Chad Landmon is Co-Chair of Axinn, Veltrop & Harkrider LLP’s Intellectual Property Practice and Chair of the FDA Practice Group. He is recognized as a leading advocate for pharmaceutical companies before FDA and premier patent litigator and counselor on issues involving the development and marketing of generic drugs and human tissue. He has a rare knowledge of intricate FDA processes and litigating complex patent cases involving drug products throughout the country. Continue reading →

Dr. Anthony “Tony” Chiodo is currently a professor of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at the University of Michigan Hospitals and Health Centers. There, he directs the multidisciplinary Spine Program for the management of patients with conditions and pain of the spine. He is also medical director and co-principal investigator of the Spinal Cord Injury Model System at the University of Michigan, one of fourteen such centers funded by the National Institute of Disability and Rehabilitation Research. He directs and started the Adult Spasticity Clinic and was a founder of the Adult Assisted Ventilation Clinic. His current research interests include pain after spinal cord injury, sleep disordered breathing after spinal cord injury, and interventional management of painful spine conditions. Continue reading →

Professor Neafsey emigrated from Granby, Quebec before high school. She considered a major in computer science at Cornell, but decided computers needed to be more “usable” for her poor punch card typing skills. She joined the honors program in nutrition at Cornell and received her B.S. and M.S. in nutritional biochemistry. Following research stints at Penn and Yale, she obtained a teaching position at Albertus Magnus College and provided nutrition counseling services at two primary care practices in New Haven. Her interest in drug-nutrient interactions led her to pursue a Ph.D. in pharmacology and toxicology at UConn followed by post-doctoral work at Tufts University. She was at Tufts when the UConn School of Nursing contacted her to help them develop a graduate pharmacotherapy course and an undergraduate curriculum that integrates pathophysiology, pharmacology, and nutrition over a series of courses. After one semester of teaching UConn nursing students, she was hooked! Continue reading →

Luke LaRosa, from Montpelier, Vt., is an urban and community studies major and a member of the Special Program in Law. He is particularly interested in environmental law, public policy, and transportation geography (having ridden the school bus two hours each day throughout most of his pre-collegiate education).

Project: “School Busing in Rural Communities”

Faculty Mentor: Carol Atkinson-Polombo (Department of Geography)

Peer Mentor: Kaila Manca

Brendan Smalec, from Cheshire, Conn., is a double major in molecular and cell biology and art history who aspires to be a physician scientist and advance cancer research. He is also an avid swimmer, having been awarded the CT Swimming Three-Year Scholar Athlete Award in 2012.

Project: “Reactivating Hypermethyated Oncogenes through the Use of DNA Methyltransferase Inhibitors”

Faculty Mentor: Rachel O’Neill (Department of Molecular & Cell Biology)

Peer Mentor: Kevin Zheng

Jonathan Schmieding, from Granby, Mass., is a music major and composer. He plays the clarinet for the Marching Band and the Symphonic Band and is the recipient of a Music Department Scholarship. Having grown up to soundtracks by John Williams and Howard Shore, he aspires to be a professional composer.

Project: “Musical Composition: Developing Artistic Expression through the Synthesis of Romanticism & Atonality”

Faculty Mentors: Kenneth Fuchs and Robert Miller (Department of Music)

Peer Mentor: Kaitrin Acuna

Kayvon Ghoreshi, from Manchester, Conn., is a pre-med molecular & cell biology major. He is using his Holster experience, however, to delve into biomedical engineering. Born with a severe nut allergy, Kayvon is frustrated with the design of the ubiquitous “Epipen,” and is determined to change it for the better with a new streamlined, user-friendly design.

Project: “Re-designing the Epipen”

Faculty Mentor: Donald Peterson (Biomedical Engineering Program)

Peer Mentor: Lior Trestman

D. Christina Macklem, from Tolland, Conn., is a biological sciences major interested in studying climate change adaptation. She has an affinity for frogs specifically, and amphibians in general, having witnessed an off-season baby sea turtle launch in Costa Rica during a school trip.

Project: “Effect of Temperature Variation to Wood Frog Tadpoles”

Faculty Mentor: Tracy Rittenhouse (Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology)

Peer Mentor: Kaila Manca

Asahi Hoque, from Cheshire, Conn., is a pre-med biological sciences major who has spent time working for Distressed Children & Infants International, a nonprofit that serves poor communities in Bangladesh, her family’s country of origin. There she also interned with an ophthalmologist, performed routine eye screenings, learned about cataracts, and a host of preventable diseases affecting the community, which led to her Holster project.

Project: “A Look into the Issues Surrounding Proper Maternal Care in Bangladesh”

Faculty Mentor: Manisha Desai (Department of Sociology)

Peer Mentor: Julianne Norton