Two UW-Madison undergraduate students who were awarded Sophomore Research Fellowships will be completing their research projects under Waisman Center advisors. Punnawish Thuwajit will be working with Steven Kecskemeti, PhD, Waisman scientist, and Edward Chang will be working with Xinyu Zhao, PhD, Waisman investigator, professor of neuroscience, and Jenni and Kyle Professor in Novel Neurodevelopmental Diseases.
The Sophomore Research Fellowship provides research training and support to undergraduates. Each student is awarded $2,500 and their research advisor receives $500 as well. The fellowship, which lasts a year, involves the student working on their own independent research project in collaboration with their advisor.
Thuwajit’s project is titled Accelerated Magnetic Resonance Imaging with Deep Learning. Kecskemeti is an expert in MRI and has developed several of his own techniques for improving imaging in a variety of circumstances. Chang’s project is To Determine the Impact of FXR1 Deletion from Developing Cortical Excitatory Neurons. Zhao is a renowned fragile X syndrome researcher, with FXR1 being the main gene involved in fragile X, and spends a lot of her time working to understand the genetic and molecular underpinnings of the condition.
Congratulations Thuwajit and Chang!