More than 130 graduate students and 200 undergraduate students participated in the 2023 Student Research Days Poster Sessions and Creative Exhibitions on March 28-29. Graduate students who were awarded competitive prizes for their scholarship and presentation skills received funding for travel grants to support and present their research regionally or nationally. Undergraduates were awarded prizes sponsored by their academic colleges.
Nearly 100 faculty, postdoc, and graduate student volunteer judges met with students during morning and afternoon sessions and evaluated their presentations.
Graduate awards
Renca Dunn (communication studies)
- "Deaf or Death: The Impact of the Pandemic and Communication Barriers"
- Adviser: Jordan Soliz
Madelina Homberger Cordia (history)
- "'Drama, Hysteria, Crying': Contested Media Representations of Mexican Futboleras Surrounding the Unofficial 1970 and 1971 Women's World Cups"
- Adviser: James Garza
Scott Hootman-Ng (mathematics)
- "Neumann Boundary Conditions for Nonlocal Models"
- Adviser: Petronela Radu
Trevor Kauer (communication studies) and Cassidy Taladay (communication studies)
- "Frontline Healthcare Worker COVID Stories: Assessing Psychosocial Well-Being via Narrative Methods"
- Adviser: Jody Koenig Kellas
Brandi Pessman (biological sciences)
- "Urbanization Affects Web Aggregation and Placement of a Funnel Weaver, Agelenopsis pennsylvanica"
- Adviser: Eileen Hebets
Erika Petro Turnquist (biological sciences)
- "Adenoviral-Vectored Epigraph Vaccine Induces Robust, Durable, and Protective Immunity Against H3 Influenza A Virus in Swine"
- Adviser: Eric Weaver
Arjun Subedi (physics and astronomy)
- "A Model for Electronic Phase Transition of cofe2o4 and nico2o4 Thin Film Surfaces: Temperature Dependent X-Ray Photoemission Studies of cofe2o4 and nico2o4 Thin Films"
- Adviser: Peter Dowben
Undergraduate college awards
Alyssa Simpson (physics)
- "Application of Ferroelectricity to Photovoltaics"
- Adviser: Xia Hong
Abbey Bowers (physics)
- "Structural Changes of Annealed Scandium Ferric Oxides"
- Adviser: Xiaoshan Xu
Grace Heath (women's and gender studies and nutrition and health sciences)
- "Black, Breathing, and Free: Legal Strategies of Black Women During the Antebellum Era"
- Adviser: Katrina Jagodinsky and the Digital Legal Research Lab
Camden Jones (biochemistry)
- "Investigation into the Potential Role of the Monomeric Transcription Factor, Rv1830, in Mtb"
- Adviser: Limei Zhang
Himanshu Gandhi (microbiology)
- "Predicting Microbial Community Colonization of the Mucosal Layer"
- Adviser: Jennifer Auchtung
Marissa Mendez-Santiago (biochemistry)
- "Identifying the Effects of Linoleic Acid on Mitochondrial Function in Saccharomyces Cerevisiae"
- Adviser: Wayne Riekhof, teammate: Angela Le
