ARCHITECTURE + PLANNING
Tae Eun Ko (Mentor: Professor Andy Hong)

CULTURAL & SOCIAL TRANSFORMATION
Jorge Jimenez (Mentor: Professor Edmond Fong)

EDUCATION
Michael Molenaar (Mentor: Professor Frankie Laanan and Jason Burrow-Sanchez)

ENGINEERING
Ethan Gallup (Mentors: Professors Kody Powell)
Andrew Tolton (Mentor: Professor Zlatan Aksamija)

FINE ARTS
Alix Wright (Mentor: Professor Mosses Williams)

HEALTH
Maren Curtis (Mentor: Professor Adriana M Coletta)

HONORS
Nehal Bakshi (Mentor: Professor Melissa Watt)

HUMANITIES
Pierce Christoffersen and Kalista Leggitt Joint Award (Mentor: Professor Matt Haber)

MEDICINE
Alejandra Michelle Huerta Hernandez (Mentor: Professor Jennie Hill)

MINES & EARTH SCIENCES
Autumn Hartley (Mentor: Professor Sarah Lambart)

NURSING
Michaella Halweg (Mentor: Professor Rebekah Perkins)

PHARMACY
Kylee McManus (Mentor: Professor Shreya Goel)

SCIENCE
Dua Azhar (Mentor: Professor Sophie Caron)

SOCIAL & BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES
Andrew Clothier (Mentor: Professor Tabitha Benney)
Haley Parsons (Mentor: Professor Katie Baucom)

SOCIAL WORK
Xochitl Juarez (Mentor: Professor Theresa Martinez)

ARCHITECTURE + PLANNING
Charlotte Garris (Mentor: Professor Keith Bartholomew)

BUSINESS
Ryan McBride (Mentor: Professor Vandana Ramachandran)

CULTURAL & SOCIAL TRANSFORMATION
Natalia Garrido (Mentor: Professor Claudia Geist)

DENTISTRY
Eliza Diggins (Mentor: Professor Melodie Weller)

EDUCATION
Tessa Cahoon (Mentor: Professor Mary Burbank)

ENGINEERING
Adriana Payan-Medina (Mentors: Professors Julio C. Facelli and Ramkiran Gouripeddi)
Michael Alessandro Keyser (Mentor: Professor Pierre-Emmanuel Gaillardon)

FINE ARTS
Lauren Carn (Mentor: Professor Lynn Deboeck)

HEALTH
Elena Yee (Mentor: Professor Micah Drummond)

HONORS
Katie Sanyal (Mentor: Professor Michael Gills)

HUMANITIES
Eliana Massey (Mentor: Professor Matthew Basso)

MEDICINE
Samuel Hendry (Mentor: Professor Matthew Mulvey)

MINES & EARTH SCIENCES
Nancy Sohlberg (Mentor: Professor Gannet Hallar)

NURSING
Sydney Gilliland (Mentor: Professor Lauri Linder)

PHARMACY
Oliver Hubbard (Mentor: Professor Hamid Ghandehari)

SCIENCE
Alison Wang (Mentor: Professor Caroline Saouma)
Yexalen Barrera-Casas (Mentor: Professor Michael Morse)

SOCIAL & BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES
Camden Alexander (Mentor: Professor Sara Grineski
Shaistah Din (Mentor: Professor Marissa Deiner)

Samantha Eddy (Mentor: Professor Shundana Yusaf)
ARCHITECTURE + PLANNING

Rachel Nelson (Mentor: Professor Sankar Srinivasan)
BUSINESS

Joshua Christensen (Mentor: Professor Lisa Diamond)
CULTURAL & SOCIAL TRANSFORMATION

Sophia Boehler (Mentor: Professor Melodie Weller)
DENTISTRY

Sarah Orozco (Mentor: Professor Veronica Valdez)
EDUCATION

Katrina Le (Mentor: Professor Thomas Zangle)
ENGINEERING

Comstock (Mentor: Professor Brian Snapp)
FINE ARTS

Abby Laskey (Mentor: Professor Jeffrey Rose)
HEALTH

Casey McFarland (Mentor: Professor Jennifer Alderden)
HONORS

McKay Muhlestein (Mentor: Professor Natalya Kuznetsova)
HUMANITIES

Kailee Ferret (Mentor: Professor Leslie Francis)
LAW

Avery Abelhouzen (Mentor: Professor Joseph Yost)
MEDICINE

Alex Dzubay (Mentor: Professor. Kristine Pankow and Jeff Moore)
MINES & EARTH SCIENCES

Kari Stoddard (Mentor: Professor Lisa Taylor Swanson)
NURSING

Macey Smith (Mentor: Professor Amy Barrios)
PHARMACY

Elijah Counterman (Mentor: Professor Sean Lawley)
SCIENCE

Emmanuel Diaz (Mentor: Professor Katie Baucom)
SOCIAL & BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES

Joe Wassweiler (Mentor: Professor Cord Bowen)
ARCHITECTURE + PLANNING

Cloe Butler (Mentor: Professor Ana Carolina Antunes)
CULTURAL & SOCIAL TRANSFORMATION

Matthew Hesterman (Mentor: Professor Melodie Weller)
DENTISTRY

Kayla Kelsey (Mentor: Professor Sharlene Kithara)
EDUCATION

Joseph Lyman (Mentor: Professor Sriram Krishnamoorthy)
ENGINEERING

Ben Stanford (Mentors: Professor Kimberly Jew & Professor Tim Slover)
FINE ARTS

Jacob Razzouk (Mentor: Professor Jessie King)
HEALTH

Lydia Fries (Mentor: Professor Matthew Sigman)
HONORS

Selena Wirthlin (Mentor: Professor Bryan Jones)
MEDICINE

Jerry R. Howard II (Mentor: Professor Krista Carlson)
MINES & EARTH SCIENCES

Kylie Bethards (Mentor: Professor Lauri Linder)
NURSING

Blair Armstrong (Mentor: Professor Hamid Ghandehari)
PHARMACY

Sahar Kanishka (Mentor: Professor James Gagnon)
SCIENCE

Angela Pham (Mentor: Professor Anu Asnaani)
SOCIAL & BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES

Kimberly Tobar (Mentor: Professor Jason Castillo)
SOCIAL WORK

Hakan Ashaboglu (Mentor: Professor Trent Smith)
ARCHITECTURE + PLANNING

Jacqueline Mumford (Mentor: Professor Robert Allen)
BUSINESS

Christine Workman Martinez (Mentor: Professor Wanda S. Pillow)
CULTURAL & SOCIAL TRANSFORMATION

Braden Fallon (Mentor: Professor Melodie Weller)
DENTISTRY

Danielle Sheremeta (Mentor: Professor Claire Son)
EDUCATION

Takara Truong (Mentor: Professor Mark Minor)
ENGINEERING

Alicia Ross (Mentor: Professor Satu Hummasti)
FINE ARTS

Nate Rose (Mentor: Professor Adriana Coletta)
HEALTH

Ben Battistone (Mentor: Professor Ginger Smoak)
HONORS

Caitlin Silianoff (Mentor: Christopher Mead)
HUMANITIES

Madeline Harker (Mentor: Professor Amos Guiora)
LAW

James Carrington (Mentor: Professor Minna-Roh Johnson)
MEDICINE

Christopher Rapp  (Mentor: Professor Gannet Hallar)
MINES & EARTH SCIENCES

Bruno Gonzales (Mentor: Professor Michelle Litchman)
NURSING

Nam Nguyen (Mentor: Professor Christopher Reilly)
PHARMACY

Connor Terry Weatherly (Mentors: Professor Henry White & Professor Shelley Minteer)
SCIENCE

Shaniah Morning Star Chee (Mentor: Professor Brian Codding)
SOCIAL & BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES

Hector Robles (Mentor: Professor Jason Castillo)
SOCIAL WORK

Michael Jarzin (Mentor: Professor Sarah Hinners)
ARCHITECTURE + PLANNING

Carly Ho (Mentor: Professor Nitin Bakshi)
BUSINESS

Estefanie Aguilar Padilla (Mentor: Professor Erin Castro)
CULTURAL AND SOCIAL TRANSFORMATION

Yasmeen Siripathane (Mentor: Professor Annette Fleckenstein)
DENTISTRY

Erin Feeley (Mentor: Professor Erin Castro)
EDUCATION

Abbie Ireland (Mentor: Professor Trudy Oliver)
ENGINEERING

Victoria Holmes (Mentor: Professor Kate Mattingly)
FINE ARTS

Samira Gholami (Mentor: Professor Anandh Velayutham)
HEALTH

Camrey Tuttle (Mentor: Professor Sara Simonsen)
HONORS

Maya Kobe-Rundio (Mentor: Professor Robin E Jensen)
HUMANITIES

Reuben Ryan Cano (Mentor: Professor Dean Tantin)
MEDICINE

Alexander Reifsnyder (Mentor: Professor Krista Carlson)
MINES & EARTH SCIENCES

Kristen Stucki (Mentor: Professor Gwen Latendresse)
NURSING

Zack Harmer (Mentor: Professor Eric Schmidt)
PHARMACY

Journey Bly (Mentor: Professor Leslie Knapp)
SOCIAL & BEHAVIORAL SCIENCE

Maile Marriott (Mentor: Professor Valeria Molinero)
SCIENCE

Sadia Al-Hilo (Mentor: Professor Jeremiah Jaggers)
SOCIAL WORK

 

Carissa Pollock (Mentor: Professor Ryan Smith)
ARCHITECTURE + PLANNING

Taylor Dove (Mentor: Professor Davidson Heath)
BUSINESS

Valeria Jimenez (Mentors: Professor Edmund Fong & Professor Jesus Valero)
CULTURAL & SOCIAL TRANSFORMATION

Elaine Cooke (Mentor: Professor Melodie Weller)
DENTISTRY

Carlie Haacke (Mentor: Professor Lauren Liang)
EDUCATION

Jayden Plumb (Mentor: Professor Ashley Spear)
ENGINEERING

Cece Otto (Mentor: Professor Robert Scott Smith)
FINE ARTS

Nikol Yonemura (Mentor: Professor Micah Drummond)
HEALTH

Gemma Clark (Mentor: Professor Jennifer Weidhaas)
HONORS

Lydia Morley (Mentor: Professor Matt Haber)
HUMANITIES

Abbie Ireland (Mentor: Professor Trudy Oliver)
MEDICINE

Silvia Padilla (Mentor: Professor Michael Simpson)
MINES & EARTH SCIENCES

Jia "Janny" Liu (Mentor: Professor Jacqueline Eaton)
NURSING

Zachary Barber (Mentor: Professor Hamid Ghandehari)
PHARMACY

Elom Amematsro (Mentor: Professor Sophie Caron)
SCIENCE

Hannah Samowitz (Mentor: Professor Monisha Pasupathi)
SOCIAL & BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES

Lauren Brocious (Mentor: Professor Caren Frost)
SOCIAL WORK

Sara Ference (Mentor: Professor Elpitha Tsoutsounakis)
ARCHITECTURE + PLANNING

Heidi Qin (Mentor: Professor Dolores Delgado Bernal)
CULTURAL AND SOCIAL TRANSFORMATION

Carol Castañeda (Mentor: Professor Mary Burbank)
EDUCATION

Benjamin Gilmore (Mentor: Professor Taylor Sparks)
ENGINEERING

Ali Mitchell (Mentor: Professor Monty Paret)
FINE ARTS

Shantae George (Mentor: Professor Heather Hayes)
HEALTH

Samantha Duzy (Mentor: Professor Michael Gills)
HONORS

Eve Olson (Mentor: Professor Rachel Hayes-Harb)
HUMANITIES

Caroline Wang (Mentor: Professor Catherine Loc-Carillo)
MEDICINE

Nicholas Thiros (Mentor: Professor Diego Fernandez)
MINES & EARTH SCIENCES

Kyle McDougle (Mentor: Professor Lauren Clark)
NURSING

Annwin Chen (Mentor: Professor Amy Barrios)
PHARMACY

Amanda Bischoff (Mentor: Professor Matthew Sigman)
SCIENCE

Kai Sin (Mentor: Professor Aikio Kamimura)
SOCIAL & BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES

Rose Gomez (Mentor: Professor Jason Castillo)
SOCIAL WORK

Michael Hoehn (Mentor: Professor Erin Carraher)
ARCHITECTURE + PLANNING

Peter Curtis (Mentor: Professor Christopher German)
DENTISTRY

Mercedes Jorgensen (Mentor: Professor Lauren Liang)
EDUCATION

Kristina Lundgren (Mentor: Professor Taylor Sparks)
ENGINEERING

Cynthia Chen (Mentors: Professor Catherine Mayes & Professor Jane Hatter)
FINE ARTS

Cecilia Cardozo (Mentor: Professor Stacy Manwaring)
HEALTH

Julie Imig (Mentor: Professor Inese Ivans)
HONORS

Hillary Hermansen (Mentor: Professor Christopher Lewis)
HUMANITIES

Kathryn Lami (Mentor: Professor Sihem Boudina)
MEDICINE

Benjamin White (Mentor: Professor Jeffrey Moore)
MINES & EARTH SCIENCES

Christina Triptow (Mentor: Professor Katherine P. Supiano)
NURSING

Seychelle Marcus (Mentor: Professor Christopher Reilly)
PHARMACY

Ethan Lake (Mentors: Professor Oleg Starykh, Professor Yong-Shi Wu & Professor Zheng Zheng)
SCIENCE

Brianna Bartholomew (Mentors: Professor Elizabeth Cashdan & Professor Leslie A. Knapp)
SOCIAL & BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES

Elizabeth Gamarra (Mentor: Professor Joanna Bettmann Schaefer)
SOCIAL WORK

Katherine Nix (Mentor: Professor Stephen Goldsmith)
ARCHITECTURE + PLANNING

Zhao Jin (Mentors: Professor Elizabeth Tashjian & Professor Cihan Bilginsoy)
BUSINESS

Andrew Johansen (Mentors: Professor Lisa McFadden & Professor Annette Fleckenstein)
DENTISTRY

Tyler McDaniel (Mentor: Professor Erin Castro)
EDUCATION

Josh Kunz (Mentors: Professor Sneha Kasera, Professor Robert Ricci & Professor Kobus Van der Merwe)
ENGINEERING

Chance Clouse (Mentor: Professor Maureen O’Hara Ure)
FINE ARTS

Brett Cutler (Mentors: Professor Thunder Jalili & Professor Anandh Babu Pon Velayutham)
HEALTH

Diona Giannopoulos (Mentor: Professor Michael Gills)
HONORS

Kajsa Vlasic (Mentors: Professor Michael Gills & Professor Disa Gambera)
HUMANITIES

Aliya Khan (Mentor: Professor Leslie Francis)
LAW

Andrew Jo (Mentor: Professor David Krizaj)
MEDICINE

Max Giannetta (Mentor: Professor Lowell Miyagi)
MINES & EARTH SCIENCES

Andy Rivera (Mentors: Professor Kristin Cloyes & Professor Linda Edelman)
NURSING

Josh Conarton (Mentor: Professor Hamid Ghandehari)
PHARMACY

Alexandra Kent (Mentor: Professor Jennifer Heemstra)
SCIENCE

Martin Puga Jr. (Mentor: Professor Rebecca Utz)
SOCIAL & BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES

Elizabeth Gamarra (Mentor: Professor Dena Ned)
SOCIAL WORK

Andy Hong, Ph.D 
ARCHITECTURE + PLANNING

Lisa Diamond, Ph.D
CULTURAL & SOCIAL TRANSFORMATION

Lauren Liang, Ph.D
EDUCATION

Jacob George, Ph.D
ENGINEERING

Hubbel Palmer
FINE ARTS

Will Holland, Ph.D
HEALTH

Maureen Mathison, Ph.D
HUMANITIES

Melissa Watt, Ph.D
MEDICINE

Sarah Lambart, Ph.D
MINES & EARTH SCIENCES

Sara Simonsen, Ph.D
NURSING

Hamid Ghandehari, Ph.D
PHARMACY

Sophie Caron, Ph.D
SCIENCE

Shane Macfarlan, Ph.D
SOCIAL & BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES

Lindsay Gezinski, Ph.D
SOCIAL WORK

Sarah Hinners, Ph.D 
ARCHITECTURE + PLANNING

Vandana Ramachandran, Ph.D
BUSINESS

Annie Isabel Fukushima, Ph.D
CULTURAL & SOCIAL TRANSFORMATION

Melodie Weller, Ph.D
DENTISTRY

Mary D. Burbank Ph.D
EDUCATION

Cynthia Furse, Ph.D
ENGINEERING

Alexandra Harbold
FINE ARTS

J. David Symons, Ph.D
HEALTH

Michael Gills, Ph.D
HONORS

Rachel Hayes-Harb, Ph.D
HUMANITIES

Yan-Ting Shiu, Ph.D
MEDICINE

Gannet Hallar, Ph.D
MINES & EARTH SCIENCES

Lauri Linder, Ph.D, APRN, CPON, FAAN, FAPHON
NURSING

Amy M. Barrios, Ph.D
PHARMACY

Ofer Rog, Ph.D
SCIENCE

Sara Elizabeth Grineski, Ph.D
SOCIAL & BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES

• Any currently-enrolled degree-seeking undergraduate student at the University of Utah is eligible for the award.  

• Nominees DO NOT need to have participated in UROP or SPUR.  

• The student may be engaged in any type of research or creative scholarship on campus.  

• We recommend that you consider all students working with your college’s/school’s faculty as eligible even if they are not majors in your college/school.  

• The nomination by the college of a student may be an individual student awardee or a “team” that has a record/history of working on a research project. 

 

Please note for College of Science, College of Engineering, and College of Social & Behavioral Sciences, their colleges may submit up to two students, two teams or a team and an individual student to be awarded. All other colleges may submit either an individual or a team to be awarded. For colleges that submit more than allowed, the advisory council will review and make a final determination of whom / who to award. 

 Eligible OUR Mentor Awardees:

• Tenure-line or career-line faculty at the University of Utah are eligible for the award.  
• Nominees must have mentored students in UROP (Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program) or SPUR (Summer Program for Undergraduate Research) in the past 3 years. 
• The faculty mentor must be engaged in research or creative scholarship and teaching on campus.  

• Record of sustained commitment to developing research skills and knowledge under the supervision of a faculty mentor  

• Evidence of independent and critical thinking  

• Active participation in research-related activities on campus  

• Positive contributions to the research culture of the Department, College, and University  

 

Each Spring, representatives from each college collect nominations and select the year's Outstanding Undergraduate Researcher and Outstanding Undergraduate Research Mentor Awardees from their college (one faculty, one student). Recipients and their faculty research mentors are celebrated at an annual undergraduate research awards ceremony.

Effective for the awards ceremony 2025

Deadline for nominations by the college:

February 15, 2025

Nominations review and vote of approval:

• Undergraduate Research Advisory Council receives nomination packets for review on February 15
• Undergraduate Research Advisory convenes the last week of February to approve all nominations

Informing of the awardees

March 1st, recipients are informed by the Office of Undergraduate Research of the award and invited to the awards ceremony by the Office of Undergraduate Research.

 

Every year the Office of Undergraduate Research recognizes one undergraduate student researcher from each college/school with the Outstanding Undergraduate Researcher Award. Partnering colleges/schools are responsible for selecting the awardee. We are pleased that for 2023, we are recognizing:

Outstanding Undergraduate Researcher Awardees

Faculty mentors are invited to nominate students, and awardees are selected by committee. The criteria for the Outstanding Undergraduate Researcher Award are:

• Record of sustained commitment to developing research skills and knowledge under the supervision of a faculty mentor
• Evidence of independent and critical thinking
• Active participation in research-related activities on campus
• Positive contributions to the research culture of the Department, College, and University

Outstanding Undergraduate Research Mentor Awardees.

This is in collaboration with deans and college partners. The criteria for the Outstanding Undergraduate Researcher Mentor Award are:

• Record of sustained commitment to undergraduate research mentoring
• Active participation in research-related activities on campus
• Positive contributions to the research and teaching culture of the Department, College, and University