2025 SPARC Champions
URA is pleased to announce the outstanding graduate student 2025 SPARC Champions.
Click on their bios below to view the winning videos!
Byungchul Yu, University of Mississippi
Byungchul is a PhD candidate in physics at the University of Mississippi working on the Muon g-2 experiment at Fermilab. His research focuses on searching for ultralight scalar dark matter using precision measurements of the muon anomalous magnetic moment. He is the Fermilab SLAM 2026 winner and is passionate about communicating fundamental physics to broader audiences.
Colin Weber, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities
Colin is a PhD candidate in physics at the University of Minnesota. He studies how neutrinos interact with matter using data collected by the NOvA near detector at Fermilab. He also develops training data for a neural network that will be used by the DUNE experiment to measure neutrino oscillations. He previously researched contact binary stars at Luther College, where he earned his bachelor’s degree.
Gabriela Hamilton, University of Virginia
| Gabi is a physics PhD candidate at the University of Virginia currently based at Fermilab. She conducts research with the CMS collaboration at CERN, where she analyzes data to search for more Higgs particles and helps build the next generation of particle detectors. Beyond the lab, she is a student leader dedicated to science communication and advocates for the economic sustainability of large-scale physics research and expanding career pathways in STEM. She has also been selected as a 2026 URA STEM Ambassador. |
Nabila Majeed, Kansas State University
Nabila is a fourth year graduate research student at Kansas State University studying neutrinos: tiny particles that help us understand how the universe works. Her research focuses on understanding how neutrinos interact with matter, which helps improve measurements of future experiments like DUNE. She is a 2025 URA Visiting Scholar Program recipient and spent six months at Fermilab collaborating with scientists from around the world.