VPRI Undergraduate Fellowship Recipients

2025 Recipients

Bella Albiani
Examining the Impact of Social and Environmental Stressors on Cardiovascular and Metabolic Risk among People Experiencing Homelessness
Major: Multidisciplinary Science
Mentor: Josh Snodgrass
Flora Booker
Reducing Wildfire Risk: Effects of Prescribed Fire on Invasive Understory Vegetation in Ponderosa Pine Flats
Major: Environmental Studies
Mentor: Amanda Stasiewicz
Annie Fusco
Developing a system for high-throughput tissue-specific knockouts in zebrafish
Major: Multidisciplinary Science and Human Physiology
Mentor: Dan Grimes
Zoe Gill-Errada
Procedural Justice and Building Support for Environmental Policy in Extractive Communities
Major: Environmental Studies
Mentor: Patrick Hunnicutt
Amelia Kotamarti
Sounding the cellular alarm: LPS and S100A9 differentially activate the immune receptor TLR4
Major: Biochemistry
Mentor: Mike Harms
Karis Lincoln
Metabolic Control of Antibiotic Tolerance in Finegoldia magna and Anaerococcus vaginalis from Chronic Wounds
Major: Neuroscience and Human Physiology
Mentor: Melanie Spero
Audrey Masciopinto
De-energizing to prevent wildfire: growing resilience for medically vulnerable communities exposed to public safety power shutoffs (PSPS)
Major: Environmental Science
Mentor: Amanda Stasiewicz
Alfie Ong
Echoes of Elegy: Understanding Ravel's Le Tombeau de Couperin Through Performance and Interpretation
Major: Comparative Literature and Music Performance
Mentor: Joyce Wei-Jo Chen
Madeline Rose
When Home is Illegal: Unsheltered Homelessness in America
Major: Psychology
Mentor: Claire Herbert
Ronan Santaniello
Trans Health and Resilience Study
Major: Biological Anthropology
Mentor: Zachary DuBois
Sebastian Vagner
The Role of Estradiol in Bonobo Sexual Behavior
Major: Anthropology
Mentor: Frances White

2024 Recipients

Nicholas Burns
Flowering Plant Species Fitness in Response to Neighboring Competition & Pollination
Major: Environmental Science
Mentor: Lauren Hallett
Petra Chinsangaram
The role of experience in the perception of non-native speech
Major: Psychology
Mentor: Melissa Baese-Berk
Kaden Coulter
DeepMReye Implementation
Major: Data Science
Mentor: Michelle Marneweck
Kimberley Davis
Effects of Phosphorylation on the Pus4 Protein in Yeast
Major: Biology
Mentor: David Garcia
Olivia Estes
The Effect of Ketamine on Behavior and Pathology of Alzheimer's Model Mice
Major: Psychology
Mentor: Michael Wehr
Paul Graf
Designer RNA Binding Proteins as Switches to Modulate Chloroplast Gene Expression in Plants
Major: Biology
Mentor: Alice Barkan
Skye Grubb
Fluctuating Asymmetry of the Crania and Postcrania in Primates
Major: Anthropology
Mentor: Frances White
Dora Ho
Infant Responsiveness to Maternal Play Bids in the Context of Poor Nutritional Health
Major: Multidisciplinary Sciences
Mentor: Dare Baldwin
Lazar Isakharov
Zinc Status on Copper-Mediated Oxidative Stress and Cerebrovascular Health in Alzheimer's Disease
Major: Human Physiology
Mentor: Ashley Walker
Payton Jefferis
Co-delivery of Immunoregulatory and Osteogenic Proteins for Promotion of Localized Bone Repair
Major: Biochemistry
Mentor: Marian Hettiaratchi
Elena Kuypers
Localization and interaction of proteins and ZNFX-1 in C. elegans
Major: Biology
Mentor: Diana Libuda
Zach Marshall
Viral neonatal inflammation impairs adult respiratory motor plasticity in male and female rats
Major: Biochemistry
Mentor: Adrianne Huxtable
Kathryn Morris
When Home is Illegal: How Law and Governance Shape Informal Sheltering in Lane County
Major: Psychology, Sociology
Mentor: Claire Herbert
Tapley Sorenson
Assessing Cortical Noradrenergic Activity Across the Sleep-Wake Cycle in a Mouse Model
Major: Neuroscience
Mentor: David McCormick
Tallula Wynia
Aortic Protein Expression and Elastin Insufficiency
Major: Human Physiology, Philosophy
Mentor: Ashley Walker

2023 Recipients

Tamara Alacorn Basurto
Design of zero-energy cooling systems for fresh food preservation in the jungle region of Peru
Major: Product Design
Mentor: Brian Gillis
Sanjana Basak
OptiDicer reduces long CUG RNA accumulation in corneal endothelial cells from patients with Fuchs' dystrophy
Major: Biology
Mentor: Hironori Uehara
Hye Lynn Choi
The Effects of Aging and Fatigue on Musculotendinous Compliance
Major: Human Physiology
Mentor: Damien Callahan
Madeleine Ford
Characterization of VEGF Controlled Delivery Systems
Major: Human Physiology
Mentor: Marian Hettiaratchi
Zealon Gentry-Lear
Characterizing and Understanding Synergistic Drug Interactions for Killing in Pseudomonas aeruginosa
Major: Biology
Mentor: Melanie Spero
Sam Heilenbach
Pupillometry as a measure of Infant Hearing
Major: Psychology
Mentor: Dare Baldwin
Ainsley Hogan
Sex Differences and the Impact of Large Artery Stiffness on Cerebrovascular and Cognitive Function
Major: Human Physiology and Biology
Mentor: Ashley Walker
Eleanor Laufer
High-throughput Fitness Estimates of Epistatic Contributions to Ivermectin Resistance in Caenorhabditis elegans
Major: Biochemistry
Mentor: Patrick Phillips
Thomas Leonhardt
Are Whole-body Metabolic Alterations Dependent on Sex, Age, and APOE Genotype?
Major: Human Physiology
Mentor: Ashley Walker
Eden McCall
On Creating Environmental Histories: LandTalk from Research to Practice
Major: Spatial Data Science and Journalism
Mentor: Erik Steiner
Ayisha Tamerhoulet
How Everyday Musical Experiences Shape Emerging Vocabulary Development and Infant Vocalizations
Major: Communication Disorders and Sciences
Mentor: Caitlin Fausey
Madeline Thomason
Investigating whether Actinotrichia-Niche Cell Interactions Regulate Fin Regeneration
Major: Biology
Mentor: Kryn Stankunas
Colin Thurston
Effects of Histamine Receptor Antagonism on Oxygen Uptake and Recovery Kinetics
Major: Human Physiology
Mentor: John Halliwill
Olivia Wilborn-Pilotte
Pollination Strategy as an Evolutionary Adaptation to Changing Climate in Scarlet Monkeyflower (Erythranthe cardinalis)
Major: Biology
Mentor: Jeff Diez
Alexa Wright
The Effect of Psychedelics on Early Alzheimer's Pathology
Major: Psychology
Mentor: Michael Wehr

2022 Recipients

Eleanor Codding
Post Fire Reseeding Effects on the Genetic Diversity of Native Grass in the Great Basin
Mentor: Lauren Hallett
David Lefevre
Photon Propagation Simulation through Glacier Ice
Mentor: Brian Smith
Noah Lovgren
Impact of a Single Bout of Blood Flow Restriction Exercise on Muscle Satellite Cell Numbers
Mentor: Hans Dreyer
Larkin Lucy
Understanding the Impacts of Heat Therapy on Biomarkers of Alzheimer's Disease in the Hippocampal Region of the Brain
Mentor: Alison Burggren
Ava Minu-Sepehr
Counter-mapping the Coos Bay Estuary: Amplifying Indigenous Voices and Histories
Mentor: Liska Chan
Will Nusbaum
Virtual Excursions for Science Learning (VESL)
Mentor: Daniel Pimentel
Zachary Pennel
Development Of An Accurate Optical-Based Shear Sensor Under Compressive Force
Mentor: Keat Ghee Ong
Megan Rangel-Lynch
Exploring Community Engagement in Context of Forest Management Planning for Mt. Hood National Forest
Mentor: Sarah Wald
Sabrina Reis
Learn to Intervene: Using Artificially Intelligent Public Health Outreach to Improve the Uptake of Diabetes Prevention Behaviors in India
Mentor: Thanh Nguyen
Maili Smith
A Cross-Tissue Analysis of Differential Methylation in Male vs Female Macaques
Mentor: Kirstin Sterner

2021 Recipients

Sarah Beaudoin
Anion Exchange Membrane Electrolyzers for Dirty Water Splitting and Hydrogen Gas Production
Mentor: Shannon Boettcher
Alexander Bui
Evaluating Responsive Caregiving: Comparing Constructs of Caregiver Sensitivity Within Dyadic Interaction
Mentor: Philip Fisher
Karly Fear
Design and characterization of selective BMP protein binders for fracture regeneration
Mentor: Parisa Hosseinzadeh
Zoe Haupt
Do we perceive when they deceive? The effect of pauses and dialect on deception detection
Mentor: Melissa Baese-Berk
Alexandra Jagielski
Experiences and Health of Transgender People of Color During COVID-19
Mentor: Zachary DuBois
Aleena Khurana
OVX Alters Gene Expression in Relation to Vascular Function
Mentor: Ashley Walker
Jared Knofczynski
A Multi-Task Weak Supervision Framework for Internet Measurements
Mentor: Ram Durairajan
Marlee Odell
COVID-19 Quarantine Hesitancy in Lane County
Mentor: Melissa Graboyes
Idil Osman
Underreporting of Epidemic Rebound Malaria in the African Continent
Mentor: Melissa Graboyes
Ethan Scott
ChangeDwell: The Interaction Between Change Blindness and Dwell Time Paradigms
Mentor: Dare Baldwin

2020 Recipients

Odalis Aguilar Aguilar
Promesas Ingenuas/False Promises
Mentor: Julie Weise
Brenna Barton
Cultural Transitions: Language and Identity in Post WW-II Spanish migrants
Mentor: Julie Weise
Mikala Capage
Hunting for prions: Using inheritance patterns in yeast cells to attribute epigenetic states to prion proteins
Mentor: David Garcia
Rachel Conner
100 Years of Malaria in Zanzibar, East Africa
Mentor: Melissa Graboyes
Isabel Crabtree
Influence of Listener Ideology on Perception of Non-Native Speech Intensity
Mentor: Melissa Baese-Berk
Dimitra Fellman
Oregon's Response to COVID-19: Approaches and Outcomes to Social Distancing and Testing
Mentor: Melissa Graboyes
Rachel Hur
Improving accuracy in LIGO's parameter estimation software
Mentor: Ben Farr
Parker Morris
Rational Design of Molecular Nickel Catalysts for Remote Hydrofunctionalization Applications
Mentor: Amanda Cook
Laura Nosler
Supersymmetric Long Lived Particle Search
Mentor: Laura Jeanty
Tillie Trebon
Effect of hesitation sound phonetic quality on perception of language fluency
Mentor: Melissa Baese-Berk

2019 Recipients

Konrad Bailey
Neural and behavioral assays for studying predictive coding in the mouse brain
Major: Psychology
Mentor: Santiago Jaramillo
Hayli Brown
Acoustic Sources of Accent in Second Language Japanese Speech
Major: Linguistics, Japanese
Mentor: Kaori Idemaru
Dagny Daniel
Navigating the Intersections of Political and Sexual Identity: Ethnographic Interviews among Queer Muslims in Oregon
Major: Cultural Anthropology
Mentor: Ana-Maurine Lara
George Deardorff
Characterizing the role of Dach during bony ray branching in the zebrafish caudal fin skeleton
Major: Biology
Mentor: Scott Stewart
Jacob Evarts
Identifying New RNA-regulating Prions in Yeast
Major: Computer and Information Science
Mentor: David Garcia
Adeline Fecker
The Influence of Sensory Systems in Social Behavior of Zebrafish
Major: Biology
Mentor: Philip Washbourne
Chaney Hart
Dissecting The Role Cohesin Plays in Influencing the Structure of the Genome in Neurospora crassa
Major: Biology
Mentor: Eric Selker
Nora Kearns
The Influence of Maternal Fatty Acids and in Utero Inflammation on Child Behavior
Major: Human Physiology
Mentor: Elinor Sullivan
Kara Krnacik
The Effects of Abstinence-Only Funding on Teen Pregnancy and STD Rates
Major: Economics
Mentor: Edward Rubin
Anna Kulawiec
Differentiation between PRC2 and H3K27 Methylation in Repression
Major: Biology
Mentor: Eric Selker
Byron Lee
Robo4 Project
Major: Human Physiology and Biology
Mentor: Ashley Walker
Sabrina Raqueno-Angel
The Effect of pH on Histamine Release
Major: Human Physiology
Mentor: John Halliwill
Nolan Rudolph
New Capabilities for Self-Driving Networks
Major: Computer Science
Mentor: Ramakrishnan Durairajan
Arden Saravis
The Correlation Between Stigma Stemming from HIV and Antiretroviral Packaging: Design Recommendations for Introducing Discrete Packaging for Adolescents in Kenya
Major: International Studies & Mathematics
Mentor: Clare Evans
Kayla Walker
The Role of Semantic Predictability in Adaptation to Non-Native Speech
Major: Linguistics
Mentor: Melissa Baese-Berk
Abbey Ward
Language Dominance in Bilingual Spanish-English Children
Major: Communication Disorders and Sciences
Mentor: Stephanie De Anda

2018 Recipients

Casey Bisted
The Development of a System to Determine the Size Dependence of In2O3 Nanocatalysts on CO2 Reduction
Major: Chemistry
Mentor: James Hutchison
Eden Brush
Host-microbe evolutionary antagonism in primates: HopQ's role as a bacterial adhesin targeting CEACAM1
Major: Biology
Mentor: Matt Barber
Cameron Colbert
Hemodynamics of Post-Exercise and Post-Passive Heat Stress Recovery
Major: Human Physiology and Spanish
Mentor: Christopher Minson
Patrick Connor
Thermodynamic and structural determination of metal and peptide binding to the human S100A9 protein
Major: Biochemistry
Mentor: Michael Harms
Anson Dang
Major: Biochemistry
Mentor: Andy Marcus
Fiona De Los Rios-McCutcheon
Environmental Narratives of Othering: Comparing English and Spanish Language Coverage of Air Pollution in Mexico
Major: Geography and Political Science
Mentor: Laura Pulido
Katie Fischer
Arsenic and Fluoride Contamination Analysis of Agricultural Topsoil in Guanajuato, Mexico
Major: Environmental Science
Mentor: Matthew Polizzotto
Takako Iwashita
Behavioral and Neural Predictors of Individual Differences in Concept Generalization
Major: Psychology
Mentor: Dasa Zeithamova
Elise Kronquist
The Effect of Pyridoxamine on AGEs and Aortic Wall Structure
Major: Human Physiology
Mentor: Ashley Walker
Christopher Misa
Improving Measurement Accuracy in Containers Through Trace-based Network Stack Latency Monitoring
Major: Math and Computer Science
Mentor: Ramakrishnan Durairajan
Tony Munoz
Odor Concentration Change Sensing in Mice
Major: Biology
Mentor: Matt Smear
Eleanor Rochester
I Don't Have Deaths on my Conscience: Perspectives of Intravenous Drug Users on a Peer-Delivered Naloxone Program in Eugene, Oregon
Major: Biology
Mentor: Melissa Graboyes
Allison Schukis
Phrasikleia Kore: Alternative Roles for Female Viewership
Major: Art and Art History
Mentor: Kristen Seaman
Nikki Szczepanski
Characterizing Early DNA Break Repair in C. elegans
Major: Biochemistry
Mentor: Diana Libuda
Joy Wilcox
Racialized and Gendered Justice in the Criminal Court System
Major: General Social Sciences and Sociology
Mentor: Debra Thompson

2017 Recipients

Anisha Adke
The genetic basis of the first connections of the brain
Major: Biology
Mentor: Adam Miller
Adrian Gordon
Energetic Loss From the Use of Hole Scavengers to Measure Photoelectrochemical Cell Efficiency Limits
Major: Chemistry
Mentor: Shannon Boettcher
Clara Gorman
Inter-tribal Dynamics of the Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs and Grande Ronde Reservations
Major: History
Mentor: Kevin Hatfield; Jennifer O'Neal
Aidan Grealish
The Body Electronic: Exploring the Permeability of the Self in the Age of Wearable Computing
Major: Art & Technology
Mentor: Colin Ives
Sarah Hovet
Beyond Muses: Feminism and Gender in Modern Irish Literature (1880-Present) from Augusta Gregory to Eavan Boland
Major: English and Journalism
Mentor: Barbara Mossberg
Lila Kaye
Determining the Fitness Advantage Conferred by Anti-inflammatory Gene Expression to Commensal Bacteria
Major: Cellular, Molecular, and Developmental Biology
Mentor: Karen Guillemin
Peace Kotamnives
Search for Di-Higgs Resonance at the ATLAS Experiment
Major: Physics and Mathematics
Mentor: Eric Torrence
Geena Littel
Variation in Seismic-wave Attenuation along the Cascadia Subduction Zone Determined from Tectonic Tremor
Major: Earth Sciences and Applied Math
Mentor: Amanda Thomas
Alexander Lygo
Elucidating the effects of nanoarchitecture on weak localization in (SnSe)m [TiSe2]2
Major: Physics and Chemistry
Mentor: David Johnson
Allison Zhou
How Object Frequency Distribution Affects Early Word Learning
Major: Biology
Mentor: Caitlin Fausey

2016 Recipients

Augustine Beard
Colonial-Environmental Narrative of the Great Basin in the 19th Century
Major: History
Mentor: Mark Carey
Sally Elizabeth Claridge
Genomic Analysis of the Chronic Heat Stress Resistance Phenotype in Caenorhabditis remanei
Major: Biology
Mentor: Patrick Phillips
Johnathan Crandall
The Genomic Architecture of Adaptive Divergence in G. aculeatus
Major: Biology
Mentor: William Cresko
Drew Jordan McLaughlin
Individual Differences in Perception of Variation in Speech
Major: Linguistics
Mentor: Melissa Baese-Berk
Taryn Kawashima
Carbon Nanohoops as New Bioimaging Probes
Major: Biochemistry
Mentor: Ramesh Jasti
Bryce Keicher
Mexican Drug War: Displacement and Human Rights Affects on Guatemalan Refugees
Major: International Studies and Spanish
Mentor: Dan Tichenor
Eugenia Lollini
Before the Spectacle: Shaping Gender and Class Identity in Beirut's Beauty Salons
Major: Anthropology and Romance Languages
Mentor: Carol Silverman
Hanna McIntosh
Genetic architecture of local adaptation and reproductive isolation in Mimulus aurantiacus
Major: Environmental Science and Biology
Mentor: Matt Streisfeld
Michael McIntosh
Localized Economic Impacts of Immigration on the West Coast
Major: Economics
Mentor: Anca Cristea
Ayantu Megerssa
Genocide and the Northern Paiute: A History of Colonization, Dehumanization, and Extermination
Major: International Studies
Mentor: Kevin Hatfield
Justine Vanloan Nguyen
VEGF Signaling Contributions to Heart Ventricle Development
Major: Human Physiology
Mentor: Kryn Stankunas
Michael Womack
Wavelet Analysis of the PNI Climate Index
Major: Physics and Mathematics
Mentor: Greg Bothun