Iva Veseli (BIOL/M.S. CS 3rd year) has been selected by the American Society for Microbiology (ASM) as a 2016 recipient of the ASM Undergraduate Research Fellowship. With the fellowship, she received a $4,000 stipend and funding for travel expenses to the upcoming 2017 Microbe Academy for Professional Development and ASM Microbe Meeting.

The fellowship is aimed at highly competitive students who wish to pursue graduate careers in microbiology. As a fellow, Veseli conducted full-time research at Illinois Tech in summer 2016 with her ASM mentor, Jean-François Pombert, assistant professor of biology, on the research project “The Neglected Neisseria: Comparative Genomics of Previously Unsequenced Species and their Relatives in the Neisseriaceae Family.” If their abstract is accepted, she will present her research results at the 2017 ASM Microbe Meeting in New Orleans. Veseli was one of 85 applicants.

The American Society for Microbiology is the largest single life science society, composed of over 48,000 scientists and health professionals. ASM’s mission is to promote, advance, and provide a deeper understanding of the microbial sciences to diverse audiences.