WSU Undergraduate Research Presents Awards to Garza, Herron, Rieck

PULLMAN, Wash.—The Washington State University Office of Undergraduate Research presented its annual Recognition of Excellence in Support of Undergraduate Research Awards to Javier Garza, Bryan Herron, and Daniel Rieck for 2022. They were recognized at the April 14 Division of Academic Engagement and Student Achievement (DAESA) annual awards event.

The award honors those who support undergraduate research programming and students in unique and important ways. The awardees were credited with making tremendous impacts as individuals and as a team, for providing wide-ranging and highly skilled technological and website support to undergraduate-research efforts, and for providing detailed and ever-evolving professional assistance in multiple instances.

The two DAESA information systems managers and web coordinator and developer, respectively, were credited with “going many extra miles over the past year” to provide wide-ranging and highly skilled technological and website support to undergraduate-research efforts, while still covering other tasks throughout other DAESA units.

The awardees, for example, directly supported undergraduate researchers and mentors, created online forms to gather vital information, explored intricacies of new judging software platforms, created and trouble-shot technology and tested it “to perfection,” and served online as well as in-person and hybrid events during the beyond the pandemic.

Two events specifically were cited as being positively impacted by the three in 2022—the Showcase for Undergraduate Research and Creative Activities (SURCA) and the 10-university/college, regional Pacific Northwest LSAMP conference.