Awards and Scholarships

David John is a current junior majoring in Neuroscience and conducts research under Dr. Gabriel Zada at the USC Brain Tumor Center. His research focuses on improving neurosurgical outcomes in patients with brain tumors, including explorations into sphenoid wing meningiomas and rare patterns of brain metastases. He has contributed to multiple projects and presented his work at the 2025 Congress of Neurological Surgeons. His current research explores the biological and clinical factors that shape brain tumor development, progression, and treatment response. David plans to pursue a career in medicine and is particularly passionate about advancing neurosurgical treatments for brain and spine disease. In his free time, David enjoys playing and listening to music, as well as spending time outdoors, including playing basketball and tennis, and biking and fishing. He is extremely grateful for this award and would like to thank Dr. Gabriel Zada, Dr. Robert Briggs, Dr. David Gomez, and Chloe Jedwood for their mentorship and guidance, as well as his family for their love and support.

Ann Law is a graduating junior majoring in Neuroscience. As an undergraduate research assistant in Professor Tito Borner’s lab, her research focuses on the neural mechanisms mediating anorexia, satiety, and nausea. Her current projects include investigating the role of GIPR signaling in modulating feeding behavior, and preclinical testing of novel anti-obesity therapeutics. Following graduation, Ann will take a gap year to continue her work as a research technician in Borner Lab before applying to medical school. She aspires to pursue a career in academic medicine. Ann is deeply grateful to all members of the Borner Lab, especially Dr. Borner, Serena, Allie, and Sophia, for their invaluable mentorship and strong support throughout her undergraduate research journey. She is honored to receive this award and is committed to continue growing as a researcher.

Allison is a graduating senior majoring in computational neuroscience with a minor in data science. She is an undergraduate research assistant and lab technician in USC’s Moore Lab, run by professor Jeffrey Moore, where she studies premotor circuits in the brainstem controlling orofacial movements. Currently, she is studying the intrinsic and extrinsic modulators of suckling motor vigor in newborn mice, which is also the subject of her undergraduate thesis. Outside of the lab, she enjoys hiking and reading. After graduation, she plans on pursuing a PhD in neuroscience where she hopes to study the neural control of different fundamental behaviors. Allison is very excited to receive this award and she would like to thank Dr. Jeffrey Moore and all of her colleagues in Moore lab for their support and guidance.

Rodgers is a Senior at University of Southern California studying Neuroscience. With Dr. Barakat, Rodgers researched linguistic ability and executive functioning and was awarded the Student Opportunities for Academic Research fellowship. With Dr. Borzage, they research traumatic brain injuries and their effect on brain health measured by both MRI (quantitative susceptibility mapping for iron content and fluid attenuated inversion recovery for white matter hyperintensities) and cognitive outcomes. Rodgers is also presenting their research at the International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine. Outside of the lab, Rodgers applies their computational knowledge and research experience to mentor student-researchers in the Bridge Undergraduate Science Jr. Program. Rodgers will pursue an MD-PHD focused on traumatic brain injuries, with career goals to treat, research, and educate the public. Rodgers is incredibly honored to receive this fellowship, and thanks their family for invaluable support, and Drs. Barakat and Borzage for their mentorship.

Yichen Lu is a second-year international student pursuing a B.S. in Computational Neuroscience. In the Moore Lab, Yichen assists with research on neuronal circuits that control innate motor programs, with a current project focused on testing the speed and efficacy of self-complementary AAVs for studies in postnatal mice. They are also involved in Neurotech@USC, where they contribute to an EEG-based project that applies machine learning clustering to brain signals in response to music. Yichen is honored to receive the Ng Family Fellowship and is grateful for the mentorship and support of Dr. Jeffrey Moore, Dr. Adam Lu, Yanyan Fang, the other lab members, and their family.