The Citadel Biology Department

Way to go Eric!

Congratulations to Eric Sheppard on receiving this year's Col. Charles E. Hirshey Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Studies. This award is presented by Dean Annetta and the Zucker Family School of Education.

Graduating from The Citadel with a degree in Secondary Education and a concentration in Biology, Eric will begin his career as an educator next school year. We congratulate him on this achievement!

Congrats to Citadel Biology alum, Elena Burgess, for graduating from Lincoln Memorial University DCOM. She will do her general surgery residency at Keesler Air Force Base. We are proud of Ellie!

Outstanding Student Awards were presented to Biology majors at the The Citadel Academy of Science and Mathematics Awards Banquet. The Biology Department is proud of our 2026 winners - Phillips Daniels (Senior), Maya Johnson (Junior), Tyler Nguyen (Sophomore), and Khloe Krome (Freshman).

Cadet Bryson Barrett won the 12th annual Baker Business Bowl with his company, Stone Fish, an innovative fishing apparel brand. Read more about him and the other competitors here: https://citadelnow.org/420LnBS

This past week, cadets Bryson Barrett, Sebastian Quinteros, Edward Clement, Liam Murphy, and Austin Perry joined professors Gustafson, Rocha, and Quaas at the 2026 Association of Southeastern Biologists Conference. Students presented posters via Tri Beta Biological Honors Society across a variety of disciplines including microbiology, ecology, and biomedical science. Liam Murphy won second place for his poster in the ecology category and Sebastian Quinteros won honorable mention in the cell/molecular category. Additionally, Sebastian was elected Tri Beta student president for the upcoming academic year! We are so proud of these students for their contributions to their respective fields, and for representing The Citadel Biology department at a regional meeting. Well done!

Target Eliminated: Cadets Insert Stop Codon, Shift Colonies from Blue to White
For the first time in the Cell Biology lab, sophomore cadets used CRISPR to turn blue bacterial colonies white by halting enzyme production. They witnessed firsthand how molecular changes create visible traits, bringing cell biology to life in the lab!

Proud of our Biology students - Banks Scarpa and Dylan Horne!

Cadets Earn National Impact Award Citadel cadets earned the Alpha Epsilon Delta National Impact Award and a $2,500 prize for leadership, service and health pre-professional excellence.

Austin Gray, '13, was featured in a Virginia Tech news article about his work on microplastics.

https://news.vt.edu/articles/2026/01/science-gray-the-why.html

Photo by Ray Meese for Virginia Tech.

Take a break and check out the talents of our Citadel friends.