At the 61^st Biophysical Society meeting held in New Orleans February 11-15, 2017, undergraduate researcher Rima Rebiai received the prestigious Student Research Achievement Award. Of the 14 awards made, Rebiai’s research was the only project focusing on nanoscale biophysics.

Rebiai’s research was funded in part by a Research in Undergraduate Institutions (RUI) grant from the Division of Molecular and Cellular Biosciences (MCB). RUI proposals support faculty at predominately undergraduate institutions to conduct research that builds institutional capacity for research and supports the integration of research and undergraduate education.

The research was a collaboration between and Dr. Emina Stojkovic, Bernard J. Brommel Research Professor, Department of Biology at Northeastern Illinois University, and Drs. Ken Nicholson and Stefan Tsonchev, Associate Professors in the Department of Chemistry. The award (#1413360) was the first to be awarded to the Biology Department in NEIU’s history, said Stojkovic. An interesting side note, Stojkovic added, is that she attended a similar meeting of the Biophysical Society as an undergraduate student 17 years ago with her research advisor, Dr. Anne Walter from St. Olaf College.

The university featured the honor on its News and Announcements page. According to Northeastern, Rebiai’s project, titled “Light-Induced Conformational Changes of S. aurantiaca Bacteriophytochromes as Revealed by Atomic Force Microscopy,” is the first to use atomic force microscopy to build structural characterization of light-regulated enzymes. Highlighting Stojkovic’s pride in Rebiai’s achievement, the article concludes with a quote: “This is a true honor to have our student stand on the national stage.” Rebiai is currently in her first year of Ph.D. studies at the University of Illinois-Chicago.