Four Jefferson Scholars receive Harrison Undergraduate Research Awards

Every year the Center for Undergraduate Excellence at U.Va. awards research grants to undergraduate students who plan to implement a significant research project in the coming year. This year 46 proposals, involving 48 students, were selected to receive a Harrison Undergraduate Research Award, which includes $3,000 and an opportunity to work under the guidance of a U.Va. faculty member. Among this year’s recipients are four Jefferson Scholars:

Jesse Han of Seoul, South Korea is the James G. Simmonds Memorial Scholar and a first-year physics-astronomy and math double major, who will participate in the Megamaser Cosmology Project, part of a collective effort to effectively encapsulate the spatially evolving universe – the study of space on its grandest scale.

Attiya Latif of Hagerstown, Maryland is the Hathaway Family Jefferson Scholar and a third-year political and social thought major with a minor in Middle Eastern studies, who is researching intersectionality in the Muslim female experience, exploring the subjective experiences of Muslim women through ethnographic interviews to assess the ways in which they categorize and rationalize their experiences with discrimination.

Megan Claire Routbort of Houston, Texas is the Nancy and Neal O. Wade Jr. Jefferson Scholar and a second-year English and prospective global environments and sustainability major, who is researching how the writings of John Muir can be used to inform future preservation and environmental policymaking efforts in the Yosemite region of California.

Benjamin Scott Winter of Little Rock, Arkansas is the William H.P. Young Jefferson Scholar and a third-year biochemistry and neuroscience major, who is researching neurons and the transport protein dynein, which carries various other cargos throughout the cell and is believed is play a major role in guiding neurons’ growth, in an effort to understand how organisms develop and possibly to repair damaged neural networks.

Read the UVA Today anouncement and learn about the 46 selected projects here.