Kehinde 'Kenny' Adebiyi is a PhD candidate in the Microbiology program working in the Kearns Lab. His research focuses on understanding the molecular mechanism of cell division and its relation to motility in Gram-positive bacteria. He is passionate about teaching, mentorship and social work, and has been a front volunteer in major outreach activities in the department and beyond.

Virginia is a fifth-year grad student in the Dalia lab, where she studies the mechanism of action of a class of bacterial transcription factors that bind to the genome while remaining localized in the cell membrane. This award will support Virginia as she continues her thesis work.

Chase is a third-year Ph.D. student in the van Kessel lab studying how pathogenic Vibrio bacteria respond to population and nutritional signals in their environments enabling them to infect diverse hosts. She is passionate about increasing science outreach opportunities in the community and can often be found performing engaging bacterial demonstrations and lessons to learners of all ages.