Academic research is the backbone of the university. Though universities are increasingly acting like businesses with hyper-fixations on profit and the bottom line, research is still the most vital function of any academic institution.
Dr. Trena Paulus, who has recently been named by ETSU as the head of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activities, wants students to know research is not just for graduate and doctoral students.
Paulus has made it her mission to promote the visibility of undergraduate research and create new opportunities for students interested in conducting research of their own. However, this moment presents researchers with a unique set of challenges to be overcome.
Though studies into anything surrounding the pandemic have been in high demand, research under COVID-19 has proved to be incredibly difficult. Most archives have become more difficult to access, with many closing their doors over the duration of lockdown, and some material cannot be scanned for various reasons.
Research conducted in labs requires several new precautions. Data collection requiring face-to-face interaction has been dramatically reduced. Digital archives and databases will be the primary outlet for research during the pandemic.
Understanding the coronavirus is not just within the realm of the hard sciences. Research can be conducted regarding how people’s lives have been affected by the virus, historians can look into historical analogues of our almost-unprecedented moment, and literature students can look into cultural depictions of illness and isolation.
Much can be learned from critically examining the moment we are in. It is important that we ask difficult questions of how we got here, what can be done to resolve our current crisis and where we can go in the future. There are several research opportunities waiting for students to dive into.
Though it is the responsibility of people with power to make the massive changes required to solve this crisis, we can at the very least attempt to make sense of the strange and often lonely world we find ourselves in now.
When the university shifted mid–spring semester to fully remote learning in response to the COVID-19 global pandemic, Roadrunners conducting and supporting undergraduate research efforts pivoted quickly to continue their scholarly work.
UTSA recognizes undergraduate research as a high-impact practice that helps prepare students for success, with increased student-faculty interaction opening opportunities for mentorship and career planning advisement. Offering undergraduate students meaningful research opportunities is an important component of UTSA’s Classroom to Career Initiative, which focuses on providing more students with experiential learning opportunities during their academic journey at UTSA.
One program at UTSA focused on undergraduate research is the Ronald E. McNair Post-baccalaureate Achievement Program. It is designed to prepare undergraduate students for doctoral studies through involvement in research and other scholarly activities. McNair participants are either first-generation college students with financial need, or members of a group that is traditionally underrepresented in graduate education and have demonstrated strong academic potential.
“Although it was challenging, I had a lot of fun and still learned a tremendous amount.”
McNair scholar Joseph Galloway, a mechanical engineering major, learned that working from home could present challenges for research as he worked with Patrick Benavidez, a lecturer in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering on a project involving multirobot construction systems.
“It was definitely challenging trying to keep up with all of the assignments while staying home with so many distractions,” Galloway said. “My internet would cut out every once in a while during meetings and seminars, and I had to spend a lot of my time helping my family members with technical issues.”
Despite the challenges, Galloway found his research to be a great experience. “Although it was challenging, I had a lot of fun and still learned a tremendous amount,” he said.
Research teams demonstrated adaptability and creativity to find ways to continue their work remotely.
Another McNair scholar, Paulina Salinas, also had a positive experience over the summer with the McNair Scholars Summer Program. She worked under assistant professor Guenevere Chen’s Cybersecurity and Cloud Research Lab, studying cybersecurity in electric vehicle charging systems with another undergraduate student and two graduate students.
“We worked on the project this summer through weekly team meetings using Webex,” Salinas said. “For the project, one of the graduate students took the items we ordered online to their home and set up the test bed as we all collaborated and brainstormed to connect the items and make the project work.”
Provost’s Undergraduate Research Fellow John Long worked with kinesiology assistant professor Tianou Zhang this summer, focusing on secondary research using already existing data.
“I am Dr. Zhang’s reader-grader for his exercise nutrition course, so we speak on a frequent basis,” Long said. “Since I’m an undergraduate student, research labs were not available for me, so I had to conduct secondary research, specifically a systematic review. I met with him periodically for guidance on both conducting the necessary research for a systematic review as well writing a systematic review.”
Undergraduate students at UTSA continue to have multiple opportunities to get involved with research. Students can now access the Student Opportunity Center through UTSA’s Office of Undergraduate Research. This free service allows students to access the nation’s largest database for honors and undergraduate research opportunities. UTSA faculty are encouraged to submit their research opportunities to the SOC.
“You have to not be afraid to fail,” said undergraduate researcher Abbigayle Cuomo ’21. “I had to keep an open mind and be willing to try and work for it.”
Cuomo, a senior in the Women in Science and Engineering (WISE) program and a URECA scholar, works in the lab Dr. Carlos Simmerling, using molecular dynamics to investigate protein structure and folding. In 2020, she was awarded the Dr. Kenneth M. Nicholas Undergraduate Fellowship to support her summer research on “Testing Parameters for Simulation of Phosphorylated Amino Acids.”
“It all kind of worked out for me because of Lauren Raguette, a PhD student in the group,” she said. Raguette recruited her for the Simmerling group after they met as TAs in a chemistry class.
“She’s the best mentor I think I ever could have asked for,” Cuomo said. “It’s worked out really well.”
Cuomo has twice received the Academic Achievement Award. She is a member of the Women’s soccer club and has worked part time at Chick-fil-A throughout college. Abby received an international baccalaureate diploma from Commack High School, and benefited from positive classroom and science research experiences in high school, including participation in the Siemens and Regeneron STS science competitions. Last summer she was involved in a COVID-19 research project, simulating the part of the viral spike protein that binds to a receptor in a cell.
Cuomo’s advice to prospective undergrad researchers is straightforward: “Don’t give up If you don’t like the first research experience you try,” she said. “You are allowed to find something else that you like doing.”
More than 70 St. Thomas undergraduate students spent their summer doing research on a diverse range of subjects through St. Thomas’ Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program.
Chemistry major Cassandra Martin works on a summer research project in Owens Science Hall on June 29, 2020 in St. Paul.
The program provides grant funding to students making them paid professionals for their work and research. This year, 51 Young Scholars, five Sustainability Scholars, 14 Ignite Research Scholars and one Community-Based Researcher representing two dozen majors dug into a variety of topics in their respective fields.
Ignite Research Scholars is a new program giving students an early option to get started and explore research. These scholars gain experience by working as summer research assistants on projects designed by faculty.
The Newsroom caught up with student scholars to find out more about what they studied, what it’s like to work with a faculty mentor and how their research benefits their academic careers.
Name: Victoria Welter Year: Junior Major: English with creative writing emphasis Research Title: “Historical Novel with Feminist Themes” Faculty Mentor: Elizabeth Wilkinson, English Grant: Young Scholars
Describe what you’re researching this summer.
I am conducting research and writing a novel simultaneously. The novel is set in the 1950s Midwest during the polio epidemic. I spend half of my days researching relevant subjects such as polio as a disease and what contracting polio looked like for an 8-year-old girl in 1952, the culture of the 1950s, women’s baseball teams in the ’50s (I have a character, a girl, that loves baseball) and whatever information I need for the book. The other half of my day I spend writing, drafting and crafting the story.
What is the most interesting thing you’ve found so far in your research?
One reason I wanted to write about a girl with polio is because my aunt Carol had polio. When I was a child, my mom took care of my aunt in an iron lung (a breathing machine that helped polio patients) every day and I tagged along. Although Carol died when I was six, we were very close, but we never talked much about her time in the hospital or her recovery process.
Over the course of my research I’ve stumbled upon a few things about Carol. For example, while looking up the Sister Kenny Institute in Minneapolis (a hospital for polio patients), I found an article about my aunt! No one in my family remembered or knew of it either, so it was fun to share it with them. Recently, another aunt of mine passed in January and we’ve been going through her things, where I have found fascinating pieces of Carol’s history but also polio. We found her leg brace, pictures of her and her friends at the Sister Kenny Institute, letters she wrote with her mouth to her mother, and more. I not only learned about my aunt, but also what life as a polio victim looked like.
What has been the most valuable part of having funded research be part of your undergraduate experience at St. Thomas?
I am so grateful for this opportunity from St. Thomas. This grant has given me the opportunity to take what I’ve learned in my creative writing classes and apply it to my writing on a larger scale. In class, we write shorter pieces, but this grant has allowed me the time, space and funds to write and research a novel. Becoming a professional author is not an easy task, however, I feel like I have a head start now that I’ve completed a draft of a novel as an undergrad. I believe this grant will be the highlight of my career at the University of St. Thomas.
What have been the biggest benefits of working with an academic adviser like you have this summer?
Working with Dr. Liz Wilkinson has been a wonderful experience. Having an adviser helps keep me motivated and she gives me guidance when I need it. Each week, Dr. Wilkinson and I meet over Zoom to discuss how the writing and research is going. We also spend about an hour writing together. There is something magical about writing with another person, even though we are working on very different projects. We also read each other’s work and give one another feedback. Having Dr. Wilkinson’s support made the project smoother and overall a more pleasant experience.
Name: Cassandra Martin Year: Junior Major: Chemistry Research Title: “Degradation Products of Perfluorinated Compounds Measured Using Precursor Ion MS” Faculty Mentors: Anthony Borgerding, Chemistry Grant: Young Scholars
Describe what you’re researching this summer.
This summer, I have been studying perfluorinated compounds which are made of a carbon chain of varying lengths, carbon-fluorine bonds instead of carbon-hydrogen bonds, and a functional group bonded at the end. These compounds are of concern because they are persistent pollutants that end up in our bodies mainly through the food and water we consume. With water samples from the local banks of the Mississippi, I can extract and analyze what and how much of the PFCs are present. I am researching the products of when they break down via precursor ion mass spectrometer (MS) and looking for any unknown products.
What is the most interesting thing you’ve found so far in your research?
I think the most interesting things I have found so far are how to extract analytes using solid phase extraction and how to use and troubleshoot the mass spectrometer.
What has been the most valuable part of having funded research be part of your undergraduate experience at St. Thomas?
Learning useful analytical chemistry procedures to explore an interesting topic while being surrounded by great people.
What have been the biggest benefits of working with an academic adviser like you have this summer?
The greatest benefit of getting to work with Dr. Borgerding is learning how to perform SPE (solid phase extraction) and use the MS while receiving guidance from him. Research has given me the opportunity to work and learn from him in a more individualized setting.
Name: Giang Nguyen Year: Sophomore Major: Finance management Research Subject: Discrimination in the rental housing market in the Twin Cities Faculty Mentor: Deborah Rho, Economics Grant: Ignite Research Scholars
Describe what you’re researching this summer.
My research team is conducting an experiment in which we send email inquiries to real landlords (who post vacancies for their rental units online) using fictitious applicants. We will examine whether landlords’ response rates differ by the perceived race of the potential tenants and other characteristics of the inquiry. The perceived race (white, African American and Somali American) is experimentally manipulated through the names of the potential tenants. Differences in response rates across perceived race from landlords can be interpreted as discrimination as all other aspects of the email inquiry will be randomized.
What is the most interesting thing you’ve found so far in your research?
The “Ban the Box” law – an ordinance that bars landlords from denying applications based on convictions of felonies that are older than seven years, potentially increases discrimination against certain minority groups.
What has been the most valuable part of having funded research be part of your undergraduate experience at St. Thomas?
As I have long been intrigued by social science, I think there are no better opportunities for me to build on my academic career and enrich my knowledge than this funded research. I am so grateful for the chance to broaden my horizons while learning more about my interests and career.
What have been the biggest benefits of working with an academic adviser like you have this summer?
This project offers real-life exposure to research, which will help me navigate my future career. Moreover, this is an ideal occasion for me to develop my professional network, make acquaintances and establish relationships.
Recycled concrete aggregate (RCA) has been extensively researched as a way to improve the sustainability of concrete, eliminate construction waste and address looming shortages of virgin coarse aggregates. However, the goal of most research is to investigate high replacement levels and maximize the amount of RCA in the concrete. In reality, many agencies do not have access to enough RCA to use high replacement levels because RCA is in high demand for other applications, such as granular bases. Additionally, many agencies are reluctant to explore high replacement levels because of known concerns with the use of high replacement levels of RCA.
The goal of this research is to investigate the effect low and moderate replacement levels of coarse RCA for virgin coarse aggregate in concrete for paving applications. Low and moderate replacement levels are most likely to be implemented because they do not require as much RCA and they may be perceived to have less risk to owners. Therefore, it is important to understand how these replacement levels will affect the mechanical and nonmechanical properties of the concrete. This research will investigate the effect of up to three different RCA coarse aggregate types at various low and moderate replacement levels (10% to 50%).
What is the most interesting thing you have found so far in your research?
What I’ve found most interesting is little or no previous research exists when looking into low replacement level of RCA. As much as everyone has switched to environmentally conducive RCA, most of them have switched to high level replacement which is leading to depletion. Exploring a new path of RCA is very interesting.
What has been the most valuable part of having funded research be part of your undergraduate experience at St. Thomas?
For me, the most valuable thing is the exposure. Taking part in this research has opened my eyes. With the sense of accomplishment I feel, I can see graduate school in the horizon.
What have been the biggest benefits of working with an academic adviser like you have this summer?
The biggest benefit for me is how equipped I feel with professionalism and the etiquette of research. Luckily, these skills are transferable to other fields and interactions with people.
The reward at the end might be that the paper you participated in researching is published – that’s a big deal to me. That’s the ultimate goal and it pushes me every day.
It is not every day you get to work with your role model, so working with Dr. Lederle is a huge accomplishment.
Research rarely rests. All year long, Illinois State University student and faculty researchers alike delve into their research with passion. Despite many Redbirds being away from campus over the summer, research at Illinois State continues to thrive—even during the pandemic.
This summer, 27 students received the new Undergraduate Research Support Program grant provided by the Office of Student Research. “Essentially, this is a grant program that encourages undergraduate student researchers to propose a research project under the supervision of a faculty mentor,” said Dr. Gina Hunter, director of the Office of Student Research. “It allows students to use the grant to fund their hourly wage, for research supplies or research incentives, and for travel to do research.”
This is the first year that the grant has been offered over the summer. As many research plans were in place before coronavirus (COVID-19), students and faculty have gotten creative this summer in order to continue their research.
“This summer has been very unusual,” Hunter said. “In many cases, we’ve had to make and allow for adjustments.” The accommodations have included remote research, special approval to travel, and delaying research until Illinois reopened and students could return to a laboratory while physical distancing.
Hunter said summer provides unique advantages for many student researchers. “A lot of students don’t have time in the academic year to really immerse themselves in a research project that might be very time consuming,” Hunter said. “Summer can give them an opportunity to work more intensely on a project. Their faculty mentor may have more time for them in the summer; it’s a time when faculty themselves are often working more intensely on their own research projects, and they can involve students in that process.”
Read on to learn more about five of these student researchers and their projects.
Anastasia Ervin
Inspired by her father’s work with the Bloomington-Normal Water Reclamation District, Anastasia Ervin spent her summer researching sewer districts and their local landscapes. “I’m analyzing the topography and location of the sewage districts in Central Illinois and determining factors such as urban growth and how they use the landscape to sway public opinion,” said Ervin, a junior from Bloomington majoring in anthropology. Ervin’s research primarily focuses on Bloomington-Normal and Champaign-Urbana.
With her grant, Ervin conducted her research over a 12-week period under the guidance of Associate Professor Dr. Kathryn Sampeck. Much of Ervin’s research relied on archival documents, and due to COVID-19, she struggled to access physical archives. However, she found online sources to help her analyze factors such as income value. For example, Ervin compared areas to discover whether sewage districts had an impact on income value.
“What I found so far in both Bloomington and Urbana is that the low-economic status neighborhoods are situated on the industrial side of town, while the higher economic status neighborhoods are located away from the industrial side,” said Ervin.
Another major focus of Ervin’s research was the local power that sewage districts hold. “I found that the districts use their power over the landscape as power to sway public opinion,” said Ervin. “They spend a lot of money and effort into sculpting the landscape of the district grounds in order to make it appear more attractive to the public.”
As Ervin plans to attain postgraduate degrees in anthropology, this research experience has set her up for success. “The experience has helped me tremendously,” said Ervin. “It helps jump-start my bachelor’s degree thesis. From there, that provides me experience in the background research associated with what might be my topic for future papers.”
Juan Canchola
After having his first research paper published this past April, Juan Canchola went right back to work this summer with his mentor, Assistant Professor of Chemistry Dr. Jonathan Mills.
“I’ve been working in Dr. Mills’ lab for a year now,” said Canchola, a senior biology major and chemistry minor from Bloomington. “We worked on the paper that we published for five months. We’re working on the second one now, and it’ll be ready around winter.”
This summer, Canchola and Mills shifted their focus to natural products and antimicrobial research. Natural products are chemical compounds that are found in nature. The researchers are observing these products for the purpose of drug discovery. “We are designing better routes to drug synthesis and finding interesting structures that are potent,” said Canchola.
Canchola’s tasks in the lab alternate daily. “My responsibility is running the reactions and then working them up, which means purifying and concentrating,” said Canchola. “We established the rhythm so that one day we start a reaction, and the next day we work it up.”
His experience in Mills’ lab has been pivotal in launching his career in science. “I’m getting important experience, and I’m learning how to work in this setting,” Canchola said.
Audrey McNamara
Throughout her research, Audrey McNamara has fused her areas of study together to build off of previous findings. “Previous research literature has shown that developing art skills significantly improves social-emotional development,” said McNamara, a sophomore majoring in psychology and criminal justice studies and minoring in sociology. “We are currently studying the inverse: whether development of social-emotional skills produces improvement in art skills, particularly in preschool-aged children.”
McNamara has conducted her research with students Taylor Ullrich and Kianna Klendworth under the guidance of Dr. Julie Campbell. Their study began in the fall of 2019 and is expected to continue until spring 2021. “We began by attending Illinois Art Station classes at local Bloomington-Normal schools, where we monitored students for various behaviors, particularly in reference to how students interacted with themselves, peers, and teachers,” said McNamara. “We also took pictures of each student’s completed art project each week, which we later scored according to a modified formal elements therapy scale. This scale is used to grade each project according to the use of color, space, and detail, resulting in an overall art score for each project.”
After gathering data, the group has focused on analyzing their data to determine whether students’ behavior scores correlate to an improvement in art ability. “Though we have not yet completed our data analysis, our prediction is that improvement of social-emotional skills in preschoolers will be correlated to an improvement in art ability,” said McNamara. “We are excited to validate this hypothesis and share our findings.”
Evan Strandquist
Although typically uncommon for an undergraduate chemistry student, Evan Strandquist has his very own research project that he has worked on over the summer. “I’m essentially studying the fundamental chemistry behind the immobilization of antibodies onto the surface of gold nanoparticles,” said Strandquist, a senior chemistry major from Bloomington. “These conjugates are used in drug delivery for pesky drugs that the body doesn’t want to take up and can be used for photothermal therapy for cancer.”
Strandquist’s goal is to optimize the conjugates so that they can be applied to other projects from his lab, such as maximizing the efficiency of conjugates in immunoassay and phototherapy. He works under the guidance of Associate Professor Dr. Jeremy Driskell and often collaborates with the five graduate students in the lab. Strandquist notes that Driskell’s guidance has been an invaluable resource throughout his research.
“I work directly with Dr. Driskell, and he’s the one who keeps me on track,” said Strandquist. “I bounce ideas off of him, and he lets me know when I’m making an erroneous assumption.”
Since starting his project in January 2019, Strandquist has logged over 750 hours in the lab. Though his work was funded by the Office of Student Research grant this summer, he has also received funding from the National Science Foundation.
With his sights set on medical school, Strandquist is grateful for the laboratory experience he has received at Illinois State. “My biggest takeaway is simply the confidence that I’ve gained for operating on this level in a research setting,” said Strandquist. “This research experience is of the utmost importance because so much of my career is going to be involved with research and innovating in the medical field.”
Ashley Tauber
A member of the self-described “wren crew,” Ashley Tauber has spent her summer going out at the crack of dawn to observe nestlings. “This summer, I am exploring the effect of antioxidants on nestling growth rate,” said Tauber, a senior physiology, neuroscience, and behavior biology major from Naperville. “I’m a huge ‘bird nerd,’ so my supervisor reached out to me in January about the Undergraduate Research Support Program and then helped me focus on a thesis.”
Tauber’s supervisor is Dr. Charles Thompson, a research professor who has been conducting wren studies at Illinois State for decades. There are five other students currently in the lab, and their projects are often connected. The group meets at the lab before 6 a.m. each day, and each member has particular roles and responsibilities. “I have to go to certain nest boxes, and based on the age of the babies that are in the nest, I get to feed them anywhere from three microliters of solution to 15 microliters,” said Tauber. “Because my project is supplementing the birds, I use a pipette and supplement them with that.”
Additionally, Tauber is given regular “wren crew” tasks such as catching birds and checking if babies hatched. “There’s always something that needs to be done,” said Tauber. “It’s fantastic because you’re never bored.”
As she wraps up her project, she is thankful for her experience with the lab. “I’m just very grateful to have such a small group of people doing so many cool things,” said Tauber. “Dr. Thompson has been running this since the ’80s, and it’s such a wonderful lab; you’re a part of something so positive.”
Flip through a brochure for practically any institution of higher learning and you’re sure to see a familiar photo: goggled student, pipette in one gloved hand, petri dish in the other, beaming amid Bunsen burners and beakers in a brightly lit laboratory.
The image is a “quick read,” meant to illustrate research opportunities at a big-time college. But at the University of Missouri, where hands-on undergraduate research is a way of life, it’s more than a marketing angle.
“Research at Mizzou has helped me learn how to persist through difficult times,” says Ashley Aguillard, BS ’18 (biochemistry) and a nutrition doctoral student at the University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill. “There will be periods of time when the research is going quickly and smoothly and other times when things get slow and difficult. These moments are inevitable, and when they occur, you look back on what is driving you and remember the people you’re doing it for.”
Aguillard is one of 451 undergraduate students over the past 10 years to come through the Initiative for Maximizing Student Diversity (IMSD), a program designed to develop the research and professional skills of students from underrepresented groups. These include students from racial and ethnic minorities, students with disabilities, and students from disadvantaged backgrounds.
Mark Hannink, professor of biochemistry, and Linda Blockus, director of the Office of Undergraduate Research, are the principal investigators of the program, and Brian Booton has led the initiative as the undergraduate director since 2008. More than 100 faculty members serve as mentors in research areas across Mizzou, helping IMSD undergrads conduct world-class research much sooner than most students at large research universities.
“Undergraduate researchers want to save the world, and there is nothing like those bright eyes and anxious hands wanting to make a difference,” says Charlotte Phillips, professor of biochemistry and child health. “Helping them to get started and get opportunities to answer real questions is important. More than half of my undergraduates have gone on to get their PhD or MD.”
Funded by the National Institute of Health (NIH), the program’s ultimate goal is to increase the number of underrepresented students pursuing careers in biomedical research.
“The overwhelming majority of first-year participants self-identify as pre-med, pre-pharm, pre-dental, et cetera — what we think of as pre-clinical or health care professionals — and those are wonderful goals,” says Booton. “I always say, God knows we need to diversify the healthcare workforce. We don’t have a health care workforce that even closely mirrors our society. And yet we have even less of a biomedical research workforce that mirrors our society.
“Diversity leads to innovation, and that’s why programs like ours exist. I tell students, we’re not here to convert you. The program is here to expose you to research. To see if, perhaps, a career engaging in the science behind medicine is the way you’d like to utilize your curiosity in science.”
IMSD is a comprehensive program that integrates research and mentoring with academic and social support to help students excel. The first two years of the program include weekly meetings focused on academic, personal and professional development. Juniors and seniors progress to a different weekly seminar focused on taking ownership of one’s undergraduate research project along with graduate school preparation.
IMSD scholars also participate in national events such as the Annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minority Students (ABRMCS) — all while conducting undergraduate research with the support of faculty mentors and their respective research teams. It’s a holistic approach that leads to stellar retention and graduation rates, and postgraduate success.
Due to a new NIH funding structure, which makes a distinction between funding awarded to research intensive institutions such as MU and non-research intensive environments, the program’s name has changed to Maximizing Access to Research Careers (MARC). Structurally, MU’s initiative remains the same. The first two years of programming will be supported by university funding, but NIH will make an even larger investment in juniors and seniors who are committed to pursuing a PhD.
“The IMSD program seeks to challenge the notion of who belongs in science and research,” says Booton, noting that inclusion and equity in STEM have long been topics in the national discourse. “We nurture the student’s genuine curiosity in STEM and provide exceptional programming in order broaden participation of students from underrepresented backgrounds. Our goal is to create an affirming, inclusive space where diverse talent thrives.”
Pictured above are IMSD students who participated in multiple national undergraduate conferences in addition to performing cutting-edge research on Mizzou’s campus. Front row (from left): Ashley Aguillard, Erica Braham and Alana Rodney. Back row: Alex Rodriguez, Paige Martinez, Chris Zachary, Joshua Jones, James Ball and Brian Booton. Pre-pandemic photo taken by Roger Meissen
Early career: Vinodh Kumar Chellamuthu (Dixie State University) Mid-career: Rachael Miller Neilan (Duquesne University); Carolyn Otto (University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire)
Dr. Chellamuthuis assistant professor in the Mathematics Department at Dixie State University. He received his BS in mathematics from University of Madras, his MS in mathematics from Anna University, his MS in applied mathematics from Tulane University, and his PhD in mathematics from University of Louisiana at Lafayette. His main research interest is in mathematical modeling. His work with undergraduates has led to more than 50 conference presentations by students.
Dr. Neilan is associate professor in the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science at Duquesne University. She earned her BS in mathematics from Drexel University, and her MS in applied mathematics and PhD in mathematics from the University of Tennessee. She has research interests in agent-based modeling and optimal control theory with applications in neuroscience, ecology, epidemiology, business, and oceanography. Dr. Neilan has coauthored several articles with students.
Dr. Otto is associate professor in the Department of Mathematics at University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire. She earned her bachelor’s degree in mathematics from UW-Eau Claire and her master’s and PhD degrees in mathematics from Rice University. Her main research interest is in knot theory. Dr. Otto’s mentees include more than 50 students in 36 research projects.
CUR’s Social Sciences Division has selected Marsha Walton(professor of psychology, Rhodes College) as the 2020 recipient of its Excellence in Mentoring Undergraduate Research in the Social Sciences Award. Dr. Walton earned her BA in psychology with honors and her PhD in developmental psychology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her research interests focus on the moral and social development of children. She has mentored more than 50 undergraduate researchers and coauthored more than 12 publications with students, and her mentees have presented their work at numerous conferences.
The award honors outstanding mentors of undergraduate research in the social sciences for their role in supporting, encouraging, and promoting a positive and inclusive scholarly and teaching environment, and for contributions to professional and personal development of undergraduates within or outside their research or degree programs. Awardees receive a $100 stipend.
