A number of College of Arts and Sciences undergraduate researchers received awards at the 2026 Richard J. and Martha D. Denman Undergraduate Research Forum. 31 students from 15 majors placed in their categories, with all sections including Arts and Sciences representation.

The Denman Undergraduate Research Forum provides an opportunity for graduating student researchers to share their research endeavors with the university community.  The Denman Forum is Undergraduate Research & Creative Inquiry's only competitive poster forum in which winners are recognized in each category as determined by faculty, staff, and Denman alumni reviewers. Students are reviewed on their ability to communicate their research process and results effectively through written poster content and accompanying oral presentations.

Arts and Sciences Winners

Arts, Culture & Humanities

• First place: Vija Tessman, International Studies - Syncretic Spirits of Fire: Narratives of the jinn and related beings in Near Eastern religious corpora
• Second place: Zoei Tee, Visual Communication Design - navi: A Mobile Application Designed to Support Travel Accessibility
• Third place: Marissa Beckett, Biology - Child Homicide in California 2005-2010

Center for Ethics and Human Values

• Second place: Brienna Marcy, Criminology and Criminal Justice Studies - Political Violent Extremism in America: a Descriptive Analysis from 2020-2024

Civil Discourse for Citizenship

• First place: Alison Gruber, Psychology - Motivated Source Confusion
• Second place: Jasmine Freeman, Psychology - Political Polarization in Jury-Decision-Making

Earth & Beyond

• First place: Rachel White, Astronomy and Astrophysics - Using a Convolutional Neural Network to Reconstruct Neutrino Events in ANITA
• Second place: Daniel Zurawski, Astronomy and Astrophysics - A New Rossiter-McLaughlin Measurement of a Sub-Neptune Exoplanet
• Third place: Lucas Ferrari, Astronomy and Astrophysics - Using Phase Curve Analysis of TESS Photometry to Probe the Atmospheres of Ultra-Hot Jupiters
• Honorable mention: Blake Sodikoff, Astronomy and Astrophysics - Flux-Based Detection of Phosphine in Venus-like Exoplanets

Food, Agriculture & Animal Sciences

• First place: Thaddeus Bowen, Microbiology - Investigating the possible involvement of genes RPT5a and GASP1 in pollen aperture formation in Arabidopsis thaliana
• Honorable mention: Joseph Gulas, Zoology - Effects of Early Life Ammonia Exposure on the Mangrove Rivulus (Kryptolebias marmoratus)

Health Under the Microscope

• First place: Claire Holecek, Neuroscience - Validating a patient-derived induced pluripotent stem cell model for studying neurofilament accumulations in Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease type 2E
• Second place: Victoria Thorson, Biochemistry - Protective Effect of Selenbp1 Inhibition Against Acute Kidney Injury
• Third place: Reema Gupta, Biochemistry - Molecular Characterization of Cardiac Myosin Binding Protein-C Central Domain Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy Mutations
• Honorable mention: Katherine Seaman, Chemistry - Dose-Dependent Hair Greying in Mice from Ionizing Radiation Exposure and its Characterization Using Raman Spectroscopy

Innovations in Medicine

• First place: Andrew Hardman, Neuroscience - Mechanisms of Urothelial Remodeling in Obstructed Kidneys: PPARy-Dependent Control of UPK Expression
• Second place: Kianna McEwen, Neuroscience - Off-the-Shelf CAR T-cell Therapy for Solid Tumors
• Honorable mention: Eleni Kourlas, Microbiology - Cross-Neutralizing Nanobodies to Henipaviruses from Prefusion F-Immunized Nanomice

Partner Awards

• Infectious Disease Institute: Michael Muccio, Biochemistry - Probing how HIV-1 transcription start-site usage dictates RNA stability and protein binding

Pediatric and Family Health

• First place: Emerson Lepicki, Visual Communication Design - Lexorva: Integrating Augmented Reality Into Language Learning for Grades K-2
• Second place: Joseph Christiano, Industrial Design - Honda Oasis Display: Reimagining the Backseat as an Emotionally Supportive Environment for Children
• Honorable mention: Sydney Greenwell, Industrial Design - New Horizons: Reimagining Automotive Travel for Children Through Sensory-Enhanced Mindfulness

Public Health

• First place: Manasa Boppudi, Philosophy, Politics, and Economics - When Competition Fails: Bipartisan Approaches to Hospital Consolidation
• Second place: Anastasia Allison, Visual Communication Design - Echo: Conversations Amplified
• Honorable mention: Sammie Dong, Chemistry - Novel Pyridinol Quinone Methide Precursors as Potential Resurrectors of  Organophosphorus-aged Butyrylcholinesterase

Society, Commerce & Behavior

• Second place: Alison Gruber, Psychology - Motivated Source Confusion
• Third place: Surekha Garapati, Biology - Your Mind on Machines: AI Use and Cognitive Engagement in Higher Education
• Honorable mention: Grace Silvers, Speech and Hearing Sciences - The Relationship Between Personality Traits and Cochlear Implant Outcomes

Sustainability Institute

• Third place: Ruo-Hua Chu, Industrial Design - Local Loops: Exploring Circularity In Franklinton

Understanding Cancer

• Third place: Amanda Peters, Microbiology - Chemotherapy Impairs Vaccine-Induced Anti-Tumor Immunity, Revealing the Need for Optimally Timed Vaccination
• Honorable mention: Amanda McCrary, Molecular Genetics - Estrogen receptor beta alters melanocyte master regulator activity