College Center for Research and Fellowships

Source: https://ccrf.uchicago.edu/office-undergraduate-research/research-scholars-2025-2026 Parent: https://ccrf.uchicago.edu/undergraduate-research

2025-2026 Research Scholars

Winter Quad Research Scholars

Supported by the Natasha and Niccolo De Masi Undergraduate Research Fund

Sal Ochoa, Fourth-Year, Biological Sciences
Project Title: Improving the Synthesis of Mesoporous Silica Nanoparticles
Mentor: Chin-Tu Chen

Supported by the Stuart J. Freedman Undergraduate Research Fund

Elisa Gao, Third-Year, Astrophysics, Theatre and Performance Studies
Project Title: X-ray Emission of Supernova 2023ixf
Mentor: Vikram Dwarkadas
Vivi McDermott, Third-Year, Physics, Mathematics
Project Title: Continuum Models For Diffuse Buckling Fronts in Auxetic Lattices
Mentor: Heinrich M. Jaeger
Kate Wandrisco, Second-Year, Physics
Project Title:Searching For New Particles at a 10 TeV Muon Collider
Mentor: Karri DiPetrillo
Crystal Wang, Second-Year, Physics, Mathematics
Project Title: A Flexible Test-Vector Generation Pipeline for ATLAS Hardware and Algorithm Testing
Mentor: David Miller

Supported by the Global Health Research Fund

Jason Chang, Fourth-Year, Economics
Project Title: Investigating the combined effects of gingipains from Porphyromonas gingivalis and Toxoplasma gondii on the neurodegeneration in neuronal cell lines and human brain organoids
Mentor: Rima McLeod
Brian Chao, Third-Year, Biological Sciences, Economics
Project Title: Developing a Toxoplasma gondii Vaccine for Humans
Mentor: Rima McLeod
Jordan Hanna, Third-Year, Economics
Project Title: Regulatory Mechanisms Against Toxoplasma Gondii Infection for Pregnant Women
Mentor: Rima McLeod
Sofia Perri, Third-Year, Neuroscience, Biological Sciences
Project Title: RNA Splicing as a Biomarker for Multiple Sclerosis
Mentor: Anthony Reder
Ray Yang, Second-Year, Molecular Engineering, Biological Sciences
Project Title: Tracing Past Epidemics through Metagenomic Screening of Ancient Human Genomes
Mentor: Maanasa Raghavan

Supported by an unrestricted gift from Google

Ky Julian McBride, Second-Year, Molecular Engineering, Philosophy
Project Title: Microscale and Nanoscale Quantum Sensing for Biomedical Applications
Mentor: Peter Maurer

Supported by the Insight Undergraduate Research Fund

Irmak Altinok, Third-Year, Biological Sciences
Project Title: Investigating how local mechanical interactions impact pattern formation in the Drosophila retinal epithelium
Mentor: Ilaria Rebay
Ciara Balanza, Second-Year, Neuroscience, Fundamentals
Project Title:The Localization of the human tRNA Splicing Endonuclease Complex
Mentor: Cassandra Hayne
Diego Bey, Third-Year, Chemistry
Project Title: Sythesis of Polymer Bound Bistrip
Mentor: Viresh Rawal
Kira Bhatia, First-Year, Physics
Project Title: How Mechanical Interactions Between Cells Shape Organ Development
Mentor: Noah Mitchell
Israel Brown Jr., Third-Year, Biological Sciences, Statistics
Project Title: Elucidating Fiber Metabolic Networks and Essential Genes through Metagenomic Analysis
Mentor: Alice Cheng
Katherine Chen, Third-Year, Biological Chemistry
Project Title: Foundation model-assisted characterization of mixed rejection of renal allograft
Mentor: Madeleine Torcasso
Evelyn Chua, Second-Year, Biological Sciences
Project Title: Immunotherapy Influence on cf-RNA Signatures
Mentor: Jing Chen
Ualype de Andrade Uchoa, Third-Year, Physics, Astrophysics
Project Title: A New Analysis of the S8 Tension: Constraining the Clustering of Matter using DES and Early-Universe Priors
Mentor: Scott Dodelson
Nathan Gehl, Second-Year, Physics, Mathematics
Project Title: Integrated Circuit Design and Layout for Rapid Waveform Sampling
Mentor: Henry Frisch
Ishaan Gunjati, Second-Year, Biological Sciences, Neuroscience
Project Title: Regulation of ADGRG6 Signaling through Isoform-Specific Antibodies
Mentor: Demet Arac
Rohan Haack, Second-Year, Physics
Project Title: Cytokine Dynamics Following a Point Source Perturbation
Mentor: Elizabeth Jerison
Angela Joo, Third-Year, Economics
Project Title: The Aftermath of the Ban on Universal Injunctions on Chapter 15 and the U.S. Foreign Bankruptcy Court’s Remedial Powers
Mentor: Antony Casey
Wael Kouki, Third-Year, Chemistry, Geophysical Sciences
Project Title: Controllable behaviors of vesicle electrofusion
Mentor: Jack Szostak
Yannik Leuz, Third-Year, Biological Sciences
Project Title: Assessing the Cross-Reactivity of Mouse and Human Cytokines
Mentor: Juan Mendoza
Ethan Li, Third-Year, Chemistry, Economics
Project Title: Structural Integration of a New Eukaryotic Organelle (Nitroplast) and its Remodeling During the Day
Mentor: Mohammed Kaplan
William Li, Third-Year, Computer Science, Neuroscience
Project Title: Effects of Expressive Behaviors of Robotic Arms
Mentor: Sarah Sebo
Nicole Liu, Third-Year, Biological Sciences
Project Title: Investigation of Hypoxia-Inducible Factors in CAF State Decisions Under Nutrient Stress
Mentor: Simon Schwörer
Mouhamed Mbengue, Third-Year, Molecular Engineering
Project Title: Implementation of a 2-Dimensional Optical Dipole Trap for an Atomic Quantum Mixture
Mentor: Cheng Chin
Dinah Megibow-Taylor, Second-Year, Fundamentals: Issues and Texts
Project Title: Is Freedom of Expression Hindered by the Pursuit of Happiness?
Mentor: Shigehiro Oishi
Evie Miller, Second-Year, Linguistics, Psychology
Project Title: Ape-Homesign Project
Mentor: Susan Goldin-Meadow
Yonu Oh, Third-Year, Biological Sciences
Project Title: Computational design and biochemical validation of PDCD10-binding peptides in oral cavity squamous cell carcinoma (OCSCC)
Mentor: Le Shen
Adriana Ortega, Third-Year, Biological Sciences
Project Title: The Role of HIF-1? and Reactive Oxygen Species in Lung Inflammation
Mentor: Parker Woods
Jay Shen, Fourth-Year, Physics, Computer Science
Project Title: Pruning fluid dynamics foundation models
Mentor: Dorian Abbot
Kiran Simon, Third-Year, Biological Chemistry
Project Title: Checkpoint Receptor-medicated Regulation of T Cells in Healthy Tissues
Mentor: Martina Damo
Samuel Smith, First-Year, Physics, Mathematics
Project Title: Data-Driven Modeling of the Mechanicals Driving Egg Chamber Elongation in Drosophila
Mentor: Noah Mitchell
Alitza Soiffer, Second-Year, Chemistry
Project Title: Asymmetric Photocatalyzed Vinylcyclopropane Rearrangement
Mentor: Alex Cusumano
Youssef Tazoui, Fourth-Year, Molecular Engineering
Project Title: Effects of External Magnetic Fields on the Crystalline Structure of Binary Superlattices
Mentor: Dmitri Talapin
Sarah Thau, Fourth-Year, Chemistry, Biochemistry
Project Title: Improving Quality of Zirconium-89 Radiopharmaceuticals for Pancreatic Cancer Imaging
Mentor: Satish Chitneni
Campbell Vander Heiden, Third-Year, Biological Sciences
Project Title: Investigation of MAT1A as a novel ATF4 target gene required to maintain S-Adenosylmethionine levels during pancreatic cancer tumorigenesis
Mentor: Kay Macleod
Isabel Vargas-Hurlston, Third-Year, Chemistry
Project Title: Transient Absorption Spectroscopy on MoOCl2
Mentor: Sarah King
Jacob White, Third-Year, Biological Sciences, Creative Writing
Project Title: Investigating the impact of the ZAP70 proline-rich motif on TCR signaling and thymic development
Mentor: Lin Shen
Annabel Yarborough, Third-Year, Astrophysics
Project Title: Illuminating WASP-18 b : UV/Optical Secondary Eclipse Observations with HST
Mentor: Jacob Bean
Kevin Yuan, Second-Year, Biological Sciences
Project Title: Genetic Characterization of Moth Fly Anterior Posterior Axis Development
Mentor: Urs Schmidt-Ott

Supported by the Liew Family Research Fund

Tianhe Chen, Second-Year, Art History
Project Title: Archival Research on Exhibiting Chinese Experimental Art in Chicago
Mentor: Ellen Larson
Orion Douglas, Fourth-Year, Environment, Geography, & Urbanization, Global Studies
Project Title: Art’s Block History Research
Mentor: Adrienne Brown
Charlotte Engrav, Third-Year, Creative Writing, English Language/Literature
Project Title:The Craft Chronicle
Mentor: Erica Warren
Yuliia Ihnatesku, Fourth-Year, Data Science
Project Title: Imagining a Sanctuary City: Newly Arrived Ukrainians in Chicago
Mentor: Ania Aizman
Chris Low, Fourth-Year, Computer Science, Economics
Project Title: EnvAgent: Automating Software Environment Construction with Multi-Agent Systems
Mentor: Kexin Pei

Supported by the Davidow & Collins Undergraduate Neuroscience Research Fund

Nina Bao, Second-Year, Neuroscience
Project Title: NAD+ Metabolic Crosstalk Between Neurons and Glioma Cells
Mentor: Rong Grace Zhai
Leyla Campos, Third-Year, Neuroscience, Cinema Studies
Project Title:The Neural Dynamics of Long-Term Memory with Repeated Learning
Mentor: Edward Vogel
Graham Hansen, Second-Year, Cognitive Science, Psychology, Linguistics
Project Title: Impact of Natural Architecture on Cortical Activity and Attention Restoration
Mentor: Marc Berman
Jem Klancnik, Second-Year, Neuroscience
Project Title:SCA-6 Therapy
Mentor: Christopher M. Gomez
Tori Liu, Third-Year, Neuroscience
Project Title: The Role of p52 Signaling in Immune Evasion in Glioblastoma
Mentor: Bakhtiar Yamini
Thereza Pedrazini de Castilho, Second-Year, Biological Chemistry, Neuroscience
Project Title: Nicotine-Induced Upregulation of ?4?2 Receptors is Shaped by ?2 Subunit-Dependent Glycosylation and Golgi Satellite Processing
Mentor: William Green
Anwita Revoori, Third-Year, Neuroscience
Project Title: Standardizing Virtual Reality Environments for Hippocampal Imaging: How Visual Cues Influence Training and Spatial Encoding
Mentor: Mark Sheffield

Supported by Collegiate Research Funds and other generous gifts from donors

Jake Felsenthal, Fourth-Year, Computer Science, Creative Writing
Project Title: Environmental Futures Through Critical Game Design
Mentor: Katherine Buse
Marcus Gao, Fourth-Year, Economics, Psychology
Project Title: Epiphanies from Life Turning Points: How Negative Experiences Can Enrich the Good Life
Mentor: Shigehiro Oishi
Jenny Hu, Third-Year, Biological Sciences, Economics
Project Title: Investigating the Role of RTCB in Stress Signaling and Pancreatic Neuroendocrine Tumors
Mentor: Scott Oakes
Owen Mahan, Second-Year, Physics, Biological Sciences
Project Title: Characterizing the Activity of the IDR of RbBP5
Mentor: Alexander Ruthenburg
BJ Moses-Rosenthal, Fourth-Year, Sociology
Project Title: Scientific Racism
Mentor: Bernard Koch
Zhonghe Qin, Third-Year, Molecular Engineering, Chemistry
Project Title: Synthesis of High-Entropy MXene via Lewis Acidic Molten Salt Etching
Mentor: Dmitri Talapin
Radha Ramanathan, Third-Year, Economics
Project Title: Reconstructing Haiti’s Labor Economy: Archives, Race, and State Formation
Mentor: Martin Castillo Quintana
Ethan Sitzes, First-Year, Neuroscience
Project Title: Linking Past to Present: How Children and Adults Understand Historical Structural Barriers
Mentor: Lin Bian
Meilin Song, Fourth-Year, Physics
Project Title: Effect of particle size on the shear rheology of silica-based colloidal gels
Mentor: Heinrich Jaeger
Arvin Wang, Third-Year, Biological Chemistry
Project Title: Development of Bifunctional Probes Targeting Neighboring Asp/Glu–Cys Motifs in Proteins
Mentor: Professor Chuan He

Autumn Quad Research Scholars

Supported by the Global Health Research Fund

Emmanuel Barajas, Fourth-Year, Psychology, Comparative Human Development
Project Title: Reframing Help-Seeking: The Promise of Public Recognition in Motivating Boys to Seek Help
Mentor: Lin Bian
Hunter Bershtein, Fourth-Year, Biological Sciences, Economics
Project Title: The Therapeutic Potential of CD16hi Macrophages in Atherosclerosis Resolution
Mentor: Ada Weinstock
Sabrina Chang, Second-Year, Biology, Data Science
Project Title: Characterizing the effects of smoking on age-associated DNA methylation
Mentor: Brandon Pierce
Vivian Chang, Third-Year, Neuroscience, Biological Sciences
Project Title: Longitudinal Structural MRI Signatures of Resistance and Resilience in SuperAging
Mentor: Adam Martersteck
Ephraim Craddock, Third-Year, Molecular Engineering
Project Title: An IL-2-TGF-β Fusion Protein Expands Tregs and Induces Tolerance of Transplants
Mentor: Maria-Luisa Alegre
Emilio Del Angel, Third-Year, Neuroscience
Project Title: Assessing the Effect of Weight Cycling on Neutrophil Recruitment and Development
Mentor: Ada Weinstock
Ahtziri Fernandez, Third-Year, Neuroscience, Spanish
Project Title: Identifying the sex-specific roles of the gut microbiome-brain axis in aged Alzheimer’s Disease APPPS1-21 and NLF/PS1 (M146V) knock-in Mouse Models
Mentor: Piyali Saha
Bella Hobaugh, Fourth-Year, Neuroscience, Philosophy
Project Title: Empathy and the Doctor-Patient Relationship
Mentor: Peggy Mason
Jeffrey Ke, Fourth-Year, Psychology
Project Title: Long term effects of IFN-β therapy in Multiple Sclerosis
Mentor: Anthony Reder
Layne Kohler, Fourth-Year, Biological Sciences
Project Title: Weight Cycling Effect on Female Reproductive Function
Mentor: Ada Weinstock
Alison Lafayette, Third-Year, Biological Sciences
Project Title: Extracellular Vesicle RNA as Biomarkers of Glycocalyx Injury and Graft Dysfunction in Liver Transplantation
Mentor: Kentaro Noda
Diya Mishra, Fourth-Year, Biological Sciences
Project Title: Designing Case-Control Studies to Assess Road Traffic Injury Risks in India
Mentor: Kavi Bhalla
Rishi Purayil, Third-Year, Statistics
Project Title: Analysing Transparency of Conflict-of-Interest Disclosures by Trauma Surgery Researchers
Mentor: Timothy Plackett
Nicole Reed, Fourth-Year, Biology, CEGU
Project Title: Tractor Rollovers and Road Safety in India
Mentor: Kavi Bhalla
Sophia Sasaki, Fourth-Year, Biological Sciences
Project Title: Spontaneous breathing and diaphragm protection in mechanically ventilated patients
Mentor: Bhakti Patel
Hannah Thier, Fourth-Year, Biology, HIPS
Project Title: Impact of Physician Anti-Bias Intervention on Care Satisfaction for Patients with Sickle Cell Disease
Mentor: Austin Wesevich
Akanksha Varanasi, Third-Year, Molecular Engineering
Project Title: Gene Expression and Immune Mechanism Profiles of Interferon-Treated Multiple Sclerosis Patients Across Subtypes
Mentor: Anthony Reder
Jazmine Vitela, Second-Year, Biological Sciences
Project Title: Impact of color tint maps on regions of interest for radiomic feature extraction in ultrasound images
Mentor: Heather Whitney
Luna Wang, Second-Year, Biological Sciences
Project Title: Impact of Alteration of the Microbiome During Critical Illness on Long-term Clinical Outcomes
Mentor: Krysta Wolfe
Alexandra Zhou, Third-Year, Economics, Applied Mathematics
Project Title: Proximate Causes of the Global Fertility Decline
Mentor: Anup Malani

Supported by the Hoeft Family Research Fund

Sammy Alderden, Second-Year, Molecular Engineering, Chemistry
Project Title: Testing the Permeability and Conductivity of Cationic Mesoporous Membranes
Mentor: Shrayesh Patel
Maya Atassi, Third-Year, Astrophysics, Physics
Project Title: Calibrating the Cosmos: Precision Polarization for the Simons Observatory
Mentor: Jeff McMahon
Jeff Baek, Third-Year, Biological Sciences
Project Title: The investigation of the expression pattern of BMP9, Smad 1/5/8, and Runx2 in mouse cranial suture development via hybridization chain reaction
Mentor: Russell Reid
Mia Bocian, Third-Year, Psychology, Economics
Project Title: The Autonomic Ear: Auditory feedback controls autonomic regulation
Mentor: Howard Nusbaum
Carmen Cox, Third-Year, Biological Sciences
Project Title: Assessing the Anatomy and Function of Fish Pectoral Fins
Mentor: Mark Westneat
Clarissa Ding, Third-Year, Neuroscience
Project Title: Effects of SNF2H Residue Character on RNA Binding Interactions
Mentor: Alexander J. Ruthenburg
Shelley Fernando, Third-Year, Biochemistry, Biology, Chemistry
Project Title: Dissecting the Role of the JK3 Locus in Immunity
Mentor: Marcus Clark
Rafael Gutierrez, Fourth-Year, Neuroscience
Project Title: Examining the role of ventral muscles in larval fly movement
Mentor: Elizabeth Heckscher
Luis Hernandez, Third-Year, Biological Sciences
Project Title: Mitochondrial Transfer between Cancer Cells and Neutrophils
Mentor: Yuxuan (Phoenix) Miao
Alex Hu, Third-Year, Fundamentals, Germanic Studies
Project Title: The Political Novel Today: Problems and Possibilities
Mentor: Sophie Salvo
Sayana Isaac, Third-Year, Economics, South Asian Civilizations
Project Title: The Role of IL6-ST on Cancer-Associated Fibroblast Inflammation and Cell State Transitions
Mentor: Simon Schwörer
Badis Labbedi, Second-Year, Physics, Mathematics
Project Title: Axion Dark Matter Field Correlations via Entangled Photon Cavities
Mentor: LianTao Wang
Elena Lill, Second-Year, Biological Chemistry, Business Economics
Project Title: Recombination Mechanism for SCCmec
Mentor: Phoebe Rice
Desanka Malinovic, Second-Year, Political Science
Project Title: ‘Po naški’ Through Fiction: A Structured Reader of Bosnian, Croatian, Montenegrin, and Serbian Prose
Mentor: Nada Petkovic
Julia Mastracci, Fourth-Year, Biological Chemistry, Biological Sciences
Project Title: Investigating the Function of Individual and Combined TetraThymosinβ Domains
Mentor: David Kovar
Nicole Millan Ortiz, Fourth-Year, English Language and Literature, Romance Languages and Literature / Gender and Sexuality Studies
Project Title: Postwar Artists' Books: An Investigation into the Curiosities of the Book Form
Mentor: Christine Mehring
Gaby Morin, Third-Year, Molecular Engineering
Project Title: High-Throughput Development of Redox-Active Polymers as Electrodes for Organic Batteries
Mentor: Stuart Rowan
Gabe Nelson, Third-Year, Biology, Chemistry
Project Title: Biomechanical Modeling of Feeding Mechanisms in the Marine Butterflyfishes, Family Chaetodontidae
Mentor: Mark Westneat
Michael Qiu, Third-Year, Biological Sciences
Project Title: Elucidating the Roles of U4 sRNA structures in 5’ Splice Site Selection of pre-mRNA Splicing and Neurodevelopmental Disorder
Mentor: Jonathan Prescott Staley
Ismael Robles-Razzaq, Third-Year, Statistics, Computer Science
Project Title: The Geometry of Representations in Mouse Latent-Context Decision-Making
Mentor: Ramon Nogueira Manas
Eva Schultz, Third-Year, Astronomy and Astrophysics, Visual Arts
Project Title: Development of an Integrating Sphere as a Thermal Calibration Source for Cosmic Microwave Background Observations
Mentor: Jeffrey McMahon
Rebecca Sias, Third-Year, Biological Chemistry, Chemistry
Project Title: Investigating Cytokine-Specific eQTMs in Airway Smooth Muscle Cells
Mentor: Carole Ober
Victoria Sullivan, Fourth-Year, Biological Sciences
Project Title: Investigating the Spatial Regulation of Kibra by Apical Polarity Protein Interactions in Epithelial Cells
Mentor: Richard Fehon

Supported by the Kemper Foundation

Yorik Chuang, Second-Year, Economics, Public Policy Studies
Project Title: A Century of Accounting Ideas: Quantifying Impacts of Standard-Setters on Innovation in Accounting Practices
Mentor: Anthony Le
Paolo Diaz Andrade, Third-Year, Sociology, Cinema and Media Studies
Project Title: Latin-American Elites’ Perspectives on Poverty and Inequality: A Mixed-Methods Approach
Mentor: Pilar Manzi
Nathaniel Kim, Third-Year, Computer Science, Media Arts and Design
Project Title: Using LLMs to Model the Strength of Non-English Passwords
Mentor: Blase Ur
Spencer May, Fourth-Year, Mathematics, Physics
Project Title: Regression Discontinuity Design Methodology Improvement
Mentor: Nikolaos Ignatiadis
Jacob Neplokh, Fourth-Year, Fundamentals: Issues and Texts
Project Title: Leadership and Democracy
Mentor: John P. McCormick
Antonio Persi, Second-Year, Anthropology, Political Science
Project Title: Violence, Authority, and Aid: Rethinking State-Building in Contemporary Haiti
Mentor: Martin Castillo-Quintanna
Allison Row, Third-Year, Statistics, Economics
Project Title: How Artificial Intelligence Agents Interpret Subjective Human Values: An Audit of Personalization in Large Language Models
Mentor: Blase Ur
Noah Sher, Second-Year, Sociology
Project Title: Entangled Oligarchies: The Hidden Deals Reshaping US-China Power Relations in Offshore Financial Centers
Mentor: Kimberly Kay Hoang
Isabella Summe, Fourth-Year, Data Science
Project Title: Neural Signatures of Human and LLM-Derived Surprise in Story Listening
Mentor: Monica Rosenberg
Shreya Thota, Third-Year, Economics, Computer Science
Project Title: Language Background And Infants' Attention Toward Native And Foreign Language Speakers
Mentor: Yiyi Wang

Supported by the Liew Family Research Fund

Henry Baldwin, Fourth-Year, Environment, Geography, & Urbanization
Project Title: In Human Scale: The Search for Ecological Proportion in Nineteenth-Century Literature
Mentor: Benjamin Morgan
Rohan Buluswar, Fourth-Year, Mathematics
Project Title: Physics in Generative Diffusion Models
Mentor: Lorenzo Orecchia
Onofrio De Michele, Fourth-Year, Anthropology
Project Title: Displaying Disappearing WIldlife: The Field Museum 1896 Expedition and Taxidermy in the 21st century
Mentor: Jessica Landau
Sebastian Deery, Fourth-Year, Mathematics, Computer Science
Project Title: Projected Score Matching for Generative Modeling and Inverse Problems in Chaotic Systems
Mentor: Nisha Chandramoorthy
Cleo Delogu, Fourth-Year, Gender and Sexuality Studies, Cinema and Media Studies
Project Title: “Kidnapped”: Capital, Migration and Childhood in Comparative Print Culture 1820-1870
Mentor: Josephine McDonagh
Sofya Fadeeva, Second-Year, Astronomy and Astrophysics
Project Title: Measuring Changes in Astronomical Sources over a Timescale of a Century
Mentor: Richard Kron
Lydia Gafford, Third-Year, Art History, History
Project Title: The Craft Chronicle
Mentor: Erica Warren
Jaehyeon Han, Third-Year, History, Germanic Studies
Project Title: The Political Novel Today: Problems and Possibilities
Mentor: Sophie Salvo
Daniel Hernandez, Second-Year, Computer Science
Project Title: Interpretable Latent Structure of an AI Emulator of Stochastic Sudden Stratospheric Warmings
Mentor: Dorian Abbot
Emma Kirwin, Third-Year, Creative Writing, Cinema and Media Studies
Project Title: Environmental Futures Through Critical Game Design
Mentor: Katherine Buse
Larry Li, Third-Year, Physics
Project Title: Measuring the Relative Branching Ratio of KL-> 3pi0 / KL->pi+pi-pi0
Mentor: Yau Wah
Elektra Makris, Fourth-Year, Chemistry, Biological Chemistry
Project Title: High Throughput Validation of de novo Protein Binders to Probe Mechanisms of Inner-Ear Mechanotransduction
Mentor: Marcos Sotomayor
Giovanni Maya, Fourth-Year, Computer Science, Data Science
Project: Voice vs. Visual Interfaces for Robot Personalization: Evaluating Control and Transparency Tradeoffs
Mentor: Sarah Sebo
Viresh Mittal, Third-Year, Computer Science, Economics
Project Title: Quicksilver
Mentor: Ben Y. Zhao
Eliana Schiller, Third-Year, Astrophysics, Anthropology
Project Title: Characterizing the Baryon Cycle Around Galaxies via Integral Field Spectroscopy
Mentor: Hsiao-Wen Chen
Junfei Sun, Fourth-Year, Mathematics, Computer Science
Project: Asynchronous heavy-tailed Optimization
Mentor: Tian Li
Richmond Yeung, Fourth-Year, Physics
Project Title: Design and Development of PSEC5b and PSEC6: A Waveform sampler for fast-timing detectors in Particle Accelerators, Medical Imaging and Astrophysics
Mentor: Henry Frisch
Aine Zhang, Second-Year, Statistics, Sociology
Project Title: Degrowth as a Game Design Problem
Mentor: Katherine Buse

Supported by the NK Cheung Chemistry Research Fellowship

Michael Bolgov, Third-Year, Molecular Engineering
Project Title: Multiple turnovers of RNA methylation by methyltransferase ribozymes
Mentor: Matthew Tirrell
John Brownridge, Third-Year, Molecular Engineering, Religious Studies
Project Title: Mechanically-Initiated Polymerization Mediated by Piezochemistry for Bone Repairing
Mentor: Yixiao Dong
Felice Chan, Fourth-Year, Chemistry
Project Title: Modeling Fluorescent Proteins as Living Qubits
Mentor: Greg Engel
Azeem Currah, Third-Year, Chemistry
Project Title: A Use Case for Ni3THT2 as a Heavy-Metal Sensor
Mentor: John Anderson
Josh Gonzalez, Third-Year, Biological Chemistry
Project Title: Determination of the Functional Composition of Volume-Regulated Anion Channels During CD4+ Cell-Mediated Immune Response
Mentor: Axel Concepcion
Phoebe Hsu, Second-Year, Chemistry
Project Title: Regulation of RNA targets by the tRNA splicing endonuclease (TSEN) complex
Mentor: Cassandra Hayne
Arnav Modak, Second-Year, Chemistry, Economics
Project Title: Spin-valley Control of Monolayer MoS2 via Molecular Functionalization
Mentor: Sarah B. King
Samarth Ram, Third-Year, Chemistry
Project Title: Leveraging Machine Learning to Predict IscB-mediated Genome Editing
Mentor: Weixin Tang
Marco Sanchez, Third-Year, Molecular Engineering
Project Title: Multiple Turnovers in Non-Enzymatic RNA Replication at the Origin of Life
Mentor: Jack Szostak
Juliette Shapiro, Third-Year, Chemistry
Project Title: Efforts Towards the Synthesis of Dhilirolide A
Mentor: Scott Snyder
Richard Song, Third-Year, Biological Sciences, Biological Chemistry
Project Title: Characterization of Actin Cytoskeleton Changes by Pharmacological Inhibitors of Volume-Regulated Anion Channels
Mentor: Axel Concepcion
Ashok Tate, Third-Year, Chemistry
Project Title: Self-Tethering Viologens for Facile and Durable H2O2 Electrosynthesis
Mentor: Anna Wuttig
Della Waldman, Third-Year, Biological Chemistry
Project Title: Reconstituting Actin Stress Fiber Repair Through Protein Phase Separation
Mentor: Margaret Gardel
Jeffery Zhang, Third-Year, Biological Chemistry
Project Title: Characterizing environmentally responsive condensing proteins in Synechococcus elongatus in vitro
Mentor: D. Allan Drummond

Supported by Collegiate Research Funds and other generous gifts from donors

Jacques Attinger, Second-Year, Physics, Mathematics
Project Title: Printing Superconducting Quantum Circuits using a Miniaturized Molecular Beam Epitaxy
Mentor: Shuolong Yang
Naomi Gelfer, Second-Year, Molecular Engineering
Project Title: Investigating the pH Dependence of Fluorescent Protein Qubits for Cellular Biosensing
Mentor: Peter Maurer
Colleen Kim, Third-Year, Molecular Engineering
Project Title: Nb Thin Film Growth Optimization
Mentor: Supratik Guha
Siqi Liu, Fourth-Year, Physics, Applied Mathematics
Project Title: 2D Au
Mentor: Chong Liu
Ramon Rivas Varela, Fourth-Year, Physics, Mathematics
Project Title: Enhancing Quantum Thermometry in Living Cells Using Robust ZFS Extraction Methods
Mentor: Peter Maurer
Ha Do, Fourth-Year, Astrophysics, Race, Diaspora, & Indigeneity
Project Title: A chemical investigation of Milky Way stellar streams
Mentor: Alexander Ji
Zvi Gomez Fisher, Second-Year, Linguistics, Public Policy
Project Title: A Descriptive Phonology of Anabar Dolgan
Mentor: Lenore Grenoble
Avivit Ashman, Third-Year, Art History
Project Title: Art of the Munich Olympics
Mentor: Christine Mehring
Iris Badezet-Delory, Third-Year, Physics, Classical Studies
Project Title: Weather Gridlock: The Dynamics of Back-to-Back Heatwaves in Climate Hot-Spots
Mentor: Noboru Nakamura
Aubrey Barb, Third-Year, Biochemistry, Chemistry
Project Title: Hybrid Proline-Rich Proteins in Systems of Plant Immunity
Mentor: Jean Greenberg
Jace Chen, Second-Year, Molecular Engineering, Economics
Project Title: Identifying targetable vulnerabilities in extrachromosomal DNA–positive cancers.
Mentor: Lixing Yang
Charlie Davis, Fourth-Year, Neuroscience
Project Title: In-silico Deployment of Thoracic Aortic Stents to Model Thoracic Aortic Aneurysm Disease Progression
Mentor: Luka Pocivavsek
Nurai El Ashry, Third-Year, Biochemistry, Neuroscience
Project Title: Optimization of FISH and IF Protocols in FFPE Tissue
Mentor: Jingyi Fei
Alex Garcia, Fourth-Year, Molecular Engineering
Project Title: Investigation of the effect of separator on the performance of low temperature molten salt electrolytes in lithium metal batteries
Mentor: Chibueze Amanchukwu
Geordan Haynes, Fourth-Year, Psychology
Project Title: Caregiver Responsiveness Project
Mentor: Susan Goldin-Meadow
Kalea Hidalgo, Third-Year, Neuroscience, Psychology
Project Title: PIE-Sequencing ATXN2, the RNA-Binding Protein
Mentor: Paschalis Kratsios
Nathan Hu, Third-Year, Chemistry, Statistics
Project Title: Fabrication of Electrically Tuneable Pressure-Sensitive LCE Adhesive Materials System
Mentor: Stuart Rowan
Mia Karathanasis, Third-Year, Linguistics, Middle Eastern Studies
Project Title: Individual Variability in Perceptual Assimilation: The Relationship Between Spanish Perception and English Production
Mentor: Melissa Baese-Berk
Ernest Leong, Fourth-Year, Romance Languages & Literatures: French
Project Title: Translating Charles Perrault's "Le Parralèle des Anciens et des Modernes"
Mentor: Larry F. Norman
Isaac Loh, Third-Year, Biology, Economics
Project Title: Catfish Staging for Odontode Research
Mentor: Neil H. Shubin
Matheus Martino-Wojciechowski, Third-Year, Neuroscience, History
Project Title: Thoracic Aortic Disease Modeling
Mentor: Luka Pocivavsek
Marina Mendes Ferreira, Second-Year, Biological Sciences, History, Philosophy, and Social Studies of Science and Medicine (HIPS)
Project Title: Disarming plant defenses: spatial expression of detoxification genes in Pieris rapae
Mentor: Marcus Kronforst
Gabby Moon, Third-Year, Biological Sciences
Project Title: How Does BNIP3 Deletion Impact Skeletal Muscle?
Mentor: Kay Macleod
Deqa Muse, Fourth-Year, Chemistry, History, Philosophy, and Social Studies of Science and Medicine
Project Title: Modeling Conical Structures and Surgical Geometries
Mentor: Nhung Nguyen
Kyle Obermeyer, Third-Year, Neuroscience
Project Title: Inflammation and Disease Progression in a Genetic Mouse Model of Prion Disease
Mentor: James Mastrianni
Nic Restivo, Third-Year, Geophysical Sciences, Environmental Sciences & Chemistry
Project Title: Calibrating Biomarker Proxies for Fires in Savannas
Mentor: Tyler Karp
Hanna Ruiz, Third-Year, Biological Chemistry, Economics
Project Title: The Dosage-Dependent Effect of Interferons on CD28 and 4-1BB CAR T-cells
Mentor: Jun Huang
Sara Selig, Second-Year, Computer Science, Biological Sciences
Project Title: Sensorimotor cortical activity and perceptual detection of intracortical microstimulation in somatosensory cortex
Mentor: Nicholas Hatsopoulos
Noah Sodickson, Second-Year, Physics, Mathematics
Project Title: An Information-Theoretic Approach to Spatial Transcriptomics Analysis
Mentor: Vincenzo Vitelli
Evalds Viguls, Second-Year, Biochemistry, Biological Sciences
Project Title: Epigenetic Regulation of DNA Double-Strand Break Repair
Mentor: Stephen J. Kron
Elijah Wakefield, Third-Year, Mathematics, Chemistry
Project Title: Scent Mixture Discrimination
Mentor: Leslie Kay
Stacey Zhao, Third-Year, Biological Sciences, Molecular Engineering
Project Title: Dissecting the Immune Crosstalk Driving tSC-Dependent Tumor Relapse
Mentor: Yuxuan (Phoenix) Miao
Ahan Datta, Third-Year, Physics, Mathematics
Project Title: Design of PSEC6: An Application Specific Integrated Circuit for Picosecond Timing
Mentor: Henry Frisch
Benedikt Nagele, Fourth-Year, Molecular Engineering, Chemistry
Project Title: Exploring Mechanisms of Resistance to Trastuzumab Deruxtecan in Endometrial cancers
Mentor: Sridevi Challa
Andrew Arzac, Third-Year, Molecular Engineering, Phyiscs, Mathematics
Project Title: PSEC6
Mentor: Henry Frisch
Graydon Schulze-Kalt, Fourth-Year, Physics
Project Title: PULSE-A Electronics Design, Integration, and Test
Mentor: Tian Zhong