Fourteen UO undergraduate students have been awarded fellowships that provide an opportunity to conduct research during the summer.

The fellowship recipients are pursuing projects in a range of disciplines, from conducting a study of the experiences and health of transgender people of color during COVID-19 to research that seeks to increase the accessibility of hydrogen fuel usage to an investigation of the effect of video-coaching interventions for early childhood caregivers.

The fellowship awards span two different programs, the Vice President for Research and Innovation Undergraduate Fellowship and the Peter O’Day Fellowship in Biological Sciences.

“The summer break provides a wonderful opportunity for undergraduate students to focus exclusively on their research,” said Karl Reasoner, senior program manager of the Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program. “It can be an incredibly rewarding experience that assists students with clarifying their academic and career interests.”

In addition to receiving the fellowship award funding, students participate in a series of workshops and seminars focused on career preparation, professional development and research communication.

The group model gives the fellows a shared experience with students who have similar interests but come from different majors and backgrounds. They learn from each other about the diversity of research at the university, how to overcome common challenges and how to parlay that experience into further success.  

Ten undergraduate students were awarded VPRI Undergraduate Fellowships that are funded by the Office of the Vice President for Research and Innovation. Four undergraduate and graduate student pairs were awarded Peter O’Day Fellowships in Biological Sciences that are funded through an anonymous donor and University Advancement. Named after retired Department of Biology faculty member Peter O’Day, the fellowship provides immersive, intensive and rewarding opportunities for highly motivated students to perform authentic research in the university’s many and diverse biological science laboratories.

VPRI Undergraduate Fellowship recipients:

• Sarah Beaudoin, “Anion Exchange Membrane Electrolyzers for Dirty Water Splitting and Hydrogen Gas Production,” faculty mentor: Shannon Boettcher.
• Jared Knofczynski, “A Multi-Task Weak Supervision Framework for Internet Measurements,” faculty mentor: Ram Durairajan.
• Aleena Khurana, “OVX Alters Gene Expression in Relation to Vascular Function,” faculty mentor: Ashley Walker.
• Karly Fear, “Design and characterization of selective BMP protein binders for fracture regeneration,” faculty mentor: Parisa Hosseinzadeh.
• Ethan Scott, “ChangeDwell: The Interaction Between Change Blindness and Dwell Time Paradigms,” faculty mentor: Dare Baldwin.
• Idil Osman, “Underreporting of Epidemic Rebound Malaria in the African Continent,” faculty mentor: Melissa Graboyes.
• Alexandra J. Jagielski, “Experiences and Health of Transgender People of Color During COVID-19,” faculty mentor: Zachary Dubois.
• Marlee Odell, “COVID-19 Quarantine Hesitancy in Lane County,” faculty mentor: Melissa Graboyes.
• Alexander Bui, “Evaluating Responsive Caregiving: Comparing Constructs of Caregiver Sensitivity Within Dyadic Interaction,” faculty mentor: Philip Fisher.
• Zoe Haupt, “Do we perceive when they deceive? The effect of pauses and dialect on deception detection,” faculty mentor: Melissa Baese-Berk.

Peter O’Day Fellowship in Biological Sciences Fellowship recipients:

• Pilar Tosio and Grace Waddell, “Characterization of the Grb2-SHIP1 interaction using human neutrophils and supported lipid bilayers,” faculty mentor: Scott Hansen.
• Phyllis Liao and Claire Otteson, “Development of a Nanohoop-Based [2]-Rotaxane for Sensing Reactive Oxygen Species,” faculty mentor: Ramesh Jasti.
• Amanda Kreppel and Nora Kearns, “DiversiPhi29 - TP Display: An orthogonal system for the directed evolution of genes in vivo,” faculty mentor: Calin Plesa.
• Ayooluwa Popoola and Austin Ricci, “Skeletal muscle compliance and composition in older women,” faculty mentor: Damien Callahan.