Two Spartans received honors at the 27th Annual California State University Student Research Competition.
Brian Maurer took first place among graduate students and Daniel Nguyen took second place among undergraduates in the Biological and Agricultural Sciences Category.
The CSU Student Research Competition is a systemwide event held annually to showcase excellence in scholarly research and creative activity conducted by undergraduate and graduate students.
Student participants make oral presentations before juries of professional experts from major corporations, foundations, public agencies, and colleges and universities in California.
Here’s more on SJSU’s winners.
Brian Mauer, a graduate student at Moss Landing Marine Laboratories, won first place in the biological and agricultural sciences category (photo courtesy of the SJSU Research Foundation).
Brian Maurer
Graduate student, Marine Science
Professor Nicholas Welschmeyer, faculty mentor
Optimization of a Technique to Measure Bulk Viable Biomass, Based on the Hydrolysis of Fluorescein Diacetate (FDA) by Ubiquitous Enzymes
A technique has been optimized that measures the rate of extracellular fluorescein production, the product of FDA cleavage by esterase enzymes present in all living cells, to quantify the bulk living biomass of heterogeneous aquatic assemblages.
Daniel Nguyen, an undergraduate in chemistry, won second place in the biological and agricultural sciences category (photo courtesy of the SJSU Research Foundation).
Daniel Nguyen
Undergraduate, Chemistry
Assistant Professor Lionel Cheruzel, faculty mentor
Highly Efficient Light-Driven P450 Biocatalysts
He developed an efficient light-driven P450 biocatalyst able to selectively hydroxylate substrate C-H bonds with the highest activity and turnover numbers among all of the current alternative approaches.