Students pose with administrators to show off their Randall Outstanding Undergraduate Research Award plaques.

Randall Outstanding Undergrad Research Awards Recognize Innovation

Burnash, an endowed scholarship recipient, stands with Dr. Cathy Randall.
Sarah Burnash, left, the H. Pettus Randall Jr. Endowed Scholarship recipient, stands with Dr. Cathy Randall.

The Randall Outstanding Undergraduate Research Award Program recognizes the best research activity conducted by undergraduate students at The University of Alabama.

Recipients and their nominators were recognized at a luncheon in their honor during UA’s Honors Week. Students are nominated by faculty and staff research directors.

Sarah Burnash received the H. Pettus Randall Jr. Endowed Scholarship for her senior year. The scholarship is awarded to the highest vote recipient who is a junior in the Randall Research Scholars Program.

In 1997, the Randall Publishing Co. and the H. Pettus Randall III family created the Randall Outstanding Undergraduate Research Award Program in memory of Henry Pettus Randall Jr., a distinguished UA alumnus and creator of Who’s Who Among Students in American Universities and Colleges.

UA research faculty members and past winners of the Burnum Distinguished Faculty Award select the winners.

The winners are:

 

First Name Last Name Major College Title of Research Effort Faculty Mentor
Timothy Brusuelas  

Chemical and Biological Engineering

 

Engineering Electrodeposition of Nickel for Microdevices from Lithium Chloride Water-in-Salt Electrolytes. Dr. Qiang Huang
Molly Buffington  

History

 

Arts & Sciences A Faith That Sings: Liturgy as a Theological Tool in the Reformation. Dr. James Mixson
Molly Buffington  

Latin, German, History

 

Arts & Sciences Hyperphysicism and Mystery in the Sacramentarian Dispute of the 1570s. Dr. Kirk Summers
Sarah Burnash  

Chemical and Biological Engineering

 

Engineering Cardiovascular Drift: Menstrual Phase Dependent Fluctuations. Dr. Jonathan Wingo
Hope Burnham  

Chemistry & Biology

 

Arts & Sciences Phase-Changing Borane Containing Fuels. Dr. David Dixon and Dr. Shane Street
Holden Clark  

Electrical Engineering

 

Engineering Augmenting a Patch Antenna with a Hybrid Particle Swarm Optimization Algorithm. Dr. Nathan Jeong
Lauren Cook  

Biology

 

Arts & Sciences Gene-by-Environmental disruption of mitochondrial homeostasis in response to exposure to a noxious stimulus in a C. elegans model of Parkinson’s disease. Dr. Kim Caldwell
Ellis Crabtree  

Chemical Engineering

 

Engineering Computer Simulation of Hybrid Ionic Polyimide and Ionic Liquid Membranes for Industrial Gas Separation. Dr. Heath Turner
Emma Culbertson  

Biology

 

Arts & Sciences Understanding mechanisms of a CRISPR-Cas immune system in Staphylococcus epidermidis. Dr. Asma Hatoum-Aslan
Owen Cunneely  

Microbiology

 

Arts & Sciences Determining the Influence of Gut Microbiota Composition on D. melanogaster Metabolic Phenotype. Dr. Laura Reed
Ashley Eberly  

Chemistry

 

Arts & Sciences Chemistry of High Valency Actinides with Hydroxide Ligands: Search for the Highest Valency Based on Thermodynamics. Dr. David Dixon
Olivia Fish  

Biology and Dance

 

Arts & Sciences Assessing the evolution of mushroom-toxin tolerance in the immigrins-tripunctata species radiation of Drosophila. Dr. Laura Reed
Amber Gomez  

Chemical Engineering

 

Engineering Lewis Acidities of the Actinides Actinide and +II and +III Ion Aqueous Hydrolysis Reactions. Dr. David Dixon
Joline Hartheimer  

Chemical Engineering

 

Engineering Targeting Hyaluronan Interactions for Glioblastoma Stem Cell Therapy. Dr. John Kim
Lacey Kennedy  

Biology and Psychology

 

Arts & Sciences Exposure to intestinal microbiome-derived bacteria cause the degeneration of dopamine neurons. Dr. Kim Caldwell and Dr. Stevan Marcus (in memorium)
Margaret Lawson  

History

 

Arts & Sciences History of Us: Empowering High School Students to Confront the Legacy of Lynching. Dr. John Giggie
Hayden Martz  

Physics and Electrical Engineering

 

Engineering Spin Hall Effect in Thin Film Structures. Dr. Claudia Mewes
Emily Pabst  

Biology

 

Arts & Sciences Are ultraconserved elements an informative marker for reconstructing deep molluscan phylogeny? Dr. Kevin Kocot
James Pezent  

Aerospace Engineering

 

Engineering Innovative Trajectory Design for NASA’s Next-Generation Heliophysics Mission. Dr. Rohan Sood
Austin Raney  

Geography

 

Arts & Sciences Estimating Floodwater Depth using Remote Sensing and GIS Techniques. Dr. Sagy Cohen
Sarah Rosenthal  

English and Public Relations

 

Arts & Sciences, CCIS Global Foodways Digital Humanities Project: Hungarian Cuisine. Dr. Lauren Cardon
Morgan Ross  

Metallurgical & Materials Engineering

 

Engineering Novel Non-contact Thermal Mechanical Loading of Ultrahigh Temperature Ceramics. Dr. Gregory Thompson
Nicole Sempertegui  

Chemical Engineering

 

Engineering A combined compression molding, heating, and leaching process for fabrication of micro-porous poly(ε-caprolactone) scaffolds. Dr. Shreyas Rao
Abigail Sisti  

Biology

 

Engineering Maternal effects and the mismatch hypothesis: dietary exposure to endocrine disruptors in mangrove rivulus fish (Kryptolebias marmoratus). Dr. Ryan Earley
Caris Smith  

Chemistry

 

Arts & Sciences Design of Systems for Actinide-Lanthanide Separations: Novel Ligands and Reaction Energetics. Dr. David Dixon
Sarah Spruill  

International Studies

 

Arts & Sciences Making it Real: Personal Transformation and Policy Knowledge in Volunteer and Paid Human Service Experience. Dr. Brenda Smith
Alexandra Stanley  

Nursing

 

Nursing Communicating Oncologic Prognosis with Empathy: A Field Test of a Novel Communication Guide. Dr. Megan Lippe
Ryan Tuckey  

Biological Sciences

 

Arts & Sciences Functional Analysis of Human Apolipoprotein E Genetic Isoforms Expressed in an Animal Model of Alzheimer’s Disease. Dr. Guy Caldwell
Madeline Vaji  

Biological Sciences

 

Arts & Sciences Investigation of Genetic Modulators of Neuronal Thresholds of Susceptibility to Epilepsy and Alzheimer’s Disease. Dr. Guy Caldwell
Audrey Ward  

Biology

 

Arts & Sciences Effects of fighting experience on learning and memory. Dr. Ryan Earley
Lauryn Woodyard  

Computer Engineering

 

Engineering Determination of sEMG Values of Oral-facial and pharyngeal musculature during normal swallowing. Dr. Todd Freeborn
Donna Xia  

Chemical Engineering

 

Engineering Aqueous Hydrolysis Reactions of Actinide +III and +IV Ion: The First Step in Colloid Formation. Dr. David Dixon