University of Kansas Madison and Lila Self Graduate Programs

On our final day of the Fall Skill Session, the 2024-2028 and 2025-2029 Fellows are participating in a grant writing workshop with Dr. Ane Chicas-Mosier!

Today, the Self Graduate Fellows are participating in a full-day workshop with Bill Shander focusing on data visualization and storytelling. This session focuses on teaching teams and individuals how to transform data into compelling visuals, engaging narratives, and actionable insights.

Elizabeth Bartlett, (2023–2027 Self Graduate Fellow and Ph.D. candidate in Chemistry), attended the Gordon Research Conference and Gordon Research Seminar on Water and Aqueous Solutions in Holderness, New Hampshire. She presented a poster titled "Activation Energies from Single-Temperature Simulations: Insights into Water Dynamics." Elizabeth enjoyed engaging in discussions on the latest advances in the field, reconnecting with colleagues and making new connections, and experiencing the beautiful New England weather.

Kayla Whatley, 2024–2028 Self Graduate Fellow and PhD candidate in Bioengineering, attended the 10th World Congress of Biomechanics in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. During the conference, she connected with biomechanics experts from clinical, academic, and industry backgrounds from across the globe. She also presented her research titled "Preliminary Model of Hinge Epithelium Contraction in Palatal Shelf Elevation.

Brody Gatza, a 2024-2028 Self Graduate Fellow in the Department of Aerospace Engineering, presented his paper titled “A Modular Reduced-Order Modeling Framework for Rocket Combustion Simulations” at the 2026 International Symposium on Combustion in Kyoto, Japan. Brody used this opportunity to share his research with the combustion community and to connect with researchers from across the globe.

Kip Nielsen (2022-2026 Self Graduate Fellow pursuing a Ph.D. in Atmospheric Science) attended the ParaChute: Understanding turbulence and convective processes conference in Reading, UK and the km-Scale Global Modelling Summit in Hamburg, Germany. He learned the latest developments from leading international researchers in representing turbulence in high-resolution weather models and about the next generation km-scale global models.

Ashley Lieber, 2023-2027 Self Graduate Fellow and PhD candidate in Physics, attended the CMF2IMF - The Origin of the Stellar Initial Mass Function at the European Southern Observatory Headquarters in Munich, Germany. During the conference, she gave a contributed talk on her work titled “From Inflow to Outflow: Rapid Evolution of the Massive Embedded Clusters in NGC 253

Raechel Camones (2025-2029 Self Graduate Fellow pursuing a Ph.D. in Neuroscience at the University of Kansas Medical Center) presented at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference (AAIC) in London, UK. Her poster presentation, “Examining the Long-term Adherence and Benefits of Exercise Following a Year-long Coaching Program” discussed her current research findings.

Sydney Houser (2025–2029 Self Graduate Fellow pursuing a Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical Chemistry) recently presented at the Gordon Research Conference on Drug Metabolism in Holderness, New Hampshire. In addition to her poster presentation, Sydney's abstract was chosen through a blinded review process as one of six featured short talks for the Early Career Investigator Session. Her talk, titled "Defining the Cellular Determinants of mAb Sequestration and Clearance in Brain-Resident Cells," highlighted her research in Dr. Carlo Barnaba's lab on biologics and cellular dynamics within the brain. The conference brought together around 200 researchers to share unpublished science and discuss advances in drug disposition, offering Sydney a valuable opportunity to network and expand her background in pharmaceutical sciences.

Anna Ferkul, a 2025-2029 Self Graduate Fellow, and Lana Heslop, a 2023-2027 Self Graduate Fellow, attended the Federation of European Neuroscience Societies (FENS) Forum in Barcelona Spain. During the conference, they attended numerous engaging presentations and discussion panels, interacted with other students and industry experts during poster sessions, and networked at multiple events throughout the week.