*Morgan Bishop

College of Engineering

Biological Engineering

Morgan Bishop is a senior undergraduate student at Utah State University studying biological engineering. As a student, Morgan began working in the lab of Dr. Elizabeth Vargis under the direction of Dr. Cinthia Hansen. Together, their work on bacterial identification using Raman Spectroscopy led to the publication of two journal articles.

Inspired by these spectroscopic techniques, she began her own project studying inflammatory bowel disease as a sophomore. Working in collaboration with Dr. Abby Benninghoff, Morgan’s project has developed into the search for a novel, non-invasive method to diagnose and monitor inflammatory bowel disease. Her research involves extracting fecal fatty acids from mice and analyzing them using fluorescent spectroscopy to determine changes due to diet and disease. She has been able to present this cutting-edge research at 5 scientific conferences and counting!

Morgan is an active member of the USU section of the Society of Women Engineers serving as the outreach coordinator. Morgan has led her SWE committee to develop outreach techniques to target elementary schools and increase STEM exposure at a young age. She has absolutely loved this role as it combines her passions of increasing awareness of STEM fields with empowering the rising generation of women.