Honors Students Land 15 SURCA Undergraduate Research Awards; Also Among WSU Academic Showcase Presenters

Evelyn Quezada discusses her research with SURCA judge and Honors faculty member Lydia Gerber

PULLMAN, Wash.—Washington State University Honors College students made up about one-third of all students competing for prizes at the inaugural Showcase for Undergraduate Research and Creative Activities (SURCA) on March 30, 2012, and took home a similar percentage of all of the prizes.

Fifty Honors students from majors across campus made oral or poster presentations at SURCA about their research, scholarship, and creative activities—work that is termed “research” for undergraduates at WSU. In total, 39 SURCA awards were presented in eight categories to a total of 44 students and one laboratory WSU-wide; Honors students won 15 of those.

SURCA was added this year to the WSU Showcase lineup that includes Academic Showcase and the Celebrating Excellence banquet. WSU Showcase has become a campus tradition as a special day set aside each year to highlight the compelling work being done by the university community. SURCA is hosted by the Undergraduate Research office, a unit within the University College, which also sponsored the student awards. The Honors College was among the colleges contributing funding for SURCA overall. Fourteen Honors students also displayed posters at the WSU Academic Showcase.

In the following listing, the winners from Honors include the following information: SURCA category of participation, award name, student name, major, mentor, and project title.

Applied Sciences (which featured poster presentations by five Honors students)

Gray Award ($150)

  • Brody Teare, agriculture biosystems major, mentor Colin Campbell, “An Evaluation of the Practicality of Using Glass Beads with the Decagon Soil Matric Potential Sensor for the Measurement of High Water Potential“
  • Abigail Moody, zoology major, mentor Daniela Bermudez, “Evaluation of the shelf life of apple juice after High Hydrostatic Pressure treatments“
Arts and Design (oral or poster presentations by four Honors students)

Crimson Award ($250)

  • Jared Brickman, journalism major, mentor Rebecca Goodrich, “The World in a Suitcase: A Collection of Short Fiction“
Computer Science, Mathematics, Statistics, and Information Sciences (poster presentations by two Honors students)

Gray Award ($150)

  • Sean Colby, bioengineering major, mentor James Carson (PNNL), “Three-Dimensional Reconstruction and Analysis of High-Resolution Serial-Sectioned Mouse Brain Tissue Images“
Engineering and Physical Sciences (posters presentations by three Honors students)

There were no Honors award recipients in this category.

Humanities (oral or poster presentations by seven Honors students)

Crimson Award ($250)

  • Ryan Scott, history major, mentor Jeff Sanders, “Environments of Deadly Dust: Workers, doctors, policy makers, and the fight against asbestos disease in the shipyards of the Puget Sound region“

Gray Award ($150)

  • Evelyn Quezada, English, rhetoric and professional writing major, mentor Olusola Adesope, “Factors Influencing Language Choice among Latino/a Spanish English Bilinguals“

Early Career Award ($100)

  • Kathryn Myers, biology major, mentor Lydia Gerber, “Mothers in Tang China Compared to Exemplary Han Dynasty Mothers“
Molecular, Cellular, and Chemical Biology (poster presentations by 13 Honors students)

Gray Award ($150)

  • Deven Tokuno, zoology and English major, mentor Douglas R. Call, “Can imported foods serve as vehicles for transporting antibiotic resistance genes?”
  • Jonathan Bliggenstorfer, biology and French major, mentor Douglas R. Call, “Efflux pump accumulation is the probable mechanism responsible for high level florfenicol resistance in Salmonella enterica“
Organismal, Population, Ecological, and Evolutionary Biology (poster presentations by eight Honors students)

Crimson Award ($250)

  • Alisha McBride, neuroscience major, mentor Rebecca Craft, “Ovarian Hormone Modulation of Supraspinal THC-Induced Analgesia“

Gray Award ($150)

  • Melissa Boyer, animal science major, mentor John McNamara, “The environmental viability of Toggenburg goats and Holstein cattle in Northern Kenya“

Early Career Award ($100)

  • Kristen Wedam, animal science major, mentor Jeb Owen, “Fitness Effects of the Host’s Acquired Resistance to Southern House Mosquito“
Social Sciences (oral or poster presentations by eight Honors students)

Crimson Award ($250)

  • Amanda Scott, communication major, mentor Lydia Gerber, “Wu Zhao: The Scheming Confucian Wife“ 

Gray Award ($150)

  • Erin Sebring, speech and hearing science major, mentor Phyllis Erdman, “Using Animal Assisted Therapy in Speech Language Pathology: A Review”
  • Lauryn Ringwood, economics major, mentor Robby Rosenman, “Economics, Culture, and Obesity“

Abstracts for these and all SURCA participants are available online.

CONTACT: Deven Tokuno, Communications Assistant, Honors College at WSU, 509-335-8070
Beverly Makhani, Communications Director, Honors College at WSU, 509-335-6679, Makhani@wsu.edu

SOURCE: Libby Walker, Dean, Honors College at WSU, 509-335-4505, walker@wsu.edu
Shelley Pressley, Undergraduate Research Director, University College at WSU, 509-335-5443, spressley@wsu.edu
Mary Sanchez-Lanier, Assistant Vice Provost and Associate Dean, University College at WSU, 509-335-2320, sanchez@wsu.edu