On Saturday, March 24, College of Arts and Sciences undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral students presented their original scholarly and creative works at the 28th annual Robyn Mathias Student Research Conference.

The research conference, funded in part by a generous grant from the late Robyn Rafferty Mathias, AU trustee and alumna. It provides a forum for College students to present their work before colleagues, faculty, and friends.

The 2018 winners are as follows:

Best Performance by an Undergraduate Student

Sergio Guerra Abril (mathematics and dance '19) Of Two Minds

Best Oral Presentation in the Social Sciences by an Undergraduate Student

Nathaniel Edenfield (economics '18) Economics, Perception, and Identity Politics in Fayette County, Pennsylvania

Best Oral Presentation in the Natural Sciences by an Undergraduate Student

Casey Culhane (biochemistry '18) A Versatile Biomass Derived Carbon Material as Catalyst for Oxygen Reduction Reaction

Best Oral Presentation in the Humanities by an Undergraduate Student

Sam Pond (literature '18) The Embodied Camera: Point Break, Gaze Theory and Homoeroticism

Best Poster in the Social Sciences by an Undergraduate Student

Bayadir Mohamed-Osman (public health '18)  Sudanese Health Professionals Perceptions of Health, Illness, and Quality Care

Best Poster in the Physical Sciences by an Undergraduate Student

Shams El-Adawy (physics and French studies '18) Visualization Tool for Particle Acceleration in Simulated Eruptive Solar Flares

Best Poster in the Life Sciences by an Undergraduate Student

Irena Volkov (neuroscience '18) Medical Tube Securing Bite Block

Best Oral Presentation in the Social Sciences by a Graduate Student

Robin Merse (MA candidate, economics) Legal Origins Theory: Applications to Inequality in Sub-Saharan Africa

Best Oral Presentation in the Natural Sciences by a Graduate Student. Shared Prize with the College of Arts and Sciences and the NASA District of Columbia Space Grant Consortium

Kathryn Asalone (PhD candidate, behavior, cognition, and neuroscience) Discovery of the First Germlin-restricted Gene by Subtractive Transcriptomic Analysis in the Zebra Finch Taeniopygia guttata

Best Poster in the Social Sciences by a Graduate Student

Naomi Stahl (PhD candidate, clinical psychology) The Impact of Cigarette Availability and Stimuli on Smoking Choice and Motivation

Best Oral Presentation in the Humanities by a Graduate Student

Amanda Chadbourne (MA candidate, art history) Ambrogio Lorenzetti's Allegory of Good Government frescoes and the Influence of Lucretius' De rerum natura

Best Poster in the Natural Sciences by a Graduate Student Shared Prize with the College of Arts and Sciences and the NASA District of Columbia Space Grant Consortium

Laura Blevins (PhD candidate, behavior, cognition, and neuroscience) Effect of Active Electrode Position on Brain Activation After Cerebellar tDCS