1. FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Leah Gibbons
lgibbons@asmusa.org
Social and Behavioral Sciences and Public Health Research by Students Shines at National
Biomedical and Behavioral Research Conference
Washington, D.C. (January 20, 2015). The Annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minority Students
(ABRCMS) congratulates 23 students who received awards for social and behavioral sciences and public
health research presented at the 2014 conference, held November 12-15 in San Antonio, Texas. ABRCMS,
one of the largest professional conferences of its kind in the nation, is designed to encourage
underrepresented minority students and students with disabilities to pursue advanced training in the
biomedical and behavioral sciences, including STEM disciplines; it also provides faculty with resources for
facilitating student success.
Approximately 3,600 people attended ABRCMS in 2014, including 2,270 students, 510 faculty and program
directors, and 610 recruiters for graduate and summer research programs. Over 1,700 of the attending
students participated in poster and oral presentations in 12 subdisciplines of the biomedical and behavioral
sciences. All undergraduate and postbaccalaureate presentations were evaluated by active-researcher
scientists, and the students with the highest scores in each scientific discipline and for each educational level
received monetary awards. Twenty-one organizations contributed to awards of $250 each to 210 students for
outstanding research, and the awards for the social and behavioral sciences and public health discipline —
sponsored by the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association and the American Association
for the Advancement of Science — were presented to the students listed below.
Oral Presentations
• Temitope Adeoye, Senior, Morgan
State University
• Diane Kogan, Senior, CUNY Hunter
College
• Nadiyah Rahaman, Sophomore,
CUNY Hunter College
Poster Presentations
• Jason Alipio, Senior, California State
University, San Bernardino
• Jenny Brown, Senior, California State
University, Monterey Bay
• Brittany Demmings, Senior, Tuskegee
University
• Sarai Finks, Postbaccalaureate,
University of California, Irvine
• Laura Fonseca, Senior, CUNY Hunter
College
• Ayanna Fredericks, Senior, University of
the Virgin Islands
• Orangel Gutierrez Fugon, Junior,
University of California, Irvine
• Damion Haynes, Senior, Howard
University
• Kyle Kisor, Junior, University of
California, Irvine
• Taylar Peoples, Senior, University of
Central Florida
• Nadrienne Pinnock, Senior, Brooklyn
College
• Jamon Pulliam, Senior, Tuskegeee
University
• Andrea Ramirez, Senior, Georgia State
University
• DeAndre Robbins, Sophomore, Wayne
State University
• Mya Roberson, Junior, Brown University
• Carlos Rosas, Senior, California State
University, San Marcos
• Pragyashree Sharma Basyal, Senior,
Cornell University
• Cyril Soliman, Sophomore, University of
California, Irvine
• Martin Underwood, Senior, Albany State
University
• Tyler Wright, Postbaccalaureate, Bennett
College
“I’m extremely proud of the way that the students at ABRCMS are able to explain and defend their research,”
says conference chair Clifford W. Houston, Associate Vice President for Educational Outreach and holder of
the Herman Barnett Distinguished Professorship in Microbiology and Immunology, University of Texas
Medical Branch. “By meriting recognition for research excellence, it is especially apparent that these
presentation awardees are already on the road to successful careers in science.”
ABRCMS is managed by the American Society for Microbiology with support (grant no. 2T36GM073777)
from the Division of Training, Workforce Development, and Diversity of the National Institute of General
Medical Sciences at the National Institutes of Health. ABRCMS 2015 will be held November 11-14 in
Seattle, Washington. For more information, please visit www.abrcms.org.
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Sponsored by the
National Institute of
General Medical
Sciences
Division of Training,
Workforce Development
and Diversity