UROP Announcements

UROP Celebrates the 2025 Mentor Award Recipients

Timothy O'Neil — Fri, 25 Apr 2025 05:25:00 +0000

UROP Celebrates the 2025 Mentor Award Recipients Timothy O'Neil Thu, 04/24/2025 - 23:25

UROP's Mentor Award recognizes campus individuals supporting undergraduates on research and creative projects. We invite you to celebrate these inspiring mentors with us and read excerpts from the students' thoughtful nominations.

Mentor Awards

Recipients have the option to award an Assistantship to an eligible undergraduate of their choosing in the next academic year. Tenured/tenure-track research faculty, teaching faculty, postdocs and graduate students at the 91�� and Anschutz Medical Campus are eligible for UROP's Mentor Award. Students are invited to nominate their mentors regardless of program funding, and we welcome submissions from early-stage researchers and creative practitioners. Learn more about UROP's Mentor Awards.

2025 Mentor Awards

Thomas Chaney, Material Science & Engineering

Nominated by Megan Davis

Elizabeth Trower, Geological Sciences

Nominated by Ryan Flat

Manuela Garay Sarmiento, Chemical & Biological Engineering

Nominated by Bianca Meurer-Zeman & Stella Rydahl-Kim

Allison Hilger, Speech, Language, & Hearing Sciences

Nominated by Karis Lowe

Alta Howells, Geological Sciences

Nominated by Ashley Askins

Kevin Mahan, Geological Sciences

Nominated by Christina Lipper, Julia Patacsil, & Holly McCrory Scott

Kathryn Materna, Geological Sciences

Nominated by Elizabeth Bissell & Lapit Lapinee

Matt Olm, Integrative Physiology

Nominated by Soren Maret

Hannah Padgette, Chemical and Biological Engineering

Nominated by Anna Broerman

Caroline Conzelman, Environment & Natural Sciences RAP

Nominated by Abigail Baldwin, Clementine Clyker, & Graciela Horstman

Nomination Excerpts

Edited for length.

As students who did not have all the theoretical knowledge of bioengineering and chemistry, Dr. Garay taught us with patience and kindness, enforcing repetition and hands-on work. She tailors her training to individual needs, which has allowed each of us to master techniques like rheology and photopolymerization, ensuring practical progress to my scientific career. Her “inquiry-based” approach, asking questions rather than dictating solutions, has honed our critical thinking and problem-solving skills. She builds a collaborative lab culture with her students where we succeed and fail together to ensure no student struggles in silence. She masters a perfect balance between guidance and autonomy. Manuela continues to demonstrate her passion for educational mentorship through her unwavering support for her students and her sincere investment in their success. Her dedication to both scientific achievement and student development speaks to her character and leadership. Her mentorship extends beyond technical skills and she actively invests in her students’ professional growth by encouraging attendance at conferences and workshops, reviewing CVs, and connecting students with collaborators. We are confident that she will continue to make lasting contributions to the research field and to every student who has the privilege of learning from her.

Bianca Meurer-Zeman & Manuela Garay Sarmiento

To be a student of Dr. Mahan is to experience what it is like to be challenged, encouraged, and truly believed in. He takes his students where they are and accompanies them as they develop. His mentorship extends beyond the laboratory—he shapes thoughtful, able, and confident individuals. The secret to Dr. Mahan's mentorship is that he believes undergraduate students must be in intense scientific surroundings. He always includes undergraduates at our bi-weekly Mahan Research Group meetings, in which we discuss research with graduate students, post-docs, faculty, and more. The most impressive aspect of Dr. Mahan is how he gives feedback. He has a wonderful ability to give honest, constructive feedback and yet remains fiercely supportive. His feedback never disheartens but is driven out of deep concern and a desire to see us develop.

Christina Lipper & Julia Patacsil

Alta Howells is an exceptional mentor who has played a pivotal role in shaping my growth as a student, researcher, and aspiring scientist. Under her mentorship, I have gone from doubting my abilities in chemistry to actively preparing applications for PhD programs in geochemistry. Her mentorship has been thoughtful, strategic, and deeply supportive across all areas—training, professional development, ongoing support, feedback, and long-term impact. Thanks to her guidance, I feel well-prepared to step into more advanced research settings. Alta has gone out of her way to foster my professional development. She consistently encourages me to think long-term about my goals and has helped me identify potential research paths aligned with my interests. She has also introduced me to researchers and faculty members within the department, giving me opportunities to build a network and learn how to advocate for myself professionally. One of the most meaningful opportunities Alta is giving me is the chance to present my research progress to others in the department. I believe this will help me develop my science communication skills and build visibility as an emerging scientist. She treats me not just as a student, but as a developing colleague, and this respect has been invaluable in building my confidence and professional identity.

Ashley Askins

If I had to describe Tom Chaney in one word, it would be inspirational. The amazing thing about Tom is that every time I interact with him or see him interact with the other people at the lab, he is the first person to step up and help every time. If I mention his name, immediately people's first responses are about how Tom has helped them in one way or another. What he has done for me in the past 10 months will stick with me for a lifetime and I am so fortunate to have him as my mentor. He helped me with so much more than just my project. He made helped me find and apply to several different internships. He made sure that I would be set up with a new mentor once he graduated that would align with my research interests. There was not a single presentation, paper, or application that Tom did not offer to read over for me first. I owe so much of my success and my growth as a student to him and the passion he showed for his research and for helping others.

Megan Davis

Before this project, I often second-guessed my work and hesitated to share it. Dr. Materna’s feedback changed that. She created a space where I felt safe asking questions, making mistakes, and trying again. Her feedback was never just about what was “right” or “wrong”—it was about helping me understand how to think more critically and communicate more clearly. I’ve grown a lot in how I approach both technical problems and scientific writing because of the guidance she gave me along the way.

Elizabeth Bissell

Working with Dr. Materna has been one of the most impactful experiences of my academic life. Her mentorship is grounded in clarity, patience, and a genuine investment in her students’ long-term success. Through her mentorship, I began to engage more deeply with the broader geophysics community. My work with her led me to study papers by key researchers and allowed me to meet with leaders in my field, whose work directly shaped the foundation of my project. Dr. Materna helped me understand what academic research looks like. She helped me see the importance of building a network in science, where solving problems requires collaboration, connection, and openness. Writing has always been challenging for an international student whose first language is not English. But Dr. Materna helped me work through that step by step. She shared writing examples, gave me detailed feedback, and even guided me on formatting figures to meet professional standards. With her support, I began to feel more confident sharing my ideas, in both writing and presentations, and I now integrate this skill into my daily life.

Lapit Lapinee

Lizzy Trower has been an exceedingly helpful, supportive, and overall fantastic mentor through my honors thesis research. From the classes I have taken with her to her role as my research advisor, she is one of the smartest, kindest, and most dedicated professors I have had the pleasure of working with, and I am grateful to have this opportunity to recognize her for her achievements and profound impact on my education. One of my favorite parts of working with her was that she was always willing to have in-depth, meaningful conversations about my interests and goals in order to tailor my research efforts towards an exciting project that was best suited to my learning and development as a geologist. Throughout the project, every time I ran into a roadblock I knew that I had an available and enthusiastic advisor who was great at helping me generate creative new ideas and bring clarity to my next steps.

Ryan Flat

I have taken dozens of classes at the 91��, and dozens of professors have guided me on my academic journey. While all were very knowledgeable in their fields and supportive of my academic endeavors, none have left quite the mark that Dr. Caroline Conzelman has. She is not only an incredible professor, but an inspiring individual. Her unconditional motivation and support have allowed me to thrive in my academic and professional endeavors. Dr. Conzelman’s teaching style combined the freedom to explore our individual interests, and the accountability of academic rigor to ensure that we would be successful in pursuing these interests. The compassion in her soul was evident when individuals who had faced tremendous hardships shared their stories with us. She also has a way about her that makes community-building seem so simple. Dr. Conzelman was the glue that held our now tight-knit cohort together. I feel more ready for my professional career than ever. She embodies the type of woman I hope to become.

Clementine Clyker

Dr. Hilger exemplifies what it means to be an outstanding mentor: an experienced, trusted advisor who leads with both professionalism and authenticity. Choosing to work under her leadership has been one of the most impactful decisions of my academic journey. Under her mentorship I successfully completed an honors thesis, participated in the Scholar’s Transforming through Research program (STR) in Washington, D.C., and was accepted into my first-choice graduate school program: 91��. Dr. Hilger has been pivotal in my professional development in helping me develop a strong CV, prepare for graduate school, and translate our research into meaningful academic and clinical experiences. Her mentorship is defined by ongoing support and clear, thoughtful communication. In every aspect of her mentorship, training, emotional support, professional development, and long-term investment, Dr. Hilger demonstrates what it means to truly mentor with purpose.

Karis Lowe

Dr. Conzelman’s support never wavered. While I was conducting fieldwork in Bolivia, she stayed in regular contact with me, checking in to offer guidance and emotional support. When there was political unrest in La Paz just days before I was scheduled to arrive via an attempted coup, she calmly helped me evaluate my options, confirmed my safety with her local contacts, and advised me on a contingency plan. Her support extended beyond academic mentorship—she truly cared about my well-being. Dr. Carol Conzelman exemplifies the highest standards of training, professional development, ongoing support, evaluative feedback, and impact on learning. I’ve learned how to bridge theory and practice, how to approach complex topics with humility and rigor, and how to work toward a future rooted in sustainability and justice.

Graciela Horstman

Matt is an enthusiastic and compassionate scientist who invests deeply in his students’ development—both individually and as a research community. His expectations are clear and his goals are challenging yet deeply rewarding. Through his mentorship, I’ve explored incredible ideas, both by engaging with primary literature and by learning practical research methods. When I joined his lab, I had just transferred to CU and was unsure about continuing in research due to a previous negative lab experience. Thanks to Matt, I quickly rediscovered my passion for science and exploration. I now feel fully supported in pursuing my interests, always met with enthusiasm and encouragement. Matt has been central to my growth as a scientist and a young professional. His lab has provided a uniquely inspiring and supportive environment—one that is intellectually rigorous yet warm and welcoming. I often say that I felt like a ball perched at the top of a hill, just waiting for a push. Matt and the Olm Lab were that push, and the momentum I’ve gained is something I’ll always carry with me.

Soren Maret

Kevin Mahan is an excellent mentor and teacher. I have been working with Kevin since the spring of 2024 and have learned so much from him. His gentle teaching style, as well as his infectious enthusiasm for the research he conducts and his obvious interest in guiding young minds, proves that he is one of the best mentors at 91��. Kevin not only recognizes raw talent in his mentees but also pushes them to expand their skills and knowledge far beyond what any of us thought was possible. I expected that my burgeoning skills might not be useful to his work, and I worried that I would just get in the way in his lab. Kevin showed me time and time again that he truly appreciated everything I brought to the table and that my skills could be improved to further both his research and my own professional and future career goals. Kevin has a fantastic way of making sure that all his students are successful without being overbearing or conversely uninvolved or detached. He lets his students take the lead and encourages them to follow their interests and step outside their comfort zone to reach their maximum potential. My skills and knowledge have increased exponentially since I started working with Kevin, and I look forward to using what I have learned as I enter the workforce after graduation. My confidence in my own science skills has skyrocketed too, and it’s all thanks to Kevin Mahan!

Holly McCrory Scott

I currently work in Dr. Sprenger’s lab under the mentorship of Hannah Padgette. I have worked in three different labs during my undergraduate career, and I can confidently say that Hannah is the most organized, motivated, and efficient graduate student I have ever worked with. After my initial training period, Hannah implemented a highly sustainable and effective support system. Together, we brainstormed a project idea, and now we meet weekly to track my progress. I’m expected to prepare a meeting agenda document before each meeting, which I’ve found invaluable, not just for organizing the meetings themselves, but for summarizing, documenting, and conceptualizing my work. I want to emphasize how available and responsive Hannah is when I need help. She is consistently flexible with her time and willing to answer questions or meet as needed, which has minimized the time I spend stuck on technical problems and has accelerated my progress. Her mentorship has had a lasting impact on my development as a student and researcher.

Anna Broerman

Issue: 2025 Summer & 2025-26 Academic Year UROP Grants

Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP)

UROP offers flexible funding options (grants) for undergraduates and faculty to form partnerships for projects in all majors, fields of study and professional practice; hosts engaging events for students, staff and faculty to connect and grow; celebrates and enables mentorship; supports student-led campus publications; collaborates broadly throughout campus; and works with national and global partners to advance best practices.

Enable Transformative Learning

UROP represents an opportunity to enable student-centered education that makes the most of 91��’s global leadership in research and creative production. With well-documented benefits from persistence to postgraduate success, engagement in the research and creative life of the university can clarify career paths and prepare students for the future of work. Donations support empowering opportunities in all fields of study. Give Now.

UROP's Mentor Award recognizes campus individuals supporting undergraduates on research and creative projects. We invite you to celebrate with us and read excerpts from the students' nominations.

Off

Dark Mode

2025 Summer & 2025-26 Academic Year UROP Grants

White

UROP Celebrates the 2025 Savit Scholars

Timothy O'Neil — Fri, 25 Apr 2025 05:20:00 +0000

UROP Celebrates the 2025 Savit Scholars Timothy O'Neil Thu, 04/24/2025 - 23:20

Savit Scholars are recognized for projects that promise to push disciplinary boundaries and create space for creativity, expression and connection in 91�� and beyond.

2025 Savit Scholars & Mentors

Ben
Forman

Disconnected: Life in a Digital Reality

Max Tkachenko

Political Corruption in the USSR: An Analysis of the Nomenklatura

Grace Thompson

Culturally informed care of indigenous-associated animal remains in museum collections

Mentor:
Erin Espelie,
Cinema Studies & Moving Image Arts

Mentor:
Anatasiya Osipova, Germanic & Slavic Languages & Literatures

Mentor:
William Taylor, Anthropology

Savit Scholars

Since 2017, Savit Scholars have expanded the possibilities for performance art, opened new ways of thinking about apparel design, produced a stage play from the testimonies of military veterans, created more interactive virtual reality experiences, opened inclusive spaces for LGBTQ+ athletes at 91��, pushed boundaries in art, film and more!

Student uses the stage, journalism to shine a light on veterans

"The Show" explores relationships through dance and digital technology

Culturally informed care of indigenous-associated animal remains in museum collections.

I will develop and begin to implement a protocol for the culturally informed care of animal remains within the University of Colorado Museum of Natural History by incorporating Native practices and understandings into how animals are stored across departments. In many Native American cosmologies, animals and humans are viewed as equals or relatives, but this is not reflected in museum collections, which are often under-inventoried and over-filled. With this project I hope to contribute to the crucial, ongoing work of decolonizing museum practices and recentering indigenous perspectives within collections and curatorial spaces.

Although the 1990 Native Graves and Repatriation Act provided legal backing for Native American Nations’ rights to indigenous funerary materials and human remains, animal remains have been largely excluded from the growing efforts within museums to collaborate with indigenous communities in the storage and preservation of their sacred and ceremonial materials. Animal remains from archaeological sites associated with Native Nations’ land or ancestors are often marked as zoological specimens and thus removed from the cultural context from which they originated. I hope to contribute to more recent work on this by developing an achievable protocol within the CU museum.

Disconnected: Life in a Digital Reality

America has a youth mental health crisis. The rates of adolescent-depression have skyrocketed. For teenage girls, self-harm is up 189%. Suicide, 169%. Most striking? These rises began when iPhones/social media became mainstream. Social media has transformed childhood, yet society still can't comprehend why. We might understand conceptually, but not experientially, how addictive algorithms, infinite scrolling, and 8+ hours of scrolling daily (average) have altered adolescence. Over a 45-minute documentary I’m producing, we’re illuminating a first-person narrative of what a technology-based childhood looks like, and how we can change it. We’ll be premiering in schools across the nation in September.

We’re inspired by the book The Anxious Generation, which chronicles how a phone-based childhood disrupted adolescence. This book propelled the digital advocacy movement forward, and the harrowing data of hospital admissions/anxiety disorders sent shivers around America. However, we aim to differentiate our film through the voices of Gen-Z and not the researchers who study them. We want our documentary to share our story, doing justice to a childhood that replaced free play and exploration with isolation and technology. Through vulnerability, we hope to build a narrative that our peers can point to, and say, “Yes, that’s how I grew up.”

Political Corruption in the USSR: An Analysis of the Nomenklatura

The goal of my honors thesis is to answer the question, how did corruption emerge in the so-called egalitarian society of the USSR? I argue the dictatorship of Joseph Stalin from 1928-53 fostered the rise of the Soviet elite, known as the nomenklatura, which systematically shaped a new form of oligarchy and corruption following the Russian Revolution. My purpose is to provide an understanding of systemic, institutionalized political corruption in Russia during the Soviet era. My research is important because I analyze the institutionalization of corruption, which helps scholars, students, and democracies understand how autocracy and oligarchy arise and perpetuate.

I am contributing to the literature on corruption and Stalinist subjectivity. "Intimacy and Terror: Soviet Diaries in the 1930s" contributes by collecting the personal diaries of some nomenklatura elites. My research is unique because I will put the diaries of these elites in dialogue to analyze the institutional mechanisms of the elite class they were a part of. Khlevniuk and Gorlizki's "Substate Dictatorship" contributes to the literature on networks of corruption. My research uses a similar historical, institutional framework, but uniquely analyzes the period from 1930 to WWII, using documents from State Archive Branch of the Security Services of Ukraine.

Issue: 2025 Summer & 2025-26 Academic Year UROP Grants

Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP)

Enable Transformative Learning

Savit Scholars are recognized for projects that promise to push disciplinary boundaries and create space for creativity, expression and connection. We invite you to celebrate with us!

Off

Dark Mode

2025 Summer & 2025-26 Academic Year UROP Grants

White

2025-26 Academic Year Faculty Grants

Timothy O'Neil — Fri, 25 Apr 2025 05:20:00 +0000

2025-26 Academic Year Faculty Grants Timothy O'Neil Thu, 04/24/2025 - 23:20

These inspiring faculty were awarded Team Grants to support teams of 91�� undergraduates on a wide range of projects next Academic Year.

Open Opportunities

Each spring, UROP invites 91�� undergraduates to join a team of students working with faculty on projects in many majors. Leading up to the time projects are posted, UROP invites students to join an email list to be alerted with they can browse and apply for opportunities. 500+ students regularly add their names, hoping for an opportunity to engage. We invite faculty to consider applying for a Team Grant in next year's application cycle to join the movement!

Team Grant Recipients & Project Titles

Team Grants

$4,000 each

Caitlin Charlet
Online GIS Mapping of Global Temperature Changes, Climate Regions, and Natural Materials for Accessible, Local and Sustainable Building.

Laura Conway
Give Us the Camera! : An Open Access Digital Humanities Publication on Equity in Media Arts

Joshua Correll
Encouraging broader participation in eye-tracking research

Lisa Corwin
Social Networks and Student Outcomes in Residential Field Courses

Jay Ellis
Hindsight Creative Nonfiction

Valeria Henao
Evaluating comprehension of complex tridimensional systems such as recycling using 3d models with stakeholders, The case of the city of 91��.

Azza Kamal
Climate Change Risk: A documentation of Rosetta's Cultural Heritage, Egypt.

James Walker
Impact Playback - Empowering Students & Communities through Engaged Theatre

Pui Fong Kan
The Effect of Speech Practice on Word Learning in English-Speaking Monolinguals Across Multiple Languages

Joseph Maclennan
Experimental Investigation of Fluid Ferroelectric Liquid Crystal Films and Filaments

Suzanne Magnanini
Storytelling and Ways of Knowing: Curating a digital and in-person exhibit

Joshua Manning
The effects of species interactions on social and movement behavior in bicolor damselfish on Caribbean coral reefs

Zannah Matson
Voices for Territory: Supporting Colombian Land Defenders through Digital Humanities Research

Tamara Meneghini
2025 Senior Showcase Experience

Terri Wilson
Private Choices, Public Goals: Exploring Parents’ Experiences with Open Enrollment

Angela Thieman Dino
"Street-Smart" Engineering Leadership: Learning from Alumni Outreach Inquiry

Bhuvana Narasimhan
Investigation of the Conceptual Foundations of Early Number Development

Amy Palmer
How nutritional zinc affects breast cancer cells

Anthony Pinter
Developing peer mentorship structures in undergraduate engineering programs

David Rickels
The Middle School Ensembles Program

Elena Sabinson
Designing Neuro-Inclusive Campuses: Mapping Sensory and Social Barriers

Jota Samper
The permanence observatory: Documenting morphological spatiotemporal occupation of informal settlements

Natasha Shrikant
TRANScending Family: Management of Identity and Moral Dilemmas through Talk among Transgender Participants Discussing Religious Family in a Gender-Diverse Community Brunch Space

Scott Taylor
Comparing the spatial memory abilities between two species of food-caching chickadee and across elevations in the Rocky Mountains

Spring 2025 Review Cycle

Student Grants

Faculty Grants

Issue: 2025 Summer & 2025-26 Academic Year UROP Grants

Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP)

Enable Transformative Learning

These faculty were awarded Team Grants ($4,000) to support teams of 91�� undergraduates on a wide range of projects next Academic Year. Many will be promoted as Open Opportunities and provide entry-level experiences for students. We invite you to celebrate with us!

Off

Zebra Striped

2025 Summer & 2025-26 Academic Year UROP Grants

White

2025 Summer Faculty Grants

Timothy O'Neil — Fri, 25 Apr 2025 05:20:00 +0000

2025 Summer Faculty Grants Timothy O'Neil Thu, 04/24/2025 - 23:20

These inspiring faculty were awarded Team Grants to support teams of 91�� undergraduates on a wide range of projects this summer.

Open Opportunities

Team Grant Recipients & Project Titles

Team Grants

$4,000 each

Karen Bailey
Understanding Plant Composition Impacts using a Small Bison Herd in Colorado

Grace Bennett-Pierre
How Do Children Learn About Earth Science Through Interactive, Spherical Visualizations?

Megan Blanchard
Pollinator inventory and management in Colorado and Dinosaur National Monuments

Sophie Chien
Design As Protest Collective Chapbooks: Learning from our Design Justice Demands

Pat Clark
Eyes of Freedom VR and the Future of Virtual Memorials

Laura Conway
Give Us the Camera Presents : An Open Access Digital Humanities Publication on Equity in Media Arts

Lisa Corwin
Insect Diversity and Abundance in Apple Tree as Ecosystem Service Study

Laura Dee
Trees for a cooler 91��: finding the best species for heat reduction

Jay Ellis
Changing Skies: Writing Through the Climate Crisis

James Walker
Impact Playback Theater Ensemble - Summer Outreach Leadership Training & Residencies

Jessica McLaughlin
Design of a Customizable Neck Brace for Diverse Body Types

Isabella Oleksy
Warmer, greener mountain lakes: what are the consequences for carbon cycling?

Amy Palmer
Characterizing the effect of zinc on breast cancer cells.

Colleen Reid
Research into the health implications of wildland fires within Colorado

Shawhin Roudbari
White Space Study

Stacey Smith
Exploring the biochemical connections between flower and fruit color diversity across flowering plants

Barbra Sobhani
Extreme environment testing for the Great Lunar Expedition for Everyone distributed sensor network

Ryan St Laurent
Cerurinae (Lepidoptera, Notodontidae) of Colorado and adjacent states

Katharine Suding
Aerial Insights into 91�� Grasslands: Investigating Climate Change Impacts on Grassland Ecosystems

Katharine Suding
Anticipating climate and grazing effects in local working grasslands: Introducing students to ecological change research

Anne Gold
Development and Building of Community Exhibits around Water topics in the Four Corners Region

Anne Gold
Enhancing Community Resilience through Scenario-Based Role-Play Games

Abby Hickcox
Affordable Housing: Barriers and Effective Policies

Eve-Lyn Hinckley
Creating a Statistical Framework to Identify and Map Spatiotemporal Ecosystem Control Points Across a Heterogenous Alpine Terrain in the Colorado Front Range

Eve-Lyn Hinckley
Evaluating Mercury Impacts on Water Quality from Beaver Activity in the Colorado Rocky Mountains

Kai Larsen
The Nomological Network: Integrating the Psychological Sciences

Katharine Suding
Hidden Partnerships: Can fungi help alpine plants survive climate change?

Katharine Suding
Reducing grassland wildfire hazard in 91��: looking into the past to inform future management

Wei Tan
Evaluations of vascular stent coatings

Scott Taylor
Investigating Songbird Breeding and Adaptation Across an Elevational Gradient

Spring 2025 Review Cycle

Student Grants

Faculty Grants

Issue: 2025 Summer & 2025-26 Academic Year UROP Grants

Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP)

Enable Transformative Learning

These faculty were awarded Team Grants ($4,000) to support teams of 91�� undergraduates on a wide range of projects this summer. Many will be promoted as Open Opportunities and provide entry-level experiences for students. We invite you to celebrate with us!

Off

Zebra Striped

2025 Summer & 2025-26 Academic Year UROP Grants

White

2025-26 Academic Year Student Grants

Timothy O'Neil — Fri, 25 Apr 2025 05:20:00 +0000

2025-26 Academic Year Student Grants Timothy O'Neil Thu, 04/24/2025 - 23:20

These inspiring students were awarded UROP Student Grants to work with 91�� faculty on projects next Academic Year. We invite you to celebrate with us!

Student Grants

91��'s Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP) offers two student grant types based on the student's involvement in the project's development. Assistantships provide funding to students to partner with a faculty mentor to help on an existing project. Individual Grants allow students to take ownership of part or all of a project with an original proposal. Learn more about Student Grants.

Student Grant Recipients & Mentors

Assistantships

$1,000 each

Ashley Agyepong
Mentor: Holly Allen

Ashton Barcelona
Mentor: Jennifer Hill

Suah Chang
Mentor: Pui Fong Kan

Cara Colwell
Mentor: Wyatt Shields IV

Luke Conrad
Mentor: Andrew Grotzinger

Soraya De La Oliva
Mentor: Christopher Lowry

Row Dyer
Mentor: Jaroslav Tir

Wren Goldman
Mentor: Marcelo Sousa

Avery Holdren
Mentor: Kristi Anseth

Anoushka Jani
Mentor: David Root

Rachel Korsunsky
Mentor: Markus Raschke

Sonya Li
Mentor: Shelley Copley

Dane Macdonald
Mentor: Amy Palmer

Emma Marble
Mentor: Kevin Mahan

Colm Murphy
Mentor: Loren Hough

Shreeya Roy
Mentor: Robert Davis

Will Schultz
Mentor: Hannah Ghasemi

Rob Silverman
Mentor: Shelley Copley

Jack Simone
Mentor: Monika Fleshner

Lucas Swallow
Mentor: Meredith Betterton

Meaghan Thompson
Mentor: Leaf Van Boven

Sabrina Toor
Mentor: Douglas Seals

Aspasia Vazquez
Mentor: Sebastian Kopf

Min Wang
Mentor: Charles Hoeffer

Melissa Wong
Mentor: Hannah Zlotnick

Kaitlyn Wynes
Mentor: Maciej Walczak

Ruomu Zhang
Mentor: Cindy Regal

Kalpana Murugan
Mentor: Karl Mueller

William Nassif
Mentor: Melanie Peffer

Andrea Negulescu
Mentor: Kayla Sprenger

Aidan Olsson
Mentor: Melanie Peffer

Individual Grants

$1,500 each

Chris Andrews
Mentor: Ryan Bachtell

Ashley Askins
Mentor: Anne Sheehan

Kat Barr
Mentor: Katharine Suding

Owen Barton
Mentor: Nesrine Mansour

Layla Borja
Mentor: Aaron Whiteley

Gurneet Brar
Mentor: Mark Borden

Chloe Brown
Mentor: Joshua Correll

Megan Burke
Mentor: Joshua Correll

Carlos Carale
Mentor: Erik Knight

Bela Chaudhuri
Mentor: Amy Palmer

Leo Cornelsen
Mentor: Alison Cool

Savannah Craig
Mentor: Raichle Farrelly

Salma Dabbour
Mentor: Marie Banich

Vlad Denisenkov
Mentor: Timothy White

Kolya Dols
Mentor: Amy Palmer

Malia Edgerton
Mentor: Vignesh Kasinath

Colleen Ewald
Mentor: Alisha Clark

Asher Ferreira
Mentor: Karolin Luger

Kody Fung
Mentor: Pieter Johnson

Liora Goldstein
Mentor: Karolin Luger

Jasmitha Gourabathini
Mentor: Nikolaus Correll

Max Iranmanesh
Mentor: Kwangmin Kim

Wei Jiang
Mentor: Alessandro Roncone

Lark Jones
Mentor: Kevin Mahan

Nova Jones
Mentor: Karen Bailey

PiperJo Jones
Mentor: Aaron Whiteley

M Jordan
Mentor: Eric Jones

Anya Keena
Mentor: Ashley Maloney

Alisha Kumari
Mentor: Wyatt Shields

Francois Labadie
Mentor: Rachel Rowe

Emily Lubek
Mentor: Pieter Johnson

Claire Maloney
Mentor: Pei-San Tsai

David Marquez
Mentor: Erin Manzitto-Trip

Grace Thompson
Mentor: William Taylor

Bo Thorstenson
Mentor: Justin Brumbaugh

Ella Todd
Mentor: Xiang Wang

Eera Vedavyas
Mentor: Annie Margaret

Abby Verneuille
Mentor: Sharon DeWitte

Nandhana Vivek
Mentor: Zoe Donaldson

McKenna Walters
Mentor: Marie Banich

Lucy Walton
Mentor: Ann-Marie Madigan

Gabriel Watkins
Mentor: Jared Arp

Tia Wu
Mentor: Matthew Rossman

Ankit Mukkamala
Mentor: Lisa Hiura

Roshni Nandi
Mentor: Maciej Walczak
Manu

Narasimha Moorthy
Mentor: Brad Olwin

Olivia Neilly
Mentor: Zoe Donaldson

Katie Parks
Mentor: Evava Pietri

Sam Patten
Mentor: Justin Brumbaugh

Jasmine Perez
Mentor: Ana Contreras

Isabella Perrin
Mentor: Meaghan Courvan

Julia Pop
Mentor: Isabella Oleksy

Joelle Pospisil
Mentor: Alysia Marino

Emily Reardon
Mentor: Sharon DeWitte

Julia Renz
Mentor: Zoe Donaldson

Katie Ridgway
Mentor: Zannah Matson

Soren Rollin
Mentor: Carolyn Crow

Samuel Ruzzene
Mentor: Christopher DeSouza

Emma Seliskar
Mentor: Melanie Peffer

Kalen Sieja
Mentor: Tamar Malloy

Isaiah Smith
Mentor: Kevin Reardon

Emmett Spreitzer
Mentor: Alison Xiaoqiao Xie

Dennis Swanson
Mentor: Azza Kamal

Holly McCrory Scott
Mentor: Thomas Marchitto

Rowan Millett
Mentor: Pieter Johnson

Kat Milz
Mentor: Ryan Curtis

Spring 2025 Review Cycle

Student Grants

Faculty Grants

Issue: 2025 Summer & 2025-26 Academic Year UROP Grants

Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP)

Enable Transformative Learning

These students were awarded Assistantships ($1,000) and Individual Grants ($1,500) to work with 91�� faculty on projects next Academic Year. We invite you to celebrate with us!

Off

Zebra Striped

2025 Summer & 2025-26 Academic Year UROP Grants

White

2025 Summer Student Grants

Timothy O'Neil — Fri, 25 Apr 2025 05:20:00 +0000

2025 Summer Student Grants Timothy O'Neil Thu, 04/24/2025 - 23:20

These inspiring students were awarded UROP Student Grants to work with 91�� faculty on projects this summer. We invite you to celebrate with us!

Student Grants

Student Grant Recipients & Mentors

Assistantships

$2,000 each

Paige Adzema
Mentor: Robert Pasnau

Eric Albregts
Mentor: Zoe Donaldson

Paul Rene Aronson
Mentor: Julian Resasco

Kaeden Batz
Mentor: Joseph Falke

Parker Burt
Mentor: Jason Zietz

Bela Chaudhuri
Mentor: Amy Palmer

Annie Earthman
Mentor: Christopher Link

Tess Ekblad
Mentor: Thomas Schibli

Abby Gadonniex
Mentor: Sophie Lalande

Amelia Gandhi
Mentor: Vera Schulte-Pelkum

Juan Garcia
Mentor: Chris Ray

Tamana Gawhari
Mentor: Amy Palmer

Hailey Geva
Mentor: Alexandra Whiteley

Emily Gilmore
Mentor: Christopher DeSouza

Phil Gish
Mentor: Warren Sconiers

Wren Goldman
Mentor: Marcelo Sousa

Jeremy Goodkin
Mentor: Markus Raschke

Cate Hensley
Mentor: Marissa Ehringer

Isabel Herrera
Mentor: Serge Campeau

Lily Herzog
Mentor: Nausica Arnoult

Charlotte Hoffman
Mentor: Aaron Whiteley

Manuela Huertas Gonzalez
Mentor: Mary Allen

My Huynh
Mentor: Alan Weimer

Bri Inman
Mentor: Eve Hinckley

Wei Jiang
Mentor: Alessandro Roncone

Milo Kinyon
Mentor: Warren Sconiers

Percy Lettvin
Mentor: Warren Sconiers

Sonya Li
Mentor: Shelley Copley

Grace Lineberry
Mentor: Marissa Ehringer

Alice Ly
Mentor: Alan Weimer

Dane Macdonald
Mentor: Amy Palmer

Emma Marble
Mentor: Kevin Mahan

Trevor Meyer
Mentor: Warren Sconiers

Marcos Ortega Keshmiri
Mentor: Andres Montoya Castillo

Meredith Overton
Mentor: Wei Tan

Vivek Patkar
Mentor: Chris Ray

Spencer Petrikas
Mentor: Xuedong Liu

Chloe Pinto
Mentor: Michael Baratta

Ailey Pittman
Mentor: Chris Ray

Hunter Pratt
Mentor: Larry Esposito

Aaron Price
Mentor: Heather Lewandowski

Sophia Roman
Mentor: Eve-Lyn Hinckley

Stella Rydahl-Kim
Mentor: Rosario Manuela Garay-Sarmiento

Daniel Saeb
Mentor: Monica Ohnsorg

Lauren Schneider
Mentor: Kaushik Jayaram

Rob Silverman
Mentor: Shelley Copley

Ana Singureanu
Mentor: Alan Weimer

Jaden Strommer
Mentor: Mike Chaffin

Cate Trautman
Mentor: Alan Weimer

Alex Unangst
Mentor: Maciej Walzcak

Holly Visser
Mentor: Kaushik Jayaram

Ryan Wandry
Mentor: Warren Sconiers

Ethan Wang
Mentor: Xun Gao

Min Wang
Mentor: Charles Hoeffer

Owen Welsh
Mentor: Adam Kaufman

Trevor Wilson
Mentor: Al Weimer

Zayne Yeager
Mentor: Maciej Walczak

Rose Young
Mentor: Laura Dee

Ruomu Zhang
Mentor: Cindy Regal

Ashley Miralles
Mentor: Amanda Carrico

Colm Murphy
Mentor: Loren Hough

Kalpana Murugan
Mentor: Karl Mueller

Jason Nouhan
Mentor: Julian Resasco

Arin Oberley
Mentor: Katharine Suding

Aidan Olsson
Mentor: Melanie Peffer

Kendall Origer
Mentor: Nancy Emery

Individual Grants

$3,000 each

Rylan Abel
Mentor: Bradley Markle

Benjamin Albuisson
Mentor: Erin Espelie

Derek Allen
Mentor: Dejan Filipovic

Rose Angelo
Mentor: Abby Hickcox

Denise Arispe Ramirez
Mentor: Joanna Mendy

Avery Awn
Mentor: Nancy Billica

Kat Barr
Mentor: Katharine Suding

Brooke Bauer
Mentor: Pieter Johnson

Ethan Blair
Mentor: Yashveer Soni

Anna Boromisza-Habashi
Mentor: Mark Whisman

Ben Braun
Mentor: Michael Litos

Kaimana Brind
Mentor: Pieter Johnson

Lori Brookman
Mentor: Joshua Correll

Nate Carley
Mentor: Haley Kenyon

Chloe Circenis
Mentor: Bhuvana Narasimhan

Rylee Cline
Mentor: Pieter Johnson

Ethan Coleman
Mentor: Ankur Gupta

Eva Corral
Mentor: Scott Taylor

Justin Costa
Mentor: Nikolaus Correll

Canyon Cutone
Mentor: Peter Blanken

David Debretsion
Mentor: Christian Young

Aimee Diamond
Mentor: Pieter Johnson

Ella Dietz
Mentor: Pieter Johnson

Kolya Dols
Mentor: Amy Palmer

Jordayn Eichhorn
Mentor: Pieter Johnson

Chloe Els
Mentor: Karen Bailey

Marley Flanagan
Mentor: Pieter Johnson

Thomas Flint
Mentor: Mike Chaffin

Amelia Fonda
Mentor: Tom Marchitto

Ben Forman
Mentor: Erin Espelie

Talli Fox
Mentor: Michelle Ellsworth

Andrea Gaccetta
Mentor: Teresa

Bilinski
Nick Grimaldo Hernandez
Mentor: Pieter Johnson

Kellie Ha
Mentor: Rachel Rowe

Renae Hernandez
Mentor: Joanna Lambert

Rowan Hillhouse
Mentor: Jennifer Fitzgerald

Abigail Howes
Mentor: Karen Bailey

Luca Jimenez
Mentor: Pieter Johnson

Dharma Johnson
Mentor: Margaret Tolbert

Reidar Johnston
Mentor: Peter Newton

Lark Jones
Mentor: Kevin Mahan

Zayaan Khan
Mentor: Zoe Donaldson

Ellarose King
Mentor: Pieter Johnson

Victoria Kiss
Mentor: Michael Stowell

Easton Klein
Mentor: Steven Schmidt

Katie Koepsell
Mentor: Katharine Suding

Sam Kruczek
Mentor: Scott Taylor

Saisree Kumar
Mentor: Taneesha Mohan

Ella Laskey
Mentor: Leslie Leinwand

Joseph Lee
Mentor: Leslie Leinwand

Connor Mackey
Mentor: Ryan St. Laurent

Aidan Magruder
Mentor: Kayla Sprenger

Alex Mahoney
Mentor: Emily Sweeney

Jessica Nesbit
Mentor: Andrew Tan

Soren Maret
Mentor: Matthew Olm

Jack Marlett
Mentor: Michael Saddoris

David Marquez
Mentor: Erin Manzitto-Tripp

Leo Thomas
Mentor: Emily Schell

Max Tkachenko
Mentor: Anastasiya Osipova

DJ Toy
Mentor: Karen Bailey

Jack Ulmer
Mentor: Melinda Piket-May

Nandhana Vivek
Mentor: Zoe Donaldson

Victoria von Buhr
Mentor: Thomas Schibli

Stefan Wagner
Mentor: Guofeng Cao

Caley Walsh
Mentor: Pieter Johnson

Edward Wawrzynek
Mentor: Dejan Filipovic

Haley Wickham
Mentor: Pieter Johnson

Ty Wierl
Mentor: Pieter Johnson

Caroline Wiesner
Mentor: Pieter Johnson

Dante Wilson
Mentor: Alysia Marino

Mia Winstead
Mentor: Marianne Holbert

Robert Winter
Mentor: Yuan Shi

Olivia Wipke
Mentor: Pieter Johnson

Tia Wu
Mentor: Matthew Rossman

Beiyi Xu
Mentor: Michael Stowell

Hannah Yared
Mentor: Rachel Rowe

Sierra Zeller
Mentor: Maciej Walczak

Pippa Zolla
Mentor: Christopher Lowry

Julia Renz
Mentor: Zoe Donaldson

Jill Rinaldi
Mentor: Bradley Markle

Dillan Rogers
Mentor: Pieter Johnson

Soren Rollin
Mentor: Carolyn Crow

Emily Rollins
Mentor: Christina Meyers

Corrina Schell
Mentor: Cassandra Brooks

Gavin Schoew
Mentor: Katharine Suding

Adam Schroeder
Mentor: Ann-Marie Madigan

Noah Schwartz
Mentor: Sriram Sankaranarayanan

Jacob Sellari
Mentor: Brad Olwin

Dhruv Seth
Mentor: Michael Saddoris

Camden Sharkey
Mentor: Anya Cloud

Jasper Shen
Mentor: Torin Clark

Patrick Simpson
Mentor: Susanna Molas

Emma Smith
Mentor: Pieter Johnson

Tyler Stallings
Mentor: Michael Saddoris

Zach Steiner
Mentor: Sophie Chien

Annika Stephan
Mentor: Amy Palmer

Jorja Stratton
Mentor: Melinda Piket-May

Reid Swanson
Mentor: Pieter Johnson

Alena Switzky
Mentor: Joost de Gouw

Vivian Nguyen
Mentor: Charles Shields

Nathalie Cristina Orozco-Fersiva
Mentor: Christopher DeSouza

Sam Patten
Mentor: Justin Brumbaugh

Kyara Pew Payan
Mentor: Robert McLeod

Julia Pop
Mentor: Isabella Oleksy

Ian Primer
Mentor: Susan Massey

Ally Reed
Mentor: Pieter Johnson

Lizzy Reichert
Mentor: Andrew Goodwin

June Means
Mentor: Susanna Molas

Madelyn Meyer
Mentor: Lee Frankel-Goldwater

Tessa Moskoff
Mentor: Bhuvana Narasimhan

Owen Moss
Mentor: Pieter Johnson

Roshni Nandi
Mentor: Maciej Walczak

Olivia Neilly
Mentor: Zoe Donaldson

Tyler McLorg
Mentor: Michelangelo Landgrave

Spring 2025 Review Cycle

Student Grants

Faculty Grants

Issue: 2025 Summer & 2025-26 Academic Year UROP Grants

Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP)

Enable Transformative Learning

These students were awarded Assistantships ($2,000) and Individual Grants ($3,000) to work with 91�� faculty on projects this summer. We invite you to celebrate with us!

Off

Zebra Striped

2025 Summer & 2025-26 Academic Year UROP Grants

White