A number of College of Arts and Sciences undergraduate researchers received awards at the 2025 Richard J. and Martha D. Denman Undergraduate Research Forum. 25 students from 12 majors placed in their respective categories, with all sections including Arts and Sciences representation.

The Denman Undergraduate Research Forum provides an opportunity for graduating student researchers to share their research endeavors with the university community.  The Denman Forum is Undergraduate Research & Creative Inquiry's only competitive poster forum in which winners are recognized in each category as determined by faculty, staff, and Denman alumni reviewers. Students are reviewed on their ability to communicate their research process and results effectively through written poster content and accompanying oral presentations.

Arts and Sciences Winners

Business, Society, and International Relations

• First Place: Peter Maczuzak, Design - "Banking on Subscriptions? Think Again With Me"
• Second Place: Alexandria Woodard, Psychology - "Pronoun Peril: Evaluations of Nonbinary Instructors"
• Third Place: Elan Kyser and Haikal Bin Rozaidi, Political Science - "The Development of Global Governance from the Catholic Church to the United Nations: The Pazzi Conspiracy and the Sanctioning of Iraq"

Earth and Beyond

• First Place: Erin Shaw, Design - "Rock House Nature Center"
• Second Place: Abby Smith, Earth Sciences - "Examining the Impact of UZELA Technology on the Health of Nursery Corals"
• Third Place: Emily Macbeth, Astronomy - "Determination of Charge Diffusion in Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope Detectors"
• Honorable Mention: Gregory Costa Cuatle, Astronomy - "Infrared Spectral Analysis: Estimating CO2 Concentrations in Earth's Atmosphere Using Astronomical Data"

Engineering and Technology

• Second Place: Joshua Jeyandran, Anthropology - "Assessing the Validity and Repeatability of a Portable A-Scan Ultrasound Device While Sitting and Supine"
• Honorable Mention: Christine Massa, Psychology - "The Impact of Different Auditory Distractions on Situational Awareness While Driving"

Health Under the Microscope

• First Place: Leah LaVerde, Neuroscience - "Craniofacial Aging in HET3 Mice with 17-alpha Estradiol Treatment"
• Third Place: Amy Dokiburra, Neuroscience - "Senolytic therapy modulates microglial phenotype and clinical disease severity in an age-dependent model of progressive MS"
• Honorable Mention: Olivia Wiley, Neuroscience - "Persistent NK Cell Dysregulation and Microbial Translocation in People Living with HIV"

Human Experience

• First Place: Arvind Nair, Anthropology - "A Serpent Runs Through It: Towards an interpretation of the Curvilinear Guilloche Design of the Anderson Focus of the Fort Ancient Culture in Southwest Ohio"
• Second Place: Min Feldman, Psychology - "Do children use action frequency to infer social closeness?: A study in social cognitive development"
• Honorable Mention: Josephine Luck, Psychology - "Altered Temporal Orientation Associated with Cognition and Functioning in Schizophrenia: A Computational Linguistics Study"

Innovations in Medicine

• First Place: Charlie Jacobson, Chemistry and Biochemistry - "The Sweet Taste Receptor TAS1R2 regulates myocyte differentiation in C2C12 muscle cells"

Insects and Other Animal Sciences

• Jordan Lehman, Microbiology - "Predicting How Climate Change Will Impact Parasitoid Preference and Performance"

Pediatrics and Family Health

• Second Place: Madison Fankhauser, Neuroscience - "Peripartum opioid exposure impaired maternal behavior, increased inflammatory gene expression, and reduced perineuronal nets in the maternal brain network"

Public Health

• Third Place: Code Beschler, Anthropology - "Creating Access: Promoting Pragmatic Solidarity in HIV Research, Prevention, and Care for Disabled Populations"
• Honorable Mention: Serena Mehta, Neuroscience - "How Does Pre-K–G5 Teachers’ Use of Technology Correlate with Self-Efficacy and Teacher Characteristics?"

Understanding Cancer

• First Place: Elsa Wani, Neuroscience - "Defining the role of NDRG1 in modulating cisplatin sensitivity within ovarian cancer stem cells"
• Honorable Mention: Khushi Gupta, Chemistry and Biochemistry - "Unlocking the potential of nutrient-dependent regulation of Wnt signaling pathway and lipid metabolism in intestinal cells in health and disease"

Partner Awards

• Center for Ethics and Human Values Award: Elyse Reed, English - "Hygiene as Eugenics: Tracing the Impact of Hygiene Rhetoric in Law and Culture from the Immigration Act of 1924 to Present Day"
• Center for Ethics and Human Values Award: Lincoln Lundgren, Philosophy - "Is Use of Unproblematic Epistemic Resources to Achieve Permissible Ends Always Permissible?"
• Sustainability Institute Award: Emma Maher, Geography - "Extreme heat, urban experimentation, and visions of past futures in Seville, Spain"