News

USU’s English Department was well-represented at the annual Sigma Tau Delta Convention in Denver, Colorado, from March 29-April 1 with 12 undergraduate participants from four different campuses. The Sigma Tau Delta Convention is the largest organization in the country dedicated to supporting undergraduate research and professional development for English majors. About 1,000 students attend from all over the country.

Dr. Jannon Fuchs, professor in the University of North Texas’s (UNT) Department of Biological Sciences, has been selected as the 2023 Council on Undergraduate Research – Goldwater Scholars Faculty Mentor Awardee. The award gifts $5,000 for the awardee’s undergraduate research program.

Dr. Shana Stoddard, associate professor of chemistry at Rhodes College in Tennessee, has been selected as the 2023 recipient for the Council on Undergraduate Research’s (CUR) Silvia Ronco Innovative Mentor Award.

Dr. John Garrison, professor of English at Grinnell College in Iowa, has been selected as the 2023 Council on Undergraduate Research (CUR) – Arts and Humanities Faculty Mentor Awardee.

The Psychology Division of the Council on Undergraduate Research provides networking opportunities, activities, and resources to assist psychology administrators, faculty members, students, practitioners, and others in advancing undergraduate research.

It is not every day that you meet a student like Alexandra Bias.Bias is a senior at Oklahoma State University and is triple majoring in chemical engineering, mathematics and political science. Whether it be research, student government, Greek life or service, Bias exhibited her motivation to become involved as an undergraduate student. She holds the prestigious titles of Goldwater Scholar, Niblack Research Scholar and W.W. Allen Scholar.

As part of an undergraduate research project, scientists have discovered the ancestor of the yeast species necessary for the production of lager beer.

Undergraduate researchers from the University of Arizona wanted to determine the effects that differences in water flow had on reptile and amphibian species richness and abundance. Their results reveal how water shortages, which many parts of the Southwest are experiencing, can affect wildlife richness and abundance. But water restoration projects appeared to improve this particular situation, though it took some time before species abundances caught up.

Led by Purdue, Plant Science for Global Food Security is a six-week research and study program at the International Rice Research Institute in the Philippines. The program has two components: three weeks of research evaluating diverse rice accessions under the guidance of an IRRI scientist/team, and an intensive three-week course on Rice Research to Production, which provides significant field research and field trips to some of the most beautiful locations in the country.

In the ‘Bug Lab,’ Eric Escobar-Chena gained a passion for research and a respect for insects This biology major is considering graduate school opportunities in ecology with a focus on fieldwork and beetles. by Brian McNeill; Virginia Commonwealth University