Summer Undergraduate Research Awardees and Faculty Mentors

At Creighton, there are several ways undergraduates can be awarded funding for research.

One source is the Summer Undergraduate Research and Creative Fellowships (SURF) program, an undergraduate competition at Creighton hosted by the Center for Undergraduate Research and Scholarship (CURAS). It provides a $4,000 student stipend, summer campus housing discounts, and $500 in research supplies for student recipients.

More than 30 projects have been selected for the 2024 Summer Undergraduate Research and Creative Fellowship (SURF). See the list of awardees and faculty mentors.

College of Arts and Sciences Honors Program Summer Undergraduate Research Fellow

• Carly Nowoj, A Novel Interaction Between Proteins Involved in Nucleosome Assembly
  Faculty Mentor: Lynne Dieckman, PhD, associate professor in the College of Arts and Sciences

College of Arts and Sciences Dean’s Summer Undergraduate Research Scholars

• James Brainard, Enhancing Literacy: A Phonics Approach to After-School Reading Buddies Programs for Elementary Students
  Faculty Mentor: Maya Khanna, PhD, professor in the College of Arts and Sciences

• Lillian Calvin, The Role of Indigenous vs. Dominant Worldviews in Understanding How Resources are Shared in Namibia, Southern Africa
  Faculty Mentor: Jill Brown, PhD, professor in the College of Arts and Sciences

• Aniyah Durham, The Importance of “I” in Children’s Literature
  Faculty Mentor: Brooke Kowalke, PhD, assistant professor in the College of Arts and Sciences

• Ariana Elsden, Can Making Judgements of Learning Improve Learning of Foreign Language Vocabulary?
  Faculty Mentor: Amber Witherby, PhD, assistant professor in the College of Arts and Sciences

• Abigail Engle, Memorable Messages from Healthcare Professionals: Providing Supportive Communication to Patients Through Their Reproductive Health Journey
  Faculty Mentor: Amanda Holman, PhD, assistant professor in the College of Arts and Sciences

• Maddox Larson, Why Believe? Tracing the History of “Faith” in the Christian Tradition
  Faculty Mentor: Zachary B. Smith, PhD, associate professor in the College of Arts and Sciences

• Ariana Mondiri, Autonomous Humanoid Robotics in Unstructured Environments: Enhancing AiNex's Precision in Ball Kicking with Deep Learning Algorithms
  Faculty Mentor: Steven Fernandes, PhD, assistant professor in the College of Arts and Sciences

• Catherine Nikodem, Evaluating Retatrutide as a Novel Treatment for Substance Abuse
  Faculty Mentor: Vanessa Minervini, PhD, assistant professor in the College of Arts and Sciences

• Nina Rehfeldt, Addressing Hunger: Examining a Local Food Pantry Using Rhetorical Field Methods and Cluster Analysis
  Faculty Mentor: Erika Kirby, PhD, professor in the College of Arts and Sciences

• Paige Saluri, Influence of Flower Number and Diameter on Pollinator Visitation, Nectar Production, and Pollen Production
  Faculty Mentor: Mackenzie Taylor, PhD, associate professor in the College of Arts and Sciences

• Emma Stenner, Baths to Businesses: An Analysis of the Industrial Repurposement of Ancient Roman Bath Buildings at Antiochia ad Cragum
  Faculty Mentor: Erin Averett, PhD, professor in the College of Arts and Sciences

• Cleo Zagurski, The Nebraska Women's Bill of Rights: An Interpretive Policy Analysis
  Faculty Mentor: Erika Kirby, PhD, professor in the College of Arts and Sciences

Dr. and Mrs. Randolph Ferlic Summer Undergraduate Research Fellows

• Ayden Chavez, Effects of Klotho-deficiency on Cochlear Structure and Function
  Faculty Mentor: Gwendalyn King, PhD, associate professor in the College of Arts and Sciences

• Nicholas Fisher, The Effects of a Holistic Foot Muscle Training Program on Navicular Drop and Flatfoot
  Faculty Mentor: Dimitrios Katsavelis, PhD, associate professor in the College of Arts and Sciences

• Sarah Fujiwara, Formulating Probiotic Bacteria Supplements to Enhance Honey Bee Health
  Faculty Mentor: Carol Fassbinder-Orth, PhD, professor in the College of Arts and Sciences

• Daniel Griesemer, Exploring the Mechanisms of Mate Attraction in Horsehair Worms
  Faculty Mentor: Rev. John Shea, PhD, associate professor in the College of Arts and Sciences

• Anjali Jayan, Structural Analysis and Binding Specificity of the OAZ RNA in Mouse
  Faculty Mentor: Juliane Strauss-Soukup, PhD, professor in the College of Arts and Sciences, and vice provost of Research and Scholarship

• Nathan Jobalia, The Frequency, Mechanism, and Effect of Sex Chromosome Aneuploidy in Gastric Adenocarcinoma
  Faculty Mentor: Jun Xia, PhD, assistant professor in the School of Medicine

• Olivia Knox, Pollen Morphology and Distribution Across Three Butterfly Species
  Faculty Mentor: Mackenzie Taylor, PhD, associate professor in the College of Arts and Sciences

• Lukas Kocher, Innovation Toward Adaptive Neuromuscular Motor Response: A longitudinal Investigation of a Motor Learning Intervention for Adolescents with Cerebral Palsy
  Faculty Mentor: Kimberley Scott, DPT, PhD, assistant professor in the School of Pharmacy and Health Professions

• Kaden Luellman, A Shift Toward Precision Rehabilitation: Investigating How Repeated Practice Drives Improvements in Performance of Functional Transfers for Adolescents and Young Adults with Cerebral Palsy
  Faculty Mentor: Kimberley Scott, DPT, PhD, assistant professor in the School of Pharmacy and Health Professions

• Ameera Naif, Exploring Klotho's Role in Neurogenesis
  Faculty Mentor: Gwendalyn King, PhD, associate professor in the College of Arts and Sciences

• Logan Nourse, Identification of Cellular Factors that Regulate Susceptibility to HIV-1 Infection
  Faculty Mentor: Michael A. Belshan, PhD, professor in the School of Medicine

• Andrew Schlundt, The Effects of Lower Extremity Extrinsic Muscle Resistance Training on Navicular Drop and Flat Foot
  Faculty Mentor: Dimitrios Katsavelis, PhD, associate professor in the College of Arts and Sciences

• Kaitlin Smith, Solving the Structure of Proteins Essential for Gene Silencing
  Faculty Mentor: Lynne Dieckman, PhD, associate professor in the College of Arts and Sciences

• Emily Squires, Riboswitches as Novel Targets for Antibiotic Development
  Faculty Mentor: Juliane Strauss-Soukup, PhD, professor in the College of Arts and Sciences, and vice provost of Research and Scholarship

Suren and Madvi Gupta Endowed Fellowship

• Zach Onyszchuk, Synthesis of Photodegradable Quaternary Ammonium Compounds to Combat Antimicrobial Resistance
  Faculty Mentor: James Fletcher, PhD, professor in the College of Arts and Sciences 

The Dr. Richard J. Bellucci Undergraduate Research Fellowship

• Patrick Tran, Localizing Cisplatin-DNA Adducts in Murine Inferior Colliculus
  Faculty Mentor: Peter Steyger, PhD, professor in the School of Medicine

History Department Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship

• Declan Dunham, An Enlightened Expedition: Lewis and Clark and the Opening of the American West
  Faculty Mentor: Elizabeth Elliot-Meisel, PhD, associate professor in the College of Arts and Sciences 

• Emily Gaddy, Exploring Chinese Gender Roles Through Music: From Mao Zedong’s Cultural Revolution to Xi Jinping’s War on K-Pop
  Faculty Mentors: Elizabeth Elliot-Meisel, PhD, and Britta McEwen, PhD, both associate professors in the College of Arts and Sciences

College of Nursing Dean’s Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship

• Olivia Manning, A Health Acquired Pressure Injury (HAPI) Process Improvement
  Faculty Mentor: Tamara Lee Oliver, PhD, assistant professor in the College of Nursing