More than 140 graduating seniors from Stony Brook University’s Honors College and WISE Honors Program showcased their faculty-mentored senior projects at the 2025 University Honors Senior Symposium on April 29. The event, held in the Student Union Ballroom, displayed research and creative work from students across 55 academic departments.
Catherine Sherman, assistant dean for University Honors Programs, remarked on the significance of the gathering: “It’s a pleasure to be gathering with you all to recognize and celebrate the exceptional research and creative work of our graduating Honors College and WISE Honors seniors.” She emphasized that these projects reflect “our Honor students’ intellect, curiosity, perseverance, and hard work.”
The symposium featured diverse topics such as marine animal rehabilitation and machine learning in chemical physics. Ninety-five faculty mentors supported this year’s cohort.
Molly Rubin presented her project on designing a weighted vest for Chestnut, a disabled green sea turtle. She noted that being part of an honors program expanded her network and friendships.
Gabriella Vaccaro developed a bioinformatic pipeline for analyzing RNA sequencing data related to pulmonary cryptococcosis. She credits the Honors College with launching her research career. Vaccaro will pursue a PhD at Carnegie Mellon University.
Daniel Julian shared his work on neural network models for predicting reaction probabilities in chemical processes. He plans to continue his research as a PhD student at Stony Brook.
