Cullen Wins 1st Place at the GRS in the PhD Research Category

April 18, 2024
Cullen smiling in a corn field with blue skies

Congratulations to Cullen Dixon for taking home 1st place in the PhD Research Category at the Graduate Research Symposium. The Graduate Research Symposium is an annual event hosted by the HCS Graduate Student Association that provides HCS students and faculty from both our Wooster and Columbus campuses to come together to share their research!

Cullen is currently pursuing his PhD under the advisement of Dr. Andrea Gschwend and just successfully defended his PhD Dissertation. Cullen wanted to be sure to thank his lab mates and advisor, Dr. Andrea Gschwend, for their helpful feedback and insights while concurrently preparing for his presentation and defense and added "having such helpful suggestions and research insights in advance of presenting really goes a long way to ensuring a clear and compelling presentation!"

We're thrilled to have Cullen in our department and fortunately he had a few moments to shed some further insight into his experiences at the 2024 Graduate Research Symposium...


WHAT WERE YOUR THOUGHTS ON WINNING THIS AWARD?

It means a lot to win 1st place in my final time presenting at the GRS. I've always enjoyed presenting my work because it allows me to not only share my hard work and that of the lab, but also allows us to connect with other researchers and spurs on conversations that can help improve our work and theirs.

HOW WAS THE GRS OVERALL?

I really enjoyed GRS this year in particular because of the fantastic turn out. Bringing the whole department in such a way is a great morale booster for students and faculty alike. My favorite part was getting to see my lab mates recognized for all their hard work and amazing research in this past year!

Cullen (left) next to a fellow grad student smiling and holding his award

HOW’S YOUR RESEARCH GOING CURRENTLY?

Currently, my research is going really well. I successfully defended my dissertation last week which was a very exciting accomplishment. I have been mostly focusing on writing research manuscripts recently to disseminate our findings to the field. We just submitted one paper recently and are awaiting word from reviewers. Meanwhile, three more papers are in the works and will be submitted soon!


Eager for more news from our 2024 Graduate Research Symposium? You're in luck - check out all the articles here.