07/01/2025
SUNY Cortland senior biomedical sciences major Ashmita Rasaily has dreamed of working within the health care field ever since growing up in her home of Kathmandu, Nepal.
This summer, working in conjunction with Professor of Biological Sciences Christa Chatfield as part of the 2025 Undergraduate Research Summer Fellowship program, Rasaily has been able to fortify her skills and take a step towards accomplishing that goal.
Rasaily is one of 13 students selected to pursue donor-funded summer fellowship research, continuing a program in its 19th year of existence. She is a beneficiary of the W. Hubert, Ph.D. and Mrs. Sally Keen Undergraduate Research Summer Fellowship to fund her research.
Managed by the university’s Undergraduate Research Council, the program provides students with a $4,000 stipend, campus research space and housing during eight weeks of full-time study from late May through early August. The Council gives an additional $2,000 to faculty members who mentor a student. The students present the results of their studies at the university’s annual Transformations: A Student Research and Creativity Conference.
In addition to Rasaily, the 2025 summer researchers include:
- Shreya Dhital, a senior biomedical sciences and mathematics major from Kathmandu, Nepal, who aims to find new systems to aid in the early detection of diabetes. Dhital’s research is funded by the Daniel G. Scheffer ’96 Undergraduate Research Summer Fellowship fund.
“I aim to identify key predictors and improve early detection,” Dhital commented. “This work bridges data science and public health, offering a scalable approach to disease prevention through personalized risk assessment and targeted intervention strategies.” Dhital is mentored by Keshab Dahal, assistant professor of mathematics.
- Ithaca, N.Y. native and archaeology major William Kennedy conducts his summer research as a recipient of the Nancy A. Johnson ’48, M ’56 Undergraduate Research Summer Fellowship, and is working with faculty mentor Hollis Miller, an assistant professor of sociology and anthropology who focuses on Native American studies.
- Minju Kim, a senior chemistry major from Seoul, South Korea, aims for a career in forensic or environmental science. Mentored by Professor Jeffrey Werner of the Chemistry Department, Kim is exploring the environmental fate of sucralose in the environment through chemical analysis and environmental monitoring.
“This experience has allowed me to develop skills in lab techniques, data analysis and scientific communication,” said Kim, recipient of the LoBracco Family Undergraduate Research Summer Fellowship.
- Daniel G. Scheffer ’96 Undergraduate Research Summer Fellowship fund recipient Timothy McGrath studies the rate of cell size shrinkage in polypoid plants using the cell length and floral tubes of different Nicotiana plants with their evolutionary age.
McGrath, a senior biology major from Lindenhurst, N.Y., is mentored by Assistant Professor of Biological Sciences Elizabeth McCarthy.
- Senior chemistry major and Cortland native Abigail Morse views the summer research program as an avenue to broaden her horizons.
Funded by the Dr. William M. Hopkins Summer Research Fellowship, and working alongside Assistant Professor of Chemistry Sarah Wolf, Morse focuses on how to improve the stability of small molecule molecular glasses by using nanoparticles, which can make them useful in industrial and medical environments.
- Haileigh Rhodes, a Jamestown, N.Y., native who majors in geology, is spending the summer in the Tully Valley to investigate a former halite (salt) mining region to determine how the land has subsided and fractured since 2019.
Rhodes is working alongside Christopher Badurek, the co-director of the SUNY Cortland Regional GIS Laboratory and chair of the Geography Department, to complete this research. “My research is a ‘natural experiment’,” commented Rhodes, “where we can see how the land has been affected due to human intervention.” The pair are funded by the Sandra Laghi Cerulli ’68 and Dr. Maurice Cerulli Fellowship for Undergraduate Research.
- Funded by the Dr. David F. Berger Summer Research Fellowship, senior chemistry major William Snyder is participating in research surrounding the “Analysis of PET Leachates in Simulated Ocean Water.”
The Olean, N.Y., native is mentored by Professor Jeffrey Werner of the Chemistry Department, and hopes that this research will propel him to graduate school and, eventually, a terminal degree in chemistry.
- Dhalia Spilka is researching on the history of local activism, focusing on the impact of student movements at SUNY Cortland during the 1960s and 1970s. SUNY Distinguished Teaching Professor Randi Storch serves as the faculty mentor for the project funded by the Nancy A. Johnson ’48, M ’56 Undergraduate Research Summer Fellowship.
“This research opportunity has allowed me to recognize that I have a great passion for historical research and preservation, especially as it pertains to local communities,” commented Spilka, an East Syracuse, N.Y., native and history major.
- Senior archaeology major Anna Tanzman, with the mentorship of SUNY Distinguished Professor Sharon Steadman, is conducting her research at Çadır Höyük in the Republic of Turkey. Tanzman’s research is funded by the Dr. Suad Joseph ’66 Undergraduate Research Summer Fellowship.
“My hypothesis is that there will be a change from wheat to barley during the warm period due to the stability of barley over wheat in these climate conditions,” Tanzman said. Her research will focus on investigating seed samples from 900 to 1200 C.E.
- Zachary Taylor, an adolescence education: physics and mathematics major from Newfield, N.Y., is conducting studies funded by the Michael J. O’Reilly ’58 Undergraduate Research Fellowship.
Working in conjunction with Chemistry Department Professor Frank Rossi, Taylor aims to build an ApppI molecule with a permeable membrane that can have an impact on future research, including the potential of assisting in cancer and osteoporosis treatment.
- Natalie Thibodeau, a speech and hearing science major, is leading a project titled “Teaching TAs to R2AAP,” which evaluates training teaching assistants a modified communication strategy short for “read and remove, ask, answer, prompt.” Working with Nimisha Muttiah, associate professor of communication disorders and sciences, the research relies on adapted shared book reading with preschoolers with autism spectrum disorder (ASD).
“The main objective of this research is to support communication development of students with ASD and expand the limited evidence-based research on TA communication training,” said Thibodeau, a native of Palatine Bridge, N.Y. who aspires to be a certified speech-language pathologist in a school setting.
Her research is funded by the LoBracco Family Undergraduate Research Summer Fellowship.
- Senior archeology and history major Ryan Wheeler joined faculty mentor Steadman and Tanzman in the Republic of Turkey to research 30 samples of Byzantine glass and determining the best avenues for future preservation at Çadır Höyük.
Wheeler is a native of Ellington, Connecticut, and his research is funded by the Nancy A. Johnson ’48, M ’56 Undergraduate Research Summer Fellowship.