2025 Deans', Chancellor's and Steck Awards

Deans' Awards are granted to 50 of the most outstanding undergraduate research theses or projects completed during the current academic year, 10 from each of the academic divisions. Chancellor's Awards are granted to the the top three Deans' Awards projects in each academic division. Both awards recognize excellence in undergraduate research as evidenced through completed projects and theses. Each Dean's Award project particepant will receive a $100 award. Each Chancellor's Award project will receive a $500 award. The Steck Award is given to the most outstanding Chancellor's Award winning project. 

2025 AWARD RECIPIENTS

Each student or student team worked on a senior research or milestone project and is mentored by a UCSC faculty member, postdoc, graduate student, or researcher (noted in parentheses below). A committee in each division selects the Deans’ and Chancellor's Award recipients. Winners of the Chancellor’s Award are recognized as being one of the top 3 projects from each of the five Divisions. The winner of the Steck Family Award for outstanding research project will be denoted with an *


Arts Division

Dean's and Chancellor Award Winners

Ando, Kai (MERRILL): The Invisible Hands of Lisbon: The Black Africans That Kept The City Alive During The Renaissance. MentorConsuelo Endrigo-Williams

O'Leary, Gillian (JRLEWIS): Girl Blood, An Original Play. Mentor: Martin Chemers

Tran, Emily (KRESGE): Fruit Fashion. Mentor: dani wright


Dean's Award Winners

Goodman, Titus (PORTER): The Role of Social Media Strategies in Music Promotion. Mentor: Natasha V

Lagrange, Celeste (PORTER): Be Brave. Be Bold. Be a Woman in a Man's World. Mentor: Nina Treadwell

Nguyen, David(CARSON): (Screenplay) Mister Whale. Mentor: Martin Chemers

Pettigrew, Yousif (OAKES): 2 Compositions and Performances for Guitar Ensemble. Mentor: Christopher Mallett

Reyes, Prema (PORTER): Re-membering Self: Mis/recognition in the work of Adrian Piper. Mentor: Jennifer Gonzalez

Taylor, Annalie (JRLEWIS): Stone and Body. Mentor: Sarah Sanford

Villar, Ella (PORTER): Challenging Memorialized Whiteness: Statues, Memory, and Race. Mentor: Jennifer Gonzalez


Baskin School of Engineering

Dean's and Chancellor Award Winners

Chalamala, Megna (CARSON): Understanding the Instructive Effects of TPRX1 Splicing Variants during the Acquisition of Totipotency in Human Cells. Mentor: Ali Shariati

Hofkin, Aurora (NINE): Biochemical Characterization of Human Astrovirus 1 RNA-Dependent RNA Polymerase. Mentor: Rebecca Dubois

Rehman, Naomi (NINE): Incorrect-Path Prediction for Power Throttling Speculative Execution. Mentor: Heiner Litz


Dean's Award Winners

Chandrasiri, Samintha (COWELL), Nguyen, Brian (JRLEWIS), Polu, Tejas (JRLEWIS), Sud, Neo (COWELL), Wilson, Emil (NINE): Annota: Measuring The Impact of AI Feedback for QA Education. Mentor: David Lee

Gagnon, Delia (OAKES): Respiratory Syncytial Virus G Bound to a High-Affinity, Broadly Neutralizing Antibody to Inform Rational Vaccine Design. Mentor: Rebecca Dubois

Huynh, Kirsten (CROWN), Lui, Michelle (CROWN): Antibody Detection and Quantification of Group A Streptococcus. Mentor: Rebecca Dubois

Katreddi, Sriya (NINE), Pooskur, Prasiddh (JRLEWIS):“Who thought .zip was a good idea”: Analyzing Maliciousness in Newly-Released gTLDs. Mentor: Ram Sundara Raman

Petiwala, Zahra (CARSON): ReMiDi: Reconstruction of Microstructure Using a Differentiable Diffusion MRI Simulator. Mentor: Razvan Marinescu

Reyes, Clare (PORTER), Bautista, Jacob (CROWN), Benaryeh, Emmet (KRESGE), Bopparaju, Nivriti (COWELL), Duarte, Cesar (OAKES), Garcia, Joseph (PORTER), Krueger, Kendra (CROWN), Lai, Brenda (COWELL), Mahesh, Aurko (STEVENSON), Nandakumar, Vibitha (PORTER), Pillai, Monisha (CROWN), Sekula, Marshall (COWELL), Yankin, Daniel (PORTER), Yet, Zaden (MERRILL): UCSC iGEM 2024: Limnospira Inspired Foundational Technologies. Mentor: David Bernick

Vetha, Eric (CARSON): Improving Low-cost In-ground Soil Moisture Sensing System Using Backscatter Tags for Sustainable Agriculture. Mentor: Colleen Josephson


Humanities Division

Dean's and Chancellor Award Winners

Maher, Molly (PORTER): The ClubHouse. Mentor: Marc Matera

Nguyen, Sabrina (COWELL): Does Freedom Mean Free? Manumission, Marriage, and Public Perception in the Roman Empire. Mentor: Martin Devecka

Villar, Ella (PORTER): Beyond Occupation: Palestinian Solidarity Art and Futurity. Mentor: Iokepa Casumbal-Salazar


Dean's Award Winners

Amaya, Jonas (PORTER<): Phenomenal Consciousness in Complex Adaptive Systems under Panpsychism and the Integrated Information Theory of Consciousness. Mentor: Bruce Thompson

Ceron, Emmy (NINE): Bad Bunny: Music with a Purpose. Mentor: Elaine Sullivan

Eiger, Vairagya (KRESGE): Adorned in Exile: Algerian Jewish Jewelry as Memory, Identity, and Resistance. Mentor: Philip Groth

Larsen, Sophia (KRESGE): Calling God to the Podium: How the Ironies in the Book of Job Structure Modern Theistic and Absurdist Understandings of Faith, Justice, and Judaism. Mentor: Madhavi Murty

Robinson, Michael (MERRILL): From Bacchus and Midas Through Nationalism to Eroticism and Pop Art: How the Barberini Faun Has Been Shaped by Shifting Cultural Norms. Mentor: Alma Heckman

Sainz, Valerie (STEVENSON): Kateri Tekakwitha: Praise from the Pulpit, Power in the Pines (1626-1680). Mentor: Gregory O'Malley

Zimmerle, Mary (KRESGE): The English Mummy. Mentor: Elaine Sullivan


Physical & Biological Sciences Division

Dean's and Chancellor Award Winners

Gonzalez, Noe (CROWN): A Monte Carlo Study of Higgs Bosons Produced via Vector Boson Fusion in the Boosted Regime @ \sqrt{s} = 13.6 TeV. Mentor: Jason Nielsen

Subbotina Stephenson, Klaus (KRESGE): The Effects of Binary Reference Sources on JWST NIRCam Coronagraphy. Mentor: Andrew Skemer

Varga, Lukas (CARSON): Ancestral sequence reconstruction of vanadium dependent haloperoxidases. Mentor: Shaun McKinnie


Dean's Award Winners

Cecil, Annice (PORTER): Driving Forces of Diel Vertical Migration in Zooplankton from Alaskan Seagrass Beds. Mentor: Pete Raimondi

Garg, Stuti (NINE), Kollipara, Ishan (JRLEWIS), Murphy, Liam (PORTER), Svensson, Maya Diaz (CROWN), Weber, Alison (CARSON): A New Census of the Universe's Entropy. Mentor: Stefano Profumo

Kelly, Danielle (CARSON): Structural mapping of an immunodominant antigenic site on the Norovirus Protruding Domain Capsid. Mentor: Rebecca Dubois

Lindemuth, Emma (CROWN): Reconstruction of Lake Baikal Vegetation to 500 Ka using n-alkanes. Mentor: Pratigya Polissar

Moosman, Owen (STEVENSON): Mitigating assembly and switch errors in phased genomes of polar fishes reveals haplotype diversity in copy number of antifreeze protein genes. Mentor: Joanna Kelley

Nielsen, Lindsey (COWELL), Nielsen, Lindsey (STEVENSON), Seida, Ellie (CARSON), Shenasa, Amina (CROWN): Using acoustic indices to evaluate the soundscapes of kelp forest and urchin barren ecosystems in Sitka Sound, Alaska. Mentor: Pete Raimondi

Van Dorn, Sydnee (PORTER), Stoaks, Grey (CROWN), Gott, Gabriel (CARSON): Influences on Community Composition of Intertidal Seagrass in the Sitka Sound. Mentor: Pete Raimondi


Social Sciences Division

Dean's and Chancellor Award Winners

Bentley, John (KRESGE): The Dark Side of Development: The Acceleration of Genocide in Emerging Economies. Mentor: Kent Eaton

Fuster Tarrago, Blanca (CARSON): Reducing Provincial Disparities in Infant Mortality: A Difference-in-Differences Assessment of Plan Nacer’s Effectiveness. Mentor: Eleonora Pasotti

Venerable, Elyse (STEVENSON): Investigating the origins of the Oyo Empire war ponies in 17th century Nigeria using strontium isotope analysis. Mentor: Vicky Oelze


Dean's Award Winners

Dollman, Matthew (PORTER):Cuba’s Welfare Regime: Authoritarian, Universal, and Strained. Mentor: Sara Niedzwiecki

DeLucchi, Natalie (MERRILL), Carroll, Daelaigh (MERRILL): Fascist Social Policy: The Expansion of Social Insurance under Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany. Mentor: Sara Niedzwiecki

Mathura, Christopher (STEVENSON): One Guyana?: Evaluating Potential Symptoms of the Resource Curse and the Promises of Sustainable Development. Mentor: Flora Lu

Spry, Sophia (JRLEWIS): AI Driven Welfare Reform: Predictive Risk Models in New Zealand, Chile, and the US. Mentor: Sara Niedzwiecki

Tien, Chelsey (NINE): Caregiver's use of praise during a collaborative problem-solving task involving causal reasoning. Mentor: Su-hua Wang

Yu, Audrey (JRLEWIS): Language Effects on Parent-child Conversations About Human Traits. Mentor: David Menendez

Zalunardo, Vivian (STEVENSON):Addressing “Glazed Separateness”: Invisibility, Domesticity, and Resistance of Black Women in the Works of Toni Morrison. Mentor: Dean Mathiowetz