UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — The Erickson Discovery Grant, which funds independent research projects for undergraduate students, has been awarded to 43 recipients this year.  

The Rodney A. Erickson Grant program is administered by the Office of Undergraduate Education and is designed to support undergraduate student engagement in original research, scholarship and creative work under the supervision of a research mentor. Students may use the grant to cover living expenses and project costs like supplies and travel.  

Funding is directed to student-initiated projects in the arts, engineering, humanities, sciences, and social sciences and facilitates experience in question generation, proposal writing, method implementation and communication of results. Projects may be completed on any topic and may be related to supervising faculty’s research but should be primarily led by and conceptualized by the student. Applications typically open in late October each year. 

This year’s recipients come from a variety of Penn State campuses, colleges and majors:  

• Elizabeth Aichele, “Establishing a Connection Between Glass Chemistry and Plastic reformation in LionGlass,” College of Earth and Mineral Sciences, Materials Science and Engineering 
• Melahat Akedemir, “What are police officers in Pennsylvania doing for their own mental health?” Penn State Harrisburg, Psychology and Criminal Justice  
• Natalia Ali, “Cheatgrass Below Ground Invasion,” Penn State Shenango, Plant Science 
• Zachary Allamon, “Boundary-Value Solutions to the Forced Soliton Equation,” Eberly College of Science, Physics 
• Taha Alubaidi, “Chemical Chaperones,” Eberly College of Science, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology 
• Derek Baldwin, “Investigating the Impact of Temporal Proximity on the Efficacy of a Memory Update,” Eberly College of Science, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology 
• Camilla Baumer, “Impacts of the 2010 Eyjafjallajökull Eruption on Long-Term Health in Iceland,” College of Earth and Mineral Sciences, Geography 
• Alex Baxevanidis, “Identification of a transcription attenuation mechanism controlling yrhG expression in Bacillus subtilis,” Eberly College of Science, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology  
• Lucas Beddick, “Self-Compassion as a Predictor of Tendencies for Prosocial Behavior,” Penn State Fayette, Psychology  
• Alex Butzler, “Dual Emission System of Fluorescent Dye and Folic Acid Carbon Quantum Dots at Near Neutral pH,” Eberly College of Science, Chemistry 
• Adrien Chen, “Oxidative stress impact on Kinesin KIF1A structure and function. An in-vitro analysis,” Eberly College of Science, Chemistry 
• Charles Colvin, “Beyond Pigments: A Microbial Tale of Flavonoid-Induced Phyllosphere Changes in Maize,” College of Agricultural Sciences, Plant Sciences  
• Jonathan Cui, “Explainable Artificial Intelligence in Medical Image Analysis,” College of Engineering, Computer Science 
• Alexander Czeczulin,“Geoheritage of the National Parks,” College of Earth and Mineral Sciences, Earth Sciences 
• Tyler Duda, “Simulating Magnetic Monopole Interactions for Higher-Rank Gauge Groups,” Penn State Fayette, Mechanical Engineering  
• Ankita Dasgupta, “Determining the physical parameters of astrophysical tau neutrinos discovered by the IceCube Neutrino Observatory,” Eberly College of Science, Astrophysics and Astronomy 
• Garret Diven, “Investigating Gene Variants in VACTERL Association: Their Effect on the Aging Trajectory of C. elegans,” Eberly College of Science, Biochemistry 
• Isaac Gray, “Model Membranes with Cardiolipin as the Major Component,” Eberly College of Science, Chemistry 
• Kaelea Hayes, “Dynamic Modeling and Experimental Testing of a Shape Memory Alloy Cooling Device,” College of Engineering, Mechanical Engineering 
• Mikayla Hribal, “Dissecting the Role of a DNA Damage Response Factor in Gene Expression,” Eberly College of Science, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology  
• Grace Jacobs, “Understanding Relationships in Veterans Affairs Adult Foster Care,” Penn State Altoona, Psychology  
• Rutuj Kankaria, “The Impact of Social Intrapreneurship on Corporate Financial Performance,” College of Engineering, Computer Science 
• Aditya Khemka, “Utilizing Machine Learning, Social Determinants of Health and Longitudinal Data to Predict Alzheimer's Disease Susceptibility,” College of Engineering, Computer Science 
• Heejung Koo, “Gut Feelings: Investigating the Role of Bacteriophage on the Gut Microbiome,” Eberly College of Science, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology  
• Stefan Leovac, “Tetralin Derivative Synthesis via Photo-Redox C-H Radical Cyclization,” Eberly College of Science, Chemistry 
• Abigayle Lipscomb, “Effects of cortisol on the expression of iron transport proteins and extracellular vesicles,” Penn State Erie, The Behrend College, Biology — Health Professions 
• Kylie (Ky) McKenna, “Turning Silver to Gold: Demystifying the Luster Technique in American Ceramics,” College of Arts and Architecture, bachelor of fine arts in Art (Ceramics Concentration) and bachelor of arts with Honors in English 
• Duncan McQueen, “Impact of Aging on the Tensile Properties of Photothermally Cured Polymer Systems,” Eberly College of Science, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology 
• Adrian Michael, “Extrude Honing of Additively Manufactured Triply Periodic Minimum Surface Lattice Heat Exchangers,” College of Engineering, Mechanical Engineering 
• Greta Miller, “From Fiber to Form: Experimental Textiles using Traditional and Alternative Fibers,” College of Arts and Architecture, bachelor of science in General Science and bachelor of fine arts in Sculpture Art 
• Nathan Murarik, “Accurate Power Method Utilizing Compensated Arithmetic,” Penn State Erie, The Behrend College, Mathematics 
• Kimberly Nicholas, “Real Problems in Fake Worlds,” Penn State Berks, Communication, Arts, & Sciences and Psychology (dual-major) 
• Evan Paulson, “The Western Hemisphere Indigenous Reference Library (WHIRL),” College of the Liberal Arts, Anthropology 
• Lauren Peng, “Optimizing Managerial Approaches Through Plasticity,” Penn State Altoona, Finance 
• Anant Pothakamury, “Investigating the Influence of the Host-Gut Microbiome Interactions on NAD+ Metabolism during Intestinal Inflammation,” Eberly College of Science, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
• Anisha Prabhu, “Investigating the Role of Reactive Oxygen Species in the 16p12.1 Deletion,” Eberly College of Science, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology 
• Luc Schrauf, “Low-Cost Quartz Tuning Fork as Atomic Force Microscope Sensor,” Eberly College of Science, Physics  
• Sarah Scott, “The impact of prenatal and postpartum vitamin D supplementation on cholecalciferol concentrations in breast milk,” Eberly College of Science, Biology 
• Eugene Seok, “Optimizing Barium Zirconate Titanate Through Combined Composition and Strain Engineering,” College of Earth and Mineral Sciences, Materials Science and Engineering
• Nathan Tam, “Computational analysis of the decarboxylation mechanism in aromatic compounds: effects of proximal substituents,” Penn State Berks, Biochemistry 
• Milan Varia, “The Echo Project,” Donald P. Bellisario College of Communications, Journalism 
• Thanvanth Vinodh Kumar, “Comparative memory of a model particle suspension,” Eberly College of Science, Physics 
• Matthew Visomirski, “Predicting Species Coexistence and Quasi-Periodicity via Graph Combinatorics,” Eberly College of Science, Physics and Mathematics 

The Erickson Discovery Grant program is administered by Penn State Undergraduate Education.