Simone Bellot and Michael “MP” Geiss have been named the University’s Class of 2023 Senior Class Marshals. Bellot and Geiss will represent their graduating class and lead the student procession during the 2023 Commencement ceremony. Throughout their senior year, Bellot and Geiss will serve as the all-University representatives for the Class of 2023.

“Simone and MP have made an incredible impact on campus across their academic pursuits, research opportunities, campus involvement and community service. They are passionate and driven about their goals and have fully embraced the opportunities around them to shape a meaningful student experience. They will serve as great representatives for their graduating class,” says Rob Hradsky, vice president for the student experience and dean of students.

Geiss, a Syracuse, New York, native, is a rising senior in the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs and the College of Arts and Sciences majoring in policy studies and physics and minoring in biology and economics. He is also a member of the Renée Crown University Honors Program and is a Maxwell Leadership Scholar recipient.

Academically, Geiss has excelled with the opportunity to combine his interests in the natural sciences and policy. He is part of the Maxwell School’s accelerated bachelor’s/master’s program and has been conditionally accepted to SUNY Upstate Medical University’s Early Assurance Program to pursue a master’s degree.

Geiss has dedicated himself to pursuing his intellectual interests outside the classroom through long-term research projects. He joined Dr. Teng Zeng’s water chemistry group in the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department in 2018 to characterize organic micropollutants (OMPs) in Central New York lakes through Syracuse University’s Summer High School Research Internship Program and has continued related work as an undergraduate.

Geiss earned a SOURCE research grant to study how varying land-use practices and onsite wastewater treatment systems (OWTS) impact the concentrations and frequencies of OMPs and their transformation products (TPs) in Suffolk County groundwater. Earlier this month, he presented the project’s progress as a Syracuse University representative at the 2022 ACC Meeting of the Minds Conference at the University of Virginia.

Geiss has also earned SOURCE funding to serve as a research assistant for Dr. Robert Bifulco for the Municipal Finance Journal article, “Assessing How COVID-19 Impacts NYS Fiscal Practices and Pending State Economic Struggles,” to test synthetic hydrogel drug delivery vehicles for encapsulating small-molecule inflammatory inhibitors with the Jain group in the Syracuse BioInspired Institute. Geiss is also interning this summer at SUNY Upstate’s Center for Vision Research with Dr. Samuel Herberg’s group to study how YAP (Yes Associated Protein) mechanotransduction and epigenetic remodeling modulate glaucomatous trabecular meshwork cell dysfunction.

As a SOURCE student research mentor, Geiss has worked to grow the campus undergraduate research community by serving as a peer mentor and is outreach coordinator for the Syracuse Undergraduate Research Yearbook’s first edition.

Following a four-year varsity high school career at Christian Brothers Academy in the Syracuse area, Geiss has continued to play on the University’s club baseball team and will represent the University at the Baseball Hall of Fame’s Symposium on Baseball and American Culture in June. There, he will present about baseball’s rich history at Syracuse University and honor its legacy 50 years after the varsity program ended.

In addition, Geiss has served as a summer camp unit leader and treasurer for the Camp Kesem chapter at Syracuse University, a teaching assistant for the Urban and AI Policy Smart Cities course sequence, and an ophthalmic technician at Eye Associates of Central New York (CNY).

Geiss looks forward to representing his class as a student liaison to the administration and greater Orange community as a Senior Class Marshal.

“As a Syracuse native and lifelong Orange fan, I am deeply humbled to receive this honor to serve my class over the next year,” says Geiss. “Syracuse University is a worldwide leader in education, research and athletics, and as Senior Class Marshal, I hope to work with my peers and administrators to tangibly improve each student’s Orange experience. I cannot wait to get started!”

Read the full article, "Bellot, Geiss Named Class of 2023 Senior Class Marshals," to learn more about Simone Bellot.

By Shannon Andre