Summer 2026

In May of 2026 the Office of Undergraduate Research Awarded 180 SURF Awards. Congratulations to all who were awarded!

Architecture & Urban Planning (School of)

• Sophie West, Jade Concannon, and Erik Selfollari working with Aaron Tobey, “ANY Book/Exhibition” 
• Erik Grey and Erik Selfollari working with Alexander Timmer, “Performance and Durability of PLA Building Enclosure Components” 
• Courtney Morrison working with Gabriela Bustos Lopez, “Virtual Milwaukee Art Museum: Strategies for Digitalizing and Systematizing the Archive” 
• Emma Gosse and Kaitlyn Anderson working with Lindsey Krug, “Supreme Privacy, No. 30: An Investigation into the Spatial and Architectural Legacies of a Constitutional Right to Privacy as Outlined in the State Constitution of Wisconsin”  
• Aaron Evraets, Bryce Brzycki, Ariel Mora Barrios, and Jevan Ramirez Santos working with Malcolm Rio, “The Technotonics Index: Sonic Communities, Spatial Riot, and the Right to Noise”  
• Quinn Fister working with Whitney Moon, “Leenhouts Archive: Organizing, Cataloging, & Digitizing Photos/Slides/Drawings/Ephemera” 
• Brooklyn Rau working with Whitney Moon, “Leenhouts Book: From Proposal to Manuscript” 

Arts (Peck School of the)

• Nora Imhoff working with Adam Hawk, “Digital Technologies in Traditional Craft: Blacksmithing & Modular Design” 
• Spirit Hess and Alex Jackowski working with Joseph Mougel, “Remediative Cyanotype: Chemical Shifts in Photographic Practice” 
• Len Kloss working with Matthew Vivirito, “Advanced Digital Fabrication & Craft – Ceramics” 
• Len Kloss working with Michael Ware, “3D Printing in Colored Porcelain” 
• Rosalee Hornung working with Nathaniel Stern, “Figure and Ground: Painting on Discarded Electronics” 
• Alexis Wiggins working with Nathaniel Stern, “Still Processing: A Living Model” 
• McKenna Fox working with Nathaniel Stern, “Still Processing: Visual Systems and Design for AI-Driven Art” 
• Kristin Klapperich working with Nathaniel Stern, “Still Processing and Figure and Ground: Fabrication and Material Studies” 
• Cody Witt working with Nathaniel Stern, “Generation to Generation: Expansion for the Museum of Art and Light” 
• Darien Carbine, Dakota Galkowski, Brandon Hanser, and Lyn Rode working with Oksana Kryzhanivska, “Unveiling Posthuman Presence: Investigating Identity Shifts in XR Realm”  
• Sam Reimer and Sophie Rickert working with Yevgeniya Kaganovich, “Slow Growing in the Time of Trees”  
• Victoria Franz and Paloma Kong-Ndoumbe working with Daniel Burkholder, “The Science of Ballet: An Anatomically Informed Database for Evidence-Based Technique” 
• Kristopher Langrehr and Calvin Strasser working with Sean Kafer, “Sturgeon Stories” 

Biomedical Sciences & Health Care Administration (School of)

• Merissa Tosello working with Elizabeth Liedhegner, “Photobiomodulation and Diabetic Retinopathy: Impact on Endothelial Cell Proliferation” 
• Erica Warner working with Elizabeth Liedhegner, “Effect of 670nM Photobiomodulation on Retinal Function and Energy Metabolism in Aging Mice” 
• Marc Sierra working with Jen Doll, “Identifying Signaling Mediators of High-Glucose Induced Changes in Zinc Efflux Transporter (ZnT) Localization and Expression Levels in Prostate Cancer” 
• Bilal Khan working with Troy Skwor, “Assessing the Use of Nalidixic Acid as a Microbial Source Tracker” 
• Alexandria Macdonald working with Troy Skwor, “Characterizing virulence and antimicrobial gene profiles of Enterococcus from wastewater and the clinic” 

Business (Sheldon B. Lubar School of)

• Dylan Raikes working with Laura Swenson, “Evaluating the Influence of Incentive Structures in Master Limited Partnerships on Non-GAAP Reporting and Instances of Adverse Outcomes: The Relationship Between Distributable Cash Flow and Maintenance Capital Reserves” 
• Katherine Olson working with Steven Michael, “Rock and Roll Entrepreneurship”

Engineering & Applied Science (College of)

• David Knights-Owczarski working with Brooke Slavens, “Markerless Motion Capture for Risk Assessment of Carpal Tunnel Syndrome” 
• Samantha Kono working with Brooke Slavens, “Quantification of upper limb motion and strength in children with hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome” 
• Anna Xiong working with Mahsa Dabagh, “Segmentation of Patient-Specific Images of Breast Cancer Patients for Metastasis Prediction” 
• Hannah Vincent working with Mahsa Dabagh, “Differentiating Metastatic Breast Tumors” 
• Cody Bernitt working with Priyatha Premnath, “Contouring, Segmentation and Finite Element Modelling of Murine Bones” 
• David Lubin working with Daniel Schlitz, “Energy Harvesting Clothing” 
• Owen Schneider working with Daniel Schlitz, “Vibration Healing” 
• Supreme Gayfield working with Habib Tabatabai, “Survival Analysis Techniques to Engineering Fatigue” 
• Lilliana Cole working with Yin Wang, “Advanced Materials for the Adsorption of Per- And Polyfluoroalkyl Substances” 
• Jivan Singh and Noah Weishan working with Jerald Thomas, “VR Playground: Interaction and Locomotion Technique Development and Demonstration” 
• Emryn Dunker working with Chiu Law, “Laser Speckle-Based Techniques for Displacement Measurements” 
• Alena Hix working with Robert Cuzner, “Use of Block-Chain to Enable Secure Energy Trading between Nanogrids and within Clustered Microgrids.” 
• Sameer Mahal working with Shuaiqi Shen, “Development of an Embedded Energy Profiling Instrument for Real-Time Power Characterization of Edge Computing Devices” 
• Kui An Chen working with Shuaiqi Shen, “Design and Implementation of a Low-Cost Electronic Measurement System for Energy Profiling of Embedded Development Boards” 
• Jacob Barndt working with Benjamin Church, “Oxidation of Advanced Ni-Co-Cr alloys” 
• Brett Leino working with Pradeep Rohatgi, “Engineering Novel Electrode Materials for High Energy-Density Lithium Ion Batteries” 
• Christian Umuhoza Muneza working with Pradeep Rohatgi, “Predictive Analysis Using Machine Learning for Aluminum Alloys” 
• Samantha Aristizabal Betancur working with Pradeep Rohatgi, “Manufacturing of High-Performance Al-Ce Alloys Using Continuous Annealing Rolling Process” 
• Deven Cesarz working with Pradeep Rohatgi, “Development of Al-Ce Alloys and Composites for High Temperature Applications” 
• Frank Chianello working with Pradeep Rohatgi, “Development of Al-Ce Composites Through Surface Modifications and Pressure Infiltration” 
• Mohith Kumar Sathish Kumar working with Pradeep Rohatgi, “Pressure-Infiltrated AZ91E Gyroid Magnesium Scaffolds with Surface Coatings for Enhanced Bone Regeneration” 
• Alexey Kravtsov working with Alyssa Schnorenberg, “Biomechanics and Wrist Health Assessment of Adult Manual Wheelchair Users with SCI” 
• Noah Laporte working with Alyssa Schnorenberg, “Comparing Suspension and Non-Suspension Power Assist Technologies for Reducing Vibration and Impact Exposure in Wheelchair Mobility” 
• Clay Utt working with Brian Armstrong, “Practical Detection of Over-Heated Lithium-Ion Cells” 
• Abdullah Farooq working with William Musinski, “Multimodal Characterization of the Mechanical Behavior of Bone” 
• Edward Nesheiwat working with William Musinski, “Characterization of Grain Level Strain Using High Energy X-ray Diffraction” 
• Alvin Lowe Valkki working with William Musinski, “Characterization of Solidification Microstructures in Additively Manufactured Nickel Superalloys” 
• Shivam Patel working with William Musinski, “Characterization of Corrosion Degradation in Brass Alloys” 
• Eunseok Kong working with Woo Jin Chang, “Calibration and Compensation of PH and Temperature Effects in Electrochemical Phosphorus Detection” 

Freshwater Sciences (School of)

• Kade Barkas working with George Duffy, “Toward Quantifying the Overlap Between Severe Weather & Heatwaves in the Central United States” 
• Brandon Cheeseman working with George Duffy, “Effects of the Kettle Moraine System on Precipitation in Southeastern Wisconsin” 
• Sarkis Buchaklian working with Benjamin Peterson, “Understanding the Ecological Role of Mercury Methylation in Bacteria” 
• Elyse Olysav working with Dong Fang Deng, “Targeted Feed Development for Early Life Stages of Lake Sturgeon, Walleye, and Yellow Perch” 
• Alexander French working with Harvey Bootsma, “Assessing Methods for Removal of Invasive Quagga Mussels” 
• Carly Halase working with Ryan Newton, “Profiling Wastewater Flavobacteria Metabolic Activity and Antibiotic Resistance” 
• Unna Boldt working with Ryan Newton, “Quantifying the Impact of Wastewater Effluent on Antimicrobial Resistance in a Stream” 
• Isaiah Chang working with Ryan Newton, “The Influence of Land-Use and Residence Time on Microbial Concentrations in Riverine Systems” 
• Benjamin Gallion working with Sandra Mclellan, “Examining Microbial Behavior of Arcobacter species in Aquatic Ecosystems using Chemotaxis” 
• Ella Klackner working with Sandra Mclellan, “Maximizing Nucleic Acid Yield from Water and Sand Samples to Improve Beach Testing” 
• Alejandro Acosta Mendez working with Thomas Hansen, “Prototyping Underwater Robotic Ai-Driven Low-Cost Edge Iot 3D Underwater Holographic Imaging Systems”

Information Studies (School of)

• Deyuan (Henderson) Chou working with Maria Haigh, “The Morphology of Manipulation: Mapping the Narrative Archetypes of Modern Disinformation” 
• Sharmin Islam working with Maria Haigh, “Building a Taxonomy of Disinfolklore Using Propp’s Narrative Functions” 

Letters & Science (College of)

• Lillian Vallier working with Ermitte Saint Jacques, “Living for the City: The Black Middle Class in Milwaukee” 
• Seidl Herbes working with Jean Hudson, “Curating Faunal Osteological Collections for Research, Teaching, and Outreach” 
• Jimena Jones working with Alita Burmeister, “Phage Resistance and Antibiotic Resistance in Escherichia coli” 
• May Miller working with Alita Burmeister, “Evolutionary Potential in Newly-Isolated Environmental Phages” 
• Sri Kavya Durga Devineni working with An-Phu Tran, “The Role of ppm1h in Mitochondrial Function in Dopaminergic Cells” 
• Luke Leibham working with Claire De La Cova, “Investigation of Muscle Function in a C. elegans Modelof RASopathies” 
• Benjamin Carlson working with Erica Young, “Biogeochemical Nutrient Cycling in Pitcher Plant Microecosystems: Successional Changes and Impacts of Mosquito Larvae” 
• Jackson Powell working with Filipe Alberto, “Kelp Farm Effective Population Size Genetic Monitoring” 
• Eduardo Ortiz-Lopez working with Gerlinde Hoebel, “Are Early Frogs Different? Survey of Gray Treefrog Call Variation Across the Breeding Season” 
• Violet Diderrich working with Gerlinde Hoebel, “Does Choosiness for Longer Calls in Gray Treefrogs Vary Across the Breeding Season?” 
• Susana Mota Kayle working with Jennifer Gutzman, “Using Zebrafish as a Model to Understand Developmental Disease” 
• Hamdan Rizvi working with Jennifer Gutzman, “Introduction to Zebrafish Care and Husbandry” 
• Andrea Della Penna working with Jennifer Gutzman, “Using Zebrafish to Understand the Biomechanics of Brain Development” 
• Aroun Khanthichit working with Madhusudan Dey, “Understanding the Activation Mechanism of the Protein Kinase PDK1” 
• Noelle Bryan working with Madhusudan Dey, “Understanding the Role of GTPases Rho2 in yeast and its human ortholog RHOA in Protein Homeostasis” 
• Aiden Ho working with Madhusudan Dey, “Understanding the Structure-Function Relationship of Human PDPK1” 
• Isabella Velasquez Cassella working with Rafael Rodriguez Sevilla, “Experimental Modification of Female Perception of Male Copulatory Courtship in Scatophaga stercoraria Yellow Dung Flies (Diptera: Scatophagidae)” 
• Bridget Attalla working with Rafael Rodriguez Sevilla, “On the Function of Copulatory Courtship in Scatophaga Stercoraria Yellow Dung Flies (Diptera: Scatophagidae)” 
• Leila Goodrum working with Rafael Rodriguez Sevilla, “Female Mate Choice for Male Courteousness in Enchenopa Treehoppers (Hemiptera: Membracidae)” 
• Asymina Zwart working with Sonia Bardy, “Characterizing the Roles of Pseudomonas Aeruginosa’s Partitioning Proteins in The Localization and Array Formation of Chemotactic Components” 
• Austin Barrows working with Alexander Arnold, “Evaluation of New Serotonin Receptor Antagonists Using Pre-Clinical in Vivo Studies” 
• Ryan Burmesch working with Alexander Arnold, “Synthesis of Metabolically Stable Mandipropamid Analogs for Bidirectionally Controlled Therapeutic Gene Expression” 
• Devin Sage and Pachia Yang working with Arsenio Andrew Pacheco, “Purification and Characterization of Mycobacterium Tuberculosis Truncated Hemoglobin N and Its Variants”  
• Elena Zippel working with Avik Roy, “SIMMPYRA: A Small Molecule Inhibitor of STAT3 in Ovarian Cancer” 
• Sarkis Buchaklian working with Shama Mirza, “Glioblastoma Proteomics and Drug Development for Efficient Therapy” 
• James Coles working with Xiaohua Peng, “Synthesis, DNA Cross-Linking Evaluation, and Mechanistic Study of Novel Photo-Induced DNA Cross-Linking Agents” 
• Amirabbas Jafari working with Xiaohua Peng, “Synthesis and Evaluation of H₂O₂-Activated DNA-Damaging Prodrugs for Targeted Cancer Therapy” 
• Michael Simmons working with Sarah Riforgiate, “Understanding Student Experiences of Inclusion in the College Classroom” 
• Jack Denamur working with Neal O’reilly, “Evaluation of Driveway Strip Drains as a Tool to Reduce Stormwater Runoff Volumes and Pollutant Export from Single-Family Urban Developments” 
• Constance Clark-Bailey and Ava Danzer working with Joseph Walzer, “Whose Land? Settlement, Dispossession and Race in Urban and Rural Wisconsin and New York” 
• Skye Williams working with Joseph Walzer, “Wisconsin Community Activism Now! Archive Project”  
• Gaurav Sachdeva working with Avik Chakrabarti, “Integrating AI and Outsourcing: Evidence from Companies in and around Milwaukee” 
• Amelia Hovorka working with Kundan Kishor, “Money Growth and its Relationship with Different Components of Inflation” 
• Elizabeth Fatica working with Elana Levine, “From Socialism to Soap Opera: The Life of GENERAL HOSPITAL Creator Doris Berger Hursley” 
• Laila Ali working with Maria Novotny, “Building an Infertility Advocacy Coalition through Legislative & Resource Mapping” 
• Espen Hammes working with Michael Newman, “Jim Henson’s Early Work” 
• Nathaniel Hounsell working with Anne Bonds, “Mapping Racism and Resistance: Mapping Milwaukee’s Bronzeville” 
• Jayden Nau working with Barry Cameron, “Mineral and Glass Chemistry of Pillows and Hyaloclastites from Four Tuyas in the Northern Volcanic Zone of Iceland” 
• Camille King working with Dyanna Czeck, “Anisotropy of Magnetic Susceptibility across the Southern Iberian Shear Zone” 
• Noah Melcer working with Julie Bowles, “Constraining Magnetic Mineralogy in the San Rafael Volcanic Field, Utah” 
• Devin Annis working with Lindsay Mchenry, “OGCP Core 4A: A Climate Record for Pleistocene Paleolake Olduvai, Tanzania” 
• Madysin Campbell working with Lindsay Mchenry, “Modern Lake Eyasi Salt Flats as a Mars Analog” 
• Elsie Dickover working with Lindsay Mchenry, “The Mineralogy of Paleolake Olduvai” 
• Jon Dilley working with Victoria Mccoy, “Unraveling the Mystery of the Enigmatic Y-Animal from the Mazon Creek Fossil Site” 
• Caleb Whelan working with Amanda Seligman, “The History of the Town of Milwaukee” 
• Jacob Chase working with Amanda Seligman, “Bibliography of Metropolitan Milwaukee Digital Update” 
• Lillian Schoen working with Arijit Sen, “Buildings-Landscapes-Cultures Field School: Midtown Lynden Hill Project” 
• Mackenzie Hansen working with Gregory Carter, “Me and My Black Family: Photography, Memory, and Belonging” 
• Sam Knight Morgan and Brandon Chapman working with Rachel Buff, “Prophetstown State Park: Visions of Indigenous Presence and Absence” 
• Ray West working with Xin Yu, “Digital Deep Reading of Chinese Genealogies” 
• Meadow Conner and Lisa Quintero working with Fred Eckman, “The Poverty of the Stimulus: The Case of Word-Final Devoicing in Second Language Acquisition”  
• Zion Kurtz working with Jeb Willenbring, “Symmetric Matrices from Symmetric Groups, and Spectra” 
• Claire Carriere working with Jeb Willenbring, “Establishing Upper Bounds on the Domination Number for the Earth Mover’s Graph” 
• Travis Groat working with Pamela Harris, “Enumerations of Pinnacle Sets for Finite Simple Graphs” 
• Kayla Picasso working with Pamela Harris, “Defective Fubini Rankings” 
• Nathan Theis working with David Kaplan, “Searching the Local Universe for Persistent Radio Sources” 
• Parker Decremer working with Ionel Popa, “Development of Fluorescence Standards for Oligomerization” 
• Isen Ries working with Lia Medeiros, “Visualizing Accreting Supermassive Black Holes” 
• Christian Demarest working with Philip Chang, “Quantifying the Signature of Dark Matter Subhalos on the Velocity of Star in the Galaxy” 
• Andrew Schneider working with Erin Kaheny, “Bridging the Conversational Divide: Political Science and the Legal Academy” 
• Mohammed Herzallah working with Adam Greenberg, “Improving Clinical Measurement of Visual Acuity” 
• Willow Sours working with Bonita Klein-Tasman, “Advancing Fear Treatment for Young Children with Williams Syndrome: Next Steps in Dissemination and Implementation” 
• Andrea Della Penna and MJ Flores working with Caitlin Bowman, “Human Neuroscience of Healthy Cognitive Aging”  
• Boston Peters working with Gabriela Nagy, “A Mixed-Methods Analysis of Community Health Worker Feedback on the Cultivating Resilience Intervention” 
• Madeline Jereb working with Jeffrey Lopez Rojas, “Social Memory Processing in a Mouse Model of Schizophrenia” 
• Michael Mendez working with Jeffrey Lopez Rojas, “Tagging Engram Neurons in Social Recognition Memory” 
• Isabella Souvannarath working with Jeffrey Lopez Rojas, “Distinct Contributions of Medial and Lateral Entorhinal Cortices in Social Information Processing” 
• Ashton Hoodjer working with Neal Morton, “Learning and Generalization of Structured Knowledge” 
• Gracie Wild working with Neal Morton, “Qualitative and Quantitative Characteristics of Learning Structured Knowledge” 
• Farzana Hekmat working with Srishti Sardana, “Mental Health Challenges and Structural Determinants Among Afghan Women: A Systematic Review” 
• Rafia Mahboob working with Srishti Sardana, “A Narrative Review: Mental Health Needs of Forcibly Displaced Women and Girls Living in the U.S.” 
• Nathan Thao working with Srishti Sardana, “Idioms of Distress Through a Transcultural Lens: A Scoping Review Protocol” 
• Libby Weisbrod working with Srishti Sardana, “Strengthening Family Resilience in the Context of Immigration Enforcement: A Literature Review of Family-Centered Interventions for Latinx Families” 
• Lina Hollis working with Esther Chan, “Asian American Racial & Cultural Identities” 
• Phelan Rosin working with Gordon Gauchat, “Science, AI, and Institutional Trust: Ethics and Public Understanding in Contemporary Research”

Nursing (School of)

• Nicholas Yang working with Alexa Anderson, “Examining Rural Perinatal Outcomes Using a Systematic Literature Review and Secondary Data Analysis” 
• Dalia Jaber and Naomi Omoruyi working with Jennifer Kibicho, “R21 Policy Influences on Art Adherence Promotion in Community & Mail-Order Pharmacies”  
• Ryan Babich working with Lynne Woehrle, “Research in Health Equity: How We Welcome, How We Practice and Why it Matters”

Public Health (Joseph J. Zilber School of)

• Sarah Hulett working with Chibuzor Abasilim, “Occupational Exposures and Chronic Kidney Disease in West Africans” 
• Avery Peters working with Kurt Svoboda, “Pouch-Derived Nicotine and Its Impact on Neural Crest Cell Biology in Developing Zebrafish” 
• Bethany Garcia-Cortez working with Michael Laiosa, “Algal Toxins and Immune System Hyperactivity” 
• Jordan Koeller and Rafia Mahboob working with Todd Miller, “Analysis of Algal Toxins in Fish from Lake Victoria Kenya Using Enzyme Linked Immunosorbent Assay” 

Rehabilitation Sciences & Technology (School of)

• Spencer Frey and Makayla Lawrence working with Jennifer Earl Boehm, “Validation of Running Sensors across Environment, Task, and Age Groups”  
• Ashley Hall working with Bhagwant Sindhu, “Developing a Resilience Skills Program for Student Veterans with Disabilities: A Needs Assessment” 
• Nora Fitak, Griffin McGarry, and Coy Strehlow working with Lauren Sara, “The Role of Foot Strike Pattern and Sensor Location on Measured Accelerations During Running” 
• Hannah Somers working with Wendy Huddleston, “Role of Cognitive Capacity in Lower Extremity Injury Risk”