WSU Honors College Students Showcase Their Undergraduate Research; 8 Take Home 7 SURCA 2014 Awards

PULLMAN, Wash. – During Washington State University’s third annual Showcase for Undergraduate Research and Creative Activities (SURCA), 34 students in the Honors College at Washington State University presented topics ranging from the charge states of Thorium to the sociopolitical implications of immigration. Of those competing in the WSU-wide event, 8 Honors College students received 7 awards.

“Mentored research and creative activities are at the core of the Honors experience,” says Honors Dean Grant Norton.  “These students are contributing to an ever-expanding understanding of the world, and those individual pieces are outstanding accomplishments.”

Bryce Henderson
Bryce Henderson

SURCA features eight categories of poster and oral presentations highlighting undergraduates’ mentored “research, scholarship, and creative activities.” Hosted by the Undergraduate Research Program, part of the WSU Office of Undergraduate Education, judges evaluate each presentation and awards are made to top presenters in each category. These awards have multiple levels of achievement. The highest are the Crimson Awards and next are the Gray Awards.

Eight Honors College students won six crimson awards and one gray award across four of the eight categories.

Awards this year were sponsored by The Boeing Company and the WSU Office of the Provost and Executive Vice President.

Elhart, Finkel, and Wakeling,
Elhart, Finkel, and Wakeling,
Marcela Rodriguez
Marcela Rodriguez

Hawkinson, Henderson, and Sexton
Hawkinson, Henderson, and Sexton
Holbrook
Holbrook

Listed by SURCA 2014 category and including the mentor’s name, project name, and abstract number in the online book, awardees who are members of the Honors College are:

Engineering and Physical Sciences

  • Crimson award: Molly Wakeling, physics major and in the WSU Honors College, for “Charge States of Th-229m: Path to Finding the Half-Life;” mentors Jason T. Burke, at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, and WSU’s Steven Tomsovic; abstract #29
  • Crimson award: Lindsey Elhart and David Finkel, finance major and chemical engineering major respectively, both in the WSU Honors College, for “Improving Aircraft Safety with an Airfoil Airspeed Sensor;” mentor Howard Davis; abstract #119

 

Humanities

  • Crimson award: Marcela Rodriguez, English major, for oral presentation “The Marked Narrative: A Rhetorical Analysis of Immigrant Narratives and their Sociopolitical Implications;” mentor Victor Villanueva; abstract #202

Molecular, Cellular, and Chemical Biology

  • Crimson award: Jessica Hawkinson, genetics and cell biology major and in the WSU Honors College, for “The Potential Role of Deamidation of Asparagine 155 within Neural Tropomodulin2;” mentor Alla Kostyukova; abstract #5
  • Crimson award: Bryce Henderson, biochemistry major and in the WSU Honors College, for “Elucidating the Fusogenic Efficacy of Nipah Virus Fusion Proteins and Mutant Derivatives;” mentor Hector Aguilar; abstract #15
  • Crimson award: Thomas Sexton, biology/botany major and in the WSU Honors College, for “The in Vivo Temperature Response of Rubisco Kinetics in Oryza Sativa;” mentor Asaph Cousins; abstract #18

Social Sciences

  • Gray award: Amy Holbrook, international business major and in the WSU Honors College, for oral presentation “What Effect Does Wine Closure Type Have on Perceptions of Wine’s Appearance, Bouquet, Taste, and Overall Quality? An Empirical Investigation;” mentor Dennis Reynolds; abstract #204

Contact: M. Grant Norton, Dean, WSU Honors College, 509-335-4505, mg_norton@wsu.edu

Jared Brickman, Communications Assistant, WSU Honors College, 509-335-8070, uchccommmar.4@wsu.edu