Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF)

Keara Alonso-Lopez '26
Major: General Social Science
Mentor: Amanda Stasiewicz
Project: "Insurance Availability and Wildfire Mitigation: Understanding structural incentives and market interactions in Mendocino County, California"
2025 Fellow

Sophia Foerster '26
Major: Multidisciplinary Science
Mentor: Nick Willett
Project: "Assessing the Role of Estrogen Signaling in Cartilage Extracellular Matrix Integrity and Composition in Inflammatory Dysregulated Systems”
2025 Fellow

Bess Frerichs '26
Major: Linguistics
Mentor: Melissa Redford
Project: "Building a model to predict natural speech disfluencies"
2025 Fellow

Rose Kapelka-Wolpoff '26
Major: Art History
Mentor: Emily Scott
Project: "Educational or Exploitative? Hopi Architecture at the Grand Canyon"
2025 Fellow

Alexandre Smith '27
Major: Earth Sciences
Mentor: Josef Dufek
Project: " Investigating the effect of unsteady source conditions on the spread of volcanic ash clouds using analog experiments”
2025 Fellow

Faith Adler '25
Major: Japanese
Mentor: Keli Yerian
Project: "Open Pedagogy for LING 144, Learning How to Learn Languages"
2024 Fellow

Bella Albiani '26
Major: Multidisciplinary Science
Mentor: Jo Weaver
Project: "Analyzing Ligand Specificity to Recreate Evolutionary Phylogenetic Tree for TLR4; Creating a Drop-in Cassette”
2024 Fellow

Konrad Bailey '20
Major: Psychology
Mentor: Jaramillo
Project: "Neural and behavioral assays for studying predictive coding in the mouse brain"
2018 Fellow

Zoey Bailey '24
Major: Environmental Science
Mentor: Lauren Hallett
Project: "Effects of burn history and Bromus tectorum density on seedbank composition in the North Great Basin"
2022 Fellow

Bailey Barrett '24
Major: Biology
Mentor: Karen Guillemin
Project: "Understanding How Microbes Pick Their Partners"
2023 Fellow

Leah Blankenship '23
Major: Neuroscience & Psychology
Mentor: Emily Sylwestrak
Project: "Functional and Anatomical Properties of Cck+ Cells in the Medial Habenula"
2022 Fellow

Andrew Boeckman '25
Major: Geography
Mentor: Yizhao Yang
Project: "Sustainable Galapagos: Integrating Conservation and Development Through Evidence-Based Policy Research and Knowledge Co-Production with Stakeholders"
2024 Fellow

Corinthia Brown '24
Major: Biology
Mentor: Mike Harms
Project: "Analyzing Ligand Specificity to Recreate Evolutionary Phylogenetic Tree for TLR4; Creating a Drop-in Cassette”
2023 Fellow

Anastasia Browning '21
Major: Psychology
Mentor: Elliot Berkman
Project: "Leveraging Message Framing and Goal Orientations to Strengthen Well-Being and Bolster Intentions to Follow Social Distancing Protocols During the COVID-19 Pandemic"
2020 Fellow

Sue Carney '25
Major: Psychology
Mentor: Melissa Brunkan
Project: "Three Sleeps: a Data Sonification"
2024 Fellow

Fountane Chan '19
Major: General Science
Mentor: Diana Libuda
Project: "Deciphering the role of Argonaute protein, PRG-1, in spermatocyte specific, heat-stress induced DNA damage"
2018 Fellow

Siri Chotechuang '23
Major: Communication Disorders and Sciences
Mentor: Melissa Redford
Project: "The Role of Language Planning in Speech and Breathing Coordination"
2022 Fellow

Ananya Chowdhury '25
Major: Biology
Mentor: Patrick Phillips and Rose Al-Saadi
Project: "Investigating the Effects of Spermidine on Aging in Caenorhabditis elegans”
2024 Fellow

Noa Cohen '21
Major: Biological Anthropology
Mentor: Michael Posner
Project: "Reducing Smoking through Transcranial Alternating Current Stimulation"
2020 Fellow

Mashal Rahmati Copperman '22
Major: Environmental Science
Mentor:  Brendan Bohannan
Project: "Community Composition Shifts in Plant Growth Promoting Rhizobacteria Along a Lead (Pb) Gradient"
2021 Fellow

Avery Csaszar '25
Major: Journalism: Advertising
Mentor: Alex Cohen
Project: "Greenwashing: A Scoping Review” 
2024 Fellow

Isabelle Cullen '22
Major: Neuroscience
Mentor: Matt Smear
Project: "Active Olfactomotor Responses in Head Fixed Mice"
2021 Fellow

Chandlor Henderson '25
Major: Journalism
Mentor:  Ed Madison & Camilla Mortensen
Project: "400-Year Nightmare"
2024 Fellow

Takoko Iwashita '20
Major: Psychology
Mentor: Dasa Zeithamova
Project: "Reducing the negative impact of emotion on memory"
2019 Fellow

Abigail Kadlec '25
Major: English
Mentor: Angela Rovak
Project: "Characteristics in Modernist Women's Literature and its Revival in Contemporary Novels"
2024 Fellow

Matt Kafker '20
Major: Physics & Math
Mentor: Tristan Ursell
Project: "Computational modeling of bacterial dynamics in spatially structured environments"
2019 Fellow

Sarah Kraske '25
Major: Biochemistry
Mentor: Victoria DeRose
Project: "Investigating nucleolar protein reassembly after compound induced nucleolar stress reversal"
2024 Fellow

Mary Krebs '22
Major: Biology & Piano Performance
Mentor: Bruce Bowerman
Project: "Oocyte Meiotic Cell Division: Cortical Stiffness versus Cortical Contractility"
2022 Fellow

Connor Lane '19
Major: Biology
Mentor: Matt Streisfeld
Project: "Parallel evolution of floral diversity in the bush monkeyflower"
2018 Fellow

Eliza Lawrence '24
Major: Earth Science & Spacial Data Science
Mentor: Josh Roering
Project: "Mapping Landslides in SE Alaska using Planet Imagery"
2023 Fellow

Emmalyn Leonard '21
Major: Biology
Mentor: Cris Niell
Project: "Determining the role of pulvinar in visual attention control"
2019 Fellow

Michelle Lo '19
Major: Mathematics
Mentor: Jennifer Ruef
Project: "Power dynamics in group settings of mathematics classrooms"
2018 Fellow

Nathan Malamud '22
Major: MACS (Math and Computer Science)
Mentor: Stilianos Louca
Project: "Simulating Dead-End State Distributions for Microbial Metabolism"
2021 Fellow

Chester Mantel '23
Major: Physics
Mentor:  Professor Graham Kribs
Project: "Composite Dark Matter Detection Through Magnetic Dipole Interactions"
2022 Fellow

Audra McNamee '22
Major: MACS (Math and Computer Science)
Mentor: Luca Mazzucato 
Project: "An innovative neuroscience outreach effort using comics"
2021 Fellow

Jackson Mohr '26
Major: Psychology
Mentor: Christina Karns
Project: "Heart-Brain Interactions: Reliability of EEG Oscillations, Heart-Rate Variability, and Pre-Ejection Period"
2024 Fellow

Myles Nelson '21
Major: Human Physiology
Mentor: Mike Hahn
Project: "Reducing Metabolic Cost of Level Ground Walking Using a Semi-Active Variable Stiffness Foot Prosthesis"
2020 Fellow

Miriel Orhai '25
Major: Multidisciplinary Science
Mentor: Ignacio Lopez Bunson
Project: "Ecological Mapping for the Restoration of Amazon Creek in Eugene"
2024 Fellow

Calvin Penkauskas '20
Major: Biology
Mentor: Lauren Hallett
Project: "Resolving conflict between oak conservation and organic hazelnut production"
2019 Fellow

Deanna Plunkett '21
Major: Biological Anthropology
Mentor: Adrianne Huxtable
Project: "Adult inflammation increases microglia after neonatal inflammation in respiratory control regions"
2020 Fellow

Em Ryan '26
Major: Physics
Mentor: Laura Jeanty
Project: "Upgrading Test Stand"
2024 Fellow

Kyla Schmitt '25
Major: Environmental Science
Mentor: Dave Sutherland
Project: "Exploring the impact of estuarine conditions on native eelgrass in the Coos Estuary"
2023 Fellow

Madelyn Scott '19
Major: Chemistry
Mentor: Cathy Wong
Project: "Optimization of deposition techniques for film production and analysis"
2018 Fellow

Amy Shannon '21
Major: Anthropology
Mentor: Madonna Moss
Project: "Alutiiq use of birds at Rice Ridge (49–KOD–363), Kodiak Island"
2019 Fellow

Harman Singh '24
Major: Physics
Mentor: James Brau
Project: "The Importance of Highly Granular Calorimetry in Reconstructing Jets with Electromagnetic Energy at Linear Colliders”
2023 Fellow

Diego Solorio '25
Major: Multidisciplinary Science
Mentor: Alissa Phillips
Project: "Bien Pretty: Explorations in Chicanx Cinema"
2024 Fellow

Alanna Sowles '24
Major: Biology & Neuroscience
Mentor: Chris Doe
Project: "Investigating Novel Psychoplastogenic Mechanisms"
2024 Fellow

Jude Stone '21
Major: Political Science
Mentor: Alison Gash
Project: "Racial Influence on Transgender Hate Crime Verdicts"
2020 Fellow

Lucy Wesson '24
Major: Global Studies
Mentor: Will Johnson
Project: "Weaving Peace: How Women's Fibers-Based Cooperatives Contribute to Empowerment and Development in Post-Genocide Rwanda” 
2023 Fellow

Olivia Wilkinson '23
Major: History & Folklore
Mentor: Steven Beda
Project: "How Drugs Influenced the Musical Landscape of the 1960s"
2022 Fellow

Ashia Wilson '23
Major: Environmental Studies
Mentor: Alaí Reyes-Santos
Project: "Methane Emissions in Hydropower Reservoirs"
2021 Fellow