05/08/2026
McNulty Fellow Olivia Lutz is graduating with a degree in Biochemistry, with minors in Mathematics and English. She has served as a Teaching Assistant for Organic Chemistry I & II and Analytical Chemistry, was a Writing Center Tutor, and co-presented “Improving Writing Support for STEM Students: Outreach to Biology Undergraduates at Saint Joseph’s University” at the National Conference on Peer Tutoring in Writing (October 2024) at the University of Washington-Tacoma, alongside Dr. Jenny Spinner and Sierra Feeney.
Olivia authored 15 articles for the Hawk Newspaper, and conducted research for three and a half years in Dr. John Tomsho’s laboratory, working on the project “Novel Benzoxaborole Antibacterials Act Through Leucyl-tRNA Synthetase Inhibition.” This work has been presented at 11 conferences, including the 89th Intercollegiate Student Chemists Convention, the Annual URC-PA Conference, the Annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minoritized Scientists, the GSK Science@Scale Poster Symposium, and the American Chemical Society Mid-Atlantic Regional Meeting.
In addition, she has worked in Dr. Sunil Thomas’s laboratory for nine months, contributing to multiple projects, including a Bin1 gene study related to sporadic Alzheimer’s disease, development of subunit vaccines for ehrlichiosis, and immunotherapy research supporting a Phase I clinical trial for colitis treatment. During this time, she authored six book chapters (currently in press with CRC Press) on topics related to the microbiome, including circadian rhythm, mosquitoes, grapes, probiotics/prebiotics, ultra-processed foods, and marine ecosystems.
Olivia is a recipient of both the Summer Scholars Award (2024) and the Johnson & Johnson Summer Scholars Award (2025), is a member of the Community Garden, a volunteer with HawkHub, and served on the executive board of the American Chemical Society (2022-2024) as the ACS U1 Representative and Event Coordinator.
Next year, Olivia is attending Temple University for a Bioengineering Master’s program.