Past Award Winners

Spring 2024 Vanderbilt Undergraduate Research Fair Award Winners

Basic and Natural Sciences

Winner: Liudmyla Arifova
Title: Exploring the Molecular Mechanism of Nuclear Receptor PPARg for Diabetes and Bladder Cancer Therapeutics
Faculty Mentor: Douglas Kojetin

Runner-Up: Sana Fatah
Title: Investigating the Effect of RANKL Signaling on Bone Marrow Derived Monocytes
Faculty Mentor: Jim Cassat

Runner-Up: Norbu Shastri
Title: Characterizing the Effects of Temperature, Age, and Their Interaction on Lytic Immunity in Anopheles gambiae
Faculty Mentor: Julian Hillyer

Runner-Up: Joshua Park
Title: Screening CD33-targeting siRNA Sequences for Treatment of Alzheimer’s Disease
Faculty Mentor: Ethan Lippmann

Clinical and Translational Research

Winner: Isabelle Smith
Title: Effects of Hypertensive Endothelial Cell Stretch on the Formation of exTregs
Faculty Mentor: Matt Alexander

Runner-Up: Jacob Myers
Title: Blocking Purine Biosynthesis Prevents Diet-Induced Obesity Through Futile Cycle Upregulation
Faculty Mentor: Elma Zaganjor

Engineering, Computer Science, and Mathematics including Data Science

Winner: Ada Novak
Title: Interactive Map of Risk Indicators for Critical Infrastructure Systems: A Case Study of Greater Houston Power Infrastructure
Faculty Mentor: Hiba Baroud

Runner-Up: Abihith Kothapalli
Title: Stereographic Spherical Sliced Wasserstein Distances
Faculty Mentor: Soheil Kolouri

Social Sciences, Humanities, and Public Health

Winner: Nandi Zhang
Title: Parasympathetic Regulation and Anxiety in Children and Adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorders
Faculty Mentor: Blythe Corbett

Runner-Up: Casey Carrow
Title: Maternal prenatal anxiety and infant negative affect: Investigating the moderating role of caregiving sensitivity
Faculty Mentor: Kathryn Humphreys

Runner-Up: Zoe Abel & Lily Baker
Title: From ‘helping peers succeed’ to ‘struggling to develop research questions’
Faculty Mentor: Cynthia Brame