News and Events

This year’s Richter Program includes 32 rising sophomores and 13 rising juniors who deferred their research from 2020 due to the COVID pandemic. In all, the student-researchers will work with 22 faculty members on 25 projects in either a four-week or an eight-week session. The program begins May 24.

Biology:

• “Discovering molecules and mechanisms to combat Parkinson’s Disease” – Amanda Grassel ’23 with Professor of Biological Sciences Shubhik DebBurman **
• “Evolutionary trade-offs between flight and sexually-selected traits in beetles” – Beth Defoe ’23 and Iman Shepard ’23 with Assistant Professor of Biology Flavia Barbosa **
• “Fish biomechanics and sensory systems” – Violet Anderson ’23 and Djurdjina Jovanovic ’23 with Assistant Professor of Biology Margot Schwalbe **
• “Molecular mechanisms of injury-induced neurodegeneration” – Majo Orozco Fuentes ’24 and Otoha Tatami ’24 with Assistant Professor of Biology Rebecca Delventhal **
• “Patterns in salt limitation of ant communities” – Marina Strong ’23 and Candi Albarran ’24 with Associate Professor of Biology Sean Menke **
• “Telomere genetics” – Meklit Yimenu ’23 and Natalie Kamau ’24 with Professor of Biology Karen Kirk **

Business:

• “Do words matter? The impact of gendered language in STEM job postings on women’s applications” – Farhan Ahmed ’24 and Megan Yim ’24 with Assistant Professor of Business Cassondra Batz-Barbarich **

Chemistry:

• “Cure tuberculosis with molecular biology” – Laurel Robbins ’23, Gabrielle Vineyard ’23, Beau Grimes ’24 and Ceylin Sahin ’24 with Assistant Professor of Chemistry William Conrad **
• “Removing environmentally persistent pharmaceuticals from wastewater” – Emma Clay-Barbour ’23 and Giselle Schiet ’23 with Assistant Professor of Chemistry Erica Schultz **
• “Upgrading chemistry laboratory experiments” ¬– Ayesha Fatima ’24, Ashley Ocampo ’24, and Alexis Rosenfeld ’24 with Professor of Chemistry Jason Cody *

Education:

• “Linguistic practices, education, and development in multilingual Africa” – Minori Aoki ’24, Ian Cox ’24, and Adam White ’24 with Associate Professor of Education Desmond Odugu *
• “Restricted Chicago: Housing discrimination and educational disparities in Chicagoland area” – Hayley Headley ’24 and Aarti Singh ’24 with Associate Professor of Education Desmond Odugu **
• “Using video technology to explore math teacher inquiries of their own classrooms” – A.C. Macartney ’24 with Assistant Professor of Education Patricia Buenrostro *

English:

• “From Arthurian romance to mystical theology: Decoding Charles Williams’ literature” – Jack Farrell ’24 with Professor of English Carla Arnell **
• “Researching young adult fiction for teaching” – Demetra Tsakos ’24 with Professor of English Carla Arnell **

Entrepreneurship and Innovation:

• “Latina entrepreneurship study: Identifying local Latina entrepreneurs and uncovering pain points” – Nikki Garcia ’24 with Interim Director of the Entrepreneurship and Innovation Program Kate Jackson **

Finance:

• “Investigating borrowing behavior in online peer-to-peer lending” – Morgan Blank ’24 and Vraj Patel ’24 with Visiting Assistant Professor of Finance Nancy Tao *

Mathematics:

• “Exploring the broader impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic” Veronika Chernik ’24 with Assistant Professor of Mathematics Andrew Gard *
• “Le data” – Malek Elaghel ’24 with Assistant Professor of Mathematics Arthur Bousquet **

Philosophy:

• “The effects of abstractness and concreteness on causal judgments” – Wiktoria Pedryc ’24 with Assistant Professor of Philosophy Paul Henne *

Physics:

• “A computational study of O on Rh” – Ryan Kropp ’23 with Visiting Assistant Professor of Physics Veronica Walkosz *

Politics:

• “The international politics of the global environment and global health” – Mauricio Calderon ’24 and Noella Ufitinema ’24: with Associate Professor of Politics James Marquardt *

Psychology:

• “Cholinergic mechanisms of Pavlovian conditioned approach behavior in rats” – Kotryna Andriuskeviciute ’24 and Wambui Kahende ’24 with Assistant Professor of Psychology Jean-Marie Maddux **
• “A parametric study of the attentional set-shifting task in rats” – Lael Medema ’23 with Assistant Professor of Psychology Jean-Marie Maddux **

Religion:

• “Religion, biology, and public health” – Elya Gasparyan ’24, Sophia Timm ’24, and Stanzin Zasal ’24 with Assistant Professor of Religion Anya Golovkova *

* Four-week session
** Eight-week session