John Wiley Jones Outstanding Students in Science

Miranda Garvey

Integrated Sciences Academy

Miranda Garvey is a neuroscience major with a minor in psychology in the Integrated Sciences Academy at RIT, graduating in May 2026 after three years of study. Under the mentorship of Dr. Elena Fedorovskaya, she investigates how color perception reveals differences in brain activity between hearing and deaf or hard-of-hearing individuals. Her research has been supported by two National Technical Institute for the Deaf research grants and presented at Color Impact 2025 and the RIT Undergraduate Research Symposium.

Miranda also completed a summer research project at Creighton University’s Bellucci Hearing Center and presented her work at the ABRCMS Research Conference. Beyond research, she is a cofounder and vice president of the RIT Pre-Health Society and an active member of the NTID and Deaf Hub communities. She plans to pursue medical training as a physician-scientist.

Cooper O’Connell‑Williams

Chester F. Carlson Center for Imaging Science

Cooper O’Connell‑Williams is a fourth‑year student in the Chester F. Carlson Center for Imaging Science at Rochester Institute of Technology, pursuing a BS in imaging science with a track in remote sensing. His academic interests include computer vision, machine learning, wave optics, and scientific software development.

Cooper has gained extensive technical experience through internships at MIT Lincoln Laboratory and Raytheon, where he developed image processing software, graphical user interfaces, and data analysis tools. At RIT, he has served as a C++ teaching assistant and completed a senior capstone project focused on atmospheric correction of thermal imagery collected from small unmanned aerial systems. He also holds an FAA Part 107 Remote Pilot Certification.

Beyond academics, Cooper has been an active leader in the Imaging Science Club and remains committed to applying imaging science to real‑world challenges.

Maleah Sena

Thomas H. Gosnell School of Life Sciences

Maleah Sena is a double major in biochemistry and biotechnology in the Thomas H. Gosnell School of Life Sciences at RIT. An exceptional scholar, she is a recipient of the RIT Presidential Scholarship and the Baldwin Scholarship and was nominated by the College of Science for the Barry Goldwater Scholarship.

Maleah is an accomplished undergraduate researcher who has led independent projects in plant and algal biology since her second year at RIT. Her work integrates molecular biology, physiology, and computational transcriptomics, and she has presented her research at national scientific conferences. She is currently finalizing data collection for her first‑author manuscript.

Beyond research, Maleah is a dedicated teaching assistant, tutor, and mentor, as well as an active member of the RIT community.

Ellen Shepard

School of Chemistry and Materials Science

Ellen Shepard is a fourth‑year student in the School of Chemistry and Materials Science at RIT, pursuing a BS in biochemistry with a minor in psychology. Since spring 2024, she has conducted research under the mentorship of Dr. Lea Michel investigating bacterial extracellular vesicles in sepsis and identifying novel antibiotic targets. Ellen leads a project examining protein‑protein interactions essential to bacterial cell division. Her research has been supported by a Rochester Academy of Science grant and an Emerson Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship. She has presented her work at national conferences and is a coauthor on a forthcoming manuscript.

Beyond research, Ellen is Captain of RIT’s NCAA Division III rowing team and President of the College of Science Student Activities Board. She was selected as a 2026 Outstanding Undergraduate Scholar and 2026 Commencement Delegate and plans to pursue a Ph.D. in chemistry.

Owen Williams

School of Mathematics and Statistics

Owen Williams is an RIT Honors student in the School of Mathematics and Statistics pursuing bachelor’s and master’s degrees in applied mathematics with a minor in imaging science. His academic interests include mathematical modeling and spectral graph theory, with an emphasis on connecting mathematical theory to real‑world applications.

As an undergraduate research assistant, Owen has investigated the Inverse Eigenvalue Problem for Graphs, characterizing families of graphs using the Strong Spectral Property and constructing detailed proofs to establish new results.

Through RIT’s Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship, advised by Dr. Laura Muñoz, Owen developed and extended a FitzHugh–Nagumo model to examine action potentials in cardiac cells and one‑dimensional cardiac fiber dynamics. He implemented an Unscented Kalman Filter to reconstruct unobserved state variables and presented his findings at RIT’s Undergraduate Research Symposium.

Beyond research, Owen serves as a Learning Assistant and President of PiRIT, fostering a collaborative mathematical community.