Award recipients announced for the 31st Annual Denman Undergraduate Research Forum
Source: https://ugresearch.osu.edu/news/2026/03/12/award-recipients-announced-31st-annual-denman-undergraduate-research-forum Parent: https://ugresearch.osu.edu/
March 12, 2026
The 31st Annual Richard J. and Martha D. Denman Undergraduate Research Forum proudly celebrates the outstanding achievements of this year’s award recipients.
More than 300 undergraduate researchers shared their scholarly and creative work across ten academic categories during the forum, held on Tuesday, March 10, 2026, in the Archie M. Griffin Grand Ballroom of the Ohio Union. The Denman Undergraduate Research Forum provides a culminating opportunity for graduating students to present their research and creative inquiry to the Ohio State community.
As Undergraduate Research and Creative Inquiry’s only competitive poster forum, the Denman Forum highlights excellence in undergraduate scholarship. Student presentations were evaluated by a panel of faculty, staff, and alumni reviewers, who assessed participants on their ability to clearly and effectively communicate their research questions, methodologies, and findings through both poster content and oral presentation.
Thanks to the generosity of Rick and Marte Denman, award recipients in each category received a placement medal, award certificate, and certificate of scholarship in recognition of their exemplary work and commitment to undergraduate research.
Congratulations to all of the students recognized at the 31st Annual Denman Undergraduate Research Forum for their dedication, curiosity, and contributions to research and creative inquiry at Ohio State.
| List of Award Recipients | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Placement | Category | First Name | Last Name | Poster Title |
| First Place | Center for Ethics & Human Values | Ejuan | Kendrick | The Policing Pendulum: Role Change Between Drug Enforcement and Harm Reduction |
| Second Place | Center for Ethics & Human Values | Brienna | Marcy | Political Violent Extremism in America: A Descriptive Analysis from 2020-2024 |
| First Place | Civil Discourse for Citizenship | Alison | Gruber | Motivated Source Confusion |
| Second Place | Civil Discourse for Citizenship | Jasmine | Freeman | Political Polarization in Jury Decision-Making |
| Infectious Disease Institute | Michael | Muccio | Probing how HIV-1 transcription start-site usage dictates RNA stability and protein binding | |
| Secondary Data Core | Blair | Poltorek | Identifying Missed Opportunities for Ultrasound-Guided Nerve Blocks in the Emergency Department | |
| First Place | Sustainability Institute | Lauren | Thornhill | Effects of Pollinator Enhancement Plantings on Soybean Yield |
| Second Place | Sustainability Institute | Kora | Lilly | Layers of Influence: The Dual Impact of Primary and Secondary Packaging on Consumer Perception and Product Evaluation |
| Third Place | Sustainability Institute | Ruo-Hua (Sophie) | Chu | Local Loops: Exploring Circularity in Franklinton |
| First Place | Arts, Culture & Humanities | Vija | Tessman | Syncretic Spirits of Fire: Narratives of the jinn and related beings in Near Eastern religious corpora |
| Second Place | Arts, Culture & Humanities | Zoei | Tee | navi - A Mobile Application Designed to Support Travel Accessibility |
| Third Place | Arts, Culture & Humanities | Marissa | Beckett | Child Homicide in California 2005-2010 |
| Honorable Mention | Arts, Culture & Humanities | Darshani | Jones | Understanding Consumer Behavior Across Industries Through Social Psychology in the Fashion Industry |
| First Place | Earth & Beyond | Rachel | White | Using a Convolutional Neural Network to Reconstruct Neutrino Events in ANITA |
| Second Place | Earth & Beyond | Daniel | Zurawski | A New Rossiter-McLaughlin Measurement of a Sub-Neptune Exoplanet |
| Third Place | Earth & Beyond | Lucas | Ferrari | Using Phase Curve Analysis of TESS Photometry to Probe the Atmospheres of Ultra-Hot Jupiters |
| Honorable Mention | Earth & Beyond | Blake | Sodikoff | Flux-Based Detection of Phosphine in Venus-like Exoplanets |
| First Place | Engineering and Technology | Wenhe | Zhao | Mesoscopic simulation of dynamic DNA origami nanomachine |
| Second Place | Engineering and Technology | Quill | van Roodselaar | Design and Analysis of a Precise Linkage-Driven Robotic Hand for Manufacturing Applications |
| Third Place | Engineering and Technology | Mark | Mikulich | Biaxial Tension Test Device |
| Honorable Mention | Engineering and Technology | Luke | Gillespie | Hydrogenation of Nitrophenol Using Palladium Supported on Aryl-Bridged Polysilsesquioxanes |
| First Place | Food, Agriculture & Animal Sciences | Thaddeus | Bowen | Investigating the possible involvement of genes RPT5a and GASP1 in pollen aperture formation in Arabidopsis thaliana |
| Second Place | Food, Agriculture & Animal Sciences | Elizabeth | Lott | Fast-growing broilers pair-fed to slow-growing broilers to investigate the effect of feed intake on breast meat quality and oxidant markers |
| Third Place | Food, Agriculture & Animal Sciences | Kalyna | Kulchytsky | Durable protective immunity to bovine H5N1 influenza virus in dairy cattle following natural infection |
| Honorable Mention | Food, Agriculture & Animal Sciences | Joseph | Gulas | Effects of Early Life Ammonia Exposure on the Mangrove Rivulus (Kryptolebias marmoratus) |
| First Place | Health under the Microscope | Claire | Holecek | Validating a patient-derived induced pluripotent stem cell model for studying neurofilament accumulations in Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease type 2E |
| Second Place | Health under the Microscope | Victoria | Thorson | Protective Effect of Selenbp1 Inhibition Against Acute Kidney Injury |
| Third Place | Health under the Microscope | Reema | Gupta | Molecular Characterization of Cardiac Myosin Binding Protein-C Central Domain Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy Mutations |
| Honorable Mention | Health under the Microscope | Katherine | Seaman | Dose-Dependent Hair Greying in Mice from Ionizing Radiation Exposure and its Characterization Using Raman Spectroscopy |
| First Place | Innovations in Medicine | Andrew | Hardman | Mechanisms of Urothelial Remodeling in Obstructed Kidneys: PPARy-Dependent Control of UPK Expression |
| Second Place | Innovations in Medicine | Kianna | McEwen | Off-the-Shelf CAR T-cell Therapy for Solid Tumors |
| Third Place | Innovations in Medicine | Hayden | Price | Temporal Characteristics of the Systemic Inflammatory Response Index Following Anterior Cruciate Ligament Reconstruction |
| Honorable Mention | Innovations in Medicine | Eleni | Kourlas | Cross-Neutralizing Nanobodies to Henipaviruses from Prefusion F-Immunized Nanomice |
| First Place | Pediatric and Family Health | Emerson | Lepicki | Lexorva: Integrating Augmented Reality Into Language Learning for Grades K-2 |
| Second Place | Pediatric and Family Health | Joseph | Christiano | Honda Oasis Display: Reimagining the Backseat as an Emotionally Supportive Environment for Children |
| Third Place | Pediatric and Family Health | Jane | Shapiro | Comparing Automated Insulin Delivery Devices vs. Traditional Insulin Pump Therapy in the Reduction of Nocturnal Hypoglycemia in Youth with Type 1 Diabetes |
| Honorable Mention | Pediatric and Family Health | Sydney | Greenwell | New Horizons: Reimagining Automotive Travel for Children Through Sensory-Enhanced Mindfulness |
| First Place | Public Health | Manasa | Boppudi | When Competition Fails: Bipartisan Approaches to Hospital Consolidation |
| Second Place | Public Health | Anastasia | Allison | Echo: Conversations Amplified |
| Third Place | Public Health | Dominic | Governale | Association Between Hypertension and Cognition Among Older African American Adults with Diabetes |
| Honorable Mention | Public Health | Sammie | Dong | Novel Pyridinol Quinone Methide Precursors as Potential Resurrectors of Organophosphorus-aged Butyrylcholinesterase |
| First Place | Society, Commerce & Behavior | Lila | Kenney | Legislative Landscapes: Unveiling Environmental Agendas through Congressional Speech Networks |
| Second Place | Society, Commerce & Behavior | Alison | Gruber | Motivated Source Confusion |
| Third Place | Society, Commerce & Behavior | Surekha | Garapati | Your Mind on Machines: AI Use and Cognitive Engagement in Higher Education |
| Honorable Mention | Society, Commerce & Behavior | Grace | Silvers | The Relationship Between Personality Traits and Cochlear Implant Outcomes |
| First Place | Understanding Cancer | Nicholas | Marchal | Single Nuclei Sequencing of Human Pons Reveals Novel Insights Into Diffuse Midline Glioma |
| Second Place | Understanding Cancer | Lauren | Ferguson | CADM1 as a Novel Therapeutic Target for Multiple Myeloma |
| Third Place | Understanding Cancer | Amanda | Peters | Chemotherapy Impairs Vaccine-Induced Anti-Tumor Immunity, Revealing the Need for Optimally Timed Vaccination |
| Honorable Mention | Understanding Cancer | Amanda | McCrary | Estrogen receptor beta alters melanocyte master regulator activity |