Last week, the College of Natural Sciences celebrated undergraduate student research at the Undergraduate Research Forum.
More than 250 students presented posters, describing their research to faculty, alumni, and industry judges. The most innovative posters and oral presentation received awards and cash prizes. The winners were announced at a special event Monday.
Several student-scientists also competed and won in the Intellectual Entrepreneurship Citizen Scholars’ fourth annual Research Contest. The University-wide competition awarded seven Longhorns prizes or honorable mentions, six of whom were from the College of Natural Sciences. Those winners were also announced Monday.
On Tuesday, the College held the Aspire Awards and handed out awards for Research Excellence. Recipients of the Research Excellence Award exhibited excellence in their research studies, innovating and making novel discoveries as undergraduates.
Undergraduate Research Forum Award Winners
| CNS Award for Excellence in Astronomy & Astrophysics Research: James Diekmann |
| CNS Award for Excellence in Physics Research: Edward J. Seifert |
| Marjorie Morales Award for Excellence in Computer Science Research: Manuel Philipose |
| CNS Award for Excellence in Computational Biology, Biochemistry or Chemistry Research: Benjamin Corona |
| New England BioLabs Award for Excellence in Biology Research: Soma Bhatnagar |
| CNS Award for Excellence in Biology Research: Nishika Karbhari |
| CNS Award for Excellence in Neuroscience Research: Fernanda Argudo |
| CNS Award for Excellence in Neuroscience Research: Kelly Jameson |
| Integrated DNA Technologies (IDT) Award for Excellence in Molecular Biology or Genetics Research: Jonathan M. Mercado |
| CNS Award for Excellence in Molecular Biology or Genetics Research: Corey Timmerman |
| CNS Award for Excellence in Biochemistry Research: Armin Nourani |
| CNS Award for Excellence in Biochemistry Research: Eric Yoon |
| CNS Award for Excellence in Biochemistry Research: Serena Zadoo |
| CNS Award for Excellence in Chemistry Research: Mark Babin |
| CNS Award for Excellence in Public Health, Nutrition, or Biomedical Sciences Research: Lucy Cheng |
| CNS Award for Excellence in Public Health, Nutrition, or Biomedical Sciences Research: Victoria R. Lehrmann |
| CNS Award for Excellence in Psychology, Social Sciences and Human Development and Family Sciences Research: Aubrey Tucker |
| Joseph Jones Life on Waller Creek Award, presented by the Texas Memorial Museum: Katrina Spangenberg |
| SURGe Award for Most Interesting Research Poster: Antonio D. Garcia |
| SURGe Award for Best Freshmen Research Initiative Poster: Biobricks |
| SURGe Students’ Choice Award: Francis Shue |
IE Citizen Scholars Research Award Winners
First Place: Linda Garrison, Biology: Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior, "Information Transfer in Hierarchical Social Systems"
Second place: Xenia Gonzalez, Human Biology, "Identifying a Novel Inhibitor for GES-5 Carbapenemase in Klebsiella Pneumoniae Infections by Virtual Drug Screening"
Fourth place: Jonathan Mercado, Human Biology, "Transcriptional Regulation of SLC30A10 as a Mn Transporter"
Fifth place: Irnela Bajrovic, Biochemistry, "Evaluation of Thin Film Formulations for an Oral Ebola Vaccine"
Honorable Mentions: Meagan Aguirre, Marine and Freshwater Biology, "Site of Insulin-Like Growth Factor Action to Induce Oocyte Maturation in Zebrafish;" and Bria Lacour, Biochemistry "Computational Simulation of the Aggregation of the Dimerized Form of the Estrogen Receptor"
Aspire Awards for Research Excellence
Luis Valencia
Alexander Beltran
Jamal Ojeaga
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