Undergraduate Research Day 2025 and Excellence in Research Awards

On Wednesday, April 23, 2025, the Office of Undergraduate Research (OUR) hosted Undergraduate Research Day in the Stamp Grand Ballroom. More than 450 undergraduate students presented posters related to their scholarly and creative projects at the event, with 238 projects shared in total. Presenters represented a wide range of disciplines and UMD colleges, schools, and programs

OUR would like to express its gratitude to the undergraduate researchers who shared their work at the event and to the many UMD community members who attended the event and engaged presenters in spirited conversations about their work. We owe a particular debt of thanks to the evaluators for our Excellence in Research Awards, each of whom spoke with several students nominated for awards over the course of the event; we share a list of the award recipients below. The UMD community's enthusiastic engagement and support made the event's success possible.

Photos of the event are available in OUR's photo repository, and a subset of the posters presented at the event can be found in the Digital Repository at the University of Maryland's Undergraduate Research Day 2025 collection.

Excellence in Research Awards

During Undergraduate Research Day, evaluators for the Excellence in Research Awards engaged in conversations with students nominated by their faculty advisors for the awards. These awards recognize Undergraduate Research Day presenters who have undertaken projects that meaningfully advance key conversations in their field and who have demonstrated creativity and resilience in the research process and a strong capacity to communicate across fields.

We are happy to announce that the following students were selected for the 2025 awards:

• Laura Benvenisti '25, Psychology (Co-presenter, "A Tri-Factor Model of Relationship-Specific Intellectual Humility")

• Thea Angela Calahatian '26, Biological Sciences (Presenter, "eIF5A Hypusination Mediates Fibroblast Survival via Ubiquitination Proteins")

• Joanna Chang '26, Biological Sciences (Presenter, "Investigating Cytoneme-Mediated Targeted Signaling in Drosophila Development" and "Analyzing Trends in Inquiries to Improve Understanding of Cosmetics Laws")

• Daniel Chin '25, Biological Sciences (Presenter, "Investigating the Role of CHCHD4 in Cardiomyocyte Remodeling")

• Xiang Luo '26, Neuroscience (Presenter, "Mitochondrial Morphology in OFC Neurons During Incubation of Oxycodone Craving")

• Sophia Moore '25, Psychology and Human Development (Presenter, "Children’s Evaluations of Teacher Racial Bias in a Classroom Context"; co-presenter, "Maternal Depression, Youth Irritability, and Functional Connectivity During Reward")

• Roshni Pallavajjala '26, Bioengineering (Co-presenter, "Portable Sensor for One-Pot Ligation LAMP Assay to Detect microRNA Biomarkers;" presenter, "Engineering Doxycycline-loaded PLGA Nanoparticles for Lung Lymphatics Imaging")

• Anna Tovchigrechko '26, Psychology and Criminology and Criminal Justice (Presenter, "Collateral Consequences: How Students Perceive Peers with an Incarcerated Parent")

• Pantea Vafaei '26, Bioengineering (Presenter, "Protocol Development for Altering PEG Density on Nanoparticles")

  
  

We warmly congratulate the award recipients and all of the presenters and express our sincere thanks again to all who contributed to the event.