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The Nicholas School of the Environment, including the Duke Marine Lab, celebrated graduating seniors at a recognition ceremony on May 10 at Duke’s Wilson Recreation Center. The event honored several students with awards for academic excellence and 22 students who earned Graduation With Distinction.

Awards for Excellence

Spencer Hao received the Sara LaBoskey Award, presented annually to an environment major in recognition of personal integrity and academic excellence. Vicki and Peter LaBoskey established the award in memory of their daughter, Sara LaBoskey, a Duke environmental studies major.

Hao majored in environmental sciences, with a minor in computer science, and also completed an energy and environment certificate. For his thesis, Hao worked in Gendell Family Associate Professor Dalia Patiño-Echeverri’s lab, where he examined how to optimize energy management systems. The research “could easily serve as a chapter in a Ph.D. dissertation,” Patiño-Echeverri said during the ceremony.

Hao is “brilliant and equally humble,” she added. “And he’s so deeply committed to learn as much as he can so that when he goes to the world, he’ll achieve this dream of decarbonizing the electricity sector without jeopardizing the economics, providing a service that is affordable to everyone, with reliability.”

Following graduation, Hao will join NextEra Energy’s power market analysis team in Juno Beach, Florida.

Grace Hall received the Thomas V. Laska Memorial Award, presented annually in recognition of outstanding achievement and promising potential in the field of earth and climate science. The award was established by Andrew J. and Vera Laska in memory of their son, Thomas Vaclav Laska.

Hall majored in earth and climate sciences and minored in biology and chemistry. Supervised by distinguished professor Avner Vengosh, Nicholas Chair of Environmental Quality and chair of the Division of Earth and Climate Sciences, Hall conducted a project studying the potential water quality impacts of critical raw material mining.

“In her years at Duke, Grace has left an indelible impression on the faculty who have had her in their classes and their labs. Her instructors have commented that she went out of her way to create the most rigorous possible earth and climate sciences major curriculum and routinely performed at the level of a graduate student,” noted associate professor Brian McAdoo, director of undergraduate studies in the Division of Earth and Climate Sciences. “Her knack for asking perceptive questions served everyone in class as well as [added] new layers of understanding to each topic.”

This fall, Hall will pursue a Ph.D. in earth and climate sciences at the Nicholas School.

Henry Sun received the Marine Conservation Award, presented annually in recognition of excellence in scholarship, research and citizenship in the study of marine systems, their protection and their governance.

Sun majored in marine science and conservation, with a secondary major in biology and a minor in computer science, and was a Rachel Carson Scholar and North Carolina Space Grant Undergraduate Scholar. Supervised by Dave Johnston, associate dean for teaching and innovation and professor of the practice of marine conservation ecology, Sun investigated the use of generative artificial intelligence to create synthetic whale images.

“What that really means is, over the last couple years, Henry has spent an amazing amount of time creating the best deep-fake whale pictures you will ever find anywhere on the internet,” Johnston explained during the ceremony. “We’re now able to use those photos to create better models to detect rare species and things where we just don’t have that data.”

This fall, Sun will begin Ph.D. work at the Duke Marine Lab as a .

Additionally, the Department of Biology, within Duke’s Trinity College of Arts and Sciences, presented the Maggie Schneider Award in Marine Biology to Cecilia Jane Joshi. The award, named in memory of Duke biology student Maggie Schneider, is presented to students who show a love of learning and service in marine conservation biology. Joshi, who majored in biology and minored chemistry and neuroscience, spent time studying at the Marine Lab.

Graduation With Distinction

The Nicholas School Graduation With Distinction program requires completion of a senior thesis based on an independent research project evaluated by a committee of three faculty members. To earn the honor, students must also have a 3.2 grade point average in their major, and an overall 3.0 at graduation. The Graduates With Distinction appear below, organized by division.

Earth and Climate Sciences

• Sydney Bell: “Measuring Ablation Rates in Supraglacial Lakes on the Greenland Ice Sheet Using ICESat-2,” supervised by Jonathan Ryan
• Samantha Berlan: Mapping Risk: Defining Localized Extreme Heat to Enhance Climate Governance in NC,” supervised by Brian McAdoo
• Grace Hall: “The Potential Water Quality Impacts of Mining Critical Raw Materials: Comparative Analysis of Simulated Leachates of Sulphide and Laterite Ores,” supervised by Avner Vengosh.
• Maya Khodabakchian: “Refining Paleo-CO₂ Reconstructions: Carbon Isotope Fractionation (Δ¹³C) in Modern Cycad Foliage Under Elevated Atmospheric CO₂,” supervised by Michael Kipp

Environmental Sciences

• Spencer Hao: “Comparing Different Scenario Reduction Techniques to Solve a Risk-Adjusted Two-Stage Stochastic Unit Commitment Problem for Power Systems With Long-Duration Storage Assets,” supervised by Dalia Patiño-Echeverri.
• Julia Happel: “PFBS Disrupts Lipid Metabolism and Mitochondrial Function in Human Trophoblast Cells,” supervised Liping Feng
• Hillary Hsu: “Investigating the Role of Adaptive Stress Response and Macroenvironmental Factors in Breast Cancer,” supervised by Gayathri Devi
• Julia Kagiliery: “Evaluating the Thermal Response Across Phylogenetic Ranks of Marine Microbial Communities From a Temperate Coastal Ocean Site,” supervised by Zackary Johnson
• Yujin Kim: “Factors Influencing Coyote Distribution in a Southeastern Forest,” supervised by Nicolette Cagle
• Ava Leaphart: “Mitochondrial Sequence Data Reveal Genetic Distinctions Among T. Truncatus, T. Erebennus and a Novel Dolphin Population,” supervised by Tom Schultz
• Kendra Rentz: Beyond Survival: Urban Heat Liveability Assessment in Durham County, North Carolina,” supervised by Drew Shindell
• Summer Walker: “Assessing the Impacts of Saline Exposure on Pinus Taeda And Myrica Cerifera Fungal Communities, supervised by Justin Wright
• Eesha Yaqub: “Evaluating the Technical and Economic Feasibility of Hydrogen and Ammonia to Decarbonize the Energy Sector,” supervised by Judy Ledlee

Environmental Sciences and Policy

• Chloe Brenner: “Load Growth, Interconnection Policy and Renewables in Virginia and Texas, supervised by Luana Lima
• Elizabeth Coleman: “Heat, Humidity and Infections: Exploring the Impact of Climate on Skin and Soft Tissue Infections in College Students,” supervised by Jessica Seidelman
• Logan Evans: “A Secondary Foundation Species, the Ribbed Mussel (Geukensia demissa), Impacts Facilitation and Predation in a Southeastern Salt Marsh Community,” supervised by Brian Silliman
• Porter: “In the Wake of Disaster: The Federal Emergency Management Agency and Environmental Justice in Natural Disaster Recovery,” supervised by Lisa Campbell
• Dahlia Stebbins–Sharpless: “PROJECT GROUND TRUTH: Cyanobacterial Harmful Algal Blooms as a Potential Risk Factor for ALS: Differential Gene Expression in ALS for Early Detection,” supervised by Lisa Satterwhite

Marine Science and Conservation

• Molly Honecker: “Investigating Population Structure and Local Adaptation of Eastern Oyster (Crassostrea Virginica) Across Geographic Scales in North Carolina,” supervised by Tom Schultz
• Sara Norton: “Investigating the Effectiveness and Water Quality Impacts of Eastern Oyster (Crassostrea Virginica) Restoration in Pamlico Sound,” supervised by Juliet Wong
• Arielle Solomon: “Chatty Cheetahs? Analysis of Foraging and Acoustic Behavior of Short-Finned Pilot Whales,” supervised by Andy Read
• Henry Sun: “Generative Diffusion Models for Dataset Augmentation and Cetacean Detection: Prospects and Perspectives for Ecology,” supervised by Dave Johnston