Twelve graduate students in the Department of Biology received fellowships for Summer 2026. See details below. 

Department of Biology Fellowships
Fellowships funded by the Department of Biology include the Michael J. Dykstra Graduate Scholarship, the Carol B. and Robert G. Lynch Graduate Award, the Jerry Kollros Graduate Student Fund, and the Rebecca S. Reiter Scholarship Fund.

Summer 2026 recipients of the Michael J. Dykstra Graduate Scholarship are Eric Anderson (Stipp Lab) and Emily Hirsch (Phillips Lab). Eric and Emily are PhD students in the iBio Graduate Program. Eric researches therapeutic resistance mechanisms in uveal melanoma. This award will give him protected time to write a first-author publication. Emily studies the role of protein aggregation in reproduction and early development. This award will enable her to continue investigating her lab’s interests and write a manuscript of her findings for publication to share her research with the scientific community.  
This scholarship provides support to graduate students in the Integrated Biology (iBio) Graduate Program and was named in honor of Michael J. Dykstra, who earned both his B.A. (1969) and M.S. (1971) in Botany at the University of Iowa. Dykstra believes strongly in higher education and hopes that his gift will provide educational support for future leaders in scientific research and teaching.

Three iBio PhD students are Summer 2026 recipients of the Carol B. and Robert G. Lynch Graduate Award – Romisa Ghaffari (Comeron Lab), Shulin Liu (Fassler Lab), and Brady Williquett (Manak Lab). Romisa researches the genetic mechanisms underlying telomere maintenance and dynamics in Drosophila melanogaster, focusing more on identifying genes and pathways that contribute to telomere elongation and genome stability. This award will provide her with the opportunity to dedicate more time to her research, generate preliminary data, and further develop the experimental and computational approaches needed for her dissertation project. Shulin researches in liquid-liquid phase separation between transcription factors and co-activators. This award will provide him with uninterrupted time to accomplish his research and write his thesis. Brady is studying the effect of innate immunity on learning ability in a Drosophila model for autism spectrum disorder. This award will provide him the opportunity to benefit from protected and supported time to focus on his research. 
This award is named in honor of Carol and Robert (Bob) Lynch who both received their PhDs in Zoology from the University of Iowa in 1971 and 1972, respectively. Their bequest to the iBio Graduate Program is in honor of their advisers, Hugh Dingle and Joe Hegmann. The award is intended to support iBio graduate students as they receive a combination of didactic training, research exposure, and tailored mentoring. The fund also supports career development in the form of graduate student travel to scientific meetings and publication costs.

The Jerry Kollros Graduate Student Fund was awarded to two iBio PhD students for Summer 2026 – Brie Salloum (Dailey Lab) and Rebekah Yarvis (Cheng Lab). Brie researches the effects of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) expression in fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD) and its impacts on neuronal survival and synaptic plasticity. This fund will allow her to conduct mRNA and protein-level studies to determine the timeline of BDNF expression changes in FASD and the resulting effects on pro-survival signaling pathways. It will also enable Brie to gather preliminary data necessary to help shape her comprehensive exam. Rebekah studies the genetic regulation controlling the transition to reproductive development in the model fern Ceratopteris richardii. This fund will allow her to validate and begin phenotyping knock down lines of several genes hypothesized to be involved in this transition. 
This fund was named in honor of Jerry J. Kollros, Chairman of the former Zoology Department from 1955-1977, and was established in 2008 to help support graduate student research.

The Rebecca S. Reiter Scholarship Fund was awarded to iBio PhD student, Varshu Saravanakumar (Neiman Lab), for Summer 2026. Varshu researches the genetic mechanisms underlying the persistence of asexual reproduction using the natural model organism Potamopyrgus antipodarum. This funding will enable her to identify how rDNA-histone tandem repeats are maintained in asexuals. The award will also support efforts to characterize the fitness consequences associated with elevated and variable levels of these tandem repeats. 
This fund was established in 2023 to provide scholarships for graduate students in the Department of Biology with a preference for students in development biology. The fund was named in honor of Rebecca Reiter who earned a Master of Science degree in Zoology in 1964 from the University of Iowa and spent 38 years as a researcher in the Department of Biological Sciences (now Biology).

Graduate College Summer Fellowship
The following graduate students in the Department of Biology received a Summer Fellowship from the Graduate College at the University of Iowa. This fellowship program provides an opportunity for advanced Ph.D. students to benefit from protected and supported time to pursue their scholarly research activities. It is intended to facilitate completion of the doctoral degree in a timely manner. 

Baylee Bruce - Genetics PhD Graduate Program (He Lab)
Kelsi Mann - Integrated Biology PhD Graduate Program (Houston Lab)
Clare Mulcahy - Integrated Biology PhD Graduate Program (Neiman Lab)
Daniela Santos Da Mata - Integrated Biology PhD Graduate Program (Phillips Lab)

Congratulations to all of these students!

Gallery key:

First row from left to right: Eric Anderson, Emily Hirsch, Romisa Ghaffari, Shulin Liu

Second row from left to right: Brady Williquett, Emily O'Brien, Rebekah Yarvis, Varshu Saravanakumar

Third row from left to right: Baylee Bruce, Kelsi Mann, Clare Mulcahy, Daniela Santos Da Mata