Stupka Symposium 2026
Our Final Stretch. Thanks for Joining Us!
Hello Everyone!
With the FundISU campaign coming to a close in a few days, we just wanted to share a bit more behind-the-scenes pictures. A bunch goes into making the symposium the best it can be year after year, so we like to do a bunch of FUNdraising events with our committee and the Stupka community.
With only a couple of days left, we are still pushing to reach our stretch goal of $5000, so feel free to send our campaign out to any family or friends who may be interested in supporting our cause!
We would like to send a very big thank you to everyone who joined us for this campaign over the last few weeks!
We are so excited to see everyone in April! Your support has meant everything to us!
Best,
Mason, Angela, Liz, Tristan, and the rest of the Stupka ’26 Planning Committee
Our FundISU stretch goal! Thank you for helping us reach 100%
Dear supporters,
We would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone for their incredible support in reaching our fundraising goal! This year marks the 20th Annual Stupka Symposium, and as such, we wanted to celebrate it by expanding the symposium to be the largest ever! Your support goes a long way to helping us make this possible.
Now that we have reached our initial goal, we want to push further to see if we can reach our stretch goal of $5000. Please consider sharing our project with family and friends, as that helps a bunch in raising funds for this wonderful event!
Thank you all for your continuous support! We hope you will be able to join us on April 9th and 10th to celebrate 20 years of the Stupka Symposium and undergraduate research at Iowa State!
Best,
Mason, Angela, Liz, Tristan, and the rest of the Stupka ’26 Planning Committee
Stupka 2026 Student Speakers Reveal and Spotlight Speeches Competition
Hello Everyone,
We are nearly at our fundraising goal already! Thank you all so much for supporting the Stupka Symposium! Today, we’re excited to share more about our student speakers and introduce something special for our 20th anniversary: Spotlight Speeches!
We will be hosting five senior student speakers from the BBMB department: Liz Dougherty, Griffin Humphreys, Max Quanrud, Reyna Winders, and Tristan Weers. Liz will share how bacteria have evolved diverse defense systems to fight off bacteriophage infection. Griffin will be sharing how threonine substitution shifts product outcome in Abies grandis. Max will present how the cytochrome P450 GmCYP72A14 contributes to anti-herbivore defenses in soybean. Reyna will be presenting on what happens when two xyloglucan xylosyltransferases form a heterodimer. Tristan will present his research exploring pan-genomic variation of diterpenoid production for use in rice defense. We are excited to host their speeches!
Special to the 20th edition of the Stupka Symposium are spotlight speeches! This is a competition where six students will present their research at lightning speed in only three minutes. We hear that there may be a people’s choice award available for one of these speakers, so be sure to join us and vote for your favorite!
Join us on April 9th and 10th to learn more about these individuals and share experiences with the many students and alumni from Iowa State University. We hope you can attend to hear about the research and journeys of those who have been part of our program.
Best,
Mason, Angela, Liz, Tristan, and the rest of the Stupka ’26 Planning Committee
20th Annual Stupka Symposium Keynote Speaker Reveal
Hello Everyone!
Today, we wanted to share a bit more about the three keynote speakers who will present their work and share their scientific journeys with us on April 9th and 10th!
Joining us will be Dr. Jennifer Bridwell-Rabb, PhD, Associate Professor of Chemistry at the University of Michigan, Dr. Liam Holt, PhD, Associate Professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Pharmacology at New York University, and Dr. Sam Sternberg, PhD, Associate Professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics and Investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute at Columbia University.
Dr. Bridwell-Rabb works on investigating how chlorophyll is modified to absorb a broader range of light and how organisms build and tailor sunscreen pigments that provide protection from harmful UV-radiation.
Dr. Holt studies fundamental biology, including information processing, mechanobiology, stem cells, and evolution. They apply and use synthetic biology to test our understanding and discoveries about human life
Dr. Sternberg strives to expand our understanding of how noncoding RNAs conspire with effector proteins to target DNA. They are uncovering new biological functions while simultaneously advancing novel tools with which to precisely manipulate the genome.
The work of these researchers is pushing the forefront of science in their respective communities, and we are excited to have them join us for another great year of science communication!
Best,
Mason, Angela, Liz, Tristan, and the rest of the Stupka ’26 Planning Committee
Welcome to our FundISU 2026 Campaign!
Hello Everyone!
We are so excited to see everyone at this year’s 20th Annual Stupka Symposium! Please join us on April 9th and 10th and get involved in some incredible research!
In the meantime, the committee is hard at work doing concessions, putting together new designs, and planning the logistics behind our operations, including the launch of our FundISU campaign today! Your support makes this symposium possible each year, and for that, we are extraordinarily grateful!
This year’s campaign will run through March 13th, and we hope you will consider donating or sharing our campaign on your social networks. We have some exciting updates to share on this page in the coming weeks, so be sure to come back regularly and check them out!
Thank you all so much for your continued support of this symposium!
Best,
Mason, Angela, Liz, Tristan, and the rest of the Stupka ’26 Planning Committee
$50
Molecule
This donation could cover the cost of printing a poster for a student presenter!
$500
Organism
This donation could cover round-trip travel costs for one of our keynote speakers.