Luther Rice Undergraduate Research Fellowship

Luther Rice Undergraduate Research Fellowships are part of the Columbian College of Arts and Sciences comprehensive undergraduate initiative to promote discovery- and inquiry-based education throughout the undergraduate experience at GW. Luther Rice Fellowships offer support for student research carried out in collaboration with, and under the guidance of, at least one faculty mentor.

These fellowships offer substantial support for the promotion of working research alliances between students and faculty. The fellowships provide stipends to the students for research-related expenditures, including summer living expenses, travel, materials and equipment. The faculty mentor also receives monetary funds for salary or professional development.

Featured Luther Rice Fellows

Lemur Lessons Lead Luther Rice Fellows

In Brenda Bradley’s anthropology lab, two Luther Rice Undergraduate Research Fellows are examining Madagascar’s lemurs for lessons in evolution.

Art + Science = A Hybrid Project Combining Politics and Dance

Political science and dance major Eva Gustafson combined her fields of study into a Luther Rice Undergraduate Fellowship dance production.

Student’s Tenacity Yields Diabetes Breakthrough

Chemistry major Emmeline Ha’s persistence paid off—with a diabetes breakthrough and a Luther Rice Fellowship.

Read more:

• Lemur Lessons Lead Luther Rice Fellows
• Art + Science = A Hybrid Project Combining Politics and Dance
• Student’s Tenacity Yields Diabetes Breakthrough

Deadlines

There are two different deadlines for submission. Students who apply in the fall and are not selected for funding may revise and resubmit their proposals in the spring.

• Friday, December 13, 2024 at 11:59 p.m. EST (Extended)
• Friday, February 28, 2025 at 11:59 p.m. EST

Eligibility 

Students

• Must be a Columbian College sophomore or junior
• Must have a full-time faculty mentor
• Must have a declared major
• Must have no judicial or disciplinary findings against them

Research Project

• Must be undertaken during the junior or senior year (or the summer before the junior year)  
• Should undertake a significant, focused examination of an idea or an area of inquiry and result in work that could merit presentation or publication in a scholarly venue

Application 

The application process requires a 2-3 page application.

• Two page research statement by the student of their research
• One page personal statement on how the research will contribute to the student's academic and/or professional goals
• One page statement of support by the faculty with a description of how they will mentor the student (Luther Rice and URA Faculty Mentor Form) 

Additionally, the student needs to also submit a transcript that can be obtained from the Student Services Hub.

*By submitting their applications, students consent to allow selection committees to review their academic transcripts.

Other Requirements

• At the end of the summer, students should present a progress report that is reviewed by the faculty member and reported to the Undergraduate Dean
• All funded students must propose and present at the GW Research Showcase during the spring semester
• Students and faculty may be asked to represent the Endowment at CCAS or University events

Students and faculty mentors are also welcome to review the evaluation rubric for the Luther Rice Undergraduate Research Fellowship.

How to Apply

To apply, please complete the Luther Rice Undergraduate Research Fellowship application, available through the Center for Undergraduate Fellowships & Research's InfoReady portal.

 

 

 

"Through the Luther Rice Fellowship, I was able to experience what it’s like to be a microbiologist as an undergrad—conducting wet lab research, attending seminars, presenting at conferences and exploring the possible career paths I can pursue with my biology degree. Getting to meet other fellow undergrad researchers and field experts also inspired me to keep pushing the boundaries in research."

Tien Huynh
BS '23, Biological Sciences and Cognitive Neuroscience
Summer Research Fellow and Luther Rice Fellow

Luther Rice Fellows

2024-2025

Maxine Alexandre-Strong: Astronomy and Astrophysics

• Faculty Mentor: Alexander van der Horst
• Project: Electron Energy in Gamma Ray Bursts

Ana Arledge: Dance and Public Health

• Faculty Mentor: Anna Kimmel
• Project: Merce Cunningham's Legacy: Influences on Contemporary Dance Practices

Max Calman: Sociology and Political Science

• Faculty Mentor: Carlos Bustamante
• Project: Academia Privatized: Faculty Experiences Under the “Neoliberal University”

Cole Christensen: Biophysics and Biology (Cellular and Molecular Biology Concentration)

• Faculty Mentor: Mark Reeves
• Project: Novel Eigenworm Analysis of Stress in Nematodes

Sydney Clarke: Fine Arts

• Faculty Mentor: Michele Carlson
• Project: The Art of Garment Making

Benjamin Cunningham: Political Science and Fine Arts

• Faculty Mentor: Michelle Kelso
• Project: We Know Who They Are: Artwork and Narratives from the Russo-Ukraine War

Mary Claire Daubendiek: Fine Arts and Art History

• Faculty Mentor: Michele Carlson
• Project: Sport and System: A Glimpse Inside Collegiate Athletics

Annabelle Derby: Economics

• Faculty Mentor: Aman Luthra
• Project: Privatization and Labor Conditions in the US Waste Collection Industry

Seyeon Moon: Philosophy, Public Affairs Focus

• Faculty Mentor: Laura Papish
• Project: Ethical Analysis in Organ Donation: Navigating Allocation, Transparency, and Consent

Nicole Rangoussis: Biology

• Faculty Mentor: Brenda Bradley
• Project: How Common is Colorblindness in Chimpanzees?

Jamison Shih: Biology and Chemistry

• Faculty Mentor: Ling Hao
• Project: Understanding How Cellular Stress Impacts Protein Turnover in Human Neurons

Rory Smith: Chemistry & American Studies 

• Faculty Mentor: Cynthia Dowd
• Project: CoA Biosynthesis in Mycobacterium tuberculosis: Varying the Linker Length in PPCS Inhibitors

Sahana Withanachchi: Political Communication

• Faculty Mentor: Anna Kimmel
• Project: Exploration of the Role of Choreography, Performance, and Movement Practices During and After Japanese-American Internment

2023-2024

Natalie Clay: Chemistry

• Faculty Mentor: Joseph W. Meisel
• Project: Computational and Experimental Approaches for Protein Surface Recognition with Topography- Matched Ligands

Chloe Corning: Biology

• Faculty Mentor: Akos Vertes
• Project: Trading Nutrients in Mutualism: Soybean and Soil Bacteria

Megan Godshalk: Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences

• Faculty Mentor: Shelley B. Brundage
• Project: Can PBCAT Training Improve Detection of Social Lies?

Rose Milano: Chemistry

• Faculty Mentor: Joseph W. Meisel
• Project: Bifacial Monomer Synthesis

Ahan Panchal: Chemistry

• Faculty Mentor: Christopher Cahill
• Project: Probing the Effects of Cd-oxo Interactions on the Electronic Structure of the Uranyl Cation

Priscilla Pang: Neuroscience

• Faculty Mentor: Matthew Colonnese
• Project: Activity Dependent Expression of Parvalbumin in the Somatosensory Thalamic Reticular Nucleus

Maureen Rafter: American Studies, Music

• Faculty Mentor: Loren Kajikawa
• Project: Rock the Vote: Barack Obama's Sonic Identity in Rock Campaign Music

Lily Reck: Cognitive Neuroscience

• Faculty Mentor: Myeong-Ho Sohn
• Project: Opportunity for Successful Performance or Task Difficulty: The Causation of Positive Emotional State as a Contributor to the Positive Valence Acquisition of High-Control Stimuli

Jamison Shih: Biology, Chemistry

• Faculty Mentor: Ling Hao
• Project: Measuring Global Neuronal Protein Turnover using Mass Spectrometry Techniques

Rachel Spransy: Cognitive Neuroscience

• Faculty Mentor: Gregory Wallace
• Project: Are Autistic Traits Elevated in Parkinson's Disease and Linked to Real-World Outcomes?

Brooke Stallman: Biological Anthropology, Psychological & Brain Sciences

• Faculty Mentor: Francys Subiaul
• Project: Research Facilitator Effects on Social Learning in 18-30-month-olds

Quinn Stefan: Physics

• Faculty Mentor: Axel Schmidt
• Project: Evaluating Radiative Corrections in Super Rosenbluth Experiments

Parisa Tabiatnejad: Neuroscience

• Faculty Mentor: Colin Young
• Project: Reducing microglia activation in the brain to remedy non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD)

 

 

2022-2023

Neha Ahmed: Neuroscience

• Faculty Mentor: Gregory Wallace
• Project: Relationship between the racial and ethnic disparities in the diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder and lack of representation of participants of color in Autism research

Mohammed Almarkhan: Neuroscience

• Faculty Mentor: Gregory Wallace
• Project: Dementia Risk and Its Functional Impacts in Adults with Autism with Intellectual Disability During Middle and Older Adulthood

Reem Bahr: Neuroscience

• Faculty Mentor: Abigail Polter
• Project: Early Life Stress and Associations with Social Behavior in Adulthood

Joelle Evard: Political Science and Peace Studies

• Faculty Mentor: Andrew Thompson
• Project: Empathy as a Mitigator of Group Threat

Justin Grady: Psychological and Brain Sciences

• Faculty Mentor: Stephen Mitroff
• Project: A Closer Look at Conscientiousness as a Moderator of Fatigue-Induced Visual Search Performance Decrements

Gabriel Grauvogel: Physics

• Faculty Mentor: Axel Schmidt
• Project: Building a Cherenkov Detector for the Two-Photon Exchange Experiment

Thomas Huebler: Environmental and Sustainability Science

• Faculty Mentor: Keryn Gedan
• Project: Species dynamics of Nuphar advena and Zizania aquatica in restored tidal freshwater wetlands along the Anacostia River

Viet Tien Huynh: Biology and Cognitive Neuroscience

• Faculty Mentor: Ioannis Eleftherianos
• Project: Drosophila, Steinernema and Xenorhabdus: A tripartite model for studying host-vector-pathogen interactions

Julia Kerrigan: Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences

• Faculty Mentor: Shelley Brundage
• Project: The Psychosocial Impact of Stuttering in Children Through Their Own Voices

Prudence Lindbergh: Psychological and Brain Sciences

• Faculty Mentor: Michelle Stock
• Project: Health Outcomes of Racial Exclusion via Cyberball in Middle-Aged Black Americans: Cognitions, Levels of Affect, and Needs Fulfillment

Athanasios Naum: Cell and Molecular Biology

• Faculty Mentor: L. Courtney Smith
• Project: Do Recombinant SpTransformer Proteins bind to Sea Urchin Coelomocytes?

Darii Ordynat: Neuroscience

• Faculty Mentor: Brenda Bradley
• Project: Behavior, Genetics, and Facial Patterning of Dogs

Victoria Rainis: Biological Anthropology

• Faculty Mentor: David Braun
• Project: The Onset and Evolution of Human Carnivory

Sarah Shamash: Biology

• Faculty Mentor: John Lill
• Project: Drivers of biodiversity: effects of plant architecture and ecosystem engineering of leaf-tying caterpillars on arthropod species diversity

Zachary Stickelman: Chemistry

• Faculty Mentor: Jakub Kostal
• Project: Contaminants in Pesticide Production

2021-2022

Faith Arthur: Human Services and Social Justice

• Faculty Mentor: Jonathon Grooms
• Project: Active Citizenship Through Socioscientific Issues (ACTS)

Parker Blackwell: Archaeology, Classical and Near Eastern Studies

• Faculty Mentor: Eric Cline
• Project: Defining the African Identity:  Protecting Cultural Heritage in Cameroon

Jessica Bride: Psychology and Criminal Justice

• Faculty Mentor: Robert W. Turner
• Project: Psychosocial Impacts of Leaving High-Level Sports

Allison Cameron: Neuroscience

• Faculty Mentor: Hartmut Doebel
• Project: The Effect of Urbanization on Apis mellifera Colony Behavior & Health

Sean Duane: Psychology

• Faculty Mentor: Gregory Wallace
• Project: Volumetric Differences in Thalamic Size in Autism and its Behavioral Implications

Caden Gobat: Astronomy & Astrophysics

• Faculty Mentor: Alexander van der Horst
• Project: Optical darkness in short-duration gamma-ray bursts

Gabriel Grauvogel: Physics

• Faculty Mentor: Axel Schmidt
• Project: Optimizing the Design of a Cherenkov Detector for a New Two-Photon Exchange Experiment

Yingke Li: Communication

• Faculty Mentor: Meina Liu
• Project: The Effects of Family Communication Patterns on College Students’ Weight Stigma And Healthy Eating Behaviors

Lauren Sadowski: Psychology and Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences

• Faculty Mentor: Gregory Wallace
• Project: Does Compensation for Social Challenges in Autism Exact a Toll on Mental Health?

Simon Saliby: German

• Faculty Mentor: Margaret Gonglewski
• Project: Examining the Culture of Citizen Activism and its Impact on Germany's Energy Transition

Chloe Shaw: Biology

• Faculty Mentor: L. Courtney Smith
• Project: Pathogen Identification of Bald Sea Urchin Disease in Sea Urchins

Mark Thomas-Patterson: History

• Faculty Mentor: Hope Harrison
• Project: West German Views of Rhodesia from 1965-1979
   

2020-2021

Emma Billings: History

• Faculty Mentor: David Silverman
• Project: Gendering Education: Student Reactions to British Gender Stereotyping in Indian Boarding Schools

Lydia Burnett: Biology

• Faculty Mentor: Aleksandar Jeremic
• Project: Elucidation of human amylin trafficking and toxicity mechanisms in pancreatic beta cells

Leah Garman: Chemistry

• Faculty Mentor: Christopher Cahill
• Project: The Search for Next-Generation Photovoltaic Materials: Antimony Halides as Perovskite Candidates

Cameron Himes: Biological Sciences

• Faculty Mentor: Mollie Manier
• Project: How do seminal fluid proteins expressed in the accessory glands affect the length of sperm produced in the testis?

Carolyne Im: Political Communication

• Faculty Mentor: Danny Hayes
• Project: The Non-Performativity of "Woke Whites": The Discrepancy Between Anti-Racist Attitudes and Behaviors Among White "Allies" Post Black Lives Matter

Kelly Kumpis: Art History, Spanish

• Faculty Mentor: Christopher Britt
• Project: What Constitutes a Utopia? Argentine Creative Visions in the Early 20th Century

Camille Leoni: Biology

• Faculty Mentor: Hartmut Doebel
• Project: Neonicotinoids Contribute to Abnormalities in Honey Bee Queen and Colony Behavior

Arianna Masotti: History, Political Science

• Faculty Mentor: C. Thomas Long
• Project: The Forgotten Women of Normandy, 1945

Sydni Nadler: Psychology

• Faculty Mentor: Stephen Mitroff
• Project: Visual Search Proficiency and Rapid, Short-Term Sleep Loss

Alejandra Paredes Marin: Biological Anthropology, Biology

• Faculty Mentor: Brenda Bradley
• Project: Guinea Pig White Patches

Andrew Pletcher: Biology

• Faculty Mentor: Maho Shibata
• Project: Investigation of distinct macrophage populations in prostate development and cancer

Isabella Rocchiccioli: Psychology

• Faculty Mentor: Michelle Stock
• Project: The Role of Media Messages in College Students’ E-Cigarette Cognitions and Use: An Application of the Prototype Willingness Model

Cate Twining-Ward: Environmental Studies, Geography

• Faculty Mentor: Colin A. Chapman
• Project: Bee Abundance and Diversity Across an Agriculture-Forest Boundary

2019-2020

Melissa Baker, Neuroscience and Psychology

• Faculty Mentor: Huynh-Nhu Le, Psychology
• Project: "The Relationship Between Physical Activity Levels & Postpartum Depression Symptoms at 6 Weeks Postpartum"

Sarah Beethe, Geological Sciences

• Faculty Mentor: Richard Tollo, Geological Sciences
• Project: "Effusive-to-Pyroclastic Transition: Identifying factors that control eruptive events in mafic magma systems"

Gavin Derleth, Geography and Political Science

• Faculty Mentor: Elizabeth Chacko, Geography
• Project: "Effects of Gentrification on DC Neighborhoods"

Claire Houchen, Biological Sciences

• Faculty Mentor: Colin Young, Pharmacology and Physiology
• Project: "Forebrain estrogen signaling in sexual dimorphic non-alcoholic fatty liver disease"

Berkley Lane, Environmental Studies and Dance

• Faculty Mentor: Dana Tai Soon Burgess, Theater and Dance
• Project: "The Chesapeake Bay: An Examination of Dead Zones"

Dounia Lazreq, Mathematics

• Faculty Mentor: Joel Lewis, Mathematics
• Project: "Hurwitz Transitivity of Reflection Factorizations in Complex Reflection Groups"

Mark McKibbin, Political Communication

• Faculty Mentor: Kimberly Gross, School of Media and Public Affairs
• Project: "The Effects of Media Messages On Intention to Vote"

Noelle Purcell, Biological Anthropology and Archaeology

• Faculty Mentor: David Braun, Anthropology
• Project: "The Environmental context of human evolution: Insights from Ecomorphology"

Christopher Reid, Chemistry

• Faculty Mentor: Adelina Voutchkova, Chemistry
• Project: "Biomass-derived Alcohol to Hydrocarbon Fuel via Catalytic Alcohol Coupling"

Ethan Rooney, Physics

• Faculty Mentor: Gerald Feldman, Physics
• Project: "Probing the Internal Structure of the Neutron"

Sarthak Shah, Biological Sciences

• Faculty Mentor: Alejandro Villagra, Biochemistry and Molecular Medicine
• Project: "Utilization of radiotherapy and epigenetic modulation to enhance cellular response to immunotherapy in melanoma"

Rowan Sherwood, Biological Anthropology

• Faculty Mentor: David Braun, Anthropology
• Project: "Testing East Turkana Bovid Mortality Profiles Using Site-Specific Data"

Mikaela Stine, Speech, Languages, and Hearing Sciences

• Faculty Mentor: Gregory Wallace, Speech, Languages, and Hearing Sciences
• Project: "New Social Cognition Video Task"

Lily Werlinich, Political Communication

• Faculty Mentor: Kimberly Gross, School of Media and Public Affairs
• Project: "Understanding the influence of motivated reasoning in the processing and framing of climate change communication"
   

2018-2019

Abdalla Jasmina, Biology

• Faculty Mentor: Mollie Manier, Biology
• Project: Transgenerational effects of parental ethanol consumption on offspring ethanol sensitivity

Thea Anderson, Biological Anthropology & Biology

• Faculty Mentor: Brenda Bradley, Anthropology and CASHP
• Project: Sexually dimorphic and dichromic facial patterns in wild red bellied lemurs (Eulemur rubriventer) Quantifying patterns and assessing function

Lauren Anderson, Biological Anthropology & Biology

• Faculty Mentor: Brenda Bradley, Anthropology and CASHP
• Project: Ecology of Color Vision in Diademed Sifakas

Yiorgos Argyros, Biology

• Faculty Mentor: Michael Massiah, Chemistry
• Project: Investigating the Effects of MID1-RNA Binding on MID1 E3 ligase activity

Jared Axelowitz, Psychology

• Faculty Mentor: Cynthia Rohrbeck, Psychology
• Project: Sensitization and Bystander Intervention in the Domain of Sexual Assault

Cecelia Chisdock, Archaeology, Biological Anthropology

• Faculty Mentor: Alison Brooks, Anthropology
• Project: Skeletal Status Indicators at Roman Period Megiddo

Scott Dai, Biology

• Faculty Mentor: Keryn Gedan, Biological Sciences
• Project: Plant Functional Traits Across Salinity Gradients in Saline Agricultural Fields

Jack Hirschman, Physics, Political Science

• Faculty Mentor: Evangeline Downie, Physics
• Project: STT and SiPM Integration Into MUSE

Annabel LaBrecque, History

• Faculty Mentor: David Silverman, History
• Project: ‘Little White Men’: The Transformation of the Southwest and the Remaking of the American Colonial Frontier at Bent’s Fort

Nir Liebenthal, Psychology

• Faculty Mentor: Sherry Molock, Psychology
• Project: A Qualitative Study of Parental Intervention in Concussion Protocol in Youth Sports

Maggie Moss, Geological Sciences

• Faculty Mentor: Richard Tollo, Geological Sciences
• Project: Analysis of Distal Lava Creek Tuff at Yellowstone Supervolcano: Insights into the thermal state of large-volume silicic magmas and the cooling history of related deposits

Monical Nadeau, Neuroscience

• Faculty Mentor: Gregory Wallace, Speech and Hearing Sciences
• Project: ‘Selective Overeating’ in Autism and Its Health and Behavioral Consequences

Anayeli Nuñez, History, American Studies

• Faculty Mentor: Elaine A. Peña, American Studies
• Project: The Atlantic Frontier: A Study of Mexican Identity and Transatlantic Immigration Post-Revolution

Brigid Prial, English

• Faculty Mentor: Daniel DeWispelare, English
• Project: Facts and Fantasies: Exploring Definitions of the Human in 19th Century Travel Writing

Sarah Schrup, Biophysics

• Faculty Mentor: Emilia Entcheva, Biomedical Engineering
• Project: Optically-Controlled Epigenetics in Human Stem Cell Derived Cardiomyocytes

Kayla Schwartz, Biology

• Faculty Mentor: Hartmut Doebel, Biology
• Project: Neonicotinoid pesticides and the Varroa mite synergistically contribute to Apis mellifera death and Colony Collapse Disorder

Hayley Seal, Biochemistry

• Faculty Mentor: Kenna Peusner, Anatomy and Regenerative Biology
• Project: Investigating Neural Circuitry in Congenital Vestibular Disorders

Phoebe Shaw, Biology

• Faculty Mentor: Keryn Gedan, Biology
• Project: Analyzing the ecological niche of Phragmites australis and the effect of photosynthetically active radiation

Isabel Wolfer, History

• Faculty Mentor: Daniel Schwartz and Jeffrey Richter , History and Judaic Studies
• Project: Disregarding Disregard? The Representation of Passive Complicity among Civilian Populations in Holocaust Museums

Alexandra Wolff, Speech and Hearing Sciences

• Faculty Mentor: Gregory Wallace, Speech and Hearing Sciences
• Project: Is Overeating in Autism Associated with an Attentional Bias Towards Food?
   

2017-2018

Ranjit Bhangu, Biology '18

• Faculty Mentor: Robert H. Miller, Anatomy & Regenerative Biology
• Project: The Effect of Oligodendrocyte Ablation on inflammation

Christabel Chan, Biology '18

• Faculty Mentor: Javad Nazarian, Institute of Biological Sciences
• Project: BioBanking Pediatric Glioblastomas

Irissa Cisternino, Psychology '18

• Faculty Mentor: Katrina Pariera, Sociology & Communications
• Project: Mommy, What is Rape? Sexual Assault and the American Family

Michelle Cohn, American Studies '18

• Faculty Mentor: Gayle Wald, American Studies
• Project: What Makes You Beautiful: A Critical Look at Boy Band Culture

Sarah Espinel, Psychology '18

• Faculty Mentor: Paul Poppen, Psychology
• Project: Young adults' attitudes towards and perceptions of sexually explicit internet material

Edward Farrow, Biology '19

• Faculty Mentor: Chiara Manzini, Pharmacology & Physiology
• Project: The Study of Missense CC2D1A Mutations in Connection to Autism Spectrum

Eva Gustafson, Political Science, Dance '18

• Faculty Mentor: Dana Tai Soon Burgess, Theatre & Dance
• Project: From First Ladies to Politicians: An Examination of Women in Politics

Gary Hovsepian, Biological Sciences '18

• Faculty Mentor: Ioannis Eleftherianos, Biological Sciences
• Project: Painful Protection: Uncovering the Role of Nociceptors in Host Defense

Helia Imany-Shakibai, Chemistry, Psychology '19

• Faculty Mentors: Jakub Kostal, Adelina Voutchkova, Chemistry
• Project: Investigating the Mechanism of Skin Sensitization by Hydrazide Chemicals to Develop an in Silico Model for Prediction of Sensitization Potential

Elina Kapoor, Biology '18

• Faculty Mentors: Mollie Manier, Biological Sciences
• Project: Characterizing the Role of the Gene fruitless (fru) in Reproductive Success D.melanogaster

Steven Kelly, Political Communication '18

• Faculty Mentors: Ethan Porter, SMPA
• Project: Exploring the Impact of Partisanship on Critical Thinking Acuity

Camille Kim, Human Services, Social Justice '17

• Faculty Mentors: Emily Morrison, Human Services, Social Justice
• Project: Intimate partner Violence in LGBTQ Relationships

Pearl Kravets, Psychology '18

• Faculty Mentors: Greg Wallace, Speech and Hearing Sciences
• Project: Does olfactory and gustatory discrimination moderate the association between autistic traits and selective eating?

Yana Kropotova, Biology; Cellular and Molecular Concentration '18

• Faculty Mentors: Sabyasachi Sen, Medicine
• Project: Low Dosage Metformin Effect on Mesenchymal Stem Cell Mitochondrial Function

Logan Malik, Chemistry '18

• Faculty Mentors: Miller Houston, Chemistry
• Project: Light Field Imaging Tomography

Maeve McCool, Fine Art and Art History '18

• Faculty Mentors: Lisa Lipinski, Corcoran School of Arts and Design
• Project: For Artists, By Artists: Alternative Exhibition Spaces in Contemporary Art

Margaret McCool, German, History '18

• Faculty Mentors: Mary Beth Stein, German
• Project: A Critical Examination of East Germany's Stasi in History and Memory

Emily Mobbs, Biology, '19

• Faculty Mentors: Damien O'Halloran, Biology
• Project: Isolation of Genes that Regulate ncx-5

Christian Roatta, Economics, '18

• Faculty Mentors: Herman Stekler, Economics
• Project: Evaluating Forecasting Processes of the 1937-1938 Recession

Sheel Singh, Biological Anthropology, '18

• Faculty Mentors: Brenda Bradley, Anthropology
• Project: Exploring Potential Candidate Gene Variation in Chimpanzees

Corinne Tarantino, Biology, '19

• Faculty Mentors: Scott Powell, Biology
• Project: Testing trade-offs in locomotion performance across ecological contexts: turtle ant running speed in the complex canopy environment 

Shaylyn Quinn, Psychology, '17

• Faculty Mentors: Peg Barratt, Psychology
• Project: Effects of ethnicity on American children's attitudes about mental illness

Margaret Benda, Psychology, English '18

• Faculty Mentors: Myeong-Ho Sohn, Psychology
• Project: Intercultural and Intracultural Difference in Emotion Perception

Madeleine Cook, Photojournalism '19

• Faculty Mentors: Margaret Adams, Photography
• Project: Seeking Refuge: A Multimedia Analysis of Refugee Resettlement in the U.S.

Jacqueline Dyer, Chemistry '18

• Faculty Mentors: Akos Vertes, Chemistry
• Project: Selective capture and metabolic profiling of cancer cells

Jamie Kleiner, Psychology '18

• Faculty Mentors: Chet Sherwood, Anthropology
• Project: The Evolution of Memory: A Comparison of Adult Hippocampal Neurogenesis Across Primates
   

2016-2017

Acacia Ackles, Biology, Mathematics

• Faculty Mentor: Patricia Hermandez, Biology
• Project: The development of ceretobranchial 5 in zebrafish (Danio rerio)

Nathaniel Bachtel, Chemistry, Biology

• Faculty Mentors: Ioannis Eleftherianos & Douglas Nixon, Biology and Microbiology, Immunology & Tropical Medicine
• Project: These Flies Make My Brain Hurt: A Genetic Approach Towards Characterizing Neuro-Immune Interactions

Henry Betts, Biology

• Faculty Mentor: Amy Zanne, Biology
• Project: The Impacts of Fungal Interaction on the Decomposition of Two Woods Substrates

Kathryn Cavanna, Biology

• Faculty Mentors: Aleksandar Jeremic, Biology
• Project: The Role of Proteasome in Human Amylin Degradation in Pancreatic B-Cells

Sharif Chebbo, Biology

• Faculty Mentor: Mollie K. Manier, Biology
• Project: Characterizing the Role of the Gene Ecdysone Induced Protein 74EF in the Length of the Seminal Receptacle of the Female D. malanogaster

Yeshwant Chillakuru, Biology, Economics

• Faculty Mentor: Sally A. Moody, Anatomy and Regenerative Biology
• Project: Assessing defects in ear and kidney development caused by mutations in the Six1 gene

Alexis Clark, Archaeology

• Faculty Mentors: Jeffrey Blomster, Anthropology
• Project: The Color of Influence: Style and Interaction in Postclassic Oaxaca

Susanna Israelsson, Biological Anthropology, French

• Faculty Mentor: Sergio Almécija, Biological Anthropology
• Project: An Analysis of Sexual Dimorphism in Extant and Extinct Hominoids through Pelvis Bone Morphology

Rachel Kahn, Human Services and Social Justice

• Faculty Mentor: Daniel E. Martínez, Sociology
• Project: Barriers to Higher Education in San Isidro, Arequipa, Peru

Yunjing Ke, Mathematics, Statistics

• Faculty Mentor: Daniel Ullman, Mathematics
• Project: Algorithms for Redistricting

Claudia Lamy, Fine Arts

• Faculty Mentor: Douglas Boyce, Music
• Project: JeJu LOVELAND Soundscape Social Science and Humanities Experiment

Sigmund Lilian, Biology

• Faculty Mentor: Kenna D Peusner, Anatomy and Regenerative Biology
• Project: Changes in the Vestibular System in Congenital Disorders

Julia Magliozzo, Chemistry, Environmental Science

• Faculty Mentor: Adelina Voutchkova-Kostal, Chemistry
• Project: Predictive tools for bioconcentration factor based on Nuclear Magnetic Resonance spectroscopic data

Isvita Marfatia, Biological Sciences

• Faculty Mentor: Mollie K. Manier, Biology
• Project: Understanding the Effect of Cryptic Female Choice on Copulatory Behavior, Sperm Ejection Timing and Sperm Storage

Brianna Nobles, Sociocultural Anthropology, American Studies

• Faculty Mentor: Melani McAllister, American Studies
• Project: Keeping Up With the Appropriation

Sunny Patel, Religious Studies, Economics

• Faculty Mentor: Paul Duff, Religion
• Project: Sacred Intentions

Abigail Pepin, Environmental Studies

• Faculty Mentor: Cynthia Dowd, Chemistry
• Project: Enzyme Kinetics: Development of Novel Compounds for the Inhibition of the Proteasome Complex in Mycobacterium tuberculosis

David Plotnick,  Biophysics

• Faculty Mentor: Peter Nemes, Chemistry
• Project: Metabolite Measurement in Single Cells using capillary-micro sampling and single-cell CE-ESI-MS

Brandon Ritchie, Biology

• Faculty Mentor: Colin Young, Pharmacology, Physiology
• Project: The Role of Hypothalamic ER Stress in Transcription Factor Activation and Obesity

Linda Ryan, Dance

• Faculty Mentor: Maida Withers, Theatre and Dance
• Project: Posture as Performance Art: the Role of Persona in Louis XIV's Pursuit and Maintenance of Power

Paul Scotti, Psychology

• Faculty Mentor: Sarah Shomstein, Psychology 
• Project: The Effects of Real-World Objects on Attentional Selection

Fahim-Faraaz Syed, Chemistry

• Faculty: Michael King, Chemistry
• Project: Synthesis of potential anti-malarial agents: 4-iodo-isohistidine and 4-iodoisohistamine

Kathryn White, History, Archaeology

• Faculty: Denver Brunsman, History
• Project: George Washington and Commerce in 18th Century Alexandria through the Lens of Historical Archaeology

Kara Zielinksi, Biophysics

• Faculty: Mark Reeves, Physics
• Project: Expression of Amyloids in Secretory Granules of Insect Cells
   

2015-2016

Reem Al Shabeeb, Biology 

Faculty Mentor: Dr. Mollie K. Mallier, Biology
Project: Characterizing candidate genes for giant sperm in Drosophila melanogaster
Katherine Aliotta, Chemistry and Political Science

Faculty Mentors: Dr. John Hawdon and Dr. Cynthia Dowd; Departments of Microbiology, Immunology, and Tropical Medicine; and Chemistry
Project: Fractionation and chemical identification of anthelmintic activity in extracts of the bitter melon Momordica charantia
Dara Baker, Computational Biology

Faculty Mentor: Dr. Sidney Fu, Department of Experimental Medicine
Project: School of Medicine and Health Sciences, Department of Experimental Medicine
Andrée Beals, Communication and Dance

Faculty Mentors: Maida Withers, Theater and Dance
Project: Rite of Spring Riots: Creation of and Reactions to Dance Performances of Stravinsky’s Le Sacre du Printemps in 1913 and 2013
Emily Bragg, Speech and Hearing Sciences

Faculty Mentor: Dr. Guangying Wu, Psychology
Project: Impact of Early Social Interaction and Aging on Mouse Vocalization
Nicole Cassanta, Biology

Faculty Mentor: Dr. Alexandros Tzatsos, Anatomy and Regenerative Biology
Project: Genome Editing of Human Pancreatic Cancer using CRISPR/Cas9 Technology
Audrey Anna Elliott, Religion and English

Faculty Mentors: Paul Duff, Religion
Project: Liberal Quakerism as a Religious Alternative
Jonathon Fields, Fine Art Photography

Faculty Mentor: Claudia Smigrod, Photography
Project: Kamra-e-faoree
Richard Fisher, Chemistry

Faculty Mentor: Dr. Cynthia Dowd, Chemistry
Project: Synthesis of Proteasome Inhibitors Against Mycobacterium tuberculosis
Klarissa Garcia Orellana, Psychology

Faculty Mentor: Huynh-Nhu (Mimi) Le, Psychology
Project: Postpartum OCD: Perspectives from mothers, health professionals, and policy makers
Allie Geoca, Chemistry

Faculty Mentor: J Houton Miller, Chemistry
Project: Lightfield Imaging of Flame Luminosity With Application To Black Carbon Emission From Combustion
Sydney Goldstein, Environmental Studies and Dance

Faculty Mentor: Dr. Melissa Keely
Project: Municipal Green Building: Development and Design Across the United States
Jacob Maibach, Math and Physics

Faculty Mentor: Joseph Bonin, Math
Project: Bounds Testing on Transversal Matroid Extensions
Esha Mehta, Undeclared

Faculty Mentor: Dr. Gregory Wallace, Speech and Hearing
Project: Determining Longitudinal Cortical Thinning in Autism Spectrum Disorder verses Traditionally Developing Adolescents
Jennifer Nichols, Psychology

Faculty Mentor: Tara Behrend, Organizational Sciences and Communication
Project: Extrinsic and Intrinsic Variables in Internship Satisfaction
Kimberly Preminger, Speech and Hearing Sciences

Faculty Mentor: James Mahsie, Speech and Hearing Sciences
Project: Sentence Stress Production in Children
James (Alex) Randall, Biology

Faculty Mentor: Dr. Robert Donaldson, Biology
Project: Enzyme Kinetics: Mitigating Oxidative Stress from Reactive Oxygen Species via Peroxisome Replication and Enzyme Cross-Linking
Rachel Smillian-Goldstein,  Journalism and Mass Communication

Faculty Mentor: Kim Gross, Media and Public Affairs
Project: Framing the feminist movement, 1960-2014
Ryan Tom, Criminal Justice

Faculty Mentor: Daniel DeWispelare, English
Project: The Effects of Eighteenth-Century English Literature on Crime Policy, Penal Policy, and the Justice System
Sara Wagner, Geology and Chemistry

Faculty Mentor: Richard Tollo
Project: Geothermometry of two-pyroxene and zircon-bearing mineral assemblages, Blue Ridge Province, Virginia: An investigation of the origin of charnockite and its role in the thermal evolution of a Precambrian mountain belt
Simon Wentworth, Biology

Faculty Mentor: Randall Packer, Biology 
Project: Genetic Responses to Changes in Environmental Conditions in the Gill Tissue of the Fathead Minnow
Hanchun (Rowland) Zhang, Economics and International Affairs

Faculty: Donald O. Parsons, Economics
Project: The Future of Money: Millennials and Bitcoins
 

2014-2015

Yoseph Aldras, Biology

Faculty Mentor: Damien O'Halloran, Assistant Professor of Biology
Project: “Developing Caenorhabditis elegans as a novel in vivo model of human amylin toxicity”
Erik Bethke, Environmental Studies and Geography

Faculty Mentor: John Lill, Assistant Professor of Biology
Project: “Phenology of Black Cherry and Eastern Tent Caterpillars: Understanding Synchrony and its Effects on Plant Quality”
Katherine Bradshaw, Classical Studies

Faculty Mentor: Alex Huang, Professor of English, Theatre and Dance, East Asian Languages and Literatures, and International Affairs
Project: “Changing Duties: Imagining Ancient Roman Pietas in Twenty-First-Century Adaptations of Shakespeare's Coriolanus”
Shreya Chaturvedi, Psychology

Faculty Mentor: Stephen Dopkins, Director, Undergraduate Psychology Advising; Associate Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience
Project: “Determining The Complex Relationship Between Time and Acquisition of Knowledge”
Alexis Chen, Biology

Faculty Mentor: Patricia Hernandez, Assistant Professor of Biology
Project: “Muscle architecture and myosin profile of the cypriniform palatal organ”
Connor Delaney, Economics

Faculty Mentor: Irene Foster, Assistant Professor of Economics
Project: “Concept Maps as a Tool for Teaching and Learning: Experimental Evidence from Principles of Economics”
Jacqueline Drayer, American Studies

Faculty Mentor: Suleiman Osman, Associate Professor of American Studies
Project: “Shifting Cultural Perceptions of Miniscule Housing, from Alley Dwellings and Tenements to Modern Micro Housing”
Theodore Haines, Political Science

Faculty Mentor: Sarah Binder, Professor of Political Science
Project: “Outside Interests in U.S. Congressional Elections: Analyzing the Strategies and Impact of the Club for Growth”
Felisa Hsieh, Biology

Faculty Mentor: Alex Pyron, Robert F. Griggs Assistant Professor of Biology
Project: “Ecomorphotypes on Snakes: Comparing Ecomorphotypes at a Global Scale”
Rabia Idrees, Biology

Faculty Mentor: Narine Sarvazyan, Professor of Pharmacology & Physiology
Project: “The Effect of Clinically-Relevant Doses of Bis(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate on Cardiovascular Outcomes”
Alex Marchak, Biology and Economics

Faculty Mentor: Sally Moody, Professor of Anatomy and Cell Biology
Project: “Identifying the Role of WBP2NL on Developing Neural Cells”
Emily Messing, Criminal Justice

Faculty Mentor: Daniel Martínez, Assistant Professor of Sociology
Project: “Missing Migrants, Ambiguous Loss, & Immigration Reform”
Victoria Neiman-Vigo, Theatre and History

Faculty Mentors: Aleksandar Jeremic, Associate Professor of Biological Sciences and Robert Donaldson, Professor of Biology
Project: “An Insight into Diabetes: Thiol-senstive Mechanisms for Amylin Toxicity in Pancreatic Cells”
Joseph Nelson, Economics

Faculty Mentor: Irene Foster, Assistant Professor of Economics
Project: “Trade Restrictions and Economic Stability: A Case Study of the Republic of Malta and the Kingdom of Morocco”
Jay Pandya, Peace Studies and Biology

Faculty Mentor: Sally Moody, Professor of Anatomy and Cell Biology
Project: “Maternal mRNAs that Direct Neural Fate of Xenopus laevis”
Aaron Poliak, Biological Anthropology

Faculty Mentor: Brian Richmond, Associate Professor of Anthropology
Project: “Is there a right way to run? The influence of ground stiffness on habitual barefoot running form”
Sam Lyons, Psychology and Spanish

Faculty Mentor: Huynh-Nhu (Mimi) Le, Associate Professor of Psychology
Project: “The Psychological Well-Being of Latino and African-American Adolescent Fathers”
Alana Rusonis, Psychology

Faculty Mentor: Sarah Shomstein, Associate Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience
Project: “Exploration of Preserved Visual Features through the Use of Object-Based Attention Tasks in Integrative Visual Agnosia Patients”
Michael Smith, Women's Studies

Faculty Mentor: Jennifer Nash, Assistant Professor of American Studies
Project: “Lighting Up on Campus: Smoking, Identity and Politics at Universities in Washington, DC”
Jacqueline Sodano, Political Science

Faculty Mentor: Steve Balla, Associate Professor of Political Science, Public Policy and Public Administration, and International Affairs
Project: “Regulatory Gridlock”
Taylor Soja, History

Faculty Mentor: Jennifer Green-Lewis, Associate Professor of English
Project: “The Great War and the Surreal: The Early Work of Paul Nash"
Mariel Supina, Applied Mathematics

Faculty Mentor: Valentina Harizanov, Professor of Mathematics
Project: “Classical and Quantum Algorithms: Analysis and Comparison”
Bhairvi Trivedi, Speech & Hearing Sciences

Faculty Mentor: Malathi Thothathiri, Assistant Professor of Speech & Hearing Sciences
Project: “Neural Basis of Language”
Michael Velez, Psychology

Faculty Mentor: Narine Sarvazyan, Professor of Pharmacology & Physiology
Project: “Examining the effects of varied ratios of Ventricular Cardiomyocytes and Fibroblasts on propagation velocity and propulsion force in designed Venous Engineered Heart Tissue Cuffs to be used for cardiovascular repair”
Connor Woods, History

Faculty Mentor: Tom Long, Coordinator, Undergraduate Advising and Assistant Professor of History
Project: “Comparison of Irish Propaganda Literature in Ireland and the United States from 1910-1930”
Matthew Zahn, Economics and Political Science

Faculty Mentor: Tara Sinclair, Associate Professor of Economics
Project: “Improving Employment Measurement: A Temporal Disaggregation Approach”