Oswald Research & Creativity Competition Student Category Winners

Award Amount: 1st Place $350; 2nd Place $200 in each category

Biological Sciences

• First Place: Joy Bidros; "The Effect of Magnesium Concentration on Myogenic Cardiac Function: Larval Drosophila"
• Second Place: Zoe McComas and Zachary McComas; "The influence of forest age on the presence of insect natural enemy communities within reforested urban sites & their dispersion into managed landscapes"

Design

• First Place: Anna Melchers, Madelyn Blankenship, and Kamryn Lin; “Walk Across Time: A Living Exhibit for The Arboretum, State Botanical Garden of Kentucky” 
• Second Place: Anna Quarles; "Designing a Modern Sewing Bag"

Fine Arts

• First Place (tie): Anna Zheng; "it's okay; i will protect you forever"
• First Place (tie): Vincent Donahue; “Waiting For The Invitation To Arrive”
• Second Place: Caleb Weber, Luise Wendroth, Michell Lynch, Jackson Arnold, and Maia Smith; “Coleridge-Taylor Clarinet Quintet”

Humanities: Creative

• First Place: Colin Nelson; “Pallbearer Once, Twice”
• Second Place: Noah Edgar; “Bullets of the Mind”

Humanities: Critical

• First Place: Faith Lindsay; “Rewriting History: Hung Liu's Transcultural Critique of the Portrayals of Chinese Women”
• Second Place: Ella Brown-Terry; "Two Women, a War, and a Pandemic: A Comparative Analysis of Katherine Anne Porter's Pale Horse, Pale Rider and Rosa Kuhn's 1918 Love Letters”

Physical and Engineering Sciences

• First Place: Gracie Burrows; "Exploring Flux Expulsion on Halfwave and 5-Cell Coaxial Cavities.”
• Second Place: Adarsh Khullar; "Computational Drug Optimization: Constructing Models to Inhibit EZH2"

Social Sciences

• First Place: Adarsh Khullar; "Security Investment, Narcotic Eradication, and Alternative Development: United States Intervention in Colombia."
• Second Place: Reese Coffman; "Scottish Jacobitism and the '45"

Award Amount: 1st Place $350; 2nd Place $200 in each category

Biological Sciences

• First Place: Hena Kachroo, "Determining the Conformation of AfeETF for Further Biochemical Experimentation"
•  Second Place: Megan Johnston, “UVR2 and UVR3: Candidate Regulators of the Chaperone-Protease System in Chloroplasts"

Design

• First Place: Gabriel Portugal, “Design of a Fully Functioning Travel Trailer”
• Second Place: Kate Wisinionski, “Shoot for the Stars”

Fine Arts

• First Place (tie): Gabriella Hunter, "With love, from me to you”
• Second Place: Danica Hak, "Proscenium”

Humanities: Creative

• First Place (tie): Beaux Hardin, "Mulatto Magic”
• Second Place: Caroline Youdes, "The Fall of Enicidem”

Humanities: Critical

• First Place: Jessica Miller, “Vast Absurdity: ‘The Great Gatsby’ as a Thought Experiment of Turner’s Frontier Thesis”
• Second Place: Riley Droppleman, “Terror had exterminated all the sentiments of nature”: Disease and Disruption in Charles Brockden Brown’s Arthur Mervyn

Physical and Engineering Sciences

• First Place: McKenna Clinch, “Investigation of Periodic Trends Between Platinum Alloyed Nanoparticles as Catalysts for Ethane Dehydrogenation"
• Second Place: Megan Johnston, “Brewing Sustainability: Innovative Practices for Repurposing Spent Coffee Grounds"

Social Sciences

• First Place: Kotomi Yokokura, “Experiences of Diet Culture and Fatphobia on a College Campus”
• Second Place (tie): Mallory Sparks, “Hispanic Community Perceptions of Need and Opportunities for Cancer Prevention and Screening in Kentucky”
• Second Place (tie): Rachel Hwang, “Global Criminal Justice Practices and Public Safety”

Award Amount: 1st Place $350; 2nd Place $200 in each category 

Biological Sciences

• First Place: Artin Asadipooya,  junior, Lewis Honors neuroscience major; Mentor: Pavel Ortinski, Ph.D., Neuroscience, College of Medicine; The Effects of Cocaine Withdrawal on Cognitive Flexibility and Claustrum Activity  

• Second Place: Kayli Bolton,  senior, Lewis Honors biology major; Mentor: Matthew Gentry, Ph.D., Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry, College of Medicine;  Assessing Glycogen Metabolism as a Therapeutic Target in Ewing's Sarcoma 

• Honorable Mention: Daniel Dailey,  senior, Lewis Honors chemical engineering major; Mentor: Rick Honaker, Ph.D., Mining Engineering, College of Engineering; Research Proposal to Enable Economic Rare Earth Element Production from U.S. Coal-Based Sources through Bioengineering 

Design 

• First Place: Lucas Carlos de Lima,  sophomore, architecture major; Mentor: Hannah Dewhirst, College of Design; Have you been here before? A Study on architectural collage and placebo-induced nostalgia.   

• Second Place: Felix Lowery,  senior, Lewis Honors landscape architecture major; Mentor: Jordan Phemister, Landscape Architecture, College of Agriculture, Food and Environment; Putting the Cool in Coolavin 

• Honorable Mention: Katherine White, senior, landscape architecture major; Mentor: none listed;  BODY / ARCHITECTURE 

Fine Arts  

• First Place: Joy Chou, senior, arts administration major; Mentor: none listed; In Honor of Loss and Reclamation   

• Second Place:  Gretchen Ruschman, junior, Lewis Honors agricultural and medical biotechnology major; Mentor: Kathrin Schaefer, University of Lübeck; Microbial Menagerie: The Unseen Social Inequities within Inflammatory Bowel Disease 

• Honorable Mention: Audrey Alford, junior, interior design major; Mentor: Ingrid Schmidt, Interiors, College of Design; Obscurity 

Humanities: Creative 

• First Place: Abigail Mortell, senior, Lewis Honors history major; Mentor: Erik Myrup, History, College of Arts and Sciences; Surviving the Sertão: A Play in Two Acts   

• Second Place:  Savannah Hinton, senior, secondary English education and English major; Mentor: Julia Johnson, English, College of Arts and Sciences; Freedom From Within 

• Honorable Mention: Isabella Hardin, freshman, English and French and Francophone studies major; Mentor: none listed; Children of the Sun 

• Honorable Mention: Anna McElhannon, senior, physics major; Mentor: none listed; Mercy 

Humanities: Critical Research  

• First Place:  Abigail Mortell, senior, Lewis Honors history major; Mentor: Carol Street, UK Libraries Special Collections Research Center; Canonization of Irish Authors: Nationalism and the Popularization of 1920s Irish Literature  

• Second Place:  Riley Droppleman, senior, Lewis Honors biology senior; Mentor: Molly Blasing, Modern and Classical Languages, Literatures, and Cultures, College of Arts and Sciences; The Freedom of Madness: Madness as an Act of Feminine Defiance in Mikhail Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita and Zenaida Gippius's "The Mad Woman" 

•  Honorable Mention: Colton Barton, senior, Lewis Honors English and gender and women's studies major; Mentor: none listed; A Potential for a Queer Utopia: Queer Futurity and Potentiality in Octavia Butler's Dawn 

Physical and Engineering Sciences  

• First Place: Daniel Dailey, senior, Lewis Honors chemical engineering major; Mentor: Rick Honaker, Mining Engineering, College of Engineering; The need to identify predictors and perceptions of mental health help-seeking behaviors in engineering communities to address underrepresentation in the STEM workforce 

• Second Place: Hena Kachroo, sophomore, Lewis Honors chemistry major; Mentor: Christopher Crawford, Physics, College of Arts and Sciences; Designing a Uniform Magnetic Field for nEDM Experiments 

Social Sciences  

• First Place: Daniel Dailey, senior, Lewis Honors chemical engineering major; Mentor: Sarah Wilson, Chemical and Materials Engineering, College of Engineering; The need to identify predictors and perceptions of mental health help-seeking behaviors in engineering communities to address underrepresentation in the STEM workforce 

• Second Place: Colton Barton, senior, Lewis Honors English and gender and women's studies major; Mentor: none listed; Gaymer Avatars: Analyzing the Relationship Between Gay Men and their Created Video Game Avatars    

• Honorable Mention: Ryder From, senior, psychology major; Mentor: none listed; The spiral of silence effect on LGBT people and issues 

Award Amount: 1st Place $350; 2nd Place $200 in each category 

BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES

• Shelby McCubbin, First Place - Honors neuroscience senior; Mentor: Robin Cooper; Pharmacological profiling of stretch activated channels in proprioceptive neurons 
  
   

• Maya Abul-Khoudoud, Second Place - Honors biology junior; Mentor: Matthew Gentry;  Establishing Personalized Diagnoses for Lafora's Disease

• Hannah Cleary, Honorable Mention - Honors agricultural and medical biotechnology senior; Mentor: Eve Schneider;  Methods of Mechanotransduction in Corpuscles of Waterfowl

DESIGN 

• Quincy Ipsaro, First Place - biology senior; Mentor: Carolina Segura-Bell,  Unorthodox but Functional Tools used for the Ecological Design and Implementation of Pollinator Gardens  

• Anna Claire Littleton, Second Place - landscape architecture senior; Mentor: Jayoung Koo;  Echoes of the Past: Huntertown Revival of "The Bottoms"

• Abby Phelps and Katie Davis, Honorable Mention - landscape architecture juniors; Mentor: Ned Crankshaw;  Urban Oasis

FINE ARTS 

• Sydney Daniels, First Place  - neuroscience and economics senior;  Mentor: Luke Bradley, Timothy Moyers, Michael Baker; The Symphony of the Cell 

• Jayda Johnson, Second Place  - studio art junior; Mentor: n/a;  Queen Mother/ Mitochondrial Eve 

• Brittani Garland, Honorable Mention - history and digital media and design senior; Mentor: n/a;  Visions

HUMANITIES: CREATIVE 

• Tejaswini Sudhakar, First Place - Honors psychology and gender and women’s studies senior; Mentor: Rebecca Gayle Howell; hold fire  

• Quinn Troia, Second Place  - Honors gender and women’s studies and information communication technology junio; Mentor: Tara Tuttle;  A Femme-ifesto

HUMANITIES: CRITICAL RESEARCH 

• Erin Inouye, First Place  - English junior; Mentor: Miriam Kienle;  Animating Plastics: Shinto and Environmentalism in Sayaka Ganz's Reclaimed Creations  

• Danica Moon, Second Place  - Honors political science senior; Mentor: Tara Tuttle;  Gender in the Garden  

PHYSICAL & ENGINEERING SCIENCES 

• Shelby McCubbin, First Place  - Honors neuroscience senior; Mentor: Robin Cooper; Pharmacological profiling of stretch activated channels in proprioceptive neurons

• Tony Butera, Second Place  - mechanical engineering junior; Mentor: Martha Grady; Correlation Between Sample Preparation and SEM Imaging

SOCIAL SCIENCES 

• Sydney Daniels, First Place  - neuroscience and economics senior; Mentor: none listed.; Rwanda's Coffee Industry: Colonialism and the Impact of Fair Trade Coffee

• Colton Barton, Second Place  - Honors English junior;  Mentor: Zada Komara;  Are We Doing Enough?: A Look at Current Issues Affecting LGBTQ Students at the University of Kentucky  

• Haley Hintz, Honorable Mention  - Honors psychology and political science senior;  Mentor: Jonathan Golding;  Juror Perceptions of Heterosexual and Same-Sex Spousal Rape in the Courtroom

View UKNow article

Award Amount: 1st Place $350; 2nd Place $200 in each category 

BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES

• Tyra Gilbert, First Place / Mentor: Dr. Chris Filmore Brainson / Metabolic Control of Polycomb Repressive Complex 2 in Lung Disease and Lung Cancer

• Rebecca Caldbeck, Second Place / Mentor: Dr. David Hildebrand / Feeding a growing population-Feasibility of leghemoglobin as visual marker for facilitating plant genetics based nutritional improvement

DESIGN 

• Allyson McNulty, First Place  / Mentor: n/a  / The Pinnacle

• Lainey Barschak, Second Place  / Mentor: Angus Eade  /  Pit Stop

FINE ARTS 

• Claire Thompson, First Place  / Mentor: n/a  /  Hag (diptych)

• Brianna Armstrong, Second Place  /  Mentor: n/a  /  TO FREEDOM!

• Courtney Smith, Honorable Mention /  Mentor: n/a  /  ‘The death of USPS’

HUMANITIES: CREATIVE 

• Haley Hintz, First Place  /  Mentor: Dr. Tara Tuttle  /  A Content Analysis of Representations of Women's Bisexuality in American Popular Music, 2008-2018

• Tara Pulaski, Second Place  /  Mentor: n/a  /  A Legacy Through Carnations

HUMANITIES: CRITICAL RESEARCH 

• Haley Drake, First Place  /  Mentor: Dr. Miriam Kienle  /  Touch Sanitation: Maintenance Art as Ecofeminism

• Sydney Wilcoxson, Second Place  /  Mentor:  Dr. Kristen Mark  /  Consent and Sex Education: A Detailed Look into the Policy of 14 States and Washington, D.C.

• Aly Norton, Honorable Mention  /  Mentor:  n/a  /  The Guerrilla Girls: “Re-Inventing the ‘F’ Word” in the Context of Feminist Activism

PHYSICAL & ENGINEERING SCIENCES 

•  Rebecca Caldbeck, First Place  /  Mentor: Dr. David Hildebrand  /  Feeding a growing population-Feasibility of leghemoglobin as visual marker for facilitating plant genetics based nutritional improvement

• Diana Sahibnazarova, Second Place  / Mentor: Dr. Chris Crawford  /  A CsI Detector Array for the NDTGamma Test Measurement

SOCIAL SCIENCES 

• Sydney Wilcoxson, First Place  /  Mentor:  Dr. Kristen Mark  /  Consent and Sex Education: A Detailed Look into the Policy of 14 States and Washington, D.C.

• Haley Hintz, Second Place  /  Mentor: Dr. Zada Komara  /  A Digital Ethnography on the Role of Gender and the Use of Homeopathy: A Qualitative and Quantitative Analysis 

• Elena Liu, Honorable Mention  /  Mentor: Dr. Yoko Kusunose  /   The Coffee in Your Cup: Reviewing Fair Trade’s Impact on Development

Award Amount: 1st Place $350; 2nd Place $200 in each category 

Biological Sciences

• First Place: Claire Scott, Effects of SUV39H1 and SUV420H1/H2 on Programmed Genome Rearrangement in Petromyzon marinus; Mentor: Dr. Jeremiah Smith
• Second Place: Lydia Pack, A Not-So Beautiful Mind: A Review of the Genetics of Schizophrenia; Mentor: Dr. Emily Croteau

Design

• First Place: Emily Andreasson, Remembering Wonder; Mentor: Lindsey Fay
• Second Place: Grace Butler, WonderEdge; Mentor: Brent Sturlaugson

Fine Arts

• First Place: Hannah Johnston, Translation in Color, Tone, and Form; Mentor:  Dr. Julie Hobbs
• Second Place: Katelyn Cox, "Differentiate": Using Dance to Explore Analogies Between the Life Sciences and Philosophy; Mentor: Susie Thiel
• Honorable Mention: Meredith Coffey, Microfibers Are Not Delicious; Mentor: Crystal Gregory

Humanities: Creative Research

• First Place: Alexis Hogsten, I Hide My Skin For Society's Purpose; Mentor: Dr. Julia Johnson
• Second Place: Lindsey Smart, In our two orbits; Mentor: Dr. Julia Johnson
• Honorable Mention: Lauren Myfelt, Salmon Run; Mentor: Dr. Julia Johnson

Humanities: Critical Research

• First Place: Hannah Thomas, Who’s Running (in) the Show? : Exploring the Ethics of Transgender Athletics; Mentor: Dr. Rebecca Yarrison
• Second Place: Sydney Mullins, A Portrait of Myself: Gaze Through the Eyes of Florine Stettheimer; Mentor:  Dr. Miriam Kienle
• Honorable Mention: Daniela Gamez Salgado, The History of Latino Students at the University of Kentucky, 1865-2019; Mentor:  Dr. Ruth Brown

Physical and Engineering Sciences

• First Place: Binit Singh, Spatial Positioning and Operating Parameters of a Rotary Bell Sprayer: 3D Mapping of Droplet Size Distributions; Mentor: Dr. Nelson Akafuah
• Second Place: Tom Shelton, Simulating particle interaction in silicon detectors for the Nab experiment; Mentor: Dr. Chris Crawford
• Honorable Mention: Rosemary Alden, Smart Plug and Circuit Breaker Technologies for Residencies; Mentor: Dr. Dan Ionel

Social Sciences

• First Place: Daniela Gamez Salgado, The History of Latino Students at the University of Kentucky, 1865-2019; Mentor:  Dr. Ruth Brown
• Second Place: Jenna Jodts, Comprehension Self-efficacy and Understanding of Goal Structure in Children with ADHD Following a Narrative Structure Intervention; Mentor: Dr. Elizabeth Lorch
• Honorable Mention: Hannah Thomas, The Social Determinants of Health: A Path to Better Care in the Emergency Department; Mentor:  Dr. Katherine Rogers-Carpenter

Award Amount: 1st Place $350; 2nd Place $200 in each category

Biological Sciences

• First Place: Usman Hamid, Effects of Environmental Conditions on c-fos Expression in Rat Nucleus Accumbens After Remifentanil; Mentor: Dr. Michael Bardo
• Second Place: Hannah Thompson, Inflammatory Effects of Extracellular Vesicles Released from the Normal Tissue Target of Doxorubicin; Mentor: Dr. St. Clair Daret
• Honorable Mention: Joshua Preston, PCB126 Exposure during Pregnancy Significantly Affects Maternal and Fetal Gene Expression; Mentor: Dr. Kevin Pearson

Design

• First Place: Teonna Radevski, Symbiotic Spaces; Mentor: Lindsey Fay
• Second Place: Alyssa Weir, Interlocking Harmony of Opposites; Mentor: Lindsey Fay

Fine Arts

• First Place: Samantha Hensley, Gathering My Friends; Mentor:  Crystal Gregory
• Second Place: Alexis (Ali) Deane, Amniotic Fluid Study; Mentor: Ruth Adams

Humanities: Creative Research

• First Place: Christian Tipton, Creative Writing in Digital Spaces: Digital Story Book; Mentor: Dr. DaMaris Hill
• Second Place: Kenneth Arnett, Shindig
• Honorable Mention: Haley Drake, Some Poems

Humanities: Critical Research

• First Place: Anna Romaniuk, Droga Pani Ministro
• Second Place: Alyssa Mertka, When This You See, Remember Me: The Vietnam Veterans Memorial and World War I Monuments; Mentor:  Dr. Armando Pratts
• Honorable Mention: Daniela Gamez Salgado, The History of Latino Students at the University of Kentucky, 1865-2019; Mentor:  Dr. Ruth Brown

Physical and Engineering Sciences

• First Place: Katie Kloska, Gas Phase Spectra of MgO Molecules: A Possible Connection from Gas Phase Molecules to Planet Formation; Mentor: Dr. Ryan Fortenberry
• Second Place: Kaitlyn Kearns, Relationship Between Sucrose Concentration and Spallation Region in S. Mutans Biofilms Loaded by Laser-induced Stress Waves; Mentor: Dr. Martha Grady
• Honorable Mention: Brandon Enbody, Biomimicry of Aquatic Organisms for Community Storm Design Applications

Social Sciences

• First Place: Hannah Carlson, Client Protection Regulations for Microfinance Institutions in Ghana, Kenya, and Tanzania
• Second Place: Sierra Hatfield, The Potential Electoral Influence of Internet Memes; Mentor: Dr. Steven Voss
• Honorable Mention: Megan Coffinbargar, An Assessment of Disability Access at the University of Kentucky; Mentor:  Dr. Robyn Brown
• Honorable Mention: Hina Iqbal, Cultural Competency and its Effects on Social Capital; Mentor:  Dr. F. Douglas Scutchfield

Award Amount: 1st Place $350; 2nd Place $200 in each category

Biological Sciences

• First Place: Joshua Preston, “Maternal Nicotine Exposure Prior to and during Pregnancy and Nursing Increases Offspring Obesity Risk”; Mentor: Dr. Kevin Pearson
•  Second Place: Kelly Sovacool, “Developing a Global Homology and Collinearity Analysis Framework for Identifying Gene Duplication Events”; Mentor: Dr. Hunter Moseley

Design

• First Place: Brooke Holley, “Freedom of Fluidity”; Mentor: Lindsey Fay
• Second Place: Alexander Kistler, “The Woodlands, A Naturally Designed Residential Landscape”; Mentor: Ryan Hargrove

Fine Arts

• First Place: Liz Moore, “Micro in the Macro”; Mentor: Ebony G. Patterson
• Second Place: Meredith Matia, “Ichigo, Ichie”
• Honorable Mention: Schuyler Baas, “The Remembrance”

Humanities: Creative

• First Place: Bridget Nicholas, “Lessons for Women”; Mentor: Dr. Matthew Wells
• No  second place

Humanities: Critical

• First Place (tie): Andrew Johnson, “Kentucky Slavery: The Historiography of Human Property Records”; Mentor: Dr. Kathryn Newfont
• First Place (tie): Isabelle Martin, “A Single Particle Among Billions: Yayoi Kusama and the Power of the Minute”; Mentor: Dr. Miriam Kienle
• Second Place: Beau Revlett, “Aristotle and game theory on human nature and ethics”; Mentor: Dr. Eric Sanday
• Honorable Mention: Caitlin Dorris, “Complete History of the Nursing Home Ombudsman Program”

Physical and Engineering Sciences

• First Place: Grant Forbes, “Analysis of Current-mode Detectors For Resonance Detection In Neutron Optics Time Reversal Symmetry Experiment”; Mentor: Dr. Brad Plaster
• Second Place: Rhett Croley, “Spin Transport of Polarized Helium-3 Atoms”; Mentor: Dr. Chris Crawford

Social Sciences

• First Place: Veronica Scott, “Memes: The Interaction Between Imagery and Subculture”; Mentor: Timothy Bill
• Second Place: Martha Tillson, “An Exploratory Study of Syringe Exchange Program Awareness and Perceptions in Kentucky”; Mentor: Dr. Michele Staton

Award Amount: 1st Place $350; 2nd Place $200 in each category

Biological Sciences

• First Place: Taylor Jordan, "The Opportunity for Effectiveness with the Integration of Suspension Training into Therapy for Chronic Lower Back Pain Treatment"
•  Second Place: Jeremy Frederick, “An Examination of Reproductive Isolation in Sympatric Populations of the Redheaded Pine Sawfly (Neodiprion lecontei)"
• Honorable Mention: Ava Vargason, “Endocytosis and Exocytosis of Poly (trolox ester) Nanoparticles in Endothelial Cells”

Design

• First Place: Erin Taylor, “The Translation and Communication of Design Research”
• Second Place: Caitlin Porter, “The Block”

Fine Arts

• First Place: Elmer Lopez, “Unidentifiable Man”
• Second Place: Felipe Rodriguez, “Falling Violence”

Humanities: Creative

• First Place (tie): Joshua Irvin, "The Teenage Militia”
• First Place (tie): Sam Stromberg, "Dear Myself”
• Second Place: Kelsey Potter, “I Am Their Vessel"

Humanities: Critical

• First Place: Rosie Picone, “Transmutation and the Philosopher's Stone: Alchemy's Presence in Blood Meridian”
• Second Place: Madison Stewart, “Misrepresentation in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight”

Physical and Engineering Sciences

• First Place: Daniel Ma, “Combining Microelectrode Surface Area Produces Greater Sensitivity while Maintaining Comparable Interference and Limit of Detection in a Biosensor”
• Second Place: Thomas Barron, “Every n-ary semigroup is binary-subderived”
• Honorable Mention: Deborah Ferguson, “Milky Way Tomography using K and M Dwarfs from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey”

Social Sciences

• First Place: none
• Second Place: Rebecca Faith VanMeter, “Global coding for support and comfort in investigative interviews of alleged child abuse victims: Comparing the NICHD and MoGP Protocols”