SUMMER 2019 NEVADA UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH OPPORTUNITY PROGRAM (UROP) SCHOLARS

The UROP program promotes intensive undergraduate research opportunities for university students. Through these research experiences, our goal is to enhance the recruitment and retention of undergraduates in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) disciplines, particularly those related to solar energy and its effects on water resources and the environment in general.
Summer research scholarships were awarded to 13 undergraduate students across the Nevada System of Higher Education (NSHE).  Thirty-five students from NSHE campuses applied to the Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program (UROP), funded by the Solar Energy-Water-Environment NEXUS in Nevada project, sponsored by NSF EPSCoR, IIA-1301726.  The awardees conducted 10-week summer research projects under the guidance of NSHE research faculty mentors.
Congratulations to the following students and their mentors:
2016-2017 Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program UROP, 2015-2016 Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program UROP
Maya Zawlodski, Nevada State College
–Photo by Kurt Regner

Nevada State College

Carlos Arambula-Quintero, Novel Synthetic Route For Rhodamine and Rosamine Fluorophores, Mentor: Zachary Woydziak
Nicole Benson, Fluorinated Dipyrrinones: Synthesizing a Library of Fluorescent pH Probes to Characterize Environmental Alkaliphiles, Mentor: Zachary Woydziak
Ryan Buenaventura, Effect of lnosine Hydrolase on Bacillus species Spore Germination, Mentor: Amber Howerton
Melanie Croft, Invisible Biodiversity of the Mojave Desert: Contribution of Biotic Crusts, Mentor: Jennifer Edmonds

University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Morgan Arias, Variation in leaf vein architecture across elevation within the hyper-variable woody genus Metrosideros on O’ ahu, Mentor: Elizabeth Stacy

Si Chen, Synthesis and Characterization of Room Temperature Liquid-Crystalline and Light Emitting Properties of Banana-Shaped Azomethine Compound, Mentors: Pradip Bhowmik and Haesook Han

Jonathan Covington, Probing the role of “Planoflexus” in plant matter degradation in geothermal springs, Mentor: Brian Hedlund

Dylan Durkee, Investigating semiconductor-to-metallic transition and superconductivity in Manganese Disulfide, Mentor: Ashkan Salamat

Sandy Haneefzai, Gene Involved in Rice Drought Tolerance, Mentor: Jeffrey Shen

Karlena Tyburski, Investigation of Perchlorate and Co-contaminant Reduction Using Zero Valent Iron, Mentor: Jacimaria Batista

University of Nevada, Reno

Crissey Cameron, Rational Design of Enterococcus faecalis GBAP Analogs for Further Enhancement of Quorum Sensing Inhibition and Activation , and Protease Stability, Mentor: Yftah Tal-Gan

Harold Murga, Understanding the role of bHLH transcription factors in the regulation of suberin biosynthesis and deposition in Arabidopsis thaliana, Mentor: Dylan Kosma

Alexandrea Kilgore-Gomez, Predictive factors of poor working memory performance in mild TBI and the role of working memory encoding, Mentor: Marian Berryhill