PROUD Scholars | Cal State LA

CSU-LSAMP Program for Recognition of Undergraduate Distinction (PROUD)

The CSU-LSAMP Program for Recognition of Undergraduate Distinction (CSU-LSAMP PROUD) is a program designed to recognize and highlight the achievements of our outstanding CSU-LSAMP students. Each year, the Statewide Office will request that campuses select four students based upon their achievements such as outstanding academic performance, research accomplishments, service, leadership, or personal triumph. These PROUD Scholars are featured in the annual CSU-LSAMP PROUD publication.

You can view some of the many outstanding individuals in the CSU LSAMP program, including students from Cal State LA, in the publications below.

The following students were recognized as PROUD scholars by Cal State LA for their outstanding academic performance, research accomplishments, service, leadership, or personal triumph.

Henri Searles - Outstanding Academic, Research in STEM, & Service/Leadership

BS Biology; Graduated 2024

Henri Searles entered Cal State LA as a Biology major with aspirations of becoming a forensic scientist. However, in their sophomore year they discovered a fascination with plants, which was encouraged by volunteering and later doing research in the Cal State LA Herbarium under the guidance of Dr. Kirsten Fisher. Henri describes himself as “stumbling into” research with no prior knowledge of it as an option for his undergraduate career. He subsequently conducted research with Dr. Scoffoni and learned about LSAMP when he participated in the 2023 LSAMP Summer Research Scholar program under the continued tutelage of Dr. Scoffoni. During his senior year, Henri performed research with Dr. Alexandra Wright. Having been inspired by the work that LSAMP does, Henri was eager to give back to the program when hired as a student assistant. They contributed to planning of LSAMP workshops and events throughout the year, developing outreach strategies, and building relationships between students. Since joining LSAMP, he has won a Cal State LA award for his research with Dr. Wright on microclimate effects on nighttime water usage in plants and been selected to present orally at the Ecological Society of America meeting in August 2024 in Long Beach, CA, on his research on leaf heat tolerance with Dr. Scoffoni. Henri is eager to graduate with a 3.9 GPA knowing that they have made a difference in their community, and they will go on to do research with Dr. Wright at Cedar Creek Reserve in Minnesota before entering graduate school.

Leilani Corleto - Outstanding Research in STEM

BS Biology; Graduated 2024

Leilani Corleto earned her BS in Biology at Cal State LA. She participated in the LSAMP Summer Research Program in 2023 under the tutelage of Dr. Andres Aguilar and continued her research on the stripetail rockfish project with Dr. Aguilar beyond her graduation in Fall 2023. After her graduation Leilani began working for the Special Collections and Archives at the Cal State LA Library. Since the LSAMP program in Summer 2023 she has co-presented her work at the CSU Council on Ocean Affairs, Science & Technology (COAST) Annual Meeting in October 2023 in Long Beach, CA, and she has presented her research at the Western Society of Naturalists’ Annual Meeting in November 2023 in Monterey, CA, and at the 2024 Cal State LA Student Symposium for Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activities. At the latter competition she was recognized with an Outstanding Poster Presentation Award. Her scientific curiosity, creativeness, and thoughtfulness are also reflected in her unique talent to create crocheted sea creatures. Leilani was accepted to the Louisiana Graduate Network in Applied Evolution (LAGNiAppE) postbac program at Louisiana State University and plans to earn a PhD in this field thereafter.

Dr. Salvador Rojas - Outstanding Alumnus

BS & MS Mechanical Engineering; Graduated 2016 & 2018

PhD Mechanical Engineering - Purdue; Graduated 2023

Salvador Rojas is an Assistant Professor at California State University, Los Angeles in the Department of Mechanical Engineering. He is the founder and director of the research group Nature-inspired and AUTonomous robotiCs Lab (NAUTCL) within the College of Engineering, Computer Science, and Technology (ECST). The focus of his research group is on autonomous engineering systems driven by naval exploration. He received his Ph.D. from Purdue University as a George Washington Carver Fellow in 2023. His research mainly focused on exploring the interplay between nature and origami for designing novel structures with programmable properties. He characterized the mechanical behavior of bioinspired hybrid robotics with reconfigurable and shape-adaptive properties that can react to its working environment. He received the Indiana Space Grant Consortium Fellowship in three consecutive years, Ward A. Lambert Teaching Fellowship, and was selected as a Trailblazer in Engineering Fellow for broadening the participation of underrepresented minorities in engineering at Purdue. He received his B.S., and M.S., from California State University, Los Angeles in the Department of Mechanical Engineering in 2016, and 2018, respectively. Dr. Rojas was an undergraduate LSAMP student and pursued his M.S. as an LSAMP-BD Cohort 13 student from 2016 to 2018 prior to earning his Ph.D. at Purdue. His research work during his M.S. was primarily focused on the dynamics and control of multibody mobile manipulator systems. His goal was set to return to his roots and join the College of ECST as faculty. He is PROUD of his achievement and eager to support LSAMP.

Fergus Place - Outstanding Research in STEM

BS & MS Electrical Engineering; Current

Fergus Place is an electrical engineering major at Cal State LA with an interest in computational science and biomedical applications of electrical engineering. As an undergraduate, Fergus participated in three research labs: the Biophotonics Lab at the Cal Tech under Dr. Changhuei Yang, and, at Cal State LA, the Computational Molecular Biology lab (COMB) under Dr. Negin Forouzesh and the Bio-inspiring Computing lab under Dr. Curtis Wang. During that time he was also a participant in the 2023 LSAMP Summer Research Program at Cal State LA. While at the Biophotonics lab, Fergus investigated a novel method, histogram analysis, for inferring cerebral blood flow from interferometric speckle visibility spectroscopy (iSVS) data. Fergus’s research in the COMB lab focused on molecular dynamics for computer-aided drug design, with an emphasis on Alanine scanning. At the Bio-Inspired Computing lab, Fergus developed multiple conduction-based neuron action potential models in hopes of replicating in vitro experimental data. Fergus will present the work done in the COMB lab at the SuRE Biennial ‘24 conference in Bethesda, MD, in July 2024. He will also be presenting his research done for the Bio-inspiring Computing lab at Congress International Motor Neuron Society 2024 in Bordeaux, France, in June 2024, and at the Society for Neuroscience conference (SfN) in Chicago, IL, in October 2024. Fergus will continue his research at Cal State LA for his master’s degree as an LSAMP-BD fellow.

Dr. Alejandra Rios - Outstanding Alumna

BS & MS Biochemistry & Biophysics; graduated 2014 & 2016

PhD Physic and Biology in Medicine – UCLA; graduated 2022

Alejandra Rios graduated with a B.S. in biochemistry and biophysics with a GPA of 3.024 from Cal State LA in May 2014. While she began her academic career as a kinesiology major in fall of 2007, Alejandra explored opportunities outside the traditional healthcare path. She switched her major to biochemistry late in her undergraduate career and began pursing research as part of the CSU-LSAMP and MORE programs. To build her academic and research experience, Alejandra entered Cal State LA’s physics graduate program in fall 2014. In spring 2016, Alejandra completed her graduate program in physics with a GPA 3.730 and entered a PhD program in Physics and Biology in Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles. Alejandra’s research productivity has led to 18 publications and multiple presentations. Upon completion of her PhD program in 2022, Alejandra was accepted as a California Council on Science & Technology Policy Fellow with the California Energy Commission in the office of Chair David Hochschild.

Rohan Chatterjee - Outstanding Academic & Research in STEM

BS Computer Science; graduated 2023

Rohan Chatterjee graduated Summa Cum Laude with a major in computer science and minors in both mathematics and biomedical engineering, and with a GPA of 3.94 in May of 2023. Rohan started his academic career in fall 2018 at Cal State LA, where he has served as an instructional teaching assistant for the College of Engineering, Computer Science and Technology, a mentor for students in the Biomedical Engineering Women Innovators Program, and a tutor at the Center for Academic Success. He was also named in the Dean’s List for all five consecutive years of his undergraduate career and has worked in research in Dr. Navid Amini’s Machine Learning and Sensing Lab. His research focused on the design and development of deep learning algorithm that machine learning model, specifically, a deep neural network, can consistently and correctlydetect large vessel occlusion and brain reperfusion from a patient’s brain 3D CTA scan while providing probabilistic confidence scores. Rohan plans on pursuing a PhD in computer science and focus on research related to machine learning and medical technology.