Brandeis Stories

April 2, 2024

Three Brandeis University undergraduates have received prestigious academic honors.

Isabelle Shiiba ’24 received a Fulbright Research Grant to conduct research at Kyoto University in Japan. She will explore the “swarming” phenomenon, a collective motion seen in entities like bird flocks and fish schools, harnessing Professor Kakugo and Professor Ichikawa’s innovative mechanisms using cellular-derived biofilaments to develop biologically-inspired machines.

This project builds upon Shiiba’s previous experience with biological networks such as microtubules and kinesin in Brandeis University's Duclos lab, and has the potential to revolutionize biomolecular swarm robots and lay a foundation for future biophysical innovations. 

Shiiba will also join the Active Matter Lab's high school outreach program to encourage STEM involvement amongst local Kyoto students and volunteer at the 'Ki-Zu-Na' language exchange program at Kyoto University.

The Fulbright U.S. Student Program was established in 1946 by the U.S. Congress to foster understanding between the people of the United States and other countries, to exchange ideas and to help find solutions to shared international concerns. Recipients are chosen for academic merit and leadership potential, and are given the opportunity to study, teach and conduct research, while engaging in cultural exchange.

Gauri Gajeshwar ’25 and Caelen Hilty ’25 have also been named Goldwater Scholars. 

Gajeshwar, a biochemistry and biology double-major, has been working in the Duclos lab since September 2022. Her first project involved a challenging combination of biochemistry, microscopy, and quantitative image analysis. She recently began an independent project at the forefront of biochemistry, dynamical systems, and active matter, with the overarching goal of understanding how patterns emerge in living systems by mimicking the chemomechanical feedback that robustly drives pattern formation in development.

Hilty, a neuroscience major, completed six-week rotations in the Chakraborty lab and the Rodal lab as part of the QBReC Fellowship program, in addition to a longer-term project on the functional role(s) of circular RNA isoforms in the Kadener lab. 

He has also been working in Professor Paul Miller's lab since May of 2023, where he is currently modeling how large-scale neural dynamics result in computational abilities.

The Goldwater Scholarship supports outstanding students in their sophomore and junior year as they pursue careers in the fields of mathematics, the natural sciences, and engineering; it is the premier undergraduate award of its type in these fields. 

Gajeshwar and Hilty are the 25th and 26th Brandeis undergraduate students to have earned this distinction since 1989.