The Honors Research Assistant Program provides Honors students an opportunity to work with professors as paid research assistants. Specific projects and the type of work entailed varies with each participating professor. Twenty-five HRAP positions are funded each fall and spring semester.
Open HRAP positions will be listed below at the start of each fall and spring semester along with position dates. Positions are 10 hours per week for a period of 10 weeks, paid to the student at a rate of $13 per hour.
The project details will be updated by October 5, 2026.
Contact honors@ou.edu with any questions or for more information.
| Faculty Name | Faculty Email | Faculty Department | Project Name | Project Summary | Student Responsibilities |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stefan Wilhelm | stefan.wilhelm@ou.edu | Biomedical Engineering | Nanoparticle-based lateral flow assay system for disease diagnostic application | The goal of this project is to develop a lateral-flow assay system that uses nanoparticles to detect disease antigens. Specifically, this project aims to quantify biomarkers associated with blood coagulopathy, a blood disorder that can cause excessive bleeding or excessive blood clotting. As a first step, we will synthesize and characterize a nanoparticle library and identify candidates for functional testing in a lateral flow assay system. Ultimately, we plan to have a prototype system which can be used for downstream clinical testing. | The student will take responsibility for synthesizing and characterizing the nanoparticles. The nanoparticles will be functionally evaluated in a later flow assay system. This functional testing will require optimization of assay components, such as flow membrane type and composition, nanoparticle concentration and modification, and buffer systems. The student will prepare weekly written progress updates, summarize protocols and research findings, write a final report, and present the work to a broader audience through a poster presentation. The student is expected to have regular 1:1 meetings with the mentor and participate in the weekly lab meetings. |
| Zhenghong Tang | zhenghongtang@ou.edu | Geography and Environmental Sustainability | Enhancing Monitoring, Assessment, and Planning for Surface Water–Connected Wetlands and Conserved Wetlands | The overall goal of this project is to advance management capacity for monitoring and assessing surface water–connected wetlands and all conserved wetlands. Through strong collaboration with stakeholders, this project will enhance local and state capacity to manage wetlands effectively. The resulting tools and data will support informed decision-making and advance wetland conservation to promote clean and safe water resources in Nebraska. | 1. Literature review 2. Case Studies 3. Data analysis 4. Participating in manuscript writing |
| Zhenghong Tang | zhenghongtang@ou.edu | Geography and Environmental Sustainability | Assessing Flood Mitigation Preparedness in Oklahoma communities | This study aims to evaluate the quality of local comprehensive plans in Oklahoma for flood risk management. Specifically, the study addresses the following research questions: (1) How effectively have flood mitigation efforts been integrated into the local plans of Oklahoma’s communities? (2) How do local comprehensive planning for flood risk assessment, policy toolkits, and coordination mechanisms vary among rural and urban communities? This research contributes to resilience planning theories, particularly for resource-limited and disadvantaged rural communities in the United States. | 1. Literature review 2. Case Studies 3. Data analysis 4. Participating in manuscript writing |
| Pamela Genova | genova@ou.edu | MLLL | Yves Bonnefoy: Eastern Aesthetics in Western Cultural Criticism | Japonisme as a realm of inquiry and as an expression of cultural curiosity has a rich history, as writers, art historians, and visual artists have explored the dynamics of the phenomenon since the mid 1800s. Traditionally, Japonisme has been examined in relation to visual art, portrayed customarily in critical studies as an important creative influence on many French painters, especially the Impressionists. A first definition of Japonisme can be formulated then as the presence of Japanese painting techniques, styles, themes, and compositional methods in 19th-century French visual art. Yet there is more to Japonisme than literally meets the eye. After its introduction into French art, Japonisme was adopted as a favorite style, discernable in fashion, interior design, gastronomy, and beyond. Yet along with the sometimes frivolous appreciation of Japanese art as a social fad, however, a more serious exploration was underway, and, inspired by the interest of painters, authors also explored the vast potential offered by the cultural forms of Japan. Many 19th-century writers sought to integrate principles of Japanese art into their work, as they aimed to understand and modify Eastern aesthetics, translating the ideas from painting to the medium of language. The interest of French authors in Japonisme represents a notable example of the French attraction to cultures radically different from that most characteristic of the hexagon, and has continued to the present day, though the aesthetic and formal experiments of such diverse figures as Proust, Claudel, Michaud, Barthes, Yourcenar, and Butor. The consideration of Japonisme expands radically in these writers’ work, as artistic questions are complemented by musings on the ideological implications of the very notion of Japonisme, uncovering assumptions identifiable both in the production of japoniste writers and of that of their critics. Given that Japonisme necessarily involves the reading of Eastern culture by representatives of the West, the provocative model of Orientalism has become an obvious referent for comparison. With the controversial discussions sparked by Edward Said’s 1978 Orientalism, the issues of the perception and communication of another cultural realm have raised serious considerations focusing on definition, identity, and power. Thus the very field of Japonisme, which began as a limited realm of scholarly (usually linguistic) focus, has now been critiqued as imperialistic, as a formulation involving the construction of an imaginative space—whether idealistically admired or dismissively belittled—one involveing an ambiguous rereading of the general cultural worth of the East. As both a field of critical exploration and an unpredictable cultural mode, Japonisme is revealed to embody neither a single entity nor an unchanging artistic stance: it is at once an ideological tool, a methodological approach, a historical reality, and an artistic style with a host of assumptions to be teased out. To this dialogue surrounding East-West exchange, the poetic production of Yves Bonnefoy adds a particularly engaging dimension. Bonnefoy, who reads Japanese and who has spent time in Japan, has carried on throughout his career a curious, even equivocal, relationship with Japanese aesthetics, particularly notable in regard to his complex views of the form of haiku. Early on, Bonnefoy critiqued the form as hollow, as a discursive structure based on vague ideograms and presenting merely superficial indicators of external reality. He saw in the poetry of haiku a preliminary stage of poetic expression, rudimentary in that it lacked an awareness of the crucial referential relationship between art and world that he himself underscored in his own work as primary. Given this view, it is interesting to note that many critics have described similarities between Bonnefoy’s poetry—particularly the 1975 Dans le Leurre du seuil—and the work of celebrated Japanese haiku poets, and indeed, Bonnefoy later recanted his negative critique of the form. In the 1989 essay “Du haiku,†he argues in fact that the form embodies pure presence, speaking to the reader through a paradoxical silence and capturing in discursive form the spontaneous immediacy of the world. For Bonnefoy, who has written extensively on visual art, haiku also expresses a kind of third dimension, situating itself in the space of the world and in the mind’s eye as a phenomenon capable of communicating the multidimensionality of the plenitude of being. Further, beyond the specific example of haiku, Bonnefoy explores more general possibilities of contact between Japanese and European forms, as well as between verbal and visual art, through his critical writing (as with the 1993 essay, “Remarques sur le dessin†and the 1995 study, Dessin, couleur et lumière), as well as in his numerous collections of verse. In such a way, the poet turns to Japanese artistic principles as an essential model for adaptation in his fundamental project to restore to Western poetic forms the presence he perceives as lacking in much contemporary poetry, while he continues to explore the philosophical potential of East-West artistic exchange. In the end, an analysis of the development of Japonisme as an expression of interest in the global sphere of intercultural exchange highlights the genuinely permeable nature of seemingly inflexible borders, surpassing frontiers both intellectual and cultural. | Carry out research in Bizzell library as well as in online databases. I am looking for the most up-to-date critical studies addressing such topics as the poet/philosopher Bonnefoy himself, the dynamics of East-West relations, art-historical trends and developments in European poetry in the 20th and 21st centuries, interdisciplinary connections between poetic art and visual art, etc. The assistant will compile a growing list of bibliographical entries, to be formatted in MLA style, and will collect pdfs of pertinent articles and book chapters. Familiarity (even fluency) in French would be beneficial but it is not required to carry out the work effectively. |
| Dimitrios Papavassiliou | dvpapava@ou.edu | Sustainabe Chemcial, Biological & Materials Engineering | Protein unfolding in cardiovascular implants | As artificial valves or stents are placed in patients, the blood flow through these implants may result in changes of the molecular structure of the proteins in blood. When this happens, there is danger for internal bleeding. We work with simulations to identify the flow conditions that can lead to such situations. The student working in this project should have a positive attitude in learngin about computing and supercomputing and running data analysis software. | Conduct a literature review, report in writing or with a presentation at the end of the semester and come to grop meetings or one-on-one meetings with the faculty adviser. It is expected that on average about 10 hours a week will be devoed to the project. |
| Feng Xu | fengxu@ou.edu | School of Meteorology | Remote Sensing of Aerosol Plumes with Lidar and Multi-Angle Polarimetry | Atmospheric aerosol plumes from sources such as smoke, dust, and industrial emissions can strongly affect air quality, visibility, and atmospheric processes. This project will investigate how aerosol plumes can be detected and characterized using complementary active and passive remote sensing measurements. The student will work with observations from a MiniMPL aerosol lidar and GroundMSPI, a multi-angle polarimetric imager housed at the University of Oklahoma. The MiniMPL provides information on the vertical distribution and structure of aerosol layers, while GroundMSPI provides multi-angle radiometric and polarimetric measurements that contain information about aerosol optical and microphysical properties. The student will analyze selected plume events, examine the signatures observed by the two instruments, and investigate how combining lidar and polarimetric measurements can improve plume characterization. The project will provide the student with hands-on experience in atmospheric remote sensing, aerosol science, scientific data analysis, and visualization. Results will be summarized in figures and presented at the OU Undergraduate Research Day. | The student will: 1) Learn the basic principles of aerosol lidar and multi-angle polarimetric remote sensing. 2) Assist with selected MiniMPL and GroundMSPI measurements and with organizing and quality-controlling the resulting datasets. 3) Identify and analyze selected aerosol plume cases. 4) Examine plume vertical structure using MiniMPL measurements and multi-angle/polarimetric signatures using GroundMSPI observations. 5) Use Python or MATLAB to process data and create scientific figures. 6) Compare measurements from the two instruments and investigate their complementary information for plume characterization. 7) Participate in regular research meetings and discuss results with the faculty mentor and research group. 8) Prepare figures and a poster summarizing the research for presentation at the OU Undergraduate Research Day. |
| Chenghao Wang | chenghao.wang@ou.edu | School of Meteorology & Department of Geography and Environmental Sustainability | Evaluating the Representation of Urban Surface Temperature in NASA’s New 1-km NLDAS-3 Dataset | Urban areas exhibit substantial spatial and temporal variability in land surface temperature due to differences in impervious surfaces, vegetation, soil moisture, and the thermal properties of the built environment. Accurately representing these variations in land-surface models is important for understanding urban heat and land–atmosphere interactions. NASA’s new North American Land Data Assimilation System Phase 3 (NLDAS-3) represents a major advance over the previous generation of NLDAS by providing land-surface information at 1-km spatial and hourly temporal resolution. This project will evaluate how well NLDAS-3 represents urban land surface temperature and its diurnal variability using satellite-based land surface temperature observations. NLDAS-3 surface temperature will be compared with complementary observations from GOES ABI and MODIS. The analysis will examine NLDAS-3 biases across urban and surrounding non-urban areas in major U.S. cities and investigate whether model performance varies with urban land-cover characteristics such as impervious surface fraction and vegetation cover. Particular attention will be given to differences between daytime heating and nighttime cooling and the representation of urban–rural surface temperature contrasts. Through this 10-week project, the student will gain experience working with large geospatial and satellite datasets, processing gridded environmental data in Python, performing spatial and temporal data matching, conducting statistical evaluation, and visualizing urban environmental patterns. The project will provide an initial assessment of the strengths and limitations of the new NLDAS-3 product for urban applications and identify opportunities for improving the representation of urban land-surface processes in large-scale land data assimilation systems. | - Process and analyze NLDAS-3, GOES, MODIS, and land-cover datasets for selected U.S. urban areas. - Develop Python (or other languages) programming and geospatial data analysis skills for processing, matching, and visualizing gridded datasets. - Apply basic statistical methods to evaluate NLDAS-3 surface temperature against satellite observations and examine urban–rural temperature differences. - Prepare figures, interpret results with the faculty mentor, and summarize findings in a final report and/or presentation. |
| Eli Bridge | ebridge@ou.edu | Oklahoma Biological Survey | Immunity and Pathogen Prevalence in Birds Exposed to Heavy Metal Pollution | The Tar Creek Superfund site (TCSS) in Tri-State Mining District of Northeastern Oklahoma is arguably one of the most contaminated areas in the world with regard to environmental levels of lead, cadmium, and zinc. Over the past few years, we have demonstrated elevated levels of these metals in the blood and feathers of birds that live and breed in and around the TCSS. As part of our field work we collected blood for DNA/RNA analysis as well as blood smears on microscope slides. We plan to use these resources to determine whether birds exposed to heavy metals are prone to infections by pathogens like Plasmodium parasites that cause malaria. We can also use our samples to assess immune function and evidence of past infections. We will collaborate with Dan Becker's team of disease ecologists at OU to analyze blood samples and make comparisons between samples collected at the TCSS and nearby reference sites. Our results could reveal a hidden long-term cost of environmental contamination or resiliency among wild birds to the effects of heavy metal exposure. | Research responsibilities will pertain mainly to visual analysis of blood smears using modern microscopy methods. The student will be trained to use professional-grade imaging equipment, to recognize blood-born pathogens, and to perform cell counts. The student will work with graduate students and professors toward generating publishable research with the opportunity to co-author one or more peer-reviewed journal articles. There may also be opportunities for participation in ongoing field work if we require more samples for our analyses. |
| Jie Cao | jie.cao@ou.edu | Computer Science | Multimodal Data Collection Pipeline for Digital Whiteboard Tutoring Studies | The OU Natural Language Processing Lab (OUNLP) studies how students and tutors work together on mathematics problems using a shared digital whiteboard, and how AI tools fit into that work. Studying this well requires recordings in which drawing, speech, the screen, and the use of platform features are captured together on one clock, so that a session can be replayed and analyzed as a whole rather than as separate files. The lab has a working whiteboard tutoring platform; what it lacks is a reliable, documented way to record sessions on it and to turn the recordings into analyzable data. This HRAP project builds that capability. The Student Research Assistant (SRA) will set up a multimodal data collection pipeline on the lab’s platform, host participatory data collection sessions in which OU students solve algebra and geometry problems on the whiteboard, and produce multimodal overlay visualizations that replay each session with all recorded streams aligned in time, together with summary measures of drawing and interaction behavior. The project is scoped as data collection and processing rather than model development. The result is a small, well-documented pilot dataset and a reusable pipeline that the lab’s graduate students will use in their research on tutoring and human-AI interaction in education. | The SRA will be guided by Dr. Cao and two graduate students working on related projects, and will contribute around 100 hours across four areas: • Pipeline setup (about 30 hours): add event logging to the platform, write the screen and audio recorder and the interaction logger in Python and JavaScript, and run synchronization tests. • Participatory activities (about 30 hours): complete CITI human-subjects training, prepare recruitment and consent materials with the graduate mentors, schedule and facilitate sessions, run the questionnaire and interview, and store data securely under lab procedures. • Overlay processing (about 30 hours): align streams on a shared clock, transcribe audio with a local Whisper model, build timeline and replay visualizations, and compute summary measures of drawing and interaction behavior. • Documentation and reporting (about 10 hours): write the data card and pipeline README, and present the work at an OU undergraduate research event. Through this work the student will gain experience in multimodal data engineering, human-subjects research practice, data visualization, and human-AI interaction in education. Helpful background: comfort with Python, willingness to learn basic web tooling, and interest in mathematics education or HCI. |
| Hyemin Lee | hyemin.lee@ou.edu | Health and Exercise Science | Community Needs Assessment of Queer and Transgender Asian and Pacific Islander Populations | This study aims to assess the social needs and health of queer and transgender Asian and Pacific Islander (QTAPI) community members living in the United States. The survey will identify gaps in services, resources, and support systems to inform community-based organizations and public health providers about the specific needs of this underserved population. This is a cross-sectional survey study conducted in partnership with the QTAPI Coalition. Adult participants (18 years and older) who identify as queer or transgender and as Asian American or Pacific Islander will be invited to complete an anonymous online survey. The survey will include questions about demographics, intersecting identities-related experiences (both racial/ethnic minority and sexual/gender minority), health status, access to healthcare and social services, and community support needs. Participants will be recruited through QTAPI Coalition partner organizations, social media, and community networks. The survey will take approximately 35-40 minutes to complete. Data collected will be analyzed to identify priority needs and inform evidence-based recommendations for culturally responsive programs and policies serving QTAPI communities. Results will be shared with community partners and may be presented at conferences or published in academic journals to advance understanding of health disparities affecting this population. | Under the direct supervision of the Principal Investigator, student research assistants will assist with participant recruitment, data collection, participant compensation, analysis of de-identified data, and manuscript preparation. For recruitment, student research assistants will help distribute IRB-approved recruitment materials through approved channels and respond to inquiries from prospective participants using IRB-approved scripts. For data collection, they will assist in administering study procedures according to the approved protocol. For participant compensation, they will assist with distributing compensation to eligible participants as described in the approved protocol and maintaining accurate records of compensation provided. Using these de-identified data, student research assistants may conduct data cleaning and statistical analyses as directed by the PI. They may also contribute to manuscript preparation, including literature reviews, drafting sections of manuscripts, and preparing tables and figures. All student research assistants will complete required human subjects research training (e.g., CITI) prior to engaging in any study activities and will follow all procedures for protecting participant confidentiality. |
| Jason Furtado | jfurtado@ou.edu | Meteorology | The Impact of North American Weather Regimes on Summertime Electricity Demand in the Eastern US | Temperature is a key driver of variability for electricity demand across the world. Currently, the exposure of electrical grids to summertime temperatures, particularly extreme heat, is becoming more of a concern due to more frequent and intense heatwaves, which drive greater cooling demand. Understanding the relationship between temperature and demand is therefore crucial for decisions on energy trading. As such, long-range skillful prediction of heatwaves, especially on the subseasonal-to-seasonal timescale (i.e., 2 weeks to 2 months into the future), could be a key to preparing for and preventing potential energy shortfalls during such events. To address this challenge, long-range forecasters have started turning to weather regimes, which are recurrent and somewhat persistent mid-tropospheric circulation patterns that show promise in skillful long-range predictions of temperature patterns across a certain region. This project will conduct a parallel analysis to recent studies linking North American winter weather regimes to wintertime energy demand but instead will focus entirely on summertime weather regimes and their impact on daily peak electricity load across the Central and Eastern United States. We will identify the specific large-scale summertime circulation patterns that correlate most strongly with excessive electricity demand and grid vulnerability tied to cooling demand during extreme heatwaves. Past events will also be studied and quantified to identify relative risks to the grid under certain regime forecasts, thereby providing advanced guidance to utilities and other end users. The work will use a combination of atmospheric data, electricity demand data, and potentially operational forecast model output. This research project represents a unique opportunity for an ambitious Honors student to contribute to high-impact, applied atmospheric science. The student will gain hands-on experience working with atmospheric datasets and energy demand data, bridging the gap between academic research and private sector applications. In addition, the student will also be exposed to the the field of subseasonal-to-seasonal forecasting, an emerging, exciting field in atmospheric science that ties together synoptic meteorology with large-scale climate dynamics. | The student research assistant will be responsible for the following tasks. 1) Atmospheric Data Processing: Analyze European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) Fifth Reanalysis (ERA5) reanalysis data, specifically focusing on fields such as 500 hPa geopotential height and 2-meter temperature anomalies for the summer months. 2) Regime Identification: Assist in developing and working with a unique, novel set of North American summertime weather regimes aimed for energy applications. 3) Electricity Load Data: Collect and post-process historical hourly electricity demand data for specific balancing authorities (e.g., the Pennsylvania-New Jersey-Maryland (PJM) region). 4) Statistical and Risk Analysis: Calculate the relationship between peak daily load anomalies and their relationship with temperature anomalies in different areas. Statistics like probability density functions, composites, and regression analysis will also be performed, with the help of the supervisor. 5) Scientific Communication and Teamwork: Participate in weekly research meetings with the supervisor to discuss findings. Work with other members of the Furtado Research Group to collaborate on data analysis. Finally, depending on progress and the interest of the student, the student and the supervisor will work to convert their Honors Report into a peer-reviewed manuscript. |
| Yve Chavez Pawlowski | yvechavez@ou.edu | School of Visual Arts | Staging Photographs of California Indian Elders | This project is aimed an building a database of photographs of California Indian elders from the early twentieth century. Who took these photographs? How did the photographers circulate these photographs? What messaging did these photographers try to convey through the photographs? These questions guide my project that strives to deconstruct photographic representations of Native elders and the staged settings in which they appeared. A robust archive of early twentieth century photographs can be accessed through digital archives but the photographs remain understudied in terms of the role they played in shaping public perception of California Indian life and culture. This project will address both the romanticization of Native culture and the depiction of Indigenous survival and cultural knowledge through photographs at a time of immense pressure for California Indians to assimilate to settler ways. | The Student Research Assistant with be responsible for developing a database of photographs culled from online archives. The student will create a spreadsheet that keeps track of photographer names, the identities of the photographed individuals, and the repositories that hold the photographs. The student will also develop a bibliography with information about the photographers, contextual background pertaining to the photographs' dissemination, and any relevant sources. |
| Mike Sladek | mrsladek@ou.edu | Psychology | Contexts of Health, Adolescent Resilience, and Measuring Stress Lab | The mission of this research lab is to strive to be a warm and inclusive space in which a diverse community of scholars pursue research with adolescents and young adults using strengths-based and identity-affirming approaches to advance health equity and social justice. We use a variety of quantitative and qualitative methods to better understand youth’s experiences and identities in everyday social and cultural contexts – and how the combination of experiences, identities, and contexts uniquely shape their health, well-being, and adjustment in school. Methods used in the lab span multiple disciplines involved in developmental science, including: quantitative survey measure development and validation, longitudinal surveys, daily diaries and ecological momentary assessment, sleep and other health biomarkers, interviews, focus groups, and experimental designs. Research Assistants in the lab join a collaborative team interested in learning more about youth health and development research and gaining experience for graduate school and careers in psychology, health, and education. | Student research assistants are responsible for completing training and applying this to tasks required to advance multiple research projects, including: conducting literature reviews; assisting with data collection, cleaning, and analysis; and supporting dissemination of research findings through professional (e.g., conference abstracts) and community venues (e.g., participant newsletters). Students should have proficiency with Microsoft Office (e.g., Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneDrive). Experience with IBM SPSS is preferred but not required. Students must commit at least 2 semesters to the lab. Multiple honors students have gone on to complete honors theses using lab data to advance novel questions. |
| Idris Raji | iraji3@ou.edu | Chemistry and Biochemistry | Towards isoform-selective histone deacetylase inhibitors | Epigenetic regulation of gene expression through histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibition is a well-established therapeutic strategy, and several histone deacetylase inhibitors (HDACis) have been developed and approved for the treatment of various cancers. However, the clinical utility of many HDACis is limited by off-target toxicities resulting from inadequate isoform selectivity. Although eleven HDAC isoforms have been identified, only a subset has been directly implicated in cancer initiation and progression. Consequently, there is a critical need for isoform-selective HDAC inhibitors that retain therapeutic efficacy while minimizing the adverse effects associated with currently approved agents. Using a structure-guided design approach, this project will develop novel HDAC inhibitors incorporating conformationally constrained structural motifs to preferentially target specific HDAC isoforms and enhance selectivity. | The responsibilities of the student research assistant will include (but not limited to): 1. Design and synthesis of novel histone deacetylase inhibitors. 2. Purification of synthesized compounds. 3. Characterization of synthesized compounds using NMR (proton and carbon) and mass spectrometry. 4. Contribute towards biological evaluation of all synthesized compounds. 5. Read recently published literature articles related to the project. 6. Present the project during research group meeting and at the Undergraduate research day. |
| Mauricio Carvallo | mcarvallo@ou.edu | Psychology | Self-Silencing and STI Testing Communication Among College Students | STI prevention among college students depends not only on individual testing, but also on communication between sexual partners. Discussing STI testing with a potential partner can be uncomfortable because it may raise concerns about trust, rejection, judgment, or conflict. This project will examine whether self-silencing—the tendency to suppress one’s own needs or concerns to avoid interpersonal problems—is associated with students’ willingness to discuss STI testing with potential sexual partners. The study will also examine psychosocial factors that may help explain this association, including anticipated negative partner reactions, perceived relational threat, fear of negative evaluation, and confidence in one’s ability to communicate about sexual health. Of particular interest is whether students who are more likely to self-silence are less willing to ask about a partner’s STI testing history, request mutual STI testing before sex, or delay sexual activity until testing has occurred. | The research assistant will help review research on STI testing, sexual health communication, and self-silencing among college students. The student will also assist with study development, including identifying measures, developing survey materials, and helping implement the study. |
| Phil Gibson | jpgibson@ou.edu | Biology | Decoding Cimate Change Messaging in Memes and Editorial Cartoons | Editorial cartoons are a long-established form of communication that can provoke thought and stimulate conversation about complex social issues. Through humor, satire, and even fear, these images can evoke strong emotional responses and shape how individuals consider, engage with, and potentially learn about controversial topics. This has been particularly evident in editorial cartoons addressing climate change. More recently, internet memes have emerged as another prominent form of visual communication in the public forum and may serve similar functions. This project focuses on identifying and interpreting the elements in editorial cartoon and memes relating to climate change in an effort to identify the “language†the artist or meme creator is using to convey their message. In this project, the student participant will contribute to an existing collection of editorial cartoons and begin building a collection of memes related to climate change. The student will search identified databases and websites to locate relevant images, apply an established framework for scoring their characteristics, and contribute the resulting data to an existing image database. The student will gain experience with systematic data collection, image coding, and data analysis while contributing to research examining how visual media communicate about climate change. | 1. Learn and apply the existing editorial cartoon scoring framework. 2. Search identified databases and websites to locate editorial cartoons and memes addressing climate change. 3. Assist in modifying existing framework used for editorial cartoons to memes 4. Score identified images using the established coding framework. 5. Enter image scores and related information into the existing image database. 6. Assist with data organization and analysis as appropriate. |
| Jie Zhang | jiezhang@ou.edu | MLLL | Concept-Based Instruction of the Chinese Ba-Construction: Testing Pienemann’s Processability Hypothesis | Pienemann’s Processability Theory (1998) is one of the most influential models of second language acquisition. The theory proposes that learners acquire grammatical structures in a predictable developmental sequence and that they cannot skip stages in this process. According to Pienemann’s model, the Chinese ba-construction is considered a Stage 5 structure that cannot be acquired until learners have mastered Stage 3 & 4 structures. The purpose of this project is to test and potentially challenge Pienemann’s Processability Hypothesis by examining whether learners of Chinese as a second language can acquire and produce the ba-construction through concept-based instruction before demonstrating mastery of Stage 3 & 4 structures. The ba-construction is widely recognized as one of the most difficult Chinese grammatical structures for second language learners due to its complex form-meaning relationship and unique syntactic properties. Participants will be recruited from the University of Oklahoma Chinese language program. Approximately ten learners will participate in the study. Working individually or in small groups, participants will receive instruction focused on the conceptual foundations of the ba-construction and engage in guided practice activities designed to promote understanding and production of the structure. The study will employ a pretest-intervention-posttest design. Data collected before and after instruction will be analyzed to determine whether learners are able to produce the ba-construction following concept-based instruction, regardless of whether they have mastered the developmental stage that Processability Theory predicts must precede its acquisition. If learners demonstrate the ability to produce this Stage 5 structure without evidence of Stages 3 & 4 mastery, the findings would provide empirical evidence that challenges the strict developmental sequence proposed by Processability Theory. The project is scheduled to be conducted in Spring 2027, with Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval to be sought in Fall 2026. This research has the potential to make a significant contribution to the field of second language acquisition by providing new evidence regarding the teachability of complex grammatical structures and the extent to which instructional interventions can influence developmental sequences in language learning. | I would like to hire Honors student Jin Bohling as my research assistant for this project. Jin conducted an Honors Research project under my supervision in Fall 2025 that examined The Acquisition of Chinese Word Order by Chinese as a Second Language Learners. As part of that study, they collected data from more than 40 students enrolled in second- through sixth-semester Chinese courses in the OU Chinese program. They presented their research findings at Undergraduate Research Day in April 2026. Through this previous project, Jin developed substantial knowledge of the literature on Chinese word order acquisition and gained valuable experience in participant recruitment, data collection, and data management. The ba-construction, which is the focus of the proposed study, was one of the target structures investigated in their Honors research. As a result, Jin already possesses a strong understanding of both the theoretical and empirical foundations relevant to this project. Given their prior experience, research skills, and demonstrated commitment to the study of Chinese second language acquisition, Jin is exceptionally well qualified to serve as a research assistant on this project. Their responsibilities will include assisting with recruiting and communicating with participants, scheduling instructional sessions, administering pretests and posttests, collecting and organizing data, and supporting other research activities as necessary. Based on my previous experience working with Jin, I am confident in their research abilities, work ethics, and enthusiasm for the project. Their contributions will be instrumental to the successful completion of this study. |
| Piers Hale | phale@ou.edu | History of Science, Technology, & Medicine | Routledge Historical Sources: The History of Science, Technology, & Medicine | The Faculty project is a general editorship with Routledge Press. We have commissioned over 70 scholars to assemble volumes of edited and curated primary sources in the history of Science, Technology, & Medicine in 19th Century Britain. We are now in the process of creating and collecting content for the accompanying website that Routledge Press will host. This is a major collection that Routledge is overseeing that will result in an extensive colllection of print and e-book volumes (over 200 volumes in total). The website will host a significant amount of scholarship available open access to promote and publicise the collection which is available for individuals or libraries to purchase. | The student will be responsible for working with library collections workers to identify and collect c.150 images from OU's specail collections., (collections staff witll do the scanning of these images), the student will ttag, lable and provide alt-text for eachimage The student will also be responsible for ehlping collect and draft content for an extensive timelibne that will be featured on the website. Other tasks relating to collecting, describing, and formatting images from authors involved in the project. All aspects of this project will be overseen and guided by the PI. The student will be acknowledged on the website for their contribution.. |
| Alison Koenka | koenkaac@ou.edu | Department of Educational Psychology | Exploring the Motivational Consequences of Gifted and Talented Placement, Mathematics Course Placement, and Feedback in Elementary School | The purpose of this study is to explore elementary grade level (i.e., PreK-5) teachers’ perceptions and practices surrounding (a) gifted and talented programming; (b) fifth grade mathematics course placement; and (c) mathematics feedback. In particular, we are seeking to explore how educators perceive the gifted and talented program and mathematics course placement practices at their school, what shapes their/others’ decisions in placing students, and how these educators perceive it shaping confidence, motivation, performance, and/or future decisions among both themselves and students. We are also seeking to situate these perceptions in the context of the educators’ beliefs and practices related to feedback, especially feedback that they deliver when teaching math (if applicable). Overall, we expect that this study will provide critical insight into how to support elementary schools in developing the most effective, motivationally-supportive gifted and talented programming, math course placement practices, and feedback practices for all students. | This semester (Fall 2026), we are collecting survey and interview data from teachers across two local elementary schools. Next semester (Spring 2027), we will analyze the teacher data and will also expand the scope of the current research to collect data from students at these schools. Therefore, the student research assistant will have opportunities to support quantitative and/or qualitative data analysis efforts, and/or will have opportunities to engage directly with our partnering schools. As a couple of examples of the latter, relationship-building is a very important part of our collaboration process. Therefore, there will be opportunities to meet with teachers/the principal and/or drop off snacks for teachers. There will also very likely be opportunities to support school-based data collection efforts among the PreK-5 students. Mentorship is very important to me in my work with students, and I have an active research lab with undergraduate and graduate student members. The student would thus also have an opportunity to attend monthly research lab meetings. Finally, if desired by the student, I would support them in submitting a conference proposal to present at the American Educational Research Association conference, which would be presented this April in Toronto, Canada (totally optional, but the opportunity is available if the student wants it!). |
| Victoria Mooers | v.mooers@ou.edu | Economics | Homebodies: The Decline of Nightlife in Cities | We document and explain a stark decline in US nightlife. We show this trend is robust across age, gender, and other demographics. We build a model of nightlife which distinguishes between preferences, technology, agglomeration externalities, and trip bundling between work and evening socialization. Leveraging detailed cell phone data as well as a long-running time use survey, we test which factors drive and exacerbate the decline. Our findings suggest that recent efforts to turn cities into nightlife centers face significant headwinds. | 1. Conduct and write up a literature review related to long-term trends in nightlife, possible drivers of these trends, impacts of the pandemic on these trends, how these changes have impacted cities, how cities are responding, and differences across cities. Some questions the literature review will cover include changes in whether people go out, who goes out, and where they go; whether changes in preferences or technology (e.g., the rise of food delivery, streaming services, and social media) have driven these trends; the interrelation between nightlife and commuting to city centers and the pandemic's impact on such trip bundling; and differences in city policies that may impact nightlife recovery differentially across cities. 2. Conduct and write up a literature review for a follow-on project focused on the spatial organization of nightlife in cities. This literature review will focus on the spatial organization of agglomeration economies. We are curious about how/whether the agglomeration externalities of nightlife cause its spatial organization to differ from other more classical industries. |
| Paul Brooks | jpbrooks@ou.edu | Industrial and Systems Engineering | Conjecturing for Interpretable AI | Machine learning methods can allow us to make accurate predictions from data but often do not reveal insight into the underlying relationships that generate those predictions. In this research, the student will apply a method for automated scientific discovery known as Conjecturing to datasets from biomedical and forensic science domains. The student will evaluate the method's ability to identify meaningful patterns and relationships in data and will contribute to ongoing methodological development by investigating techniques to recover known constants of proportionality and other established scientific relationships. | The student will attend weekly meetings with the faculty mentor and weekly lab meetings with other student researchers. They will apply the Conjecturing method to selected datasets, document and analyze results, and present findings to the research group. The student will design and conduct computational experiments using different parameter settings, evaluate the effectiveness of the method under varying conditions, and contribute to the development of new capabilities for discovering patterns in data. |
| Marshall Cheyney | marshall@ou.edu | Department of Health and Exercise | Qualitative Assessment of a smartphone app to address mental health in Black women who smoke | A multidisciplinary team has developed a smartphone app to improve mental health in Black women with HIV. We are initiating a small randomized controlled trial this fall which will continue into the spring semester. Our role is to assist in the recruitment of participants and conduct end-of-intervention interviews with participants. The team will then analyze the qualitative and quantitative data this spring and summer and submit a manuscript for publication. | the HRAP research assistant will assist with recruitment, assist in conducting online interviews, and assist in the analysis of qualitative data. The HRAP student will work as part of a multi-level team with researchers at OU and 2 other research institutions. Students will be trained in qualitative interviewing and qualitative data analysis. HRAP students will need to attend daytime meetings with the research team and complete IRB training and receive IRB approval prior to participation in the project. Students with previous experience with qualitative data analysis are encouraged to apply. |
| Elizabeth McElroy | elizabeth.mcelroy@ou.edu | First Year Experience | Measuring Religious Nationalism Around the World | This project aims to advance the scientific approach to measuring the nature and prevalence of religious nationalism (RN) around the globe. RN is broadly defined as a desire to fuse certain religious beliefs with a nation’s government, although the expression of RN is likely to take on somewhat different faces depending on the setting. My study is quantitative in nature and uses Pew’s cross-national data to compare the efficacy of their measures across contexts. An interested research assistant would support this project by conducting a literature review of the existing methods and meanings of RN measurement in varying global contexts. This collaboration would provide learning opportunities for the student through exposure to scholarly research on RN, guidance in how to conduct a professional literature review, structured mentorship, and the potential to pursue publishing co-authorship. | • Meet weekly with Dr. McElroy for project planning and updates. • Conduct a literature review regarding how various expressions of religious nationalism are measured around the globe. • Use PRISMA style strategies for literature review and documentation of findings. • Provide the results of the literature review to Dr. McElroy at the end of the HRAP assignment. |
| Heather Ketchum | Heather.R.Ketchum-1@ou.edu | School of Biological Sciences | Repellent Activity of Natural Non-Toxic Chemicals on the Gulf Coast tick and Lone Star tick | Arthropod vector-borne diseases have more than tripled between 2004 and 2016. More than 60% of these cases were tickborne. In Oklahoma, 90% of our vector borne diseases are caused by ticks. Since most tickborne diseases are caused by tick bites, reducing exposure is the best defense against tickborne diseases. There are only six EPA registered insect repellents recommended by the Center for Disease Control. Of those, N,N-diethyl-3-methyl benzamide (DEET) a synthetic chemical is the most commonly used however, its effectiveness varies across species, the duration of efficacy is no more than six hours, and there are concerns among the public about toxic effects. Other recommended natural or synthetic repellents have repellent properties and while they may repel ticks their duration of effectiveness is limited to one to two hours. With the lack of effective repellents and increase in tickborne diseases there is an increased interest in investigating novel natural products for tick repellency and duration of repellency. The objective of the current study is to evaluate the repellent activity of two natural products for control against cayenne ticks. | The student will be expected to read and analyze relevant literature, attend weekly lab meetings, assist with experimental design, conduct in vitro bioassays, assist with data collection and analysis, possess a growth mindset, and be willing to be part of an amazing research community consisting of a team of undergraduate students, Dr. Eric Bright, and Dr. Heather Ketchum. |
| Lilian Caesar | caesarl@ou.edu | School of Biological Sciences | Building a microbial culture collection to study eusocial bee microbiomes | Microbial communities (the microbiome) play important roles in host nutrition, development, immunity, and resistance to pathogens. These effects are also observed in bees, making the study of their microbiomes critical for understanding bee health while providing a valuable system for investigating fundamental principles of host-microbiome interactions. Much of what we know experimentally about bee-associated microbes, however, comes from a relatively small number of culturable bacterial symbionts isolated from the gut of the Western honey bee (Apis mellifera). Eusocial bee microbiomes extend well beyond bacteria and the adult gut: diverse microorganisms, including bacteria and fungi, are associated with different bee species, developmental stages and castes, as well as brood, food stores, and other hive compartments. The limited diversity of cultured microbes available for experimental studies constrains our ability to investigate this broader microbiome and its interactions with hosts and the hive environment. Our laboratory is uniquely positioned to address this gap. We maintain approximately 300 microbial isolates, along with additional samples for microbial isolation, collected from diverse eusocial bee species and bee- and hive-associated environments. This existing diversity provides a unique opportunity to establish a curated living culture collection representing microbial taxa, hosts, and ecological niches that remain underrepresented in experimental studies. Each isolate will receive a unique identifier and permanent stock linked to standardized metadata on host species, biological or hive origin, and cultivation conditions. 16S rRNA gene sequencing for bacteria and ITS/18S sequencing for fungi will establish or refine taxonomic identities, with selected isolates prioritized for long-read sequencing or whole-genome sequencing. The resulting collection will document the culturable microbial diversity associated with eusocial bees and, importantly, provide living organisms for experimental research. By expanding the taxonomic, host, and ecological diversity of microbes available in culture, this resource will enable future studies of microbiome function, ecology, and evolution, including microbe-microbe and host-microbe interactions and their consequences for bee health. | The student research assistant will be responsible for establishing and characterizing a living culture collection of eusocial bee-associated microorganisms. The student will receive training in the relevant microbiology and molecular biology techniques and will be responsible for isolating and cultivating bacteria and fungi from existing samples, recovering existing isolates, assessing culture purity, evaluating and documenting growth conditions, and preparing permanent frozen stocks. The student will also be responsible for the molecular and taxonomic characterization of isolates, including DNA extraction, PCR amplification of taxonomic markers (16S rRNA genes for bacteria and ITS/18S for fungi), preparation of samples for sequencing, and analysis of sequence data to establish or refine taxonomic identities. Selected isolates may also be prepared for long-read or whole-genome sequencing. An important component of the project will be the organization and traceability of the culture collection. The student will assign unique isolate identifiers and maintain standardized records linking each culture to its bee host, biological or hive origin, cultivation conditions, taxonomic identification, sequencing data, and physical location within the collection. Through these responsibilities, the student will gain hands-on experience in microbiology, molecular biology, microbial taxonomy, sequence analysis, and scientific data management. The student will also examine the taxonomic and ecological diversity represented in the collection and help identify isolates of interest for future studies of microbial function, microbe-microbe interactions, and bee-microbe interactions. |
| Daniel Becker | danbeck@ou.edu | School of Biological Sciences | Blood-borne pathogens in migratory bats | This project is assessing how long-distance migration influences the blood-borne pathogen communities of migratory bats, including the Mexican free-tailed bat (Tadarida brasiliensis) here in Oklahoma and the lesser long-nosed bat (Leptonycteris yerbabuenae) in Mexico; these bat species are the state bat of Oklahoma as well as Texas and the "tequila bat", respectively. Our group is interested in how migratory movements affect the kinds of blood-borne pathogens these bats carry, including but not limited to Bartonella, hemotropic Mycoplasma, Trypanosoma, Borrelia, and Rickettsia. | The student will assist with extracting DNA from blood samples, conducting PCR and gel electrophoresis, preparing amplicons for Sanger sequencing, and working with DNA sequence data. The student will also have opportunities to learn data analysis using the R software package. |
| Sanna Pederson | spederson@ou.edu | Music | Information from the book on the late Beethoven Quartets by Ivan Mahaim | Ivan Mahaim published the two-volume book Beethoven: Naissance et Renaissance des Derniers Quatuors (Paris: Desclée De Brouwer) in 1964. His project began as a crusade on behalf of Beethoven's controversial "Great Fugue," Op. 133. His study of its first performances expanded over thirty years of research to cover all the performances of the late quartets in Europe and the U.S. up to 1875. Because he was an amateur musicologist who wrote in French and published his work privately, the book has not reached a wide audience. But his cross-referenced indexes of people and places are more complete than the current authoritative reference sources and should be made accessible. There are also many hand-drawn charts, tables, and graphs. I propose to make a version of this information on my blog. I will use AI to modernize the appearance of the graphic illustrations and make the data more accessible in the form of spreadsheets. | The student will assist in making scans of the charts and re-designing them as graphic illustrations. My preference is for a student who is familiar with music, specifically Beethoven, and who is interested in the history of concert life. Knowledge of French would be a plus, but not necessary. The student will learn about scholarly research in the field of music history and how to present the results of research in an attractive and accessible way. The student will become familiar with digitizing print material, making graphic illustrations, and using the Wordpress platform. |
| Stephen Ellis | sellis@ou.edu | Philosophy | Evaluating Economic Development Programs using a Checklist | In a recent article, "Goal-Focused Approach to Evaluating Tax Increment Financing Projects" (Reaching Regions 2026), Ellis and Rogers created a checklist to guide policy makers. An extension of the article is to apply the checklist to evaluate economic development projects that have been approved by cities. In particular, were projects that followed the checklist more likely to success than those that skipped steps? To test this, we seek to create a set of case studies of economic development programs that have been approved. The assessment would entail reviewing the project documents, public meetings minutes, and supporting project materials used in the decision-making process to see if all the steps on the checklist were followed. | Students would do the following - help identify cases to analyze, - gather relevant documents - project plans, meeting minutes, impact studies and reports - analyze whether the steps on the checklist were followed. We would start with projects in Bethany, Oklahoma, which were clear failures. |
| Jermaine Thibodeaux | jthibodeaux@ou.edu | AFAM | The Long Lash: A Cultural and Carceral History of the Whip in America | The Long Lash: A Cultural and Carceral History of the Whip in America argues that the whip did not die with slavery but was deliberately rebuilt and repurposed after emancipation as a technology of both personal domination and state governance, one that sorted pain along lines of race and gender from the antebellum plantation to the court decisions and legislative repeals that ended penal whipping in the 1960s and 1970s. Treating the whip as an object of analysis rather than mere evidence of brutality or American sadism, this book project bridges histories of slavery that largely close in 1865 and carceral histories of convict leasing and penal farming, extending my termed concept of the "agro-carceral state" from the Texas cane fields to a wider national frame. Three questions drive this project: who made and profited from the whip, who wielded and received it under the state's regulatory eye, and how Black Americans narrated, resisted, and remembered it. Those questions carry the story of the whip from the factories of Westfield, Massachusetts, the self-styled "Whip City," to southern penitentiaries, where rules fixing the length, weight, and number of licks/lashes converted intimate violence into administrative procedure. Drawing on slave narratives, penitentiary conduct registers, legislative investigations, Delaware's whipping-post debates, the Black press, prison work songs, and federal cases such as Jackson v. Bishop (1968), the book names and fully accounts for the people recorded in punishment ledgers, reads their testimony as a counter-archive, and extends into disability history and the whip's entanglement with sexuality and the erotic. | The student researcher will help build a primary source database of slave narratives, 19th-century newspaper accounts, paintings, and graphic images related to the whip. They will also build a dataset cataloging 19th- and 20th-century laws governing corporal punishment, with a particular focus on the whip. If time permits, the student researcher will also pull scenes from popular American films, song lyrics, and other elements of popular culture that reference this particular tool of domination and spectacular violence (and even eroticism in some capacity). |
| Julianna Kershen | jkershen@ou.edu | ILAC | American Literature and Primary Sources | This will be the second semester continuance of this project. This focused research project contributes to a larger scholarly endeavor examining the curation and pedagogical use of primary source materials—photographs, fine art, oral histories, music, and other cultural artifacts—in relation to selected works of American literature. The broader project, supported by Dr. Julianna Kershen’s Junior Faculty Fellowship, aims to develop a three-chapter scholarly book proposal for submission to academic publishers by December 2026. The undergraduate research assistant funded through HRAP will play a key role in a targeted phase of this research: identifying, selecting, and curating historically accurate and compelling primary sources that illuminate Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun and Toni Morrison’s Nobel Prize–winning novel Beloved. Working with the digital collections of the Library of Congress and the National Archives, the student will curate a set of approximately 30 primary source materials across multiple modes, including visual, textual, and audiovisual artifacts. This curated archive will support Dr. Kershen’s scholarly writing and analysis by enriching literary interpretation with historically grounded cultural context. Through this work, the student researcher will gain hands-on experience with qualitative research methodologies, including archival research, visual and multimodal analysis, and scholarly curation practices, while contributing meaningfully to an ongoing faculty-led research project. This project will introduce the student researcher to theoretical concepts of new materialsm, critical literacy, and critical empathy. | The Undergraduate Student Research Assistant will support Dr. Julianna Kershen’s research through the following responsibilities: Conduct guided archival research using the online collections of the Library of Congress and the National Archives. Identify, evaluate, and curate approximately 30 primary source materials each (e.g., photographs, fine art, oral histories, music, and cultural documents) connected to A Raisin in the Sun and Beloved. Assess materials for historical accuracy, relevance, and interpretive value for literary analysis. Organize and document curated materials with appropriate metadata and brief explanatory annotations. Participate in weekly check-in meetings with Dr. Kershen to discuss progress, research strategies, and questions. Develop foundational skills in qualitative research methods, including visual analysis, multimodal interpretation, and archival research practices. Contribute to the supplementary research infrastructure supporting a faculty book project intended for publication. The student research assistant will be an integral collaborator in the research process, gaining valuable mentorship and research training while supporting a sustained, publication-oriented scholarly project in American literature. |
| Anat Belasen | abelasen@ou.edu | School of Biological Sciences | Leveraging museum specimens to examine historical Oophidiomycos ophidiicola infections in Oklahoma snakes | How do pathogens emerge and spread? Multiple fungal pathogens have recently emerged in North America and threaten a variety of important animal groups, including bees, birds, amphibians, and reptiles. Ophidiomyces ophidiicola (Oo) is a recently emerged fungal pathogen that causes ophidiomycosis in snakes, and has been implicated in disease outbreaks and declines in snakes in many parts of the US. While recent studies suggest that Oo was introduced in Texas in the 1940s and then spread through snake populations, we currently do not know the history of infections or spread in the rest of the Great Plains region. This research project will leverage snake museum specimens housed at the OU Sam Noble Museum of Natural History to examine historical Oo occurrence over space and time in Oklahoma. We will examine snake specimens for signs of infection, test them for the presence of Oo DNA using quantitative PCR, and analyze the data to evaluate how the pathogen emerged and spread across the state over the last century. This will provide the basis for future fieldwork to examine the distribution and impacts of Oo in Oklahoma snakes. | The HRAP student will participate in laboratory research activities with other team members, including undergraduate students, graduate students, and museum and laboratory research staff, during the Spring 2027 semester. This will include screening preserved snake specimens for signs of Oo infection, collecting swab samples for molecular detection work, performing DNA extractions and qPCR assays on the swab samples, and participating in data analysis. The student will have the opportunity to learn: 1. The threats reptiles face and the role of disease in broader wildlife population resilience. 2. How to design and carry out disease ecology research that integrates observational, laboratory, and analytical work. 3. Research skills including data collection, species identification, and collection of swab samples. 4. Laboratory skills, including DNA extraction, qPCR, and maintaining research databases. 5. Data analysis and professional science communication skills, including summarizing and modeling disease detection data, working with collaborators, and presenting scientific results in writing and oral presentations. |
| Stacey Hitchcock | stacey.hitchcock@ou.edu | Meteorology | In Situ Observations of Vertical Velocity in Storms | Updrafts and downdrafts are fundamental to deep convection. Together, they influence effectively every aspect of a storm, from the dynamics how storms are organized, how they move, and hazard production (i.e. tornadoes, wind, hail, etc.), to cloud microphysical processes and turbulence. Despite this, much of what we understand about updrafts and downdrafts comes from numerical simulations because it is difficult to collect observations of vertical velocity. However, occasionally radiosonde observations from field campaigns dedicated to understanding various aspects of storms coincidentally (or intentionally) end up sampling updrafts/downdrafts. This project aims to compile observed sounding data from past field campaigns, identify soundings that may have sampled updrafts/downdrafts, and perform statistical analysis on vertical velocity data. There may also be an opportunity for case study analysis if time permits. | Student will download raw data from publicly available archives and process the data to remove obvious issues using some provided code and code produced on their own. The student will work with the advisor and collaborator(s) from the National Severe Storms Laboratory to develop hypotheses and perform analyses to test them. If there is time remaining and the student is interested, there may be an opportunity for a more in depth analysis of a case of interest. The processing methods and analysis techniques will lay the groundwork for future efforts to expand the observed vertical velocity dataset created through this project. |
| Stacey Hitchcock | stacey.hitchcock@ou.edu | Meteorology | ‘Shooting the Gap’: How often do planes fly between thunderstorms? | Current Federal Aviation Administration guidelines recommend that pilots avoid thunderstorms by at least 20 mi (32 km) and to circumnavigate entire areas with more than 6/10 coverage (by storms). However, operational considerations (fuel, tight schedules, etc.) mean that in practice, it is not unusual for pilots, route planners, and air traffic controllers for look for potential paths between storms. In an ongoing study of severe turbulence in one of these ‘gap’ regions, we’ve found that dynamical processes unique to the region that may actually increase turbulence risk compared to other near-storm locations. It’s not yet clear how often flights enter gap regions let alone how often the identified processes occur. This project would begin the process of identifying flights through gap regions and the severity of turbulence they experience and could include a case study if time permits. | The interested student would parse through images that include radar data and flight tracks to identify potential cases and document candidate cases and turbulence severity. Depending on the student’s coding abilities and external data permissions, there may be an opportunity to develop an algorithm to automate the process. The student will work with the advisor to develop hypotheses and determine appropriate analyses to test them. Analyses of how often flights enter gap regions, how often they experience severe turbulence, and when and where this occurs will be explored. The results of this work will help lay the groundwork for future efforts to expand analysis of flights between storms. |
| Andre Campelo dos Santos | andre.santos@ou.edu | School of Biological Science | Genomic analyses of immune-related mutations in Latin American and Native American populations | Genomic mutations in Toll-like receptor (TLR) genes have been linked to infectious, inflammatory, and autoimmune diseases. Yet most genomic studies have focused on populations of European, African, or East Asian ancestry, leaving Native American and Latin American populations largely understudied. In this project, DNA data from Native American and Latin American populations sequenced in the scope of the 1000 Genomes Project and the Simons Genome Diversity Project will be scanned to identify mutations (or variants) along the whole TLR gene family. Then, the frequencies of those variants will be compared across different populations, exploring their relationship to ancestry, and checking public databases for relevant health conditions associated with the mutations. As a computational project, no lab experience is needed, and a personal computer can be used to learn the bioinformatics tools required to analyze and visualize genomic data and results. This project will be conducted at the Laboratories of Molecular Anthropology and Microbiome Research at the University of Oklahoma, where the sponsoring faculty serves as Associate Director. | With appropriate training and oversight, the Student Research Assistant will: Learn basic bioinformatics pipelines that include computational tools for genomic data analysis. Practice basic data visualization and statistical analyses under guidance. Participate in weekly meetings to discuss project updates. Receive training in ethical handling of human data and sensitive historical contexts. Develop and practice critical thinking and research skills. |
| Sarah Guthery | sarahguthery@ou.edu | Education Leadership and Policy Studies | The Economics of Teaching: An Interactive Dashboard of Teacher Pay and Benefits | Summary/Abstract This project develops an interactive “Teacher Compensation Report Card†dashboard modeled on the evaluative framework of the NFL Players Association’s 2023 Team Report Cards, which were designed to inform player decision-making by systematically rating workplace conditions across organizations. Adapting this approach to education, the dashboard will support graduating teachers entering the workforce, as well as current educators considering a move between districts, by providing clear, comparative information on compensation and working conditions. The dashboard will aggregate and rate 415 school districts in Oklahoma across key dimensions of teacher compensation, including salary schedules, health and retirement benefits, paid leave, holidays, and workload-related policies. Districts will receive standardized “grades†(e.g., A–F) across categories, as well as composite scores reflecting overall compensation quality. These ratings will be derived from publicly available data and, where feasible, supplemented with teacher-reported information to capture both quantitative and experiential aspects of compensation. Designed as both a decision-support tool and a transparency mechanism, the dashboard will allow users to compare districts within the state, examine trade-offs between salary and benefits, and identify positions that align with their professional and personal priorities. By translating complex compensation systems into accessible, user-centered ratings, the project aims to reduce information barriers and improve labor information for early-career teachers. This project leverages the NFL evaluative model and adapts it to empower educators with actionable labor market information while encouraging districts to strengthen compensation structures and improve teacher recruitment and retention. | The Honors Research Assistant (HRA) will continue helping me develop a Teacher Compensation Report Card dashboard for 415 school districts in Oklahoma. Responsibilities include helping define and collect key variables (e.g., salaries, benefits, leave policies), gathering and organizing data, and contacting districts to request information. The HRA will also assist in building the initial dashboard and ensuring data accuracy. The final product will be presented to graduating teachers for feedback, and the HRA will help me refine the dashboard based on feedback from students looking for their first teaching job. This fall we have started data collection, and are in process of adding 2 SEC schools who are also working on a similar project in their home state. |
| Carrie Leslie | carriemcleslie@ou.edu | Geography & Environmental Sustainability | Environmental Health and Disproportionate Exposure - JFK Neighborhood | Environmental urban health inequalities persist nationally and locally for underserved communities due to proximity to industrial areas. Communities exposed to air pollution experience disproportionate health disparities. The JFK Neighborhood in Northeast Oklahoma City lives with an unequal exposure to air pollutants due to nearby industrial facilities. I practice community-engaged research and have partnered with the JFK Neighborhood Association for the past four years. I have created a health survey for distribution but would like to work on increasing the number of survey respondents. Attending community events and working on meeting with neighbors at monthly neighborhood association meetings will be a part of this project, as well as, analyzing the survey data in order to provide meaningful findings for the JFK Neighborhood Association. | Student Research Assistant Responsibilities include organizing survey data from Qualtrics, learning how to do thematic coding analysis of prevalent survey response patterns, and creating an infographic or visual report of the findings to share with the JFK Neighborhood Association Interest in community-engaged research; service-learning; and disproportionate environmental health outcomes Have talked with Marscella Ling about working together |
| Jayash Paudel | jayash.paudel@ou.edu | Economics | Nitrate and early-onset colorectal cancer | The project aims to answer a policy-relevant question: Does drinking-water nitrate below the regulatory limit cause colorectal cancer, and can it account for part of the rise in early-onset cases? Colorectal cancer incidence in adults under 50 has risen in a clean cohort pattern starting with people born around 1950. Those are the first cohorts to drink water recharged after synthetic nitrogen use began scaling. The epidemiology linking nitrate to colorectal cancer is credible but observational. This project aims to build an empirical model to evaluate the causal linkage between nitrates in water sources and cancer incidence in the US. | Responsibilities involve conducting comprehensive literature review and data visualizations. The student will learn to develop analytical and communication skills. There is scope for a potential writing assignment which can be used to co-author an opinion piece to be sent to newspapers, and a long-term academic paper. Students are not expected to have prior quantitative research background, and students from all disciplines are welcome to apply! |
| Emily Burns | emily.burns@ou.edu | SoVA | Generating Social and News Media on Art of the American West | The Russell Center for the Study of Art of the American West is a research center supporting conversations and research about representations of the American West, both as place and myth. Named after Montana painter of "cowboys and Indians," Charles M. Russell, we are located in a beautiful gem-like building on Boyd and have great resources, but are little known in the OU community and in Norman. This project focuses on learning about our collections, archives, events and activities, and generating content for social media and news media outlets related to these to help expand awareness about the Russell Center and to facilitate wider use and visibility for the Center. The work is ideal for students in art and art history; design; public relations; media studies; and related disciplines. | brainstorming social and news media outlets and topics researching Russell Center collections and topics on the Art of the American West to share designing posts and developing press releases facilitating Russell Center news outreach on campus and in the region |
| Tingting Gu | Tingting.Gu-1@ou.edu | School of Biological of Sciences | Tissue-Specific Distribution of Microplastics in Human Cadaver Tissues | Microplastics (MPs) are pervasive environmental contaminants that have been detected in human blood, brain, lungs, kidneys, and other organs. While growing evidence suggests that MPs can accumulate throughout the human body, little is known about how particle burdens vary among different tissue types or whether certain organs preferentially accumulate microplastics. Understanding tissue-specific distribution patterns is critical for identifying potential exposure pathways, biological barriers, and target organs that may be vulnerable to microplastic accumulation. This project will investigate the distribution of microplastics across multiple human cadaver tissues, including brain, muscle, lymphatic, glandular, and other soft tissues collected from multiple donors. Tissue samples will be processed using a standardized microplastic recovery workflow involving tissue digestion, filtration, fluorescence staining, and microscopy-based analysis. Recovered particles will be quantified and characterized based on abundance, size, morphology, and fluorescence properties. By comparing multiple tissue types within and across donors, the project aims to identify patterns of microplastic distribution and determine whether specific tissues consistently exhibit higher particle burdens. The study will generate one of the first datasets comparing microplastic burdens across a diverse set of human tissues collected from the same individuals. Findings will improve understanding of the biodistribution of environmental microplastics in the human body and provide important preliminary data for future studies investigating mechanisms of particle accumulation and potential health effects. The project will also provide undergraduate researchers with hands-on experience in environmental health research, microscopy, image analysis, data management, and human tissue-based investigations. | The Honors Research Assistant will assist with laboratory processing and analysis of human cadaver tissue samples to quantify microplastics. Responsibilities include tissue sample preparation, tissue digestion, filtration and recovery of microplastic particles, fluorescence staining, microscopy imaging, and image-based particle quantification. The student will help characterize recovered particles based on abundance, size distribution, morphology, and fluorescence characteristics using established laboratory workflows. The student will also organize microscopy images and datasets, perform preliminary image analysis, maintain detailed laboratory records, and assist with quality assurance and contamination control procedures. In addition, the student will contribute to literature reviews related to human microplastic exposure and biodistribution, summarize findings for the research team, and assist with preparing figures and results for presentations and manuscripts. Through this experience, the student will gain hands-on training in tissue processing, environmental contaminant analysis, fluorescence microscopy, quantitative image analysis, and scientific data management. The student will develop interdisciplinary research skills at the interface of environmental health and biomedical sciences while contributing directly to generating novel data on tissue-specific microplastic accumulation in humans. |
| Joey Williams | jwilliams@ou.edu | Classics and Letters | Archaeological Research on the Pian di Mealla, Umbria, Italy | The Archaeological Reconnaissance Ficulle (ARF) project returned to the field in 2025 to complete its third season of excavation (June 1-28). Launched in 2023, ARF is an international, multi-institutional collaboration between the Comune of Ficulle, Soprintendenza Archeologia, Belle Arti e Paesaggio dell'Umbria, Dr. Claudio Bizzarri (project manager), Dr. Sue Alcock (scientific director) and Dr. Joey Williams (lab director) at the University of Oklahoma, and Dr. Rhodora G. Vennarucci (field director) at Denison University. ARF is structured as a hybrid field- school and research project, whose main aim is to train undergraduate students in archaeological excavation methods and techniques while exploring the dynamics of the Etruscan-Roman site at Pian di Mealla in Ficulle (Terni), Umbria. In this stage of the research, we seek to publish the report on our work on the Pian di Mealla, serving as the culmination of our fieldwork there. | The student will help with the preparation of the manuscript to be submitted to the journal "FASTI Online." This will include editing the text, helping with the creation of figures and graphs, and analyzing materials from our archaeological database. The student will also work on LiDAR and GIS data with project researchers to identify targets for additional investigation in future seasons of fieldwork. |
| Farina King | farinaking@ou.edu | Native American Studies | Trails from Native America to Italy | This project explores the histories of Native American and Indigenous people connected to Italy, including World War II soldiers, performers, and artists. Through archival research and accessible biographical profiles, it situates their experiences within their Native Nations, homelands, and broader historical contexts. The research will support a digital public humanities resource (storymap) for students, educators, and community audiences while challenging stereotypes and centering Indigenous perspectives. Dr. King is also co-editing an edited volume based on this research with contributions from different authors. | Under Dr. Farina King’s mentorship, the student will investigate selected individuals or topics using archival collections, newspapers, and scholarly sources, especially of Native American soldiers who fought in Italy during WWII; organize research notes and citations; and draft brief profiles for public audiences. The student may also help prepare images, geographic information, and other materials for digital presentation. Responsibilities will emphasize respectful documentation of community affiliations, protection of sensitive knowledge, and regular progress discussions. The scope and expected contributions will be tailored to the HRAP appointment and the student’s interests and experience. |
| Susan Schroeder | susan.schroeder@ou.edu | School of Biological Sciences, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry | RNA Plant Stress Response and Nanopore Data Analysis | RNA (Ribonucleic Acid) helps plants adapt to environmental stress. Changes in the amount and types of RNA as well as chemical modification of RNA messages fine tune gene expression. Direct RNA nanopore sequencing uses new technology and Al to identify changes in RNA profiles. The Schroeder lab is using nanopore sequencing to study the ways that RNA helps plants survive stresses such as drought. Our team is looking for skilled computer science students to assist with data processing and analysis as well as adapting and developing machine learning techniques to improve the accuracy of identifying chemically modified nucleotides. We are looking for a motivated student with skills in python, scripting, and using OSCER. Familiarity with molecular biology and machine learning or Al techniques is desirable but not required. Curiosity and a good sense of humor are always appreciated in our applicants. Come join a great research team and discover the amazing ways that RNA boosts resilience. | 1. Learn RNA nanopore sequencing analysis workflows 2. Use computer skills in python and OSCER to analyze and process RNA nanopore sequencing data 3. Meet weekly with nanopore team, research group, and collaborators 4. Write summary report and present research results |
| Tim Filley | filley@ou.edu | DGES and GEOG | Exploring the Biogeochemistry of Oklahoma’s Grasslands: Student research in the new Center for Grassland Ecosystem Forecasting (CGEF) | The Center for Grassland Ecosystem Forecasting (CGEF) invites applications for a Summer 2027 undergraduate research position in soil stable isotope biogeochemistry, led by Dr. Tim Filley. CGEF investigates the spatial-temporal dynamics, carbon storage, and ecohydrological shifts in Oklahoma grasslands driven by land management and eastern redcedar (Juniperus virginiana) encroachment. As Oklahoma’s grasslands transition to eastern redcedar forests profound shifts in hydrology, soil organic matter, microbiology, wildfire threat, and biomass occur that cause significant impact the ecology and economy of Oklahoma. Understanding below-ground carbon turnover, nutrient cycling, and water source partitioning becomes vital for ecological forecasting and sustainable land management. This position offers an immersive research experience combining field sampling at long-term observational sites—such as the Kessler Atmospheric and Ecological Field Station (KAEFS)—with advanced laboratory analyses. The selected student will gain hands-on training in laser-based spectroscopic isotope instruments and isotope ratio mass spectrometry (IRMS). Working closely within a multi-institutional team alongside faculty, postdoctoral scholars, and graduate students, the fellow will measure stable carbon (d13C) and nitrogen (d15N) isotope signatures across plant, soil organic matter, and atmospheric flux pools. As part of CGEF’s undergraduate cohort program, the position includes professional development, data science training, and opportunities to present findings to regional stakeholders. The successful student will also have the opportunity for expanded work opportunity (up to 29.5 hr/week) in the summer and into the following fall through resources in the CGEF. | Multiple opportunities exist based on student background, interest, and capabilities. These include: Field Sampling & Environmental Monitoring: Participate in field collection campaigns across paired grassland and eastern redcedar plots at sites like KAEFS. Tasks include collecting soil core samples, plant litter, and fine roots, as well as sampling surface and soil profile CH4 and CO2 gas fluxes. Sample Preparation & Biogeochemical Fractionation: Perform physical and chemical separation of soil organic matter into particulate organic matter (POM), mineral-associated organic matter (MAOM), and water-extractable organic carbon (WEOC) fractions. Prepare plant, litter, and soil samples for elementary and isotopic quantification. Isotopic Instrumentation & Analysis: Receive hands-on instruction to operate laser-based cavity ring-down spectrometers and isotope ratio mass spectrometers (IRMS). Analyze 13C and 15N compositions across soil, gas, and water samples and manage the actual analysis of the materials on equipment in the Filley Biogeochemistry lab. Data Analysis & Synthesis: Assist in processing isotopic datasets to estimate soil organic carbon turnover rates and identify vegetation water sources. |
