First Year Scholars 2024

Oregon State University
College of Agricultural Sciences, Marine Mammal Institute
 

• The Sheila & Mike Goodwin/OSU Endowment Scholar
• Taylor hopes to identify the drivers of grey whale mortality events and better understand the ecology in their Arctic feeding grounds and throughout their migration route.

University of Oregon
College of Arts & Sciences, Chemistry & Biochemistry
 

• ARCS Foundation Oregon Chapter Scholar
• Alexandra is working on the ptimization of an Fe-H catalytic system for the valorization of butadiene and ethylene, Ni-H catalyst mechanistic studies.

Oregon State University
College of Engineering, Chemical Engineering

• ARCS Foundation Oregon Chapter Scholar
• Kylee is interested in researching solar energy solutions and bioplastics (plastic materials produced from renewable biological materials) to reduce the use of fossil fuels for energy and material manufacturing. 

Oregon State University
College of Science, Physics
 

• The Jill V. Josselyn ARCS Foundation Oregon Chapter Scholar Award Endowment
• Mallory works to electrically stimulate immortal cell lines to see if they respond similarly to primary cell lines in hopes that we will find a way to create neural computing networks that are cheaper and less energy intensive than current computing hardware.

Oregon State University
College of Earth, Ocean, and Atmosphneric Sciences

• ARCS Foundation Oregon Chapter Scholar
• Peter hopes to improve the modeling of ocean mixing to advance our understanding of oceanic mixing and circulation to prepare for, mitigate, and help prevent the impact of climate change on the planet.  

Oregon Health & Science University
School of Medicine, Neuroscience Graduate Program

• The Caron & Larry Ogg/ OHSU Endowment Scholar
• Juliana is interested in studying evolutionarily conserved mechanisms of cell signaling in neurodevelopment and aging.

University of Oregon
College of Arts & Sciences, Human Physiology

• The Julie Branford and Diana & Steve Gordon Scholar
• Juliana wants to solve the discrepancies between women's health and exercise physiology. Little is known about how female athletes function physiologically compared to male athletes.

University of Oregon
College of Arts & Sciences, Biology
 

• The Jill V. Josselyn Endowment Scholar
• Brooke is interested in understanding how the microbiome contributes to health and development.

Oregon Health & Science University
School of Medicine, Neuroscience Graduate Program
 

• The Jonalyn Wallace and ARCS Foundation Oregon Chapter Scholar
• Promising recent advances in therapeutics for myocardial infarction have shown to promote a molecular response in the immune system from inflammatory to reparative. Alexa's focus is to identify the mechanisms that link the immune and nervous system responsible for restoring nerve tissue in the heart after heart attack.

University of Oregon
College of Arts & Science, Human Physiology
 

• The Kenda & Ken Singer/UO Endowment Scholar
• Rishi hopes to discover estrogen's role in the contractility of skeletal muscle to learn how muscles function in females during different life stages and enhance treatment efficacy.

Oregon State University
College of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences, Climate Change

• The Lara Ogg & Alexa Cunningham Scholar
• Vanessa will continue her research to understand the mechanisms behind the rapid melt rate of the LeConte Glacier in Alaska to improve the accuracy of glacial melt-rate predictions.

Oregon State University
College of Agricultural Sciences, Food Science

• The Beth Ray/OSU Endowment Scholar (Ed Ray)
• Cade is examining how wildfires affect hop quality. With 99% of all U.S. hops grown in the Pacific Northwest, he hopes to provide growers and brewers with strategies for smoke mitigation.

Oregon Health & Science University
School of Nursing

• The Joan Foley & Kathie Lasater Scholar
• Sophia's research focuses on pain perception and management, with the goal of developing pain management interventions based on circadian timing and the internal body clock.

Oregon State University
College of Engineering, Robotics

• ARCS Foundation Oregon Chapter Scholar
• Eva is excited to solve food system problems and address the labor shortage in agricultural work through automation improvements in robotics.

Oregon State University
College of Engineering, Artificial Intellegence

• ARCS Foundation Oregon Chapter Scholar
• Derek plans to develop practical, generalizable solutions to provide factual and trustworthy AI information to prevent misinformation and data leakage, allowing AI to aid in more complex tasks.

Oregon State University
College of Forestry
 

• The Nancy & Dodd Fischer/OSU Endowment Scholar
• Naia aims to discover better restoration and remediation processes to improve disease management in threatened Port Orford cedar stands.

Oregon Health & Science University
School of Medicine, Biomedical Engineering Graduate Program

• The Karen Irons Medicis Memorial Scholar
• Donors: Diane & Dick Alexander
• At Casey Eye Institute, Alexander will work on projects that directly benefit patients with various issues, including macular degeneration and diabetic retinopathy.

Oregon Health & Science University
School of Medicine, Biomedical Engineering Graduate Program

• The Barbara & Philip Silver/OHSU Endowment Scholar
• John plans to use a nanotechnology platform to deliver cancer and gene therapies locally, minimizing systemic side effects and improving patient outcomes.

Oregon State University
College of Agricultural Sciences, Marine Mammal Institute

• The Christine Whipple Farrington & Carl Farrington Scholar
• Emma works to address the impacts of offshore wind development and operation on marine mammal communication.

Oregon State University
College of Science, Biochemistry & Biophysics

• ARCS Foundation Oregon Chapter Scholar
• Sarah is working on characterizing the structure and function of large, complex ion channels found in neurons that are important for sensing environmental stimuli such as pain, touch, and osmolarity (water sensing).

Oregon State University
College of Engineering, Civil & Construction Engineering

• The Elizabeth & Christopher Bell Scholar
• Annabelle focuses on addressing concrete's high costs and environmental impact to reduce costs and enhance concrete's durability and sustainability. 

Oregon State University
College of Agricultural Sciences, Environmental & Molecular Toxicology

• ARCS Foundation Oregon Chapter Scholar
• Mireia is working on where per-and poly-fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) end up in the environment, the sources of PFAS, and how they impact organisms.

Oregon Health & Science University
School of Medicine, Graduate Program in Biomedical Sciences

• The Sharon C. Hewitt/OHSU Endowment Scholar
• Catherine's goal is to be part of the research expanding our knowledge base of different cancers and uncovering routes to better cancer treatment options.

Oregon Health & Science University
School of Medicine, Graduate Program in Biomedical Sciences

• The 10th Anniversary/OHSU Endowment Scholar
• Tess is trying to understand the RNA-binding protein HuR in pancreatic cancer.

Oregon State University
College of Engineering, Mechanical Engineering

• The Kathleen Ames/OSU Endowment Scholar
• Grace will be working on human-robot interactions and the direct benefits of robots in the workplace or at home to help in manufacturing, production, and at home.

Oregon Health & Science University
School of Nursing
 

• The Barbara Giesy/OHSU Nursing Endowment Scholar
• Michelle has a degree in Nurse Midwifery from OHSU. Her PhD research addresses fetal malposition and labor biomechanics with the goal of improving labor outcomes and reducing invasive interventions.

Oregon State University
College of Science, Statistics
 

• The Lynne & David Bangsund Scholar
• Trent plans to work at the intersection of statistics, environment, and public health and combine my experience in bioinformatics and epidemiology with my passion for understanding spatiotemporal phenomena.

Oregon State University
College of Engineering, Robotics
 

• The Ann & Ron Emmerson/OSU Endowment Scholar
• Sidd focuses on training robot teams to adapt to contingencies and generalize across new tasks in their environment, using reinforcement learning.

Oregon Health & Science University/Portland State University
Public Health, Epidemiology

• The Marilyn Bergen & Kris Kern Scholar
• Kelsey's research focuses on health disparities within sexual and reproductive healthcare, with a particular emphasis on disabled populations. She aims to uncover barriers to equitable care.

Oregon Health & Science University
School of Medicine, Graduate Program in Biomedical Sciences

• The Kirby & Carl Dyess/OHSU Endowment Scholar
• Laura is interested in advancing therapeutic options for those with inborn errors of metabolism. Specific focus in gene therapy and understanding the underlying mechanisms behind gene insertion.

Oregon State University
College of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences, Climate Change

• The Elisabeth & Peter Lyon Scholar
• Athena plans to investigate the impact of sea level rise, land subsidence, and other climate change effects on coastal communities to empower them to mitigate such threats.