College of Science students showcase their work at annual Undergraduate Research Colloquium

Congratulations to the winners of the 2024 Undergraduate Research Colloquium that took place on Tuesday, May 7. In its thirteenth year, this annual STEM Accelerator organized event highlights the research achievements of College of Science undergraduate students and awards the best of the best with a scholarship funding and opportunities to share their hard work with the greater George Mason community. 

Divided amongst four categories—environmental and earth sciences, life sciences, physics sciences and mathematics, and STEM education—winners received $600 in scholarship money and honorable mentions received $400.

"Undergraduate students play an important role in generating new ideas, methods and results for our faculty member’s research endeavors, and this event is a visible representation of that impact," said Mary Crowe, director of the STEM Accelerator. "It provides an avenue for our undergraduate students to hone their communication skill and is a way to bring the entire college together in a celebratory event at the end of the academic year."

Research varied across several disciplines, from understanding parasite infection in mud crabs and grass shrimp to finding tools that would allow for portable, onsite sample testing of microplastics that affect more than 700 marine species to exploring the use of infographics as a mode of scientific communication in undergraduate chemistry courses. View the list of category winners and honorable mentions below and explore all participant projects to see what College of Science undergraduate students accomplished this past academic year. 

ENVIRONMENTAL AND EARTH SCIENCES

Category Winner: 
Poster 1: Parasite prevalence and intensity in crab and shrimp hosts in two rivers of the Chesapeake Bay
Amani Khan, Kiersten Jewell, Sarah R. Goodnight, Amy E. Fowler

Honorable Mention: 
Poster 4: Analyzing Microplastics in Aquatic Ecosystems in the Field
Emily Billings

LIFE SCIENCES

Category Winner:
Poster 8: Quantification of cholinergic septo-entorhinal axon densities across layers of the medial entorhinal cortex
Muhammad H. Shah and Holger Dannenberg

Honorable Mention:
Poster 6: How tolerant are Japanese Mystery Snails to drying out?
Nicholas T. Lewis, Amy Fowler, Sarah Goodnight, and Daya Hall-Stratton

PHYSICAL SCIENCES AND MATHEMATICS

Category Winner:
Poster 38: Feedback for a quantum magnetometer derived from a dual-frequency test signal
Samuel Molseed, Karen Sauer

Honorable Mention:
Poster 37: Fluorescent Probe Development for Detection of Oxidative Stress-Induced Carbonylation in Cells
Amira Anwar, Eva-Maria Rudler, Ozlem Dilek

STEM EDUCATION

Category Winner:
Poster 43: What did they learn? Reflexive thematic analysis of student narratives about a creative infographic project in Bioinorganic Chemistry
Bernard Cruz Torrez, Rebecca Jones

Thank you to the faculty and graduate students who served as judges at this event. Judges included Patrali Banerjee, Tina Bell, Casey A. Blacker, Mary Crowe, Benjamin Dreyfus, Megan Erb, Elizabeth W Freeman, Brett Froelich, Caroline A. Fudala, Carissa Hunter, Sarah M. Huskisson, Karen T Lee, Laina S. Lockett, Alexandra Masterson, Valerie Olmo, Pritha G. Roy, and Yun Yu.