The Office of Undergraduate Research at Illinois State University announced the winners of the Summer 2021 Undergraduate Research Support Program Awards. The program provides up to $5,000 to support undergraduate student(s) engaged in an intensive, faculty-mentored research experience over the summer. Winners include:

Riley Cox of Machesney Park, Illinois; Geology, “Investigation of Oxygen Isotopes in Icelandic Rocks to Uncover Continent-Forming Processes,” mentored by Dr. Tenley Banik.

Cameron Essex of Hoffman Estates, Illinois; Geology, “Understanding Magma Formation at Þingmúli volcano, Iceland,” mentored by Dr. Tenley Banik.

Ian Freeman of Plainfield, Illinois; Physics, “Simulated Multifragmentation of Nuclear Collisions,” mentored by Dr. Matt Caplan.

Arthur Harris of Mossville, Illinois; Chemistry, “Expanding the Organometallic Chemistry of Molybdenum-Based Clusters,” mentored by Dr. Lisa Szczpura.

Evan Hazzard of Fisher, Illinois; Information Technology, “Predicting, Preventing and Visualizing Vaccination Deficiency in Illinois with AI,” mentored by Dr. Shaoen Wu.

Catalina Hernandez-Ramos of Humbolt Park, Chicago; Creative Technologies, “Sharing Darien: Digital tools for communication and engagement of cultural and historical artifacts,” mentored by Kristin Carlson. Jointly sponsored by Illinois State University’s Center for Civic Engagement.

Joseph Hoberg of Elgin, Illinois; Geology, “Utilizing a TRAC and a tracer test to better quantify the dynamic movement of shallow groundwater,” mentored by Dr. Eric Peterson. Jointly sponsored by Illinois State University’s Center for a Sustainable Water Future.

Christopher Hota of Tomah, Wisconsin; Biochemistry, and Miles Howley of Washington, Illinois; Creative Technologies, “Chemistry of Biology: A Holographic Learning Initiative,” mentored by Dr. Kevin Edwards.

Caleb Hudspath of Lewistown, Illinois; Biology, “Determining the molecular underpinnings for modulation of escape responses,” mentored by Dr. Wolfgang Stein.

Amelia Korveziroska, Physics, and Marco Perez of Deerfield, Illinois; Physics, “Silicon Nitride and Silicon Dioxide Materials Deposition in Nanopatterned Polymeric Films,” mentored by Dr. Mahua Biswas.  

Jennifer Miller of Justice, Illinois; Biology, “Determining the relative contribution of electrical synapse subunits to the tail flip escape of the Marbled Crayfish,” mentored by Dr. Wolfgang Stein.

Emerson Roden of Princeton, Illinois; Biology, “Could invasive species reduce the risk of parasitism for native species?  Testing the dilution effect on Aedes triseriatus and Aedes albopictus,” mentored by Dr. Steven Juliano.

Brendan Roseberry of LeRoy, Illinois; Biology, “Analyzing Effects of Neutorphil Produced Oxidants on UPEC Strains In Vivo,” mentored by Dr. Jan Dahl.

Evan Talbott-Swain of Clarendon Hills, Illinois; Biology, “The effect of food limitation on family size in the strawberry poison frog,” mentored by Dr. Matthew Dugas.

Faeq Zaman of Bloomington, Illinois; Chemistry, “Cloning and Characterization of Sulfolobus islandicus Cytidylyltransferase,” mentored by Dr. Jon Friesen.

Shariq Zaman of Bloomington, Illinois; Chemistry, “Testing Unique Class of Organic Molecules for Their Effect on Leishmania Parasites,” mentored by Dr. Marjorie Jones.