Graduate Studies' 2025 LoboBITES competition boasted a wide array of research topics.
Twelve students competed recently representing four colleges. They made it to the finals after winning first or second in preliminary rounds (that featured entries from seven colleges and one interdisciplinary program – a total of 37 different graduate programs).
LoboBites was one of the premier events of Research Week and had an audience of approximately 200 people.
Gabriella Guajardo took home first place for her presentation "Tamalewood: The Sparkling Cinematography of Colonization in the New Southwest." She is working towards a master's degree in Chicana and Chicano Studies and is a poet, so she found a way to include poetry to present her research.
"My presentation focuses on colonization and how it mirrors actions of the New Mexico film and television industry along with stereotypes in local casting calls and projects that film here," Guajardo said.
In her presentation, she talked about Breaking Bad and its effect on the meth overdose and death rate, and gentrification and rent increase, as well as the casting calls she encountered as a background actor that use racially insensitive terms to describe New Mexican Chicanos.
She contrasted that with her experience working on the film Eddington, where she felt she and her hometown were shown respect in regard to casting and production.
"I was so struck by the number of people with similar feelings about Albuquerque's depiction in Breaking Bad and the culture and tourism around it," Guajardo said. "I was also happy to speak with folks with industry experience or who know how beneficial the industry is to our state. It's a nuanced conversation, and I am invested in taking all sides of the conversation into account to do complete work that advocates for our city and state fully."
The second-place winner, Oona Takano, is a doctoral candidate in the biology department. Her presentation was titled "Drivers of Bird Body Size Adaptation: Are Birds Shrinking?" She was inspired to share her findings from her dissertation to get the results of this project out to a broader audience.
Takano discussed the impact of climate change on bird body size. Recent studies suggest that modern birds are shrinking as global temperatures rise, and in her research, she uses the fossil record to investigate whether this is a short-term pattern or if birds have also experienced body size adaptations during warming periods in the past.
"I was pleasantly surprised that people were excited about birds. Sometimes when I'm staring at bird fossils all day it feels like I study such a niche topic, so it was great to see that it struck a chord with people," Takano said. "It was exciting to see the diversity of research that goes on across departments at UNM and the broader impacts that graduate students can achieve with their research. I was inspired by the other speakers' talks and would highly recommend participation in LoboBITES to other grad students. Reflecting on how to communicate my research to an audience beyond my own discipline was helpful for thinking about the main takeaways of my dissertation."
The people's choice winner was Benjamin Garcia, who is also a doctoral candidate in the biology department. His presentation "Nasal Immunity in Fish: More Organized Than We Thought" touched on the role of germinal center-like structures in fish noses and how they respond to vaccines, and how understanding the basic biology of these structures can help scientists design new vaccines for aquaculture.
"It was great to hear folks interested in fish vaccines and fish noses," Garcia said. "UNM has a lot of great research going on and learning how to present it is super important."
