School of Biology graduate student Elena Antonova was awarded the “Rita R. Colwell Award for Outstanding Graduate Student Oral Presentation" for her talk entitled “Interspecies quorum sensing signaling induces natural competence of Vibrio cholerae on chitin surfaces”, which was presented at the "Vibrios in the Environment 2010" meeting in Biloxi Mississippi (Nov 7-12). Dr. Colwell, who served as NSF director from 1998-2004, was the keynote speaker at the meeting. Elena is a student in the Hammer lab, which studies the human pathogen Vibrio cholerae. This bacterium is responsible for the current cholera epidemic in earthquake-battered Haiti.