HUNTINGTON, W.Va. — The Marshall University Research Corporation has announced the winners of its Creative Discovery & Research Awards for undergraduate and graduate students and its John Marshall Scholars Awards.
The undergraduate and graduate award programs are open to qualifying students in the College of Science, the Lewis College of Business, the College of Liberal Arts, the College of Arts and Media, the College of Education and Professional Development, the College of Engineering and Computer Sciences, the College of Health Professions and the Honors College. The graduate award program is part of a new initiative started by the President’s Office supporting graduate student research.
The John Marshall Scholar program has supported the creative discovery and research work of faculty members from the College of Science, the Lewis College of Business, the College of Liberal Arts, the College of Arts and Media, the College of Education and Professional Development, the College of Engineering and Computer Sciences, the College of Health Professions and Marshall Libraries.
Summer 2025 undergraduate awardees, and their projects:
- Addyson Aftanas (College of Arts & Media) – Between Flesh and Bone
- Ellie Andrick (College of Health Professions) – Medial Collateral Ligament Stiffness
- Gavin Easton (College of Science) – Development of Renewable/Regeneratable Multi-Catalytic Continuous Flow System
- Ava Garmestani (College of Science) – The Role of Metabolic Dysfunction in TBI
- Kyleigh Hoey (College of Liberal Arts) – Art and Identity: A Design Analysis of Burial Goods Distributed Across Irish Megalithic Passage Tombs
- Kayley King (College of Science) – Identifying Misleading Labels on Weight Loss Supplements
- Ali Nawaz (College of Engineering and Computer Sciences) – Embedded Systems Security Design
- Jenna Nichols (College of Arts & Media) – Pas De Deux
- Raegan Ockerman (College of Engineering and Computer Sciences) – Electrospraying-Induced Chondrogenesis: Investigating Ion Channel Activation and Intracellular Signaling Pathways
- Ganesh Paudel (College of Engineering and Computer Sciences) – 3D Pose Estimation Using a Single Monocular Image
- Brandon Redden (College of Engineering and Computer Sciences) – Early Detection of Forest Fires Using Machine Learning
- Abigail Roberts (College of Science) – Development of a Generalized Coupling Reaction to Synthesize Oligorylenes
- Abby Thompson (College of Arts and Media) – Divine Threads: An Offering to Greek Goddesses Through Fashion
Fall 2025 undergraduate awardees:
- Levi Blankenship (College of Science) – Synthesis of Aldoximes from Amino Acids and Analysis of Antibiotic Properties
- Matthew Brumfield (College of Arts & Media) – A research study on Heitor Villa-Lobos’ Preludes, Etudes, and Suite populaire bresillenne
- Remi Cook (College of Liberal Arts) – Mounting pressure: Use of an Asch paradigm to observe the impact of autism spectrum disorder on social pressure
- William Drummon (College of Engineering and Computer Sciences) – Using speech and text to recognize swimming distress through gestures
- Eugene Kim (College of Science) – In vitro reconstitution of the Human Circadian Clock
- Dylan Lester (College of Engineering and Computer Sciences) – AI-powered labeling: reinforcement learning for automated and assisted data labeling
- Raghav Puri (College of Engineering and Computer Sciences) – Study to regulate chemokine binding protein to restrain inflammation
- Kayla Roberts (College of Engineering and Computer Sciences) – The efficacy of virtual reality-based cognitive behavior therapy interventions
- Kaden Shaffer (College of Science) – Neuroinflammation and Adipose Dysregulation Under High-Fat Diets and Alcohol Consumption
- Elise Shamblen (College of Science) – Analysis of the Chemical Composition and Ecological Role of Preen Oils in Local Bird Species
- Connor Waller (College of Liberal Arts) – The implications of U.S. foreign aid on political stability in Eastern Europe
Summer 2025 graduate awardees:
- Erica Edinger (College of Science) – Improving forest health through faster detection of bark and wood-boring beetles using environmental DNA
- Sydney Hermann (College of Science) – Effects of In-Stream Large Woody Debris Management on Riparian Salamander Populations
- Jay Rader (College of Education & Professional Development) – Shame and shame resiliency among undergraduate students in an alternative suspension program
- Catherine Schwartzmann (College of Science) – Supplementing functional type utilization rates under targeted grazing across the big sagebrush region with field data
- Yuting Zhou (College of Health Professions) – Racial/ethnic differences in the association between obesity measures and cardiovascular diseases among Asian American adults
Fall 2025 graduate awardees:
- Dylan Andrus (College of Science) – Chasing Reform: Police Reform Policies and Academic Research
- Jennifer Badzek (College of Education and Professional Development) – The changing role of technology in the Catholic classroom: How policy on technology integration and restriction influences teaching practice and student engagement
- Zak Bartholomew (College of Science) – Effects of sea-level rise and storm intensification on salt marsh resilience and migration
- Chloe Hooper (College of Liberal Arts) – The effects of mindfulness on mental health and perfectionism in college students
Spring 2026 John Marshall Scholar awardees:
- Ian Hagarty (School of Art & Design, College of Arts and Media) – Aligning the Edgescape – Painting in the Age of A.I.
- Guo-Zhang Zhu (Department of Biological Sciences, College of Science) – Epigenetic Regulation of Mammalian Spermatogenesis
For more information about the research awards or upcoming proposals, visit www.marshall.edu/murc.