Graduate research scholarship helps students tackle global challenges

Three graduate students in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences are using support from the college's Office of Research and Innovation Graduate Research Scholarship to advance research on identifying microplastics with microbes, developing a sustainable system for growing indoor crops, and understanding how muscles age — all projects with potential applications for environmental and human health.

The annual award supports doctoral students pursuing research-based doctoral degrees. Awardees are selected based on strong academic standing, readiness to benefit from a research-focused semester, and demonstrated progress toward completing their dissertations.

The award covers spring tuition and allows recipients to dedicate a full semester to advancing their research goals. By reducing teaching and financial obligations, students gain the time and flexibility needed to strengthen their independent scholarship and make meaningful progress on their research. 

Carrie Carpenter

Carpenter, a doctoral student in the School of Plant and Environmental Sciences with faculty advisor David Schmale, studies how microorganisms interact with microplastics — tiny plastic particles now found in soil, water, and air — and how those relationships influence environmental processes. 

Her work examines how microbial biofilms — thin layers of living organisms that form on surfaces – change the way microplastics behave in the environment. She recently published research that described how microbes living on microplastics can trigger ice formation in clouds.  

“This has been the first semester I had flexibility with my time, where I could focus on my work without running around,” Carpenter said. 

The scholarship allowed Carpenter to dedicate time to data analysis and writing as well as the freedom to develop a new technique for using bacteria to identify plastic particles.  

Working with members of her lab groups and the Institutional Biosafety Committee, Carpenter developed a new protocol that gives her bacterial strain the ability to fluoresce or glow, so it can be visualized on microplastics. 

“This lets us see how they’re arranged on microplastic surfaces, giving us insight into their spatial organization and surface interactions,” she said. 

Carpenter has served as an instructor of record and guest lecturer and presented her research five times in the past year. Her projects have also contributed to a grant proposal submitted to the Virginia Small Grains Board, underscoring her ability to connect fundamental science with applied agricultural challenges — a skill she’ll carry with her after graduation

Buddhika Abeyrathne

Between publishing multiple peer-reviewed articles, contributing to a book chapter, presenting at national and international conferences, and even filing two patents related to water filtration technologies, Abeyrathne, a graduate student in biological systems engineering with faculty advisor Natasha Bell, has been busy. 

His research focuses on developing sustainable technologies that cycle nutrients to keep water systems clean, including systems engineered using microbial, plant, and fungal ecosystems. 

Currently, he is working on water‑cleaning systems that use sand as a filter - sometimes called sandponics — to recycle nutrients rather than remove them, as traditional filters do. Fine sand grains trap nutrients, support plant roots, and provide habitat for beneficial microbes that break down waste into forms plants can absorb. Abeyrathne examines how different types of sand perform in maintaining water quality, plant growth, and fish health.

He also studies emerging ecological approaches to water remediation, including the use of mushrooms and their root-like mycelia to remove harmful bacteria from water. Using techniques like flow cytometry, he assesses how effectively mushroom mycelia can reduce the levels of harmful E. coli in water systems.  

Support from the scholarship provided Abeyrathne the space to focus on data analysis and experimental work.

“Writing proposals and running around teaching is hectic,” he said. “I've had more time to focus on evaluating data from sand, fish, and microbial status.” 

His research also incorporates novel materials that absorb nutrients like ammonia from wastewater, contributing to more efficient and sustainable approaches to water quality improvement and resource recovery. 

Niloufar Amiri

Amiri, a graduate student in human, nutrition, foods, and exercise with faculty advisor Joshua Drake, studies age-related muscle loss, focusing on how cells lose the ability to clear out damaged mitochondria — the structures that produce energy for muscle function. 

In young, healthy muscle cells, exercise triggers a natural clean-up process that removes damaged mitochondria, helping maintain muscle function and overall health. As we age, it’s believed that this process becomes less effective, contributing to muscle decline.

Amiri’s research focuses on key signaling protein, mito-AMPK, thought to activate the mitochondrial clean-up process. Understanding how mito-AMPK functions with age could help explain why older muscle cells struggle to maintain healthy mitochondria.

Since joining Drake’s lab in 2022, Amiri developed a new method to normalize exercise intensity between young and old mice. Using this approach, she demonstrated for the first time that exercise-induced mitochondrial clean-up is impaired with aging. 

With support from the scholarship, Amiri has concentrated on experiments using muscle cell cultures to better understand the inflammatory response linked to declining mito-AMPK function. She recently submitted one manuscript and is preparing a second.

“The scholarship allowed for greater flexibility to focus on high-impact aspects of my work, such as data analysis and manuscript preparation, rather than dividing my time across multiple responsibilities,” Amiri said. “I’ve been able to stay more consistent and more deeply engaged in my research.”