Undergraduate Research Roundup
Research students Nicholas Brancato, Rachel Green, Shreya Prasad, Michael Leone, and Matthew Neryaev at the 2026 NY ACS Undergraduate Research Symposium
The 2025-2026 academic year was certainly a busy one for our undergraduate students. Despite full course loads and jam-packed schedules, many students still dedicated time to research pursuits. At conferences and symposia on both the local and national scales, students presented their research on a diverse array of topics including but not limited to: DNA analysis methods, environmental effects of wastewater, machine learning, polymer chemistry, phospholipid bilayer interactions, computational modeling, and cannabis and cannabinoid studies. These students have made Hofstra and the department proud, and have even received recognition for their efforts and achievements.
2025 NEAFS Annual Meeting
Jacqueline Mattox presents at the 2025 NEAFS annual meeting poster session
In October 2025, the Northeastern Association of Forensic Scientists (NEAFS) held their annual meeting in Lancaster, PA. Hofstra Forensic Science faculty and students traveled to the conference to present their research. Recent 2026 graduate Jacqueline Mattox presented a poster detailing her research conducted under faculty advisor Dr. Deborah Silva. Jacqueline won the Peter R. De Forest Student Research Competition for Best Poster Presentation at the Undergraduate level for her poster entitled “Comparing the Efficacy of DNA Analyses with Kastle-Meyer and Leucomalachite Green Presumptive Blood Tests Using DNA Protective Buffers as Swabbing Solutions.”
Jacqueline Mattox receives the Best Poster Presentation award during the Peter R. De Forest Student Research Competition
2026 Long Island Natural History Conference
Samir Patel presents during the 2026 Long Island Natural History Conference poster session
In February, Samir Patel presented at the 2026 Long Island Natural History Conference held at Stony Brook University. His poster “Developing an SPE-LC-MS/MS Method for Tracking Wastewater Signatures in Long Island Waters” highlighted key findings from his environmental research conducted under the advisement of Dr. Kevin Bisceglia.
Pittcon 2026
Dr. Huang puts the “I” in Pittcon in San Antonio, TX
In March, Dr. Ling Huang and research student Sanjit Menon traveled to San Antonio, TX to attend the Pittsburgh Conference on Analytical Chemistry and Applied Spectroscopy (Pittcon). Sanjit presented a poster entitled “AI Driven Designer Drug Classification: Multimodal Machine Learning on NMR Spectra” for which he received the James Manner Poster Award in recognition of outstanding undergraduate research.
Sanjit Menon poses in front of his award-winning research poster with faculty advisor Dr. Huang
2026 ACS Spring Meeting
Matthew Neryaev, Dr. D’Amelia, and Michael Leone at the Spring 2026 ACS poster session
A busy March also saw faculty and students traveling to the American Chemical Society (ACS) spring meeting in Atlanta, GA. The Chemistry department was well-represented at the poster session presentations.
Research students Michael Leone and Matthew Neryaev presented their poster entitled “Various Quantitative Analytical Techniques for Compositional Analysis of Short Chain Alkyl(C1-C4) Phthalate Mixtures,” detailing their work led by faculty advisors Dr. Ronald D’Amelia and Dr. Mary Rooney.
Shreya Prasad also presented her research conducted under Dr. Rooney’s advisement with her poster “Interaction of Copper Tripeptide-1 with Unsaturated Acyl Chains in Phospholipid Bilayers.”
Nishanth Arumugam presented his poster “Friedel-Crafts Alkylation on the Ag(111) Surface” summarizing the results of his work with Dr. Dan Miller.
Shreya Prasad presents at the Spring 2026 ACS poster session
Nishanth Arumugam presents at the Spring 2026 ACS poster session
Hofstra Undergraduate Research Symposium
(Fall 2025 and Spring 2026)
The Huang research group at the Spring 2026 Hofstra Undergraduate Research Symposium — Rachel Green, Kolby Vautour, Christopher Collins, Dr. Huang, Alexis Drucker, and Nicholas Brancato
In addition to traveling out of state for conferences, our research students also presented closer to home during the Fall 2025 and Spring 2026 sessions of the Hofstra Undergraduate Research Symposium. Both events were very well-attended and featured biochemistry, chemistry, and forensic science students all showcasing their research.
2026 NY ACS Undergraduate Research Symposium
Nicholas Brancato presents at the 2026 NY ACS Undergraduate Research Symposium
Rachel Green presents at the 2026 NY ACS Undergraduate Research Symposium
In May, Chemistry department faculty and students attended the 73rd Annual New York American Chemical Society Undergraduate Research Symposium at Queensborough Community College. Research students had the opportunity to provide a more in-depth discussion of their work through oral presentations.
Representing the Chemistry department were:
Nicholas Brancato - “Analysis of Designer Cannabis Products using DSI-GC-MS”
Rachel Green - “Screening Cannabinoids in Designer Products with 2D NMR Spectroscopy”
Matthew Neryaev and Michael Leone - “Quantitative Analytical Techniques for Compositional Analysis of Short-Chain Alkyl (C1-C4) Phthalate Mixtures”
Matthew Neryaev and Michael Leone present at the 2026 NY ACS Undergraduate Research Symposium