Guam National Science Foundation Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (Guam NSF EPSCoR) E-RISE welcomes four University of Guam graduate students to its inaugural Graduate Research Assistant (GRA) cohort.
The Graduate Research Assistant program provides UOG-enrolled graduate students with support for three years in their pursuit of a master’s degree. This support includes a tuition waiver of up to 12 credits, research training, faculty mentorship, possible travel opportunities, and a monthly stipend. One of two projects under the Guam NSF EPSCoR umbrella, the E-RISE RII project (Research Incubators for STEM Excellence) specifically aims to support students interested in marine biology and ecosystem research.
This first ever E-RISE GRA cohort includes Mark Galang, Alex Loria, Joe Elper, and Robert Babac.
Under the faculty mentorship of Professor of Mathematics Hyunju Oh, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Mathematics Leslie J.C. Aquino, Ph.D., and Assistant Professor of Physics Joo-Chul (J.C.) Yoon, Ph.D., both Galang and Babac will be focusing on machine learning and A.I. to build a model that categorizes images based off visual features.
“I’ve been doing research with these mentors for the past couple years, I first started as a researcher back in summer 2024, and then I became a research assistant for summer 2025,” Galang explains. “They asked me if I wanted to join in this very big project, I was like, “sure, why not,” because I want to see some cool things with this research,” he said.
Loria will be working under Bastian Bentlage, Ph.D., associate professor of bioinformatics, at the UOG Marine Lab to look at coral reef succession. Originally from Virginia with a degree in wildlife conservation from Virginia Tech, Loria has been working and doing research on Guam and the Mariana Islands for the past couple of summers.
“I like the wildlife, the people, and the culture, so I knew I wanted to make this my home at least for a little while,” Loria shares. “I’m also passionate about research and furthering my research experience, so the UOG Marine Lab is a great fit,” he says.
Michalis Mihaltisis, Ph.D., assistant professor of vertebrate morphology, will be mentoring Elper at the UOG Marine Lab, where they will be focusing on the cryptobenthic reef fish species found here in Guam. “I wanted to be able to be a full-time student and just focus on my classes, and then eventually also my field work, so I’m glad I was able to get this where I could not also have to work a part-time job the same time,” Elper explains.
Throughout the program, these GRAs will also be assisting undergraduate students who may be working under the same faculty mentors as part of other various student research programs, including the EPSCoR E-CORE Student Research Experience (SRE) program.
Undergraduate student researchers under EPSCoR grants often take part in Near-Peer mentoring sessions overseen by Cheryl Sangueza, Ph.D., in which they reflect on shared experiences within the program. This cohort will instead be taking part in GRA Mentoring sessions to be conducted by Christina Mantanona, the newly appointed Research Mentoring Lead for Guam NSF EPSCoR E-RISE. Regarding these mentoring sessions, the Research Mentoring Lead will “be doing a lot of surveying, finding out what’s valuable, what do you folks need so you’re not going to something that’s like perfunctory, you’re going to a discussion that has meaning and value for you,” Sangueza explains.