Funding opportunities abound across UAA with a broad range of funded opportunities 鈥� scholarships, internships and jobs 鈥� that connect to and support students鈥� interests.
Category: Research
Posts that relate to undergraduate research as well as UAA programs that lead research.
Bridging science and humanity
Daniel Chen鈥檚 journey into research began with a fascination for ancient cultures and extinct creatures. As a middle schooler, he was captivated by archaeology and paleontology, dreaming of working at excavation sites, unearthing ancient bones and tracing the histories of lost civilizations.聽Over time, that early curiosity shifted toward biology, particularly as computational modeling emerged as a powerful tool.
Sean Gehrke named assistant dean of Undergraduate Academic Affairs
Undergraduate Academic Affairs is pleased to announce Sean Gehrke鈥檚 new role as assistant dean. Sean Gehrke has served over 20 years in higher education, holding a variety of administrative, research and assessment roles.
A boundless connection
For Kavin 鈥楰en鈥� Srinakarin, 鈥�24, it all began in the Forest Club Room of Anderson Hall. Amid the serenity of evergreens, he and his fellow research assistants at the Human Interaction with Nature and Technological Systems (HINTS) Lab gathered every Friday to discuss scales, factor analysis and connect through shared experiences in nature.
Arts, humanities and sciences unite at 27th Annual Undergraduate Research Symposium
The 27th Annual Undergraduate Research Symposium showcased a diverse array of more than 1,200 student presenters, including nearly 200 UW Honors Program students, representing an impressive spectrum of majors, research projects, fellowship and scholarship awardees.
Innovation revealed at the 27th Annual Undergraduate Research Symposium
On May 17, over 1,200 undergraduates will present cutting-edge research and scholarship at the 27th Annual Undergraduate Research Symposium, a signature event for the 乱伦社区.
Bitaniya Giday, UW junior, scholar, community organizer and poet, selected as Truman Scholar
When 乱伦社区 President Ana Mari Cauce, Provost Tricia Serio and Vice Provost and Dean Ed Taylor appeared in the Zoom room of Bitaniya Giday鈥檚 African American studies class, Giday was confused and even wondered if she was in trouble for something. But then President Cauce excitedly announced that Giday had been selected for the prestigious Truman Scholarship, a national award recognizing past accomplishments in and future commitment to public service and leadership.
Three UW students named 2024 Goldwater Scholars
Three 乱伦社区 undergraduates have been honored as Goldwater Scholars by the Goldwater Foundation, continuing the longstanding tradition of UW students receiving this honor. This year鈥檚 UW Goldwater Scholars are Dania Ahmed, Annabella Li and Masa Nakura-Fan. Their undergraduate research projects with faculty cover a range of topics such as the mechanisms underlying heart disease, designing, producing and testing novel protein-based systems, and computational fabrication and artificial intelligence.
UW senior Abby Burtner selected to be 1 of 16 Churchill Scholars
Abby Burtner, 鈥�24, has been awarded the prestigious Churchill Scholarship in recognition of her outstanding achievements in the field of biochemistry. As a Churchill Scholar, Burtner鈥檚 next step is to complete a fully-funded master鈥檚 degree in pathology at Cambridge University.
The Churchill Foundation selected 16 exceptional students as Churchill Scholars from a pool of 121 candidates this academic year. This year鈥檚 competition highlights the dedication, talent and exceptional accomplishments of the scholars, setting the stage for an even brighter future in the STEM fields and scientific exploration.
Burtner came to the UW from her hometown of Olympia, WA, and will be graduating in spring 2024 with a B.S in biochemistry with Interdisciplinary and Departmental Honors, along with minors in data science and chemistry. She got her start in research in Professor Sharlene Santana鈥檚 lab in the Department of Biology her freshman year and fell in love with the power of evolution to fine-tune and function on a macroevolutionary scale. By the end of her sophomore year, Burtner realized that a research career was the right fit for her through her work on computational biology projects supervised by Dr. Chris Law and Dr. Kelly Diamond.
As Burtner advanced in her college coursework, she became increasingly drawn to the microscopic level of life, leading her to join Professor Neil King鈥檚 group at the Institute for Protein Design in the Department of Biochemistry. There, she works on a project designing de novo proteins to bind toll-like receptors, key receptors that activate the innate immune system, for groundbreaking applications in vaccine development.
鈥淭he Churchill scholarship,鈥� says Ed Taylor, vice provost and dean of Undergraduate Academic Affairs, 鈥渋s a prestigious opportunity for Abby to continue expanding her biochemistry skills. This award reflects her capacity to draw from her research and the mentorship she鈥檚 experienced, to fuel her work toward a greater understanding of our world in critical ways. The UW鈥檚 research community and campus-at-large are proud of Abby and encourage her as she continues to live out UW鈥檚 mission at Cambridge.鈥�
Burtner is a past recipient of the , Goldwater Scholarship, Washington Research Foundation Fellowship, , and has been an undergraduate research leader at the Office of Undergraduate Research. Burtner intends to chart a career pathway investigating immunological systems through a biophysical lens as a principal investigator at an academic or industrial research lab.
鈥淧ursuing a master鈥檚 at the University of Cambridge,鈥� says Burtner, 鈥渨ill help me achieve my goal of obtaining a Ph.D. in biophysics. By learning foundational immunological techniques and techniques at Cambridge, along with the experimental and computational biophysical approaches I’ve learned here at UW, I will be working toward solving medical issues with broad impacts such as vaccination and cancer immunotherapies.鈥� As she prepares for life in the UK, Burtner is excited about learning biomedical issues of global importance in an international context.
“I feel incredibly honored to receive the Churchill Scholarship鈥�, says Burtner. 鈥淚 could not have made it to this point without the stellar mentorship and support from the King Lab and Santana Lab at UW, particularly from my mentors Chloe Adams, Dr. Chris Law, Dr. Kelly Diamond, Robin Heiringhoff, and PIs Dr. Neil King, Dr. Sharlene Santana, Dr. Murat Maga, and Dr. Dietmar Manstein from the various research labs I have had the pleasure to work in. I would also like to thank my excellent honors chemistry and biochemistry professors, particularly Dr. Andrea Wills, for inspiring me to love this field and see a future for myself here, and the Office of Merit Scholarships, Fellowships and Awards, particularly Robin Chang, for her excellent guidance and advice. Finally, I am so grateful for my family and friends, particularly those from the honors chemistry/biochemistry community here at UW 鈥� it is truly a wonderful place to be learning how to be a scientist.”
Outside of the lab, Abby is an officer in the student club Biology Students for Equity. She can often be found embracing the beauty of Washington state, be it hiking and skiing in the majestic mountains, or running across the city with the Husky Running Club, of which she was president her junior year.
The Churchill Scholarship application process is supported by the , a UAA program. OMSFA works with faculty, staff and students to identify and support promising students in developing the skills and personal insights necessary to become strong candidates for this and other prestigious awards.
The (and other scholarships supporting studies in the UK) will open in spring 2024 for 2025-2026 awards.
Black Studies through time, art and being
The Office of Undergraduate Research鈥檚 Summer Institute in the Arts and Humanities (SIAH) offered the 2023 undergraduate cohort an immersion into interdisciplinary research with A Black Sense: Time, Art and Being.
This year鈥檚 theme was developed by accomplished UW faculty members, Habiba Ibrahim, Jasmine Mahmoud, Bianca Dang and Chari Glogovac-Smith. Under their mentorship, the 2023 cohort engaged in a collaborative journey of mutual learning, independent thinking and development of interdisciplinary research projects spanning across English, history, performance and experimental media.
Jai Lasker
Participant Jai Lasker, ’25, was intrigued by the opportunity to engage in an academic space 鈥減rimarily created with Blackness in mind.鈥� Lasker, a guitarist, composer, improviser and visual artist in her fourth year at the UW, said the theme “seemed like a path I could really resonate with. It aligned with the way I wanted to approach research and creative projects, which go hand in hand with that research.” Exploring ideas and questions around reality and existence, as well as the relationship between individual and collective experience, Lasker also highlighted the influential role of Black studies in shaping understanding and perception.
Lasker’s research centered on the resonator guitar as a tool to study the intersection of blues music and hip hop. Inspired by the instrument鈥檚 historical significance in Black folk and blues music, she sought to bridge the gap between these genres both lyrically and sonically.
鈥淭he feedback of this entire project was embodied knowledge,鈥� shared Lasker. 鈥淚 can鈥檛 know exactly what blues musicians were thinking in the early 1900s, but I can feel something that they felt 鈥� the exact way that guitar would rumble in your hands.鈥�
鈥淛ust those five weeks of thinking differently about what Blackness is, how performance is related to Blackness, and how sound has been used to protect us or help us find safer spaces,鈥� Lasker said, 鈥� changed the way I thought about every aspect of my performance, my writing and my role as a researcher.鈥�
Bitaniya Giday
Bitaniya Giday, ’25, is a political science major who was also drawn to the SIAH program鈥檚 focus. “It was the first time I realized there was an institute where you could do research in the home of the arts and humanities and also have an interdisciplinary Black studies focus.” She began the process seeking to 鈥渦nderstand what research is, what archives are and to ask what is worthy of being researched.鈥�
The program 鈥渙pened my mind on how much source material we have just from being human, learning to take from what is happening around us. How we feel, what we taste, how all of that can be an immersive research experience.鈥� Not only is Giday focused on pursuing American ethnic studies, but she recently served as the . Her background as a poet activist exposing issues of racial injustice informed her research project focus.
Giday learned of the , a prisoner-led collection of artifacts and documentation of the history and ongoing reality of mass incarceration in Washington state. She became particularly interested in a collection of Black anarchist/socialist and Black Power movement newspapers that were distributed among prisoners in the 鈥�60s and 鈥�70s.
鈥淚 was diving into the history of how those newspapers were being made, what prison facilities were doing to intervene on the fact that prisoners were communicating across different areas, but also connecting to political things happening on the outside and trying to organize on the inside.鈥�
Giday’s research focused on currently incarcerated writers who produce online prison-led publications. Her objective was to analyze the changes between archived publications and the current ones, as well as to investigate the evolution of prison censorship policies, both in terms of internal communication and external political actions. She interviewed three incarcerated writers, engaging in dialogue while mapping how they think about freedom and life. Giday has continued on with her research, working with a SIAH mentor to develop a concrete paper as her research evolves.
Obse Dinsa
Transfer student Obse Dinsa, ’25, learned of the SIAH program in one of her first classes with Dr. Lynn Thomas. A painter pursuing a degree in social welfare with a minor in diversity, Dinsa immediately felt the program aligned with her many interests. Her summer research project focused on depictions of the Black Diaspora through visual art.
鈥淚 decided to come up with an analysis of specific paintings from the late 1800s to the late 1900s,鈥� shared Dinsa. 鈥淚 selected 10 paintings to serve as snapshots, creating a tour timeline of history to indicate what was going on at that period of time and why the artist decided to make the piece.鈥�
Dinsa was able to expand beyond the typical scope of academia, highlighting the importance and value of research and analysis that can be drawn directly from art.
SIAH changed the way Dinsa thought about research. 鈥淐oming in, I thought it was going to be just strictly this emphasis on traditional academic research.鈥� While the program was filled with a summer full of readings, the teaching team had placed 鈥済reat emphasis on the arts and how the arts can be used as a tool for research.鈥�
Dinsa intends to incorporate what she learned through the project and apply it to her role in social work. 鈥淚t has broadened my horizons as to what kind of social worker I want to be,鈥� said Dinsa. 鈥淢y biggest takeaway from SIAH is that there鈥檚 not just one lane to do something, there鈥檚 so many different approaches one can take.鈥�
About the Office of Undergraduate Research
The Office of Undergraduate Research provides resources and opportunities to support students, mentors and staff across all disciplines to support the creation of transformative research experiences. Through diverse forms of inquiry, creative work and practice, undergraduates interrogate existing ideas and ask critical questions to create new knowledge. To learn more about undergraduate research at the 乱伦社区, visit the Office of Undergraduate Research.
Since 2002, the Office of Undergraduate Research and the Simpson Center for the Humanities have collaborated on the Summer Institute in the Arts and Humanities (SIAH). Through providing intensive research opportunities for humanities and arts students, SIAH has increased the number of undergraduates doing research in the humanities, established a community of arts and humanities scholars and engaged faculty, and created an annual forum for presenting scholarly work.