Presenter Awards

2025 CURE Award Winners

Arts and Humanities

• 1st place: No Hat Upon His Head; A Forgotten American Obsession, David Mortenson
  Faculty mentor: Taylor Atkins
• 2nd place: Swift Studies: Taylor Swift, Poetry and Academia, Madison Ruhl
  Faculty mentor: Ryan Hibbett
• 3rd place: 1967 and 2020: Understanding Protesting between the Long, Hot Summer and George Floyd, Jon Dunlap
  Faculty mentor: Taylor Atkins

Biological and Chemical Sciences

• 1st place: Flying Safe: Reducing Bird Strikes at Northern Illinois University, Stacey Marcinkowski
  Faculty mentor: Jennifer Koop
• 1st place: Flotillin 1 is Required for the Polarized Deposition of Basement Membrane Proteins in Epithelial Cells, Vana Dakarian
  Faculty mentor: Olivier Devergne
• 1st place: Double Crossed by Parasite, Katelin Wolken-Wright
  Faculty mentor: Jennifer Koop
• 1st place: The Mississippi River Microbiome: Balancing Structural Stability and Nutrient-Driven Variability in Microbial Community Assembly, Shelby Huffington
  Faculty mentor: Michael Henson

Education

• 1st place: Conceptual Frameworks in Art Education, Melissa Jasso
  Faculty mentor: Kathryn Sowinksi
• 2nd place: A Pathway to Committment: Exploring the Steps and Stages Proceeding Commitment and Marriage, KaLilah Chears
  Faculty mentor: Scott Sibley
• 3rd place: The Effects of Multiplanar High Intensity Resistance Training on Increasing Bone Mineral Density on Middle Aged Females. The Stop Protocol, Ava Krall
  Faculty mentor: Rachel Kowal

Engineering

• 1st place: Estimating Pedestrian Crossing Times at Scramble Crossings via Machine Learning and Agent-Based Modeling, Sho Takami
  Faculty mentor: Kyu Cho
• 1st place: Analysis of Brain Signals Using Machine Learning Algorithms, Maria Corzo Roberti
  Faculty mentor: Kyu Cho
• 2nd place: Electron Beam Irradiation for Water Treatment of Per- and Poly-fluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS), Scott Mueller, Caleb Maue and Coltin Prentice
  Faculty mentor: Eric Lee

Health and Human Sciences

• 1st place: The Effectiveness of Kinesio taping for Pain Perception in Patients with Knee Osteoarthritis: A Topical Literature Review of Recent Randomized Control Trials, Jayla Scott
  Faculty mentor: Ting Xia
• 1st place: Brain Activation in Balanced vs. Unbalanced Bilingual Spanish-English Speakers: A functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIR) study, Gia Gurgone
  Faculty mentor: In-Sop Kim
• 2nd place: Expanding Brain Games: What Have We Learned from a Program Designed to Support Healthy Brain Aging for Older Adults?, Ella McKinney
  Faculty mentor: Jamie Mayer

Interdisciplinary Studies

• 1st place: The Study of Black Hair: Oppression in the Mainstream Media, Kia Clair
  Faculty mentor: T. Ajewole Duckett
• 1st place: Navigating Politics and Public Health: Analyzing Health Perspectives, Political Identity and Vaccine Views Among College Students, Molly Schmidt
  Faculty mentor: Tomoyuki Shibata
• 3rd place: Strategic Sustainability Communication: How Local Governments Can Use Social Media to Inspire Action, Hallela Wagner
  Faculty mentor: Colin Kuehl

Physical Sciences, Math and Computational Sciences

• 1st place: Detecting Storm Mode with Machine Learning, Sean Phipps
  Faculty mentor: Alex Haberlie
• 2nd place: Scientific Machine Learning for Estimation of Material Thermal Diffusivity, Hannah Havel
  Mentor: Alexander Heifetz
• 3rd place: Deep Learning Based Gait Video Data Validation, Michael Sensenbrenner
  Faculty mentor: Ziteng Wang

Social and Behavioral Sciences

• 1st place: Financial-Aid Challenges for Undocumented Students: Psychological Impacts and Potential Solutions, Marco Sotelo Avila and Jayce Stone
  Faculty mentor: Ibette Valle
• 1st place: Evaluating the Extent and Consequences of Polarization in the Supreme Court, Brianna Pechman
  Faculty mentor: April Clark
• 1st place: Perception of Criminal Cases: The Role of Race and Afrocentricity, Nya Thomas
  Faculty mentor: Katja Wiemer

Civic Engagement

Congressional Leaders: How old is too old?, Eli Freet
Faculty mentor: Scot Schraufnagel

Community Engaged Research

Downers Grove Environmental Sustainability Plan Implementation: Benchmark Analysis and Performance Management Plan, Allison Gazda and Jude St. Clair
Faculty mentor: Melissa Burlingame

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

Do Educators Recognize Student Struggles? A Look into Mental Health Perceptions and Knowledge in Biology, Stephanie Drendel and Kanza Arshad
Faculty mentor: Heather Bergan-Roller

Honors Capstone

Evolution of House Fly Behavioral Resistance to a Bittering Agent Used in Toxic House Fly Baits, Lillian Garncarz
Faculty mentor: Bethia King

Faculty Mentor of the Year

CURE participants have an opportunity to nominate their mentor for the Faculty Mentor of the Year award. Nominees are evaluated on their ability to foster student participation in research and artistry activities, the balance between advisee and nurturing critical thinking and the ability to develop a mentoring relationship that exudes genuine care in the student and their learning. Nominate your faculty mentor.

Congratulations to the 2025 recipient, William (Bill) Martin, assistant professor, Biological Sciences.