Past Award Winners
Fall 2023 Vanderbilt Undergraduate Research Fair Award Winners
Basic and Natural Sciences
Winner: Jakub Kubina, “Novel LRH-1 Endogenous Ligand Discovery Protocol”
Runner Up: Sara Hanna, “Isolation and Characterization of a New Set of Mutations in Core Spindle Pole Body Protein Ppc89 Leads to Mitotic Defects”
Runner Up: Sydney Hawkins, “MC3R Neurons Integrate Energy and Reproduction During Development”
Runner Up: Frank Zhou, “Improved Glucose Tolerance in Mice With a Pancreatic β-cell Knock-out of Ascl1”
Clinical and Translational Research
Co-winner: Laura Wan, “Understanding M4 mAChR Regulation of Sleep-Wake Architecture in Young Mice”
Co-winner: Emily Qian, “Characterization of immune cell populations and kinase activation in cell-free hemoglobin exposed lungs”
Engineering, Computer Science, and Mathematics including Data Science
Winner: Abi Kothapalli, “Learning-Based Heuristic for Combinatorial Optimization of the Minimum Dominating Set Problem”
Runner Up: Gabriella Glomp, “Smart Blood Pump for Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO)”
Social Sciences, Humanities, and Public Health
Winner: Sunny Gorrepati, “Language exposure in infancy and toddler expressive and receptive vocabulary”
Runner Up: Nikita Rohila, “A Linguistic Analysis of Psychosocial Factors in Sexual and Gender Minority Youth’s Positive and Negative Daily Experiences: A Daily Diary Study”
Runner Up: Yichi Zhang, “Extra-Axial Cerebrospinal Fluid Volume in Infancy and School-Age ADHD Symptomatology”
Spring 2023 Vanderbilt Undergraduate Research Fair Award Winners
Vanderbilt Undergraduate Research Journal Manuscript Competition
Winner: Kwan Nok Adrian Wong, “Can You Imagine That: Individual Differences in Visual Mental Imagery”
1st Runner Up: Elisabeth Dale Wood, “Psychedelic Sensationalism: An Analysis of the Schedule Classification of Psilocybin”
2nd Runner Up: Rohit Kataria, “An Assessment of the Correlation Between Teacher-Student Racial Congruence and Student Mathematics Performance in Black, Hispanic, and White Teachers and Students”
Best Research Fair Poster
Basic and Natural Sciences
Winner: Tiffany Zhou, “Exploring Copper Acquisition and Detoxification in Acinetobacter baumannii”
1st Runner Up: Weixi (Vincent) Kang, “Ferroptosis Inhibitors Suppress Prostaglandin Synthesis in Lipopolysaccharide-Stimulated Macrophages”
2nd Runner Up: Shanay Desai, “Evaluating the Mechanisms of Yoda1 Sensitization of TRAIL-Mediated Apoptosis in Glioblastoma Cells”
Clinical and Translational Research
Winner: Arthur Yu, “Selective inhibition of M5 muscarinic acetylcholine receptors attenuates dopamine release in the mesolimbic dopaminergic circuitry”
1st Runner Up: Yuhan Wang, “Ascorbate insufficiency alters EEG phenotype and glutamate transmission in a model of Alzheimer’s Disease”
Engineering, Computer Science, and Mathematics including Data Science
Winner: Ally Questell, “A Bone Marrow Mimetic Culture Platform for Evaluating Stiffness Effects on Breast Cancer Metastasis”
1st Runner Up: Richard Song, “Heart Rate Variability Biofeedback Modulates Physiological Influences on the BOLD Signal in Older Adults”
Social Sciences, Humanities, and Public Health
Winner: Jiulin (Zoe) Dai, “Unique and Shared Mechanisms of Reading Skill and Anxiety Symptoms in Children”
1st Runner Up: Caroline Ambriano, “Examining Non-Suicidal Self-Injury Disclosure in Adolescents: A Mixed Methods Investigation”
2nd Runner Up: Amelia Shaddinger, “Antenatal Maternal Depressive Symptoms, Perceived Stress, and Infant Hippocampal Volume”
