48 UK undergrads to present at national research conference

LEXINGTON, Ky. (March 5, 2026) — Forty-eight University of Kentucky students will present their research at the National Conference on Undergraduate Research (NCUR) on April 13-15 in Richmond, Virginia.

NCUR is one of the largest events in the United States for undergraduate students to share their academic work with peers, faculty and professionals.

Students from various fields will present their research, showcase their work and engage with scholars. The conference features oral presentations, poster sessions and discussions, providing opportunities for academic and professional growth while highlighting undergraduate accomplishments.

The UK students taking part in NCUR this year include: 

• Anaya Ali, agriculture and biomedical technology senior and Lewis Honors College student; mentor: Carol Street, UK Libraries; “Give and Take: Dissecting the Paradoxical Difference Between Adoption and Retraction of Students’ Rights” 
• Akua Asamoah, public health senior and Lewis Honors College student; mentor: Adebola Adegboyega, College of Nursing; “Prenatal Experiences of Black American and Ghanaian Women: Provider-Patient Experiences and Interactions” 
• Alec Baird, social work senior and Lewis Honors College student; mentor: Kristel Scoresby, College of Social Work; “Teaching Disability Justice in Reproductive and Sexual Rights.” 
• Benitaah Basse, agricultural and medical biotechnology junior and Lewis Honors College student; mentor: Elizabeth Duncan, College of Arts and Sciences; “Testing the role of CBX3/HP1?? in radiation resistance” 
• Gabrielle Beacham, biology junior and Lewis Honors College student; mentor: Jake Ferguson, College of Arts and Sciences; “An Evaluation of Artificial Intelligence’s Classification and Detection Accuracy for Camera Trap Photos” 
• Maiya Bhandari, public health sophomore and Lewis Honors College student; mentor: Deirdre Dlugonski, College of Health Sciences; “Impact of a Family Physical Activity Intervention on Parent Self-Efficacy for Personal and Child Physical Activity” 
• Alex Blevins, computer engineering senior and Lewis Honors College student; mentor: Philip Lee, Stanley and Karen Pigman College of Engineering; “Engineering Ferroelectric Field-Effect Transistors for Artificial Intelligence-Enhanced Edge Computing Systems” 
• Owen Chesemore, English senior; mentor and Lewis Honors College student: Carol Street, UK Libraries; “Poems as Tour Guides: Uncovering Place During the Late 20th Century through Poetry” 
• Katie Christensen, agriculture and medical biotechnology senior and Lewis Honors College student; mentor: Harmonie Bettenhausen, Martin-Gatton College of Agriculture, Food and Environment; “Characterization of the barley microbiome through the malting process” 
• Sara Clark, neuroscience junior; mentor: Pooja Sidney, College of Arts and Sciences; “Negative Schemas and Relationships: How do Sexual and Romantic Relationships Affect Second Year College Students Mental Health and Academic Achievement?” 
• Allison Condra, anthropology and history senior and Lewis Honors College student; mentor: Zada Komara, Lewis Honors College; “The Theoretical Framework of North American Indigenous Archaeology and its Influence on the Field” 
• Tanisha Garg, neuroscience senior and Lewis Honors College student; mentor: Samir Patel, College of Medicine; “Hematological and Cytokine Changes in a Rat Model of Spinal Cord Injury Post-Sepsis Survival” 
• Sofia Gomez Gallo, neuroscience and biology senior and Lewis Honors College student; mentor: Anel Jaramillo, College of Pharmacy; “Alcohol Abstinence Effects on Anxiety-Like Behavior, Drinking Behavior, and BNST in Mice” 
• Erika Hartman, biology and anthropology senior and Lewis Honors College student; mentor: Carol Street, UK Libraries; “Wings of Change: The Audubon Society of Kentucky Amid Generational Shifts in Environmental Engagement” 
• Syd Jacobsen, public policy junior and Lewis Honors College student; mentor: Carol Street, UK Libraries; “Exploring the Role of Eugenics in United States Immigration Policy from 1924 to 2025” 
• CJ Jones, English and history junior and Lewis Honors College student; mentor: Amy Murrell Taylor, College of Arts and Sciences; “Never a Statue, Never a Story: The Unheard Tale of Kentucky’s Black Civil War Soldiers” 
• Leyna Lehenbauer, art history and art administration senior and Lewis Honors College student; mentor: Peter Wang, College of Fine Arts; “Tangible Memories: Ishiuchi Miyako’s Methods for Documenting Objects” 
• Natalie Lewis, art studio and art history senior and Lewis Honors College student; mentor: Anne-Frances Miller, College of Arts and Sciences; “Comparison of Traditional and Modern Mordanting in Natural Dyeing: Quantitative analysis of metal ion incorporation and contribution to resulting color;” mentors: Sophia Farmer and Alice Christ, College of Fine Arts; “Conflicting Functions: The USSR Impact on the Provenance, Conservation, and Display of Two Orthodox Russian Icons” 
• Kaden Mahoney, mechanical engineering senior and Lewis Honors College student; mentor: Julius Schoop, Pigman College of Engineering; “Physics-Based Constitutive Modelling of Plastic Deformation in Machining” 
• Graciela Martinez, environmental and sustainability studies senior and Lewis Honors College student; mentor: Carol Street, UK Libraries; “Barometers & Brushstrokes: Reimagining Lexington’s Historic Weather Records Through Art” 
• Spandana Mekala, agriculture and medical biotechnology senior and Lewis Honors College student; mentor: Pooja Sidney, College of Arts and Sciences; “Studying with Music: A Behavioral Analysis of Music on Individual Attentiveness During a Stressful Task” 
• Nayeli Miller, political science senior and Lewis Honors College student; mentors: Cynthia Emami and Bridgett King, College of Arts and Sciences; “Exploring Campus Sexual Assault Through Photovoice” 
• Alani Moore, neuroscience junior and Lewis Honors College student; mentor: Daniel C. Lee, College of Medicine; “The Impact of Ornithine Decarboxylase 1 in Animal Models of Tauopathy” 
• Brayden Nichols, architecture senior and Lewis Honors College student; mentors: Rebecca McGrail, Martin-Gatton CAFE, and Lindsey Fey, College of Design; “Exploring soil remediation and its significance for site development” 
• Annointing Ogbewekon, biology senior and Lewis Honors College student; mentor: Terry Hinds, College of Medicine; “The Bioconversion of Bilirubin to Urobilin as a Potential Driver of Colorectal Cancer” 
• Dami Oladoyin, public health senior and Lewis Honors College student; mentors: Corrine Williams and Sarah Vos, College of Public Health; “Racial Differences in the Relationship Between Maternal Smoking, Cesarean Delivery, and NICU Admission” 
• Jenna Perkovich, anthropology and history junior and Lewis Honors College student; mentor: Valerio Caldesi Valeri, College of Arts and Sciences; “Roman Infrastructure and the Christian Narrative” 
• Gabriel Portugal, product design senior and Lewis Honors College student; mentor: Mitzi Vernon, College of Design; “Designing Transfers: Supporting the Transfer Learning Process for New Wheelchair Users” 
• Lainy Ramundo, human health sciences senior and Lewis Honors College student; mentor: Kevin Pearson, College of Medicine; “Early-Phase Exercise Offsets High Diet Impacts Better Than Late-Phase Exercise in Female Mice” 
• Harper Ritchey, natural resources junior and Lewis Honors College student; mentors: John Grove and Edwin Ritchey, Martin-Gatton CAFE; “Lime and Phosphorus Interactions on Soil Phosphorus Availability” 
• Daryen Rodriguez-Saucedo, computer engineering junior and Lewis Honors College student; mentors: Chris Crawford and Jamie Woodworth, College of Arts and Sciences; “Mechanical Design of the Target Ladder for the BL3 Neutron Lifetime Experiment” 
• Matthew Sanders, agriculture and medical biotechnology senior and Lewis Honors College student; mentor: Tianyan Gao, College of Medicine; “Regulation of Wnt Signaling by Src-mediated Tyrosine Phosphorylation of LRP6 in Colorectal Cancer” 
• Margaret Sansoucy, English senior and Lewis Honors College student; mentor: Michale Genovese, College of Arts and Sciences; “Female Agency in Works by Elizabeth Gaskell” 
• Mary-Claire Schmidt, neuroscience senior and Lewis Honors College student; mentor: M. Paul Murphy, College of Medicine; “Exploring Sex and Age-related Amyloid Beta Accumulation in Sleep-Regulated Areas in an Alzheimer’s Disease APPxPS1 Knock-In Mouse Model” 
• Kayal Senthil, chemistry, anthropology and biological anthropology senior and Lewis Honors College student; mentor: Carol Street, UK Libraries; “Voicing Sapphism on Campus: An Oral History Project” 
• Shriya Shah, neuroscience junior and Lewis Honors College student; mentor: Pavel Ortinski, College of Medicine; “Effects of Psilocybin on Cognitive Flexibility Using a Naturalistic Attentional Set-Shifting Task in Rats” 
• Mani Shahzad, kinesiology and health promotion junior and Lewis Honors College student; mentor: John Genzel, College of Medicine; “Proteomic Changes in HDL following Spinal Cord Injury” 
• Anya Sharma, neuroscience and psychology senior and Lewis Honors College student; mentor: George Quintero, College of Medicine; “Plotting Parkinsons: Visualizing Motor and Non-Motor Symptoms on the MDS-UPDRS;” mentor: Luke Bradley, College of Medicine; “The Sound of Synthesis: Using Data Sonification as a Model for STEM Education in Molecular and Cellular Biology” 
• Jackie Skeeters, interiors junior and Lewis Honors College student and Lewis Honors College student; mentor: Jennifer Meakins, College of Design; “Reuse Room: Making Design Education More Sustainable and Equitable” 
• Allison Underwood, communication sciences and disorders junior and Lewis Honors College student; mentor: Luke Bradley, College of Medicine; “Reuse Room: Making Design Education More Sustainable and Equitable” 
• Aline Usanase, political science junior and Lewis Honors College student; mentor: Carol Street, UK Libraries; “Pioneering Justice: Prosecuting Genocide from Nuremberg to Rwanda” 
• Benjamin Velez, history and international studies junior and Lewis Honors College student; mentor: Carol Street, UK Libraries; “Dominance From Within and Abroad: U.S. and Russian Socio-Political Memory in the Aftermath of Nuremberg” 
• Emmerson Willhoite, natural resources and environmental sciences sophomore and Lewis Honors College student; mentors: Meredith Swallom and Hudson Koch, Kentucky Geological Survey; “Dominance From Within and Abroad: U.S. and Russian Socio-Political Memory in the Aftermath of Nuremberg” 
• Addison Witucki, neuroscience and psychology junior and Lewis Honors College student; mentor: Hiroshi Saito, College of Medicine; “Mitochondrial Dysfunction and Cognitive Impairment in Sepsis Survivor Mice” 
• Grace Yi, history and sociology senior and Lewis Honors College student; mentor: Carol Street, UK Libraries; “Lexington’s CORE Beliefs: How Local Kentucky Civil Rights Activists Considered Rises in Black Power and Radicalism, 1959-1970” 
• Maxwell Zengel, aerospace engineering senior and Lewis Honors College student; mentor: Carol Street, UK Libraries; “Regulating the Runway: Investigating the Effects of Kentucky Governmental Policies on its Aviation Industry and Projecting Future Outcomes” 

Learn more about the history of NCUR online.