OHIO students receive awards for research, scholarship, creative work

Sam McCall is shown firing a train kiln at the Sawtooth School for Visual Arts.

The �� Student Enhancement Awards (SEA) program provided 25 students with a total of $145,121 in funding for their original research, scholarship and creative work this spring.

The Student Enhancement Awards are funded by the Office of the Vice President for Research and Creative Activity and reviewed by the Council for Research, Scholarship and Creative Activity, which is appointed by Faculty Senate. Students may request up to $6,000 per proposal.

“I have had the privilege of overseeing this program for more than 20 years, and I am still intrigued by and proud of the impact that our students make through their projects – from creative projects encouraging people to explore new perspectives to the sciences pushing the frontiers of knowledge,” says Roxanne Male-Brune, senior director.

The program received 64 proposals with a total funding request of $362,020, resulting in the most competitive cycle in recent years.

For more information about the program, visit www.ohio.edu/research/funding.

2025 Student Enhancement Award recipients

Roshni Ashiq, graduate student in Communication Studies, “Exploring Gender-based Sexual Health Communication in Pakastani Immigrant Women in the United States: A critical interpretive inquiry of pre- and post-migration phase.” $4,406, mentor: Angela Hosek
Saroj Bahattarai, graduate student in Biological Sciences, “Gardnerella vaginalis and Vaginolysin-driven Sialic Acid Release via CD59 Enhances Neisseria gonorrhoeae Complement Resistance.” $5,990, mentor: Nathan Weyand
Cody Billock, graduate student in History, “Cold War Citadel: Hue and the global Vietnamese Civil War, 1945-1975.” $6,000, mentor: Alec Holcombe
Hannah Brockstein, graduate student in Psychology, “Helping Students with Emotional and Behavioral Problems Succeed: Evaluation of the Beacon-Remote Program.” $5,971, mentor: Steven Evans
Nayomi Gunasekara Field, graduate student in Teacher Education, “Enacting and Contextualizing Intercultural Competence: Lesson planning after Story Circles in Sri Lanka and the United States.” $5,996, mentor: Michael Kopish
Alaina Friedrich, graduate student in Biological Sciences, “The Effects of Light Pollution on the Reproductive Behavior and Fitness of Cavity-nesting Songbirds in Southeastern ��.” $6,000, mentor: Don Miles
Stephanie Garrett, undergraduate student in Biological Sciences, “Identification of Novel mRNA Editing by TadA.” $6,000, mentor: Ronan Carroll
Ahmad Waseem Ghauri, graduate student in Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences, “Investigating Domain Mismatch in Machine Learning Models between Stimulated and Live Flight.” $6,000, mentor: Chad Mourning
Elizabeth Haudrich, graduate student in Psychology, “Revisiting the Moving Average Convergence Divergence Indicator in Stress Detection: Its accuracy in the lab and across profiles of cardiac stress responses.” $6,000, mentor: Peggy Zoccola
James Kaltenecker, undergraduate student in Film, “An Ornament of Concern.” $6,000, mentor: Lindsey Martin
Deborah Amesaki Korkor, graduate student in Chemistry and Biochemistry, “Identification of Novel Fragments Targeting T-box Riboswitch Anti-terminator.” $6,000, mentor: Jennifer Hines
Eva Liu, graduate student in, Media Arts and Studies, “Feminist Theory of Our Own: Localized production of feminist knowledge, discourse and identities in digital China.” $6,000, mentor: Eve Ng
Sam McCall, graduate student in Art+Design, “Athens Local Materials Project.” $6,000, mentor: Stuart Gair
Mohsin Ali Nasir, graduate student in Environmental and Plant Biology, Molecular and Cellualr Biology, “In Silico Co-Expression Analysis of Rice Genome and Functional Characterization of GT43 CRISP-Cas9 Mutants in Xylan Biosynthesis.” $5,994, mentor: Ahmed Faik
Kourosh Nejad, graduate student in Interdisciplinary Arts, “Visual Dialogue between Safavid Persian and Western Art in the Bellini and Davis Muraqqas.” $5,917, mentor: Charles Buchanan
George Ofori-Atta, graduate student in History, “Modernization, the State, and Disaster in Contemporary Ghana: An environmental history of Accra, 1862-2015.” $6,000, mentor: Assan Sarr
Tatiana Olin, graduate student in Earth and Environmental Sciences, “A Palynological Reconstruction of Late Pleistocene Ecology in West Virginia and Its Implications for the Initial Settlement of Eastern North America.” $6,000, mentor: Greg Springer
Edy Rapika Panjaitan, graduate student in Interdisciplinary Arts, “Honoring Ancestors: The Toba Batak Mangokal Holi ritual music of North Sumatera, Indonesia.” $6,000, mentor: Garrett Field
Numair Qadri, graduate student in Art+Design, “Saffron Fields.” $6,000, mentor: Kate Hampel
Ramasinghege Lumbini Paramitha Ramasinghe, graduate student in Chemistry and Biochemistry, “Exploring Solvent-mediated Control of Ceiling Temperature for Developing Chemically Recyclable Polyesters.” $5,970, mentor: Katherine Cimatu
Lasantha Rangika Sendanayake, graduate student in Chemistry and Biochemistry, “Surveying H12 Dynamics within Type 1 Nuclear Receptors using a Bipartite Tetracysteine Display.” $6,000, mentor: Justin Holub
Zachery Tayler, graduate student in History, “Normalization of Diplomatic Relations of the United States and the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, 1975-1995.” $6,000, mentor: Ingo Trauschweizer
Daniel Vitucci, graduate student in Psychology, “Investigating the Feasibility and Acceptability of TTRPGs as a Treatment Modality for Socially Anxious Adolescents.” $3,800, mentor: Steven Evans
Zoe Wilfing, graduate student in Biological Sciences, “Global Analysis of the Role of SarA in the Mediation of Temperature-dependent Gene Regulation in S. aureus.” $6,000, mentor: Ronan Carroll
Jordan Zdinak, graduate student in History, “Violence and Memory: Lynching in the Midwestern United States.” $5,077, mentor: Katherine Jellison