PULLMAN, Wash.–Washington State University’s Faculty Association for Scholarship and Research has presented its 21st annual Undergraduate Research Awards.
First-place award winners are Amanda Loftis of West Richland and Jennifer Parish of Benton City. Loftis’ work describing how specialized immune system cells function in cattle was guided by veterinary sciences faculty member William Davis. Parish, working in the laboratory of chemistry professor James Schenk, determined how the distribution of a brain chemical is altered by psychotropic drugs.
Second-place award winners were Amy Bowles of Lake Stevens, for her paper “Overpopulation and Population Policies of Three Developing Countries,” which was nominated by her instructor in political science, Israel Nandamudi; Wendell Faultersack of Redmond for his studies relating to causes of corrosion leading to failure of computer hard disks, under the guidance of physics faculty member Tom Dickinson; and Jim Roal and Eric Richman from the Tri-Cities, who devised a true airspeed indicator under the direction of faculty member Russell Westphal at the WSU Tri-Cities campus.
Third-place award winners were Justin Fischer of Pullman for his work on the structure and function of mutant proteins in bacteria under the guidance of Toshiko Ichiye, biochemistry/biophysics faculty member; Kim-Heng Chen and Tzu-Lin Chen for their paper “Singapore: Zurich of Asia,” nominated by finance faculty member Li-Ming Han; and the Landscape Architecture 362 class of Janet Silbernagel for its “ecologically sound design” for the Northwest Coastal Resources Center at Willapa Bay.
Honorable mentions were given to Lissa Davis for her study on the nutritional value of barley varieties for swine carried out under the direction of faculty member John Froseth, animal sciences, and to Tara Pearson, Federal Way; Kimberly Smith, Enumclaw; Kelly Scott, Eugene, Ore.; Lauren Truscott, Seattle; and Heather Reed, Kingston, for their paper on “Reproductive Issues and Family Planning Policies in China and India,” prepared for their political science class instructed by Janine Parry.
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