Oct. 23, 2009
CONTACT: David Clarke, Communications
Assistant, WSU Office of Undergraduate Education,
509-335-8070, david.h.clarke@email.wsu.edu
Beverly Makhani, Communications Director, WSU Office of
Undergraduate Education, 509-335-6679,
makhani@wsu.edu
David F. Bahr, Director, WSU Undergraduate Research,
509-335-8523, dbahr@wsu.edu
WSU Auvil Scholars Program Awards 22 Undergraduate Researchers for Fall 2009
PULLMAN, Wash. – Twenty-two undergraduate students participating in mentored research on campus have received awards for fall semester from the Auvil Scholars program, according to an announcement by the Office of Undergraduate Research at Washington State University. Eight of the students are from the WSU Honors College.
The $1,000 Auvil awards are intended to further their research. The Auvil Scholars program was created in 2006 through an estate gift from WSU alumnus Grady and Lille Auvil, Wenatchee tree-fruit entrepreneurs. Awards for fall, spring, and summer semesters have been awarded to more than 60 students total.
“This semester’s awardees are from a broad range of majors across the university,” says David Bahr, director of undergraduate research. “It’s a pleasure to see that students from disciplines across campus are taking part in academic research, including scholarship and creative activity.”
Undergraduates applying for an Auvil award this semester were already involved in research with a mentoring faculty member. The Auvil awards are administered through WSU Undergraduate Research.
The names, majors, research titles, and mentors of the fall 2009 Auvil Fellows are:
Kimberly Adams, a senior in human development, researching transgendered people and movement through their transition from their assigned gender to the gender which is that of their gender identity, with mentor Jenifer McGuire; Matthew Allan, sophomore, food science, sweet cherry breeding, Amit Dhingra; Mapuana Antonio, senior, psychology and Honors College, native Hawaiians’ knowledge, attitudes, and preventative behaviors toward sun exposure and skin cancer, Laurie McCubbin; Tyler Armour, senior, integrated plant sciences/viticulture and enology, develop a greenhouse-based vineyard using a mutant grape that has a perpetually flowering vine, Amit Dhingra; Elizabeth Aultman, senior, environmental science, biological controls (nematodes) for Colorado potato beetles, William Snyder.
Conor Bollinger-Smith, sophomore, biochemistry/molecular biology, the activity of Rubisco (the carbon-fixing enzyme), Asaph Cousins; Cory Boone, senior, biochemistry, understanding Vibrio cholerae pathogenesis to lead to vaccine development, Michael Konkel; James Crabb, senior, horticulture/viticulture and enology, development of dwarfing and precocious grape varieties, Amit Dhingra; Alan Emanuel, senior, neuroscience and Honors College, how the brain controls feeding behaviors, Sue Ritter; Karina Garibay, senior, political science, the similarity of patterns of women’s political mobilization under different socio-economic and cultural conditions in Mexico, Amy Mazur.
Marc Groundwater, sophomore, material science and engineering, low-frequency vibration power harvesting system, David Bahr; Sarah Miller, senior, material science and engineering and Honors College, whiskers on tin-plated copper, and using tin-plated copper as an anode substitute in lithium ion batteries, M. Grant Norton; Gavin Mitchell, sophomore, material science and engineering and Honors College, chemical synthesis of a novel block copolymer with multiple functions, Katie Zhong; Aubree Pham, senior, finance and economics (minor), possible effect that model minority stereotype may have on Southeast Asian American college students at WSU, Alton Jamison; Katherine Rempe, junior, microbiology and Honors College, correlation between infection with the parasite Trichomonas vaginalis and prostate cancer explored in an epidemiological context, John Alderete.
Edward Rooney, junior, neuroscience and Honors College, underlying neurological basis for an aperitif response to alcohol (increased eating in response to an alcohol challenge), Steve Simasko; Charlotte Seidel, sophomore, zoology (pre-vet) and Honors College, role that the insulin signaling pathway has in the regulation of growth in horned dung beetles, Laura Lavine; Gianne Souza, junior, microbiology and Honors College, influenza and the brain, James Krueger; Alyssa Tanhueco, senior, English, importance of access to literary materials in jails and prisons and function of reading to incarcerated persons, Jennifer Swartz; Claire Walsh, freshman, digital technology and culture, relationship between developmental and adult sizes of horned and hornless dung beetles, Laura Lavine; Demetrious Wilson, senior, physics, surface phenomena of laser ablated crystallized zinc oxide, J .Thomas Dickinson; Scott Wyatt, senior, anthropology, further investigate turkey domestication in the U.S. by studying ancient samples from the Smithsonian Institution, Brian Kemp.
WSU Undergraduate Research helps to promote academic investigation by all students, from freshman through senior years. Many of this semester’s Auvil Scholars award recipients have ongoing research interests and have received prior Auvil or other awards to support their work. Some have participated in National Science Foundation-funded Research Experience for Undergraduate programs at WSU or other universities, and the Cougar Undergraduate Research Experience at WSU for new researchers.
Undergraduate Research is a unit of the Office of Undergraduate Education. More information is available online at undergraduateresearch.wsu.edu.