Great Minds, Big Ideas

As the CSU shapes the bright minds of our future, those minds are already working to lead California, the nation and the world to a better tomorrow. The 35th Annual CSU Student Research Competition, hosted by California State Polytechnic University, Pomona April 30-May 1, 2021, showcased student researchers from across the university who are finding solutions to the world’s challenges. Here are just a few of the competition’s winners.

UNC Biological Education Doctoral Candidate Awarded $20,000 Award

Karina Sanchez, a Biological Education Ph.D. candidate at the University of Northern Colorado, has been awarded a $20,000 American Dissertation Fellowship award from the American Association of University Women (AAUW), an organization that promotes education and equity for women and girls. Her dissertation involves researching how noise and light pollution and landscape composition in urban settings affects American robins, specifically their bird song.

How do you plan a mass vaccination clinic? Iowa State students are working on it.

Iowa State’s COVID-19 vaccination plan ramps up starting April 20 as all adult students qualify and a mass vaccination clinic takes over State Gym’s three basketball courts. But it’s not as simple as setting up booths and having vaccines ready. That’s where industrial engineering students come in.

Biochemistry researcher receives National Science Foundation Award

The five-year, $680,500 NSF Faculty Early Career Development Program award will be utilized to gain a better understanding of how improper DNA replication and compaction can cause changes in gene expression in offspring while creating a comprehensive learning environment for aspiring high school-aged and undergraduate scientists who will have significant roles in the research.