Barbara Stull Graduate Student Award 2020

Recognizing graduate students for outstanding research in spectroscopy.

Presented in honor and memory of longtime SAS staff member and colleague Barbara L. Stull.

Ewelina Mistek-Morabito

Recognizing outstanding research on attenuated total reflectance Fourier transform infrared (ATR-FTIR) spectroscopy for identification and characterization of body fluids for forensic analysis.

Ewelina Mistek-Morabito is a Ph.D. student in Chemistry at the University at Albany, State University of New York and a National Institute of Justice Graduate Research fellow. Ewelina is originally from Poland. She obtained an Academy Profession Degree in Chemical and Biotechnical Science from the Business Academy Aarhus, University of Applied Sciences in Denmark. During that program, she pursued a one-year internship in a forensic science laboratory with the Lednev Research Group at the University at Albany. After returning to Europe, Ewelina continued her undergraduate program in Forensic and Analytical Science at the Robert Gordon University, earning her Bachelor of Science with Distinction. In 2016, she returned to the University at Albany to pursue her doctorate degree under Professor Igor Lednev. She obtained her master's degree in chemistry simultaneously while pursuing her Ph.D. degree in May 2019.

Ewelina’s work involves the application of vibrational spectroscopy and chemometrics for the development of new forensic methods for the identification and characterization of body fluid traces. Her work has been recognized by numerous local, national, and international awards. Aside from the prestigious National Institute of Justice Fellowship, Ewelina received the Coblentz Student Award in 2017, FACSS Student Award in 2019, the Best Student Poster Award at the 2019 ICAVS conference in Auckland, New Zealand, runner-up in the Three Minute Thesis Competition at the University at Albany, and the Francis Dunstan Travel Award to present at the 2018 ICORS conference in Jeju, South Korea. She is also serving as Student Representative for SAS.