Nine WSU Honors College Students Granted “Pass with Distinction” Award for Spring 2009
PULLMAN , Wash.—Nine Washington State University Honors College students were awarded “pass with distinction” on their senior theses. They were honored at the college’s Commencement event Friday, May 8, the evening preceding WSU graduation ceremonies for eight of them.
The Honors thesis requirement provides a unique opportunity for students to work side-by-side with WSU’s research and teaching faculty and to produce publishable academic works.
To receive the prestigious designation of pass with distinction, a student must be nominated by his or her thesis advisor and two faculty reviewers following the student’s 30-minute thesis oral presentation. The work is then thoroughly evaluated by faculty serving on the Honors Council, which makes make the final determination on awarding the pass with distinction designation.
Many of these exemplary theses are available for reading in the library in Honors Hall.
Honors’ spring 2009 recipients of pass with distinction are:
- Janel Brown , a zoology major, who researched under advisor John Mattoon, associate professor in veterinary medicine, the subject of “Veterinary Forensics: Giving a Voice to Those Who Cannot Speak for Themselves”
- Robert Colbert , a crop soil and sciences major, with Philip Wandschneider, professor in economic sciences, “Investment Opportunities in the Lake Osoyoos Locality”
- Karl Deede , a biology major, with Kyle Chandler, instructor in music, “Sensitive Periods in Musical Development”
- Matthew Grimes , a music performance major, with Guy Palmer, professor in veterinary medicine, “Superinfection as an Index of Pathogen Strain Emergence within a Persistently Infected Host Reservoir”
- Jeffrey Lawler , a political science major, with Thomas Preston, professor in political science, “The Genesis of Secession: Exploring New Casual Relationships in the Cases of Abkhazia, Kosovo, and Timor-Leste”
- Monique LeTourneau , a communications major, with Paulette Mills, associate professor in teaching and learning, “Inclusion Implementation and Attitudes in Washington State High Schools”
- Kendra Lyons , a zoology major, with Mark Dybdahl, associate professor in biological sciences, “Invasion Bottleneck and Absence of Genetic Variation in a Successful Aquatic Invader”
- Merik Metos , a zoology major, with Jesse Spohnholz, assistant professor in history, “The Vanishing Pope”
- Pawel Szafruga , an environmental science major, with David Huggins, adjunct faculty in crop and soil sciences, “Climate Change Impacts on Dryland Agriculture in Washington”
CONTACT: Merik H. Metos, Office of Undergraduate Education Communications Assistant, mmetos@wsu.edu , 509-335-8070