The University of Mary Washington Irene Piscopo Rodgers ’59 Summer Science Institute is a program that offers UMW science majors an opportunity to participate in a summer-long, research project supervised by a faculty member. This year, 30 students in 7 STEM disciplines conducted research on campus, as well as field research from Florida, to West Virginia, to the Chesapeake Bay, and one team traveled to Norway for the first part of the summer for lab work there. Read more about this year’s program in this article in the UMW Voice: Good Vibrations: UMW Summer Science Institute Highlights Intense Undergrad Research.
Students wrapped up the last week of the 10-week program with a special luncheon, where SSI Alumni Dr. Kristen Lewis Lawson ’12, Ryan Meeks ’23, Maddie Killian ’23, Adrian Coello ’24 spoke about their own SSI experiences and their career paths since leaving UMW. Then on July 23, 2025, students presented the results of their research through poster and oral presentations at our 26th annual Summer Science Symposium.
Students were judged on both the quality of their research, and of their communication of the research process and the impact of their results.
Winners in the poster presentation category:
Winners in the Oral Presentation Category:
First place: Lily Gruss, Chemistry, “Improved Synthesis of the Metabolites of Di(2-ethylhexyl)Phthalate.” Faculty Advisor: Dr. Davis Oldham
Second place: Eric Torres, Earth and Environmental Science. “Spatial, Temporal, and Ecological Impact Analysis of Trace Metal Enrichment in a Central Appalachian Coal Mining Watershed.” Faculty Advisor: Dr. Ben Odhiambo Kisila
These first and second place winners in the poster and oral presentation categories are awarded scholarships from the John C. and Jerri Barden Perkins ’61 Student Research Endowment.
A complete list of all of the student participants in the Irene Piscopo Rodgers ’59 Summer Science Institute and their project abstracts are found in this year’s symposium booklet: SSI Symposium Booklet 2025
Below are other images from the 2025 symposium:
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