Catherine Wessel, a graduate student in UVM’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences’ department of Plant Biology’s Field Naturalist Program, spent a recent summer studying the minute details of rare plantlife at the top of Mansfield, one square meter at a time.

Timofeyev — who, along with several other graduate students, was recently awarded a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship — is taking applied math to the cellular level, using mathematical biology to study and model the neuronal connections in the human brain.

This Ph.D. student is looking to understand, and eventually design, the evolutionary course that organisms can take. She’s currently working with a UVM team of computer scientists who are designing and building “Xenobots,” the world’s first self-replicating living robots.

Postdoctoral researcher Theresa Montgomery studies how gut microbes influence the progression of multiple sclerosis. Supported by a National MS Society fellowship, her research is shaping future treatments and deepening our understanding of the microbiome’s role in autoimmune disorders.

At UVM’s Accelerated Testing Lab (ATL), Tanmay Mishra develops hardware-in-the-loop systems to test grid control algorithms on real devices. His work is helping to speed up research on hybrid energy systems and technology improvements for a cleaner, more resilient electric grid.

Jessica Balerna leads a national study on public perceptions of nature-based flood mitigation strategies, like wetlands and floodplains. Her work aims to promote natural solutions alongside traditional flood-control infrastructure.

We easily forget everyday things, but painful memories can stubbornly stick. “Why?” asks Dr. Yangguang Ou. Neuroscientists and biochemists like Ou wonder if the hidden self can be revealed—and possibly healed—by teasing apart the intricate interplay of molecules throughout a living body?

Every day, people worldwide flee to refugee camps for safety. Professor Pablo Bose, an expert on refugee activity, observes, “Where camps used to hold a few thousand people, today, some have hundreds of thousands. At that scale, how are these camps governed? How do they provide services?” asks Bose.

What happens when antibiotics can’t fight an infection, or when wound bandages themselves become infected? Amber Doiron, in the Department of Electric and Biomedical Engineering, a National Science Foundation CAREER Award recipient, is researching methods and materials to combat these problems.