2020 Awards Received ​

• Duquesne University -Department of Biological Sciences Graduate Student of the Year  (May 2020)
• American Society of Mining and Reclamation Memorial Scholarship (April 2020)

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Presented an Oral Presentation at the 2019 Duquesne University Graduate Research Symposium  (Pittsburgh, PA)

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Presented an Oral Presentation at the 2019 Annual Meeting of the Pennsylvania Academy of Science, Cedar Crest College (Allentown, PA)

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2019 Research Grants Received ​​

• Geological Society of America Research Grant - Gould Research Recipient (April 2019)
• Sigma Xi Grant-in-Aid of Research (May 2019)
• ​On To the Future Program (OTF) - Geological Society of America (July 2019)
• Kenneth N. Weaver Student Travel Award Program from the Northeastern Section of the GSA (August 2019)

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First Place Oral Presentation at 2019 ASMR Meeting, Big Sky, MT

Received First Place for my oral presentation on the impacts bacteria have on passive remediation systems built to treat abandoned mine drainage at the 36th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Mining and Reclamation (ASMR). The meeting was held in Big Sky, MT on June 3-7, 2019. ​​

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2019 Bayer Fellowship Recipient 
​(Duquesne University) ​

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2019 Science Communication Graduate Fellow (National Center for Science Education) ​​

​https://ncse.ngo/michelle-valkanas

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First Place Environmental Microbiology Oral Presentation at The 2018 Allegheny Branch of the American Society of Microbiology

Received First Place for my oral presentation on the impacts bacteria have on passive remediation systems built to treat abandoned mine drainage at the Annual Meeting of the Allegheny Branch of the American Society of Microbiology (ABASM). The meeting was held at Gettysburg College, PA on November 9-10, 2018. ​