November 26, 2019

Honors students receive Fall 2019 URCA awards

Jennifer McMains and her mentor Johanna Hannan review data in Hannan's lab.

Undergraduate researcher and ECU Honors student Jennifer McMains, center, and mentor Johanna Hannan review data in Hannan’s lab. (Photo by Cliff Hollis)

Sixteen Honors College students received fall 2019 Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity (URCA) Awards from East Carolina University’s Office of Undergraduate Research.

Below are the fall URCA recipients from the Honors College:

  • Rachel Cobb, elementary education, “Representation and construction of disabilities in children’s and young adult literature”
  • Parth Dave, biology and molecular biology, “Investigation of conserved cysteines on fatty acid desaturase function”
  • Samantha Foster, public health, “Identifying context of high-risk opioid use through emergency room data”
  • Sarah Kautz, public health, “LAST: Leisure activity step tracking study”
  • Ananya Koripella, public health and Hispanic studies, “Elucidating the role of BRCA1 in muscle satellite cells”
  • Caleb Lockamy, engineering, “Solar and blue energy harvesting for desalination”
  • Taylor Malachowski, biology and chemistry, “Does male germ cell development require RA?”
  • Jennifer McMains, public health, “Neuritogenesis following radiation and castration”
  • Brooke Palmer, theatre arts, “Performing in American Sign Language – ‘The Magic of Winter from Around the World’”
  • Naimi Pothiwala, public health, “Mitochondrial phenotyping of leukemia”
  • Arvind Rajan, biochemistry and chemistry, “Determining the ketogenic diet-driven gene transcription in the normal and hypertrophic heart”
  • Nikita Revankar, public health, “Building a technology based steam learning community”
  • Dylan Sampson, exercise physiology, “Effects of distracted jump training on mechanical differences in a jump-landing task”
  • Anuj Sanghvi, engineering, “Patient-specific models for perioperative planning”
  • Kendall Schunk, nursing, “Cardiovascular disease and diabetes in lung cancer”
  • Elizabeth Viverette, physics, “Cryo-electron microscopy and fibrinogen structure”

For more information on this year’s recipients, see ECU’s coverage of the Fall 2019 URCA awards.