022, the program has invested more than $250,000 to support 128 faculty, graduate, undergraduate, and staff-led projects. In total, 385 proposals have been submitted from across all seven academic colleges, demonstrating the remarkable breadth of research being conducted on the UL Lafayette campus.

The program will continue forward as the �����Ƶ Impact: �����Ƶ Research Collaborative. Showcasing research aligned with the people, place, and purpose of �����Ƶ, the collaborative is a partnership between Academic Affairs, the Office of the Vice President for Research, Innovation & Economic Development, the Graduate School, the Office of Sustainability & Community Engagement, and Dr. Bolton. Dr. Bolton is a Professor of Finance and the Dwight W. Andrus, Jr. / BORSF Eminent Scholar Endowed Chair in Finance.

“Through this work, we’ve created something truly remarkable,” says Bolton. “The greatest reward comes when we see research not only advance scholarship but also improve lives here in �����Ƶ and beyond.”

Several of the awardees will be recognized at the �����Ƶ Impact Research Summit on Friday, Sept. 5, 2025, from 8:30 am to 2 pm at the �����Ƶ’s LITE Center. The program will include 25-30 brief presentations from award recipients in the third and fourth rounds of competition. Lunch will be provided. The summit is open to the public with registration.

Join us in congratulating the 2025 �����Ƶ Impact Award recipients:

      Faculty

1. Sercan Aygun – Assistant Professor, Computing & Informatics, Ray P. Authement College of Sciences
   ULL-HT: Unified, Low-Resource, and Language-Assisted Health Tool
    
2. Elena Babatsouli – Associate Professor, Communicative Disorders, College of Liberal Arts     
   �����Ƶ Family Language Use and Child Speech Developmental Norms in English
    
3. Ignatius Cahyanto – Associate Professor, Management, B.I. Moody III College of Business Administration
   Visualizing Empowerment? Tourism and the Experiences of Ethnic Minority Women in Northern Vietnam
    
4. Caitlin deNux – Visiting Assistant Professor, Geosciences, Ray P. Authement College of Sciences  
   Terry Chambers – Professor, Mechanical Engineering, College of Engineering
   Evaluating Soil Health Improvements Utilizing Cover Crops in a Pre-Established Broccoli Production AV System in �����Ƶ
    
5. Natalie Keefer – Associate Professor, Education Curriculum & Instruction, College of Education & Human Development
   Sustainable Economic and Cultural Development of �����Ƶ Business Practices in French and Creole
    
6. Mo Li – Assistant Professor, Mathematics, Ray P. Authement College of Sciences
   Multiple Changepoints Detection and Estimation in Cross-Sectional Time Series for Improving Livestock Production
    
7. Edward Patterson – Assistant Professor, Biology, Ray P. Authement College of Sciences
   Using Insect-Specific Viruses to Prevent Mosquitoes from Transmitting Arthropod-Borne Viruses
    
8. David Squires – Associate Professor, English, College of Liberal Arts
   Isuru Rathnayake – PhD �����Ƶ in English
   Reading Ernest J. Gaines in the Archives
    
9. Yu Wang – Associate Professor, Chemistry, Ray P. Authement College of Sciences
   Advanced Smart Hydrogels for Selective and Regenerable PFAS Remediation in Water
    
10. Christine Weill – Assistant Professor, Communicative Disorders, College of Liberal Arts         
    �����Ƶ's View of Speech-Language Pathology Assistants

11. Andrea Westerband – Assistant Professor, Biology, Ray P. Authement College of Sciences
    Mitigating Environmental Stress Impacts on �����Ƶ’s Native Prairie Species

    Graduate �����Ƶs

12. Tamjeed Ahmed, PhD �����Ƶ in Systems Engineering: Mechanical Engineering
    Faculty reference: Solomon Yin, College of Engineering
    Integrated Economic-Health Valuation of Backup Power Portfolios for Gulf-Coast Hurricane Shelters
     
13. Kunle Akinkuade – MSE �����Ƶ in Chemical Engineering
    Faculty reference: Mark Zappi, College of Engineering
    Thermochemical Conversion of Plastic Wastes into Sustainable Bio-Oil
     
14. Nelly Ankrah – PhD �����Ƶ in Systems Engineering: Civil Engineering     
    Faculty reference: Julius Codjoe, College of Engineering
    The Role of Road Weather Intelligent Systems in Enhancing Climate Resilience and Transportation Safety in �����Ƶ
     
15. N I Md Ashafuddula – PhD �����Ƶ in Computer Science
    Faculty reference: Li Chen, Ray P. Authement College of Sciences
    KI-M3T: Knee Injury-Adapted Medical Multi-Plane Multi-Slice Transformer Model for Advancing Healthcare Accessibility Through Accurate MRI Diagnosis
     
16. Jacob Badcock – PhD �����Ƶ in Environmental & Evolutionary Biology
    Faculty reference: Craig McClain, Ray P. Authement College of Sciences
    Using Machine Learning to Detect Macrobenthic Regime Shifts in a �����Ƶ Estuarine Bay
     
17. Sajan Bhandari – PhD �����Ƶ in Mathematics
    Faculty reference: Azmy Ackleh, Ray P. Authement College of Sciences
    Discrete-Time Refuge-Mediated Selection Model
     
18. Xueao Cao and Gulalek Charyyeva – PhD �����Ƶs in Communicative Disorders – College of Liberal Arts
    Faculty reference: Judith Oxley and Katherine Mcquitty Hays
    More Than Words: Supporting the Development of a Child with Communication Disabilities Through Engineering the Communicative Environment
     
19. Lisa Dizon – PhD �����Ƶ in Systems Engineering: Chemical Engineering
    Faculty reference: Emmanuel Revellame, College of Engineering
    Bioreactor Scale-Up and Testing of Optimum Conditions to Enhance Methanotrophs’ Growth and Activity for Lipid Production
     
20. Muhammad Towhidul Islam – PhD �����Ƶ in Systems Engineering: Petroleum Engineering
    Faculty reference: Boyun Guo, College of Engineering
    Visualization of Hydrate Formation of Flowing CO₂ in Low-Temperature Water for CO₂ Disposal onto Seafloor
     
21. Asif Istiak – PhD �����Ƶ in Systems Engineering: Mechanical Engineering
    Faculty reference: Tanvir Faisal, College of Engineering
    A Novel Nanocarrier-Driven Therapeutic Strategy for Inhibiting Tissue Damage in Degenerated Joint Disease
     
22. Chimezie Izuazu – PhD �����Ƶ in Mathematics
    Faculty reference: Cameron Browne, Ray P. Authement College of Sciences
    Stochastic Analysis of Interplay Among Drug Mode of Action, Nutrient Availability, and Antibiotic Resistance
     
23. Jenita Jahangir – PhD �����Ƶ in Mathematics
    Faculty reference: Amy Veprauskas, Ray P. Authement College of Sciences
    Invading Populations by Infections in a Discrete-Time Compartmental Epidemic Models
     
24. Afeez Jimoh – PhD �����Ƶ in Earth & Energy Sciences
    Faculty reference: Erez Aghion, Ray P. Authement College of Sciences
    Computational Modeling of Ion Transport Dynamics in Ion Exchange Membranes for Sustainable Energy Systems
     
25. Maria Lindquist – MS �����Ƶ in Psychology
    Faculty reference: Manyu Li, College of Liberal Arts
    Shaping Attitudes Toward GLP-1 Drugs: The Impact of Realistic Advertisements on Disordered Eating Behaviors
     
26. Lovelyn Madu – PhD �����Ƶ in Mathematics
    Faculty reference: Bruce Wade, Ray P. Authement College of Sciences
    Optimization and AI-Driven Advances in Detection Tools for Heart Disease and Cancers
     
27. Sydney McDermott – PhD �����Ƶ in Environmental & Evolutionary Biology
    Faculty reference: Craig McClain, Ray P. Authement College of Sciences
    Observations of the Condition of Deep-Sea Benthic Communities in the Immediate Vicinity of the Deepwater Horizon Wreckage
     
28. Emily Mulcahy – MS �����Ƶ in Biology
    Faculty reference: Beth Stauffer, Ray P. Authement College of Sciences
    Growth of and Microzooplankton Grazing on Pico- and Nanoplankton Communities Along Environmental Gradients
     
29. Sohail Nawab – PhD �����Ƶ in Systems Engineering: Petroleum Engineering 
    Faculty reference: Ning Liu, College of Engineering
    Microbial Hydrogen Production in Depleted Oil Reservoirs in �����Ƶ
     
30. Jacob Norris – MS �����Ƶ in Psychology
    Faculty reference: Emily Sandoz, College of Liberal Arts
    The Relationships Between Ego Depletion and Social Behaviors Across Different Degrees of Psychological Flexibility
     
31. Prince Obeng – PhD �����Ƶ in Systems Engineering: Petroleum Engineering 
    Faculty reference: Nelson Chavez, College of Engineering
    Experimental Investigation of the Performance of Clay Inhibitor ZCHN71, ZCHN72, ZCHN73 on High and Low Reactive Clays
     
32. Khairum Orthi – PhD �����Ƶ in Earth & Energy Sciences
    Faculty reference: Wu Xu, Ray P. Authement College of Sciences
    Understanding the Electron Transport Chain in Photosystem I During Photosynthesis
     
33. Tasnim Tabassum – PhD �����Ƶ in Computer Science
    Faculty reference: Sonya Hsu, Ray P. Authement College of Sciences
    Prevent Hospital Finance Failure: An AI-Powered System for Identifying Financial Risk
     
34. Mohammad Nezam Uddin – PhD �����Ƶ in Systems Engineering: Petroleum Engineering
    Faculty reference: Boyun Guo, College of Engineering
    A Feasibility Study of Converting End-of-lifetime Oil and Gas Wells into Geothermal Wells
     

35. Gregory Williams – PhD �����Ƶ in Systems Engineering: Civil Engineering
    Faculty reference: Emad Habib, College of Engineering
    A Collaboratively Designed and Managed Flood Resilience Framework for Affected Communities in the Caribbean Region

    Postdoctoral Scholars

36. Courtney Poirier Chicola – Postdoctoral Researcher, NASA Regional Application Center and Department of Chemistry
    Discovering the Early-Time Photodegradation Mechanisms of Emerging Contaminants in Marine Ecosystems
     
37. Xiaobo Lei – Postdoctoral Researcher, Energy Institute of �����Ƶ
    Converting Invasive Giant Salvinia in �����Ƶ into Renewable Biomethane

38. Yihe Zhang – Research Scientist, Informatics Research Institute    
    Accelerating Universal Mental Health Access through AI-Powered Suicide Prevention

    Undergraduate �����Ƶs

39. Elizabeth Drell – Undergraduate �����Ƶ in Psychology
    Faculty reference: Amy Brown, College of Liberal Arts
    Alcohol Intoxication as a Moderator of Bias Against Transgender Victims of Sexual Assault
     
40. Bree Landry – Undergraduate �����Ƶ in Environmental Science, Digital Geography and Researcher with the NASA Regional Application Center
    Faculty reference: Courtney Poirier Chicola, Ray P. Authement College of Sciences   
    Tracking Troubled Waters: Community-Based Field Research with the AREN AquaROVER

41. Bailey Singleton – Undergraduate �����Ƶ in Psychology
    Faculty reference: Amy Brown, College of Liberal Arts
    Consent in Media Consumption: Exploring Content Warnings as Accessibility through Sexual Assault Survivor's Perspectives