Congratulations to Malikah Ajose and Jessica Gannon, participants in Virginia Tech’s Multicultural Academic Opportunities Program (MAOP), who each received awards for their research presentations at the Annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minority Students (ABRCMS). Gannon, a junior mechanical engineering major, is also a Clare Boothe Luce Undergraduate Research Scholar.

Two Multicultural Academic Opportunities Program (MAOP) students from Virginia Tech have won awards for their research presentations at the Annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minority Students (ABRCMS) this past fall in Anaheim, California.

“Attending ABRCMS was an amazing opportunity. Presenting my research to researchers and educators in my field was an unforgettable experience, and one that I hold dearly,” said Malikah Ajose, a senior majoring in clinical neuroscience in the College of Science who won for her poster presentation under the Computation and Systems Biology category. “Having the opportunity to participate in MAOP since my freshman year here at Virginia Tech has given me the resources and motivation to get involved in research and make an impact in my field.”

Jessica Gannon, a junior majoring in mechanical engineering in the College of Engineering, won for her oral presentation under the Engineering, Physics, and Mathematics category.

“Winning my very first oral presentation at a conference of this magnitude brings me great fulfillment,” said Gannon. “My research is in honor of my father, who passed away from pancreatic cancer at the end of my freshman year at Tech. When I won, I just knew he was smiling down on me. ‘He was beaming with pride,’ as my mother likes to say.”

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