Four Students Win Awards at Toxicology Conference

From left to right: Olivia Venezia, Monika Roy, Alicia Timme-Laragy, Archit Rastogi, Sadia Islam and Kate Annunziato
From left to right: Olivia Venezia, Monika Roy, Alicia Timme-Laragy, Archit Rastogi, Sadia Islam and Kate Annunziato

Four students working in the lab of Alicia Timme-Laragy, associate professor of environmental health sciences, claimed top prizes at the Society of Toxicology’s annual meeting held in Baltimore, Md., this past spring.

Archit Rastogi, a doctoral student in the department of molecular and cellular biology, placed second in the Reproductive and Developmental Toxicology Specialty Section’s graduate student poster competition and third for the Molecular and Systems Biology Specialty Section Graduate Research Award. He attended the conference in part through a student travel award and the Sheldon D. Murphy Mechanisms Specialty Section Student Travel Endowment Award.

Environmental health sciences doctoral candidate Monika Roy also received funding to attend the conference through the Ronald G. Thurman Mechanisms Specialty Section Student Travel Award.

Microbiology major Olivia Venezia, who was recently named a spring 2019 Rising Researcher, received two prizes: the Pfizer Society of Toxicology Undergraduate Student Travel Award, which is awarded to undergraduates presenting research at the meeting in order to foster interest in graduate studies in toxicology, and 2nd place in the Molecular & Systems Biology Specialty Section Undergraduate Research Award.

Undergraduate student Sadia Islam, a biochemistry major, also attended on an Undergraduate Diversity Program Travel Award.

“These students have worked so hard in the lab and it's really rewarding to see their work nationally recognized,” says Timme-Laragy. “Attending a national conference helps students see how their research fits into the larger context and community working to advance toxicology, and the multiple career paths that are possible in this discipline.”

Founded in 1961, the Society of Toxicology is a professional and scholarly organization of scientists from academic institutions, government, and industry representing the great variety of scientists who practice toxicology in the US and abroad. The Society’s mission is to create a safer and healthier world by advancing the science and increasing the impact of toxicology.