2026 Winner: Neha Rai

Neha is an incoming third-year Neuroscience student interested in early brain development, women’s reproductive health, and mind-body well-being. She supports research with babies at UBC’s Early Development Research Group and founded Mind Over Mirror, an initiative exploring the neuroscience behind body image. Neha works as a Medical Office Assistant and Dispensary Associate at the Pacific Centre for Reproductive Medicine and volunteers in UBC Hospital’s Emergency Department. She also serves as Wellness Chair with UBC’s Science Undergraduate Society and volunteers with the Looking Glass Foundation’s Personal Recovery Space, supporting individuals affected by eating disorders. In her free time, she enjoys running and weightlifting.

2026 Runner-Up: Armita Bagheri

Armita is a third-year Neuroscience student with a passion for leadership, research, and healthcare accessibility. She co-founded Medicine4Youth UBCV, a club focused on making medical education accessible for students. She also established Mita’s Medical Journey, an initiative dedicated to supporting local and international communities through healthcare outreach and education. Through the UBC Pilates Club, she helps plan classes with other clubs. In the Allan Lab, she studies molecular mechanisms involved in synaptic remodelling using Drosophila melanogaster and will continue exploring these mechanisms through a directed studies project this fall. Alongside her studies, she enjoys staying active through volleyball and hiking.

2026 Winner: Angie Chen

Angie is a third-year Behavioural/Cognitive Neuroscience student and a member of the BioAugmentative Interfaces Laboratory at ICORD. Her passion for research began through her two previous biomedical engineering research jobs, inspiring her to seek research related to neuroscience. She has since loved exploring therapeutics for spinal cord injuries through mammalian surgical procedures and implantable devices. Angie was thrilled to receive both an NSERC nomination (declined) and UBC’s Faculty of Medicine’s Multidisciplinary Research Program in Medicine award to fund her full-time research for the project: Fully Implantable, Untethered Optogenetic Neuromodulation of Brain and Spinal Circuits. Outside of neuroscience, Angie loves rock climbing, lifting, and hiking. 

2026 Runner-Up: Armita Bagheri

Armita is a third-year Neuroscience student with a passion for leadership, research, and healthcare accessibility. She co-founded Medicine4Youth UBCV, a club focused on making medical education accessible for students. She also established Mita’s Medical Journey, an initiative dedicated to supporting local and international communities through healthcare outreach and education. Through the UBC Pilates Club, she helps plan classes with other clubs. In the Allan Lab, she studies molecular mechanisms involved in synaptic remodelling using Drosophila melanogaster and will continue exploring these mechanisms through a directed studies project this fall. Alongside her studies, she enjoys staying active through volleyball and hiking.

2026 Winner: Leo J. Chung

Leo just completed his junior year, and is currently on his first co-op term at STEMCELL Technologies. Previously, he developed and taught a course titled Neuroaesthetics: Your Brain on Art with UBC’s Centre for Community Engaged Learning. The course covered the principles of how our brains perceive art, drawing from Leo’s personal interests in aesthetic hedonism. Additionally, Leo completed a research fellowship with the Simons Foundation, presenting his work on the BAF complex’s impacts on social communication in New York. Outside of neuroscience, Leo is an avid fan of any sport with a ball, and enjoys burning through his wallet by discovering new foods.

2026 Runner-Up: Simren Ahuja

Simren is a fourth-year Neuroscience student committed to student advocacy and building community around brain health. As this year’s Neuroscience Representative, she represents students in Science Undergraduate Society council meetings and helped advance efforts to secure a dedicated space for the program. Through her presidency with the UBC pilates club, she launched an initiative linking fitness and brain health through workshops and beginner-friendly classes at elementary schools. She also serves as a peer tutor for NSCI 201 and helps make neuroscience accessible to the wider public through volunteering for the DMCBH and Wellington Lab’s Open House events. Outside of school, Simren enjoys playing pickleball and crocheting.

2026 Winner: Muskan Poddar

Muskan is a Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience student and a researcher at the Cembrowski lab. During her directed studies project last year, she analyzed single-cell spatial transcriptomics data to investigate how a high-fat diet alters hippocampal gene expression. She presented her results at the 2026 Canadian Neuroscience meeting, as well as both MURC and NURC. Muskan is now completing a 16-month co-op position with the lab, where she works as both a lab manager and researcher. Outside of the lab, Muskan enjoys going to the beach, cooking with friends, and jogging.

2026 Runner-Up: Samantha Yee

Samantha previously researched maternal immune activation and neurodevelopmental disorders in mice at UVic’s Tremblay Lab. She is currently a member at the Perception-Action Lab at UBC, supervised by Dr. Naznin Virji-Babul. She is working on a project investigating the impact of AI on human creativity. In addition, she is a co-op student at the Hippy Lab at BC Children’s Hospital, where she is a research assistant for the Global Hip Dysplasia Registry. Samantha is particularly interested in the intersection of neuroscience and mental health, and hopes to pursue future opportunities in clinical psychology or psychiatry.

2026 Winner: Anika Zhang

Anika is a fourth-year Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience student at UBC. She is passionate about fostering community, mentorship, and accessible opportunities. As Co-President of the UBC Neuroscience Association (UNA) 2025-2026, she led a team of executive members in organizing events and initiatives for students. Anika helped spearhead the 10th Annual Neuroscience Undergraduate Research Conference (NURC), welcoming over 500 attendees and becoming UNA’s largest conference to date. Furthermore, she worked with the UPN to strengthen collaboration between students and faculty through events such as Drinks with a Prof, Neurotrajectories, the Neuroscience Grad Gala and more. She hopes to continue to build an inclusive and supportive environment.

2026 Runner-Up: Anisha Biswas

Anisha is a recent Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience graduate. A dedicated member of the UBC Neuroscience Association, she served as VP Academic and NURC Academic Co-Chair for 2025/26. Within these positions, she planned countless lab tours and journal clubs, and launched “Neurotrajectories”, a new event connecting NSCI students with post-grad professionals and UPN alumni. Additionally, she organized academic logistics for the largest iteration of NURC to date and championed a new abstract booklet of student presentations in collaboration with the Canadian Journal of Undergraduate Research. Beyond leadership, Anisha enjoys reading mystery novels and weightlifting.

2026 Runner-Up: Kiara Sun

Kiara is a graduate of the UPN, currently pursuing a Master’s in Psychology where she spends most of her time gluing tiny microscopes to the heads of mice and arguing with computers. Beyond research, she has a passion for teaching, especially the part where she gets to help students think and articulate clearly. These seem to be the sort of obvious things that everyone does until you try to do them yourself. One day, she hopes to teach a collection of her own neurophilosophy courses because life would be too boring if it only consisted of atoms and void.

2026 Winner: Cindy Zhang

Cindy is a fourth-year cellular and molecular neuroscience student. She began her research journey in the Snyder Lab where she studied representational drift in the hippocampus. Wanting to gain experience in the biotechnology industry, she completed a co-op in the Predictive Biology team at AMGEN BC, where she characterized patient-derived cancer tumour organoids. Finally, she joined the Cembrowski Lab where she uses computational neuroscience methods to analyze single-cell spatial transcriptomic data. As she enters her final year at UBC, she is grateful for all the support and mentorship she received from Faculty members and the Undergraduate Program in Neuroscience.

2026 Runner-Up: Kiara Sun

Kiara is a graduate of the UPN, currently pursuing a Master’s in Psychology where she spends most of her time gluing tiny microscopes to the heads of mice and arguing with computers. Beyond research, she has a passion for teaching, especially the part where she gets to help students think and articulate clearly. These seem to be the sort of obvious things that everyone does until you try to do them yourself. One day, she hopes to teach a collection of her own neurophilosophy courses because life would be too boring if it only consisted of atoms and void.

2026 Winner: Ethan Tansky

Ethan is a fifth-year student in the Cellular/Molecular stream, Chair of the UPN EDI-D Committee, and Co-Chair of the UPN’s 2027-2037 Strategic Plan Committee. As an Indigenous (Cree & Métis) student, Ethan is deeply interested in the intersection of Indigenous knowledge systems and pedagogy with Western approaches to understanding the brain. His recent projects include creating a Resource and Engagement guide for members of the UPN community interested in working with Indigenous peoples, and implementing a new Indigenous-focused reflection and engagement component to the NSCI200 Curriculum and Career Plan Assignment.

2026 Runner Up: Tammy Rodriguez

Tammy is a fourth-year Neuroscience student with a long history of advocating for greater diversity and accessibility within scientific and clinical spaces. Inspired by their lived experience with concussions and neurodiversity, Tammy volunteers with the Concussion Legacy Foundation and is a student partner for the “Enhancing Lab Accessibility in Science” project. As a part of the UPN EDI-D committee, she is now leading an initiative to implement program-wide accommodations for students with recently sustained brain injuries. When they are not thinking about concussions, Tammy enjoys playing the guitar, listening to music, or hanging out with her dog: Taco.