Honors for DebBurman, Margaryan and Santiago–Frangos
DebBurman honored with national mentor award
Shubhik DebBurman received the 2024 Biology Division Faculty Mentor Award (Advanced Career) from the Council on Undergraduate Research. This award honors biology mentors for their sustained efforts in supervising undergraduate research students.
DebBurman is a professor of biology, biochemistry and molecular biology, and neuroscience at Lake Forest College. His lab studies the protein folding issues linked with neurodegenerative disease pathology mechanisms in yeast systems. Over the past 26 years, DebBurman has trained 106 undergraduates in his lab, with a particular emphasis on supporting students from underrepresented backgrounds. His mentees have received numerous undergraduate fellowships and grants and present at national and regional meetings.
DebBurman has won many awards including the Distinguished Mentor Award from the Society for Neuroscience Faculty for Undergraduate Neuroscience and career achievement awards from the Chicago Society for Neuroscience, Wittenberg University Alumni Association and the SfN Faculty for Undergraduate Neuroscience.
“The work we do with students to develop them as scholars is absolutely central to the mission of a small college professor,” DebBurman said in a Lake Forest press release. “It drives the purpose with which we pursue our teaching, scholarship and citizenry.”
Margaryan awarded Projects for Peace grant
Anush Margaryan received a $10,000 Projects for Peace grant to teach science, technology, engineering and mathematics to refugees in Armenia. Using these funds, she hosted a camp for 75 displaced students, where they performed hands-on biology, chemistry, physics, robotics and engineering experiments.
Margaryan grew up in a small village in Avshar, Armenia. Now, she is a senior Richmond Scholar at the University of Richmond in Virginia, studying biochemistry and molecular biology and pursuing a minor in data science. Margaryan is the president of the International Student Association, a President's Advisory Board member and a virtual reality consultant. From 2022 to 2024, Margaryan completed research internships at the University of California, San Francisco, during which she studied the role of the intracellular pH in zebrafish tail regeneration.
“During these camps, students delved into chemistry, robotics, physics and engineering while improving their English through teambuilding games,” Margaryan said. “Our STEM fair also united local teachers, parents and community members in celebrating knowledge and innovation as students showcased their talents, hard work and learning. Their enthusiasm and eagerness to learn strengthened my commitment to making STEM more accessible, inclusive and equitable for all."
Santiago–Frangos named endowed assistant professor
Andrew Santiago–Frangos has joined the University of Pennsylvania School of Arts and Sciences as the M. Jane Williams and Valerie Vargo Presidential Assistant Professor of Biology. The professorship is named for two members of the class of 1965 who forged a lifelong friendship as UPenn undergraduates.
Santiago–Frangos’ lab studies how bacterial and archaeal CRISPR adaptive immune systems make DNA-based memories of past phage infections as well as how CRISPR-generated nucleotide messengers prompt an immune response. Prior to moving to Pennsylvania, he was a postdoctoral fellow at Montana State University, where he worked with Blake Wiedenheft, a professor of microbiology and immunology, on CRISPR-mediated immunity.
Santiago–Frangos has received awards from the Life Sciences Research Foundation, supported by the Simons Foundation, and the Burroughs–Wellcome Fund, and he won a Maximizing Opportunities for Scientific and Academic Independent Careers, or MOSAIC, award from the National Institutes of Health, National Institute of General Medical Sciences. He has also been recognized as an educator. Santiago–Frangos won the Victor Corces Teaching Award for Biochemistry from Johns Hopkins University and a Grant for Faculty Mentoring Undergraduate Research from UPenn. He is also an inventor and has a patent that was previously licensed to a startup company, VIRIS Detection System.
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