Winner of two prestigious scholarships to present research at BMES Annual Meeting
By Patrick L. Kennedy
An undergraduate presenter at this weekend’s Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES) Annual Meeting in Baltimore, Zeynep Haciguzeller (ENG’25) is a student leader who this year earned not one but two prestigious scholarships.
Haciguzeller, a biomedical engineering senior and Kilachand Honors College student, was one of just 253 engineering students nationally—out of 1,328 applicants—selected for the 2024–25 Tau Beta Pi (TBP) Scholarship. The award from TBP, the engineering honor society, recognizes scholarship, campus leadership and service, and demonstrated promise of future contributions to the engineering profession.
Case scholarship as well
In addition, Haciguzeller holds a 2024–25 Harold C. Case Scholarship, one of Boston University’s highest distinctions for undergraduates. The Case scholarship is also granted on the basis of scholarly accomplishment, potential, and extracurricular leadership.
“Our selection committee for the Case Scholarship was impressed by Zeynep’s sustained intellectual and community engagement across her time at BU,” says Jeffrey Berg, BU’s director of national and international scholarships. “She is pursuing her undergraduate experience at BU to the very fullest, and we can’t imagine a more fitting recipient of the Case Scholarship.”
A record of research
As a freshman, Haciguzeller worked in the lab of Assistant Professor Michael Albro (ME, MSE, BME), optimizing growth factor delivery for cartilage tissue engineering. As a sophomore, she worked on modRNA delivery for radiation burn wound healing at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School.
Since last year, Haciguzeller has been working with Associate Professor Wilson Wong (BME) on self-amplifying RNA for the development of longer-lasting vaccines. “Self-amplifying RNA is able to replicate itself through its own machinery, which enables us to avoid multiple dosage shots,” Haciguzeller says. “It’s very important and useful because it makes the treatment accessible and affordable for everyone. In every project we’re doing in synthetic biology, that’s what we need to focus on: affordability and accessibility.”
“Zeynep is an extraordinary, ambitious, and hard-working biomedical engineering student with a focus and dedication to succeed in her endeavors,” says Wong.
Contributing to the community
Beyond her research, Haciguzeller serves as president of the BU Turkish Student Association, a club she first joined to help with relief fundraising efforts after an earthquake struck her native Turkey. And she is co-president of the BU chapter of the Dream Program, mentoring youngsters in public housing in nearby Allston. “We’re trying to close the opportunity gap,” she says, “basically trying to show the youth that college is an attainable goal.”
While the extracurricular activity might sound like a lot to pile on top of her lab work and course load, Haciguzeller says, “I see it as a responsibility, of course, but not as a burden.” With the Dream Program, especially, she says she is paying it forward, as her parents encouraged her childhood STEM inclinations. “They bought me toys like anatomy skeletons, chemistry kits—I was always doing experiments in the kitchen, mixing stuff. That basically cultivated my whole curiosity for science.”
What the future holds
“Zeynep is a force of nature,” says Professor Christopher Chen (BME), Haciguzeller’s academic advisor and mentor. “Energetic, thoughtful, and committed to pushing her own limits, she has demonstrated a true passion for research. I can’t wait to see what she does as she continues on her journey.”
Haciguzeller already held a Trustee Scholarship, BU’s most prestigious merit scholarship covering full tuition and fees. She will use her TBP and Case funds for expenses, such as doctoral program applications. She plans to pursue a career in research, likely in nanotechnology and synthetic biology.
At the BMES meeting on Saturday, Haciguzeller will be presenting on the creation of interferon-reporter gene constructs for improved in vitro screening of RNA immunogenicity.