Honors College Students Land 13 Awards at WSU Showcase for Undergraduate Research and Creative Activities (SURCA) 2013

(pictured left to right: Fiorella Grandi, Beth Ross, Dean Libby Walker, Amanda Sweeney, Drew Neyen, Reed Omdal, and Laurel Graves)
(pictured left to right: Fiorella Grandi, Beth Ross, Dean Libby Walker, Amanda Sweeney, Drew Neyen, Reed Omdal, and Laurel Graves)

PULLMAN, Wash.— Honors College students at Washington State University took home 13 of 30 awards presented at the second annual Showcase for Undergraduate Research and Creative Activities 2013 (SURCA) on March 29.

“We had tremendous participation by our students this year, both in the number of students making oral and poster presentations and also in the quality of their research, scholarship, and creative activities that they shared,” says Libby Walker, Honors College dean.  “I’m always very proud of the outstanding work of our students, and no more so than when they have the chance to present it at such a prominent venue as SURCA.”

Honors students earned six of the 13 highest crimson awards (awardees featured in photo above with Dean Libby Walker), six of the next-place gray awards, and the only early career award presented at the event.  These awards were in seven of the eight SURCA categories.  The number of awards in each category was partially determined by the number of students applying to present in it. One award was for an oral presentation; the rest were for poster presentations.

Each awardee will receive a certificate and a monetary award thanks to the generous funding support by the Joseph L. Stubblefield Trust.

SURCA 2013 awardees who are members of the Honors College are (by category):

Applied Sciences

  • Crimson: Reed Omdal, mentor Kasee Hildenbrand

Arts and Design

  • Crimson Award: Beth Ross (who won with two co-presenters), mentors Kathleen Ryan and Bob Krikac
  • Gray Award: Gordon Stumpo, mentor Patricia Fischer

Engineering and Physical Sciences

  • Crimson Award: Laurel Graves, mentor Shelley Pressley
  • Gray Award: Patrick Gavin, mentor Ali Mehrizi-Sani

Molecular, Cellular, and Chemical Biology

  • Crimson Awards: Fiorella Grandi, mentor Wenfeng An; Amanda Feeney, mentor Mike Skinner; and Drew Neyens, mentor Steven Simasko
  • Gray Award: Nicole Clark, mentor James Pru
  • Early Career Award: Michele Reinelt, mentor James Pru

Humanities

  • Gray Award: Evelyn Quezada, whose mentor is Olusola Adesope.  Quezada made an oral presentation.

Organismal, Population, Ecological, and Evolutionary Biology

  • Gray Award: Emily Martin, mentor Jeb Owen

Social Sciences

  • Gray Award: Katherine Martucci, mentor Samantha Swindell

All SURCA crimson award winners were invited to be recognized also at the evening “Celebrating Excellence” banquet, part of WSU Showcase.

To read the abstracts describing their research, visit http://SURCA.wsu.edu.   Look for each student’s last name in a list near the front of the book, then look up the number of the associated poster or oral presentation in the pages that follow.

CONTACT:  Mary Sanchez Lanier, Associate Dean, University College at WSU, 509-335-4549, sanchez@wsu.edu

Shelley Pressley, Director of Undergraduate Research, University College at WSU, 509-335-5433, spressley@wsu.edu

MEDIA:  Beverly Makhani, Communications Director, University College at WSU, 509-335-6679, Makhani@wsu.edu