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The Graduate School at the 51��Ƶ at Lafayette is proud to share that 18 graduate students are recipients of the Sustainable Development Research Awards in the most-recent round of competition.

Funded by Dr. Brian Bolton, Professor of Finance and the Dwight W. Andrus, Jr. / BORSF Eminent Scholar Endowed Chair in Finance, and now—because of its impressive growth—the Office of Research Innovation & Economic Development, the program recognizes research that addresses pressing local and global challenges in alignment with the (SDGs).

This third round of competition was, according to Bolton, the most competitive ever. It garnered 126 proposals from faculty, staff, and students representing all academic colleges and almost all graduate programs. “The breadth and quality of research being done here is really incredible,” he shared.

All award winners, including graduate students and faculty, will present their work in panel discussions through the upcoming academic year or during the Sustainable Development Research Summit in Spring 2025. These presentations offer a great opportunity to learn firsthand from “a portfolio of research that highlights the University’s commitment to sustainable development in Louisiana,”

“The grad students are exceptional when they present sharing both the details and bigger picture implications of their work with a large, interdisciplinary audience,” says Bolton. “This program is super exciting and inspiring and it's an honor to partner with the Graduate School to make it happen.”

The 18 graduate student recipients will receive $2,000 grants that provide seed money for innovative projects or reward projects nearing completion.

The 2024 Graduate Student Sustainable Development Research Award Recipients:

Ayodeji Adeyemo, M.S. Informatics, College of the Sciences
Identification of Sex of Megafauna in a Population Using Artificial Intelligence

Abdullah Al-Musayeb, M.A. English, College of Liberal Arts         
The Loss of Land, and Biodiversity in Louisiana’s Chitimacha Landscape: An Eco-critical Analysis of Stouff’s Losing Home: A Native Waters Compendium

Wilbur Bennett, Ph.D. Applied Language Speech Sciences, College of Liberal Arts
Maintaining Our Voices: Collaborative Preservation of Cajun and Creole Dialects for Individuals with Neurodegenerative Diseases

Morteza Bodaghi, Ph.D. Systems Engineering – Mechanical Engineering, College of Engineering
A Multimodal Intermediate Fusion Network with Manifold Learning for Stress Detection

Jenita Jahangir, Ph.D. Mathematics, Ray P. Authement College of Sciences
The Interplay Between Multiple Control Mechanisms in a Host-Parasitoid System: A Discrete-Time Stage-Structured Modeling Approach

Sherbaz Khan, Ph.D. Systems Engineering, College of Engineering
Performance Evaluation of Hybrid Hot Mix Asphalt Mixtures for Durable Louisiana Roads

Waseem Akhtar Khan, M.S.E. Civil Engineering, College of Engineering
Evaluating Louisiana’s TIM and Analyzing Factors Impacting Crash-Related Incidence Clearance Time

Hisham Mahmood, M.B.A., B. I. Moody III College of Business Administration
AI-Powered Sustainable Marketing: Catalyst for Economic Expansion

Md Nahin Mahmood, Ph.D. Systems Engineering, Petroleum Engineering, College of Engineering
Carbon Dioxide Storage in Marine Gas Hydrate Reservoirs Using Geothermal Energy

Sydney McDermott, Ph.D. Environmental & Evolutionary Biology, Ray P. Authement College of Sciences
Long Term Impacts of the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill on Hard Substrate Deep-Sea Communities

Tarikul Islam Milon, Ph.D. Earth & Energy Sciences, Ray P. Authement College of Sciences
Development of TSR-based Method for Probing Interaction Between Drug and Target Protein

Amy Pousson, M. Architecture , College of the Arts
Mendenhall Meadery and Apiary

Nicole Pyke, M.S. Psychology, College of Liberal Arts
Sober and Serene: The Mediating Role of Psychological Flexibility in the Relationship Between Substance Use Recovery and Posttraumatic Growth

Jennifer Raabe, Ph.D. Environmental and Evolutionary Biology, Ray P. Authement College of Sciences
Using Valvometry to Study Eastern Oyster Behavior in Response to Low Salinity and Toxigenic Cyanobacteria

Araf Mim Ahmed Smrity, Ph.D. Systems Engineering - Mechanical Engineering, College of Engineering
Optimizing Stability and Efficiency of Hybrid Nanofluids: A Molecular Dynamics Approach for Sustainable Economic Growth and Environmental Protection

Diana Alejandrina Taj, Ph.D. Earth & Energy Science, Ray P. Authement College of Sciences
Understanding the Influence of Acute Saltwater Intrusion Events on Methane and CO2 Fluxes from Freshwater Wetland Vegetation Patches

Mohammad Tajdin, Ed.D. Educational Leadership, College of Education & Human Development
Understanding Issues Related to Mental and Physical Well-Being of Doctoral Students

Kevin Torgensen, Ph.D. Environmental & Evolutionary Biology, Ray P. Authement College of Sciences
Highlighting Global Conservation Priorities for Freshwater Fishes Using New Methods of 3D Photogrammetry

In total, $80,000 was awarded in this third round of competition to 46 recipients that included these 18 graduate students and 18 faculty members, four staff members, and six undergraduate students from across the University research community.

The Graduate Schools says congratulations to these scholars who are using their sustainable development research to improve lives in our communities both near and far.

For more information about the Sustainable Development Research Awards Program and all grant recipients, visit . The program is a collaboration between Bolton, Academic Affairs—Student and Faculty Excellence, the Graduate School, the Office for Campus Inclusion, the Office of Sustainability, and the Office for Research, Innovation & Economic Development.