Kirmser Undergraduate Research Award winners selected
Monday, June 8, 2020
Grand prizewinners of the Kirmser Undergraduate Research Award. From left: Taya Josenberger, Cole Griffin, Rebekah Castle, Clayton Jarrard and Kate Brull.
MANHATTAN — Excellence in research has earned several students at Kansas State University recognition through the sixth annual Kirmser Undergraduate Research Awards.
In May, the award committee, made up of faculty from varying disciplines, rewarded outstanding undergraduate research in topics ranging from anthropology to theater. Grand prize awards were given in three categories: individual freshman, individual non-freshman and group. The individual grand prizewinners received $1,000 each, and the group grand prizewinners shared a $3,000 award. Honorable mentions were also named in the three categories.
The awards are made possible through a gift from the Philip and Jeune Kirmser estate.
Both grand and honorable mention prizewinners are invited to archive their projects in the university's institutional repository, the K-State Research Exchange, or K-REx, so that they are available online to the public.
The grand prize in the group research category was for the project "The Effects of Childhood Separation: A Study on Mental Health" for the Social Research Methods & Analysis class taught by Jung Sim Jun, assistant professor of social work.
The following students were recognized through the Kirmser Undergraduate Research Awards:
Jennifer Hughes, junior in social work, Grainfield, honorable mention, group research project; Rebekah Castle, junior in social work, Hoxie, grand prize, group research project; Samantha Rios, senior in social work, Hutchinson, honorable mention, group research project; Jaedn Cooper, junior in social work, Junction City, honorable mention, group research project; Jackson Berland, freshman in theater, Lawrence, honorable mention, individual freshman project; Cole Griffin, senior in social work, Olathe, grand prize, group research project; Clayton Jarrard, senior in anthropology, Olathe, grand prize in the individual non-freshman research category for his project, "Conviction as Divine Influence or Human Manipulation: LGBTQ+ Christians and a Harmful Habitus," completed for the class Anthropological Theory taught by Trevor Durbin, assistant professor of sociology, anthropology and social work; and Kate Brull, freshman in life sciences and mathematics, Salina, grand prize in the individual freshman project for her project, "The Moral Dilemma to Antibiotic Overprescription," completed for the class Introduction to Moral Philosophy taught by Amelia Hicks, assistant professor of philosophy.
From out of state: Taya Josenberger, junior in social work, Kansas City, Missouri, grand prize, group research project; and Ethan Copple, senior in industrial engineering and anthropology, Elkhorn, Nebraska, honorable mention, individual non-freshman project.
