2021-22

Wentz Research Scholars

Myriam Achour

Biochemistry || Molecular Biology

Ferguson College of Agriculture

Faculty Mentor: Marianna Patrauchan

“Calcium Signaling Effect on Quorum Sensing of Pseudomonas aeruginosa”

Paetyn Armstrong

Food Science

Ferguson College of Agriculture

Faculty Mentor: Ranijith Ramanathan

“The Effect of Antioxidants on Meat Color”

Alex Arreola

Microbiology and Cell & Molecular Biology

College of Arts and Sciences

Faculty Mentor: Mostafa Elshahed

“Discovery and characterization of novel fungal biodiversity in the equine alimentary tract”

Blake Bartlett

Chemical Engineering

College of Engineering, Architecture and Technology

Faculty Mentor: Yu Feng

“Computational Fluid Dynamics Modeling of Aerosol Particle Transport through Lung Mucosa”

Jacinda Berokff

Zoology

College of Arts and Sciences

Faculty Mentor: Michael Reichert

“A technique for non-invasive identification of wild frogs using photographs”

Keaton Carter

Industrial Engineering || Management

College of Engineering, Architecture and Technology

Faculty Mentor: Shu Yan

“The Efficient Frontier: COVID-19 pandemic edition.”

Daniel Caughlin

Finance || Economics

Spears School of Business

Faculty Mentor: Gregory Eaton

“Effects of Earnings Per Share Surprise Percentage on Intraday Volatility of Publicly Traded Companies that Report Earnings Before Market-Open”

Kaitlyn Cotton

Microbiology and Cell & Molecular Biology

College of Arts and Sciences

Faculty Mentor: Karen Wozniak

“Effects of Organoantimony Compounds on Fungal Pathogens Cryptococcus neoformans and Candida albicans”

Cody Cummins

Nutritional Sciences

College of Education and Human Sciences

Faculty Mentor: Jill Joyce

“Cooking with Cadets: Pilot program to improve food literacy and self-efficacy of OSU ROTC Cadets”

Chaz Daggett

Mechanical Engineering || Aerospace Engineering

College of Engineering, Architecture and Technology

Kurt Rouser

“A Regeneratively Heated Fuel System Enabling More Efficient Small Turbojet Engines”

Chandler Dean

Microbiology

College of Arts and Sciences

Faculty Mentor: Avishek Mitra

“Effect of the Removal of the rpoN Gene on the Stress Response of EHEC”

Cooper Degner

Mechanical Engineering || Aerospace Engineering

College of Engineering, Architecture and Technology

Faculty Mentor: He Bai

“Exploring Autonomous Technologies in a City-Like Environment”

John Dorlon

Microbiology and Molecular Genetics || Plant Biology

College of Arts and Sciences

Faculty Mentor: Robert Burnap

“Analysis of the CO2 Uptake Mechanism of Cyanobacteria Using Site-Directed Mutants and Physiological Growth Assays”

Georgia Eastham

Plant and Soil Sciences

Ferguson College of Agriculture

Faculty Mentor: Brett Carver

“Nutritional, functional, and agronomic expectations in selection for purple brancoat in bread wheat”

Mary Erdmann

Microbiology and Molecular Genetics

College of Arts and Sciences

Faculty Mentor: Matthew Cabeen

“Characterization of 04030 Lipase Activity in Pseudomonas aeruginosa”

Kassandra Gaona

Psychology || Spanish

College of Arts and Sciences

Faculty Mentor: Kara Moore

“Who Performs Better at Searching for and Identifying Missing Children: Children or Adults?”

Ashley Gin

Biochemistry and Molecular Biology

Ferguson College of Agriculture

Faculty Mentor: Glenn Zhang

“Epigenetic Modulation of Host Innate Immune Response”

Mary Green

Nutritional Sciences

College of Education and Human Sciences

Faculty Mentor: McKale Montgomery

“Role of Nicotine in Cancer Development”

Chloe Guthrie

Zoology

College of Arts and Sciences

Faculty Mentor: Scott McMurry

“How Hunting Methods and Morphological Traits Influence Spider Predation on Frogs”

Taggert Harris

Biochemistry || Microbiology and Cell & Molecular Biology

College of Arts and Sciences

Faculty Mentor: Joshua Butcher

“Does a Stronger Muscle make a Stronger Bone?”

Bethany Hatter

Nutritional Sciences

College of Education and Human Sciences

Faculty Mentor: Brenda Smith

“Investigation of how short chain fatty acids affect T cell differentiation through the use of in vitro and in vivo models”

Samantha Holguin

Art History

College of Arts and Sciences

Faculty Mentor: Mary Larson

“Sight and Sound: The Kinetic Sculpture of Dale McKinney and the Use of Audio”

Faith Howe

Animal Science

Ferguson College of Agriculture

Faculty Mentor: Darren Hagen

“The Effect of Long Non-coding RNA on the Cell Cycle: A Potential Novel Cancer Therapy”

Tatum Johnson

Design, Housing, and Fashion Merchandising

College of Education and Human Sciences

Faculty Mentor: Hyejune Park

“The ‘drop’ model in the fashion industry: Examining retail strategy and long-term sustainability effects”

Elizabeth Kent

Zoology

College of Arts and Sciences

Faculty Mentor: Matthew Cabeen

“Utilizing Novel Nanospring Patterns to Retard Growth of Gram-Positive and Gram-Negative Bacteria and Limit Antibiotic Administration”

Crest Koemel

Integrative Biology

College of Arts and Sciences

Faculty Mentor: Jimmie Weaver

“Production of Quaternary Carbons; Reduction of Waste and Increase in Yield”

Kate Kouplen

Biology

College of Arts and Sciences

Faculty Mentor: McKale Montgomery

“Enzymatic Assessment of Cells with Distinct p53 Mutation Types”

Sloane Loges

Political Science || Sociology

College of Arts and Sciences

Faculty Mentor: Holley Hansen

“Effects of UN Peacekeeping at the Subnational Level”

Amber Main

Physiology

College of Arts and Sciences

Faculty Mentor: Joshua Butcher

“Does an Exercise Mimetic Improve Brain Function?”

Brannon Maravich

Biology || Physiology

College of Arts and Sciences

Faculty Mentor: Matthew Cabeen

“Significance of specific amino acid residues in the Bacillus subtilis stressosome in relation to environmental stress sensing at the native locus in comparison with the amyE site”

Liesl Melnick

Communication Sciences and Disorders

College of Arts and Sciences

Faculty Mentor: Sarah Kucker

“Measuring Language Acquisition: The Influence of Individual Differences”

Mason Miller

Zoology

College of Arts and Sciences

Faculty Mentor: Michael Reichert

“Exploring the Winner-Loser Effect on Emotion in Crickets”

Kayli Nail

Biology

College of Arts and Sciences

Faculty Mentor: Erika Lutter

“Bacterial Two Hybrid Analysis of Chlamydia trachomatis Proteins”

Margaret New

Biology

College of Arts and Sciences

Faculty Mentor: Elizabeth McCullagh

“Characterizing Differences in the Auditory Processing of Wild Rodents”

Alyssa Oates

Interior Design

College of Education and Human Sciences

Faculty Mentor: Aditya Jayadas

“Redesign of Classrooms using Biophilic Design in Virtual Reality to Decrease Stress and Increase Information Retention”

Robert Owens

Electrical Engineering || Computer Engineering

College of Engineering, Architecture and Technology

Faculty Mentor: Thanh Thieu

“Empirical Analysis and Machine Ranking of Monolingual Rewriting”

Isabelle Posey

Nutritional Sciences

College of Education and Human Sciences

Faculty Mentor: Deana Hildebrand

“Intervention approaches to improve awareness of food security resources available to university students”

C. Tanner Price

Aerospace Engineering || Mechanical Engineering

College of Engineering, Architecture and Technology

Faculty Mentor: Ryan Paul

“Aerodynamic Performance of a Low Aspect Ratio Active Rear Wing Package Designed for Formula SAE”

Riley Pritzlaff

Political Science

College of Arts and Sciences

Faculty Mentor: Rebekah Herrick

“Still a “no-woman’s land?” An analysis of women’s policy effectiveness in the Oklahoma State Legislature”

Danielle Ramirez

History

College of Arts and Sciences

Faculty Mentor: Sarah Foss

“Appropriation and Interpretation of the Aztec Sun Stone”

Blake Randall

Chemical Engineering

College of Engineering, Architecture and Technology

Faculty Mentor: Sundararajan Madihally

“Exploring the Use of Enzymes to Dissolve Coronary Artery Plaque”

Daniel Reed

Biochemistry || Microbiology and Cell & Molecular Biology

College of Arts and Sciences

Faculty Mentor: Erika Lutter

“Antibacterial Properties of Novel SADA/NADA Compounds”

Kennedy Roberts

Animal Science || Wildlife Biology

Ferguson College of Agriculture

Faculty Mentor: Adel Pezeshki

“The Effect of Supplementation Dietary Tryptophan on Fat and Glucose Metabolism in Low-Birth-Weight Piglets”

Ethan Shaw

Entomology

Ferguson College of Agriculture

Faculty Mentor: W. Wyatt Hoback

“Determining Activity Patterns of Oklahoma Dung Beetles and Their Response to Prescribed Fire”

Harrison Smith

Finance

Spears School of Business

Faculty Mentor: David Carter

“Lessons Learned from State Transparency Laws: What Were the Goals and Were They Achieved?”

Collin Thornton

Computer Engineering || Electrical Engineering

College of Engineering, Architecture and Technology

Faculty Mentor: He Bai

“Decentralized Network for Autonomous Multi-Agent Systems”

Alexis Vance

Chemical Engineering || Mechanical Engineering || Aerospace Engineering

College of Engineering, Architecture and Technology

Faculty Mentor: Jamey Jacob

“The Application Of Biodegradable Materials for Environmental Data Collection and Weather Forecasting”

Gabriel Webb

Aerospace Engineering || Mechanical Engineering

College of Engineering, Architecture and Technology

Faculty Mentor: Arvind Santhanakrishnan

“Comparative study of mechanical swimming performance of rowing and flapping”

Karenna Young

Biology

College of Arts and Sciences

Faculty Mentor: Rachael Cullick

“A Latin Study of the Medical and Religious Imagery Surrounding the Plague and its Parallels to Pandemic Perceptions”