CNS Graduate Student Symposium

The CNS Graduate Student Symposium is an opportunity to showcase the innovative work being conducted by our CNS graduate students. The event is open to the UMass community and features poster presentation sessions, lightning talk presentations, and a networking reception. The goal of this event is to provide CNS graduate students with a supportive opportunity to strengthen their written, visual, and oral communication skills by presenting their work for a broad audience.

Congratulations to our 2026 presentation winners! 

Earth and Environment 

Best Poster Award – Neilgreib Nandi, 2nd year Ph.D. student in Chemistry  

Runner Up Poster Award – Madison Newman, 3rd year Ph.D. student in Organismic and Evolutionary Biology 

Runner Up Poster Award – Jesus Rodriguez Riverol, 1st year M.S. student in Environmental Conservation 

Food and Agriculture 

Best Poster Award – Archita Chatterjee, 4th year Ph.D. student in Plant Biology 

Runner Up Poster Award – Hannah Hart, 4th year Ph.D. student in Plant Biology 

Runner Up Poster Award – Carlos Parra-Escudero, 3rd year Ph.D. student in Food Science 

Life and Brain Sciences 

Best Poster Award – Jayashree Bhagabati, 7th year Ph.D. student in Chemistry 

Best Poster Award – Xunzi (Cindy) Hou, 2nd year Ph.D. student in Psychological and Brain Sciences 

Best Poster Award – Hari Priya Sriramakrishnan, 3rd year Ph.D. student in Chemistry  

Physical Sciences and Mathematics 

Best Poster Award – Sizhe Cheng, 5th year Ph.D. student in Physics 

Runner Up Poster Award – Sihang Chen, 5th year Ph.D. student in Polymer Science and Engineering 

Runner Up Poster Award – Antariksh Pente, 2nd year Ph.D. student in Chemical Engineering 

Lightning Talks 

Best Presentation Award – Sebastian Moreno, 6th year Ph.D. student in Environmental Conservation 

Runner Up Presentation Award – Weixin Yan, 3rd year Ph.D. student in Food Science