USU's Research Week Concludes With Annual Student Awards Ceremony

The Office of Research concluded Research Week 2023 by celebrating student researchers and their accomplishments at the Student Research Awards Ceremony on Friday. The ceremony recognizes the accomplishments of undergraduate, graduate and doctoral students at USU.

During the ceremony, students from each college were recognized for their nomination to one of the three university-level student research awards. The overall recipient of each award was announced at the Robins Awards.

The recipients of the 20 Student Research Symposium awards were also announced during the ceremony. All presentations from this event can be viewed on the Symposium event website.

The 2023 award nominees and recipients are as follows:

The USU recipient of the Peak Undergraduate Research Award is Heather Allen from thePhysics Department in theCollege of Science. The other nominees were:

• Haowen Chang, Department of Music
• Theressa Crawford, Communicative Disorders and Deaf Education Department
• Austin Garner, Watershed Sciences Department
• Katie Hewitt, Plants, Soils, and Climate Department
• Jacob Huff, Marketing and Strategy
• Darcy Ritchie, History Department
• Landon Taylor, Electrical and Computer Engineering

The overall recipient of the Master’s Students Researcher of the Year Award is Kate Richardson from the Biology Department in the College of Science. The other nominees were:

• Dokota Boren, Plants, Soils, and Climate Department
• Elizabeth Groat, Sociology, Social Work and Anthropology Department
• Marlaina Lutz, Art and Design Department
• Amanda Moravek, Biological Engineering Department
• Kate Sinnott, Watershed Sciences Department
• Makenzy Turner, Human Development and Family Studies
• Katherine Vann Shaar Manning, Economics and Finance Department

Finally, the university recipient of the Doctoral Researcher of the Year is Nikolay Tkachenko from the Chemistry and Biochemistry Department in the College of Science. The other nominees were:

• Matthew Barnett, Sociology, Social Work and Anthropology Department
• Naveen Duhan, Plants, Soils, and Climate Department
• Julie Petersen, Psychology Department
• Jie Ren, Biological Engineering Department
• Brian Smith, Wildland Resources Department

The Student Research Symposium awards are divided by presentation type, discipline, and undergraduate or graduate status.

The Undergraduate Oral Presentation Award went to:

• Bailee Miner and Grace Garner, Arts and Humanities
• Dan O’Crowley, Engineering
• Kaleb Keller, Life Sciences
• Anna Fabiszak, Physical Sciences
• Katie Fairbourn, Social Sciences and Education

The Undergraduate Poster Presentation Award went to:

• Rachel Campbell, Arts (tie)
• Clarissa Songer, Arts (tie)
• Jaron Bono, Engineering
• Andrew Williams and Justin Harris, Life Sciences
• Bella Lonardo, Physical Sciences
• Lindsey Bushman, Social Sciences and Education

The Gradate Oral Presentation Award went to:

• Katelyn Bauer, Arts and Humanities
• Marium Rasheed,Engineering
• Ariel Snowden, Life Sciences
• Kevin Rhine, Physical Sciences
• Man Zhang, Social Sciences and Education

The Graduate Poster Presentation Award went to:

• Atul Subedi, Engineering
• Prakriti Nepal, Life Science
• Jesse Mathews, Physical Sciences
• Kalie Chamberlain and Lorissa Nelson, Social Sciences and Education.

Research Week 2023 included a number of recognitions and presentations of the high-level research efforts by students and faculty at Utah State. The week began with Melanie Domenech Rodríuez presenting at the D. Wynne Thorne Lecture. On Tuesday and Wednesday, more than 300 students presented their work at the Student Research Symposium. And during the duration of the week, USU faculty who published a book in the last year were recognized at the Faculty Author Exhibit.

Learn more about Research Week events and recognitions at researchweek.usu.edu.