Yizhen Zhang

Vision is one of the most important senses in vertebrates. In adults, photoreceptors in the retina convert light into electrical signals, interneurons modify these signals, and retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) integrate the signals and send output to the brain. In most newborn mammals, photoreceptors and interneurons are not yet fully functional. However, newborns still respond to light. How are they seeing? A RGC subpopulation are atypical photoreceptors that respond to light in development. These intrinsically photosensitive RGCs (ipRGCs) encode light intensity and send output to the brains centers for mood […]

Sanyum Channa

Honeycomb iridates are a class of compounds that were theoretically predicted to be spin liquids, i.e. materials that lacked magnetic ordering due to their magnetic spin interactions. However, due to real-world deviations from theory, compounds like Lithium Iridate have been extensively studied to show fascinating forms of magnetism (like spiral and zig-zag orderings). Taking inspiration from this recent research, the goal of my project is to synthesize a new iridate – Ag2IrO3 (Silver Iridate). The motivation for this is to see how the metal, Ag, interacts with the underlying magnetism […]

Ann Deng

In recent years, our view of the lysosome has changed from the cells recycle bin to a sophisticated metabolic signaling center. The lysosome is the site of recruitment and activation of the mammalian Target of Rapamycin Complex 1 (mTORC1), a master regulator of cell growth and metabolism. The surfaces of lysosomes harbor many different chemical sensors that communicate with mTORC1, but how these different stimuli are integrated and translated into mTORC1-regulating signals is still poorly understood. As there has been increasing evidence that the facilitation of protein scaffold formation by […]

Cecelia Di Mino

Indigenous language revitalization (LR) work comes from the heart. Whether done by a documentary linguist or an indigenous community member, LR is a labor of love, usually done in someones spare time, with little to no financial compensation. While their linguistic and/or cultural knowledge may be vast, such individuals usually lack pedagogy training and experience. As the nature of LR work is already immense and taxing, providing its practitioners with a structured but adaptable program detailing how best to implement the pedagogical aspects of LR would be a major innovation. […]

Ariel Renner

Nature has so often been used as a vehicle to express femininity, sexuality, and eroticism throughout literary history. However, when we speak of nature, there is often an overlooked ambiguity to the term that necessitates further explanation as to the sort of nature a given work focuses on. My research pays close attention to this ambiguity, as I will use a selection of Rochesters poetry, placing particular emphasis on A Ramble in St. James Park, to look at the way that Rochester both furthers this literary tradition and subverts it. […]

Sarah Elisabeth Coduto

My research project is an analysis of queer childhoods. Taking as a starting-point Lee Edelmans notion of reproductive futurism, a term coined to refer to a cultural, political, and psychic investment in the figure of the Child who “remains the perpetual horizon of every acknowledged politics as the emblem of futuritys unquestioned value (No Future 3-4), I would like to consider representations of children who refuse the future we invest in them. Broadly, I am preoccupied with violent children those who spit in the face of the exhortation, Think of […]