2026 Award Recipients
| Student's Name | Major | Project Title | Mentor's Name | Sponsor |
| Linda Albro | Electrical Engineering | Characterization of Underwater Optical Turbulence in Lake Superior | Jeremy P. Bos | J. Edgar McAllister Foundation |
| Brett Allie | Biomedical Engineering | Evaluating Stimulation of the Nucleus Accumbens Circuit as a Therapeutic Method for Anxiety in Autism | Dr. Chunxiu (Traci) Yu | Pavlis Honors College |
| Paul Bramstedt | Applied Ecology and Environmental Science | Stamp Sands as an Enhanced Weathering Medium in Combination With Fungal and Bacterial Inocula | Evan Kane | Pavlis Honors College |
| Charlie Brogan | Human Biology | Characterizing Behavioral Deficits of the Streptozotocin-Induced Diabetic Mouse Model | Chunxiu (Traci) Yu | J. Edgar McAllister Foundation |
| Bean Frerichs | Applied Ecology and Environmental Sciences | Investigation of deer herbivory in relic hemlock stands in the Porcupine Mountains and near Alberta, Michigan, over two decades | Christopher Webster | Pavlis Honors College |
| Lionel Gaba | Physics | Spontaneous Stochasticity in Burgers Turbulence | Kartik Iyer | Pavlis Honors College |
| Brayden Gilland | Computer Science | Diffusion-Based Deep Learning Enhancement of Low-Dose Attenuation Correction CT for Cardiac Amyloidosis Diagnosis | Weihua Zhou | Pavlis Honors College |
| Emma Goodman | Wildlife Ecology and Conservation, Applied Ecology and Environmental Science | Impact of critical period cutting frequency on coarse root carbon storage in glossy buckthorn (Frangula alnus) | Sigrid Resh | Pavlis Honors College |
| Maria Hanauska | Mechanical Engineering | ATDC Anechoic Chamber Acoustic Treatment and Qualification | Ted (Zeng Fe) Gan | J. Edgar McAllister Foundation |
| Daniel Heaman | Human Biology | Central Amygdala NMDAR Contributions to Ethanol-Induced Sympathetic Activation in Male and Female Rats | Qing-Hui Chen | Pavlis Honors College |
| Rylan Hemmila | Chemistry | Effect of Gas Composition and Cations in Mineral Film Formation at the Air/Electrolyte/Iron Interface | Dr. Kathryn Perrine | Pavlis Honors College |
| Nora Keranen | Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (Biosci) | Evaluating the Efficacy of Peracetic Acid in Mitigating Antimicrobial E. coli Regrowth in Reclaimed Water (under Israel Adeoye's USDA Reclaimed Water Disinfectants) | Ishi Keenum | J. Edgar McAllister Foundation |
| Lilly Lanhardt | Mechanical Engineering | Battery Thermal Runaway Project | Vinicius Bonfochi Vinhaes | Michigander Scholars & Pavlis Honors College |
| Grace Nelson | Applied Physics | The Contribution of Solar-Heating to the Formation of Pop-Up Clouds on Jupiter | Shawn Brueshaber | DeVlieg Foundation |
| Andrew Nielsen | Chemical Engineering | Generation of ctDNA Reference Materials for Early Ovarian Cancer Detection | Maria Gencolgu | J. Edgar McAllister Foundation |
| Jacob Roy-Borland | Electrical Engineering | Characterizing Early-Age Concrete Properties Using Non-Contact Rayleigh-Wave Ultrasonic Testing with Laser Doppler Vibrometer and Microphones | Quang Tran | J. Edgar McAllister Foundation |
| Saige Sortman | Chemical Engineering | Micro(nano)plastic Interactions with Lactobacillus acidophilus and Caco-2 Cells | Adrienne Minerick | Pavlis Honors College |
| Madison Suttorp | Physics and Mathematics | Time-resolved third-harmonic generations of 2D perovskite quantum dots | Dr. Jae Yong Suh | Pavlis Honors College |
| George Telegar | Computer Engineering | Optimizing 3D Reconstruction of Arteries from Bi-planar Invasive Coronary Angiograms | Dr. Zhou | Pavlis Honors College |
| Tyson Watson | Data Science | Effects of Memory Gating on Inappropriate Knowledge Graph Retrieval in Conversational LLMs | Dr. Leo Ureel II | Pavlis Honors College |
| Lauren Willerick | Environmental Engineering | Determining and Associating PFAS Fingerprints with 'Types of Sources' Using MPART Data | Noel Urban | J. Edgar McAllister Foundation |
2025 Award Recipients
| Student's Name | Major | Project Title | Mentor's Name | Sponsor |
| Melia Austin | Biological Sciences | Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy Beat by Beat: The Role of Sodium Channel Nav1.8 | Dr. Robert A. Larson | Pavlis Honors College |
| Lynsey Baker | Medicinal Chemistry | Applying BODIPY-based Ratiometric Fluorescent Probes to Monitor Real-Time Mitochondrial pH in HeLa Cells, Drosophila melanogaster, and Zebrafish Larvae | Rudy L. Luck | Pavlis Honors College |
| Juan Botha | BS Physics | Investigating the Thickness of Cherenkov Light-Cones through the Connection between its Radiation Spectrum and Light Curve as Simulated in Python 3.12 | Robert J. Nemiroff | Pavlis Honors College |
| Bethany Brown | Computer Science | Refactoring and Enhancing Code Critique with Artificial Intelligence | Leo Ureel | Pavlis Honors College |
| Vera Denison | Environmental Engineering | Expanding our understanding of potential sources of environmental antibiotic resistance in inland lakes. | Ishi Keenum | MacAllister |
| Naseem Dhaouadi | Mathematics, Applied Physics | An Investigation into Well-Balanced High-Order Discontinuous Galerkin Methods for Euler Equations in Compressible Supersonic Flows | Yang Yang | Pavlis Honors College |
| Connor Fleser | Computer Science | Computational modeling and analysis to anticipate and illustrate consequences of statutory rules | Dr. Charles Wallace | Pavlis Honors College |
| Gwendolyn Frolich | Biomedical Engineering | Determining Hydrogen Peroxide Production and Biocompatibility from PEG-based Hydrogel with 6-Hydroxydopamine Based on Hydrogel Concentration and Curing Time | DBruce P. Lee | MacAllister |
| Julian Hong | Mechanical Engineering | Optimizing the Power Efficiency of the Tethered-Permanently Shadowed Region EXplorer | Paul Van Susante | MacAllister |
| Amber Howard | Medical Laboratory Science | Investigating Myocardial Immune Cell Infiltration in Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy | Dr. Robert A. Larson | Pavlis Honors College |
| Lauren Jeffrey | Applied Ecology and Environmental Science | Forest Management Effects on Soil Moisture at Michigan Tech’s Ford Center | Kathryn Hofmeister | Pavlis Honors College |
| Andrew Konop | Physics | Precision Aerosol Analysis through Interferometry and Cavity-Enhanced Photoacoustic Spectroscopy | Dr. Claudio Mazzoleni | Pavlis Honors College |
| Hugh Lubenow | Biomedical Engineering | Image Quality Enhancement of Ultrasound Training Data for AI Identification of Congenital Heart Disease | Jingfeng Jiang | MacAllister |
| Sara Meikle | Wildlife Ecology and Conservation | Growth of Galeopsis tetrahit (hemp nettle) in Disturbed Forest Floor Areas | Julia Burton | Pavlis Honors College |
| Precious Mubanga | Chemical Engineering | Investigating The Efficiency of Hydrogel Sensors for Non-Invasive Glucose Monitoring | Dr. Maria Gencoglu | MacAllister |
| Paavo Nurmi | Natural Resource Management | Effects of Various Timber Harvesting Methods on the Ratio of Seed Origin to Stump Sprout Origin in Trees of the Northern Hardwood Forest Type | Chris Webster | Pavlis Honors College |
| Brendan Philo | Scientific and Technical Communication | Understanding Upper Peninsula SNAP Usage | Sarah Bell, Phd, and Timothy Keirnan | Pavlis Honors College |
| Carter Rodzik | Biomedical Engineering | Effects of Humidity on Electrospun Polymer Nanofibers | Dr. Smitha Rao | MacAllister |
| Kaylie Simpson | Applied Ecology and Environmental Science | The Impact of Experimental Climate Treatments and Forest Composition on Local Microclimate Trends at the Ford Center Research Forest | Julia Burton | Pavlis Honors College |
| Job Siy | Electrical and Computer Engineering Double Major | LLM Inference Improvement in Autonomous Driving | Bo Chen | MacAllister |
| Joanna Workman | Mathematics - Applied/Computational | Randomized Time Integration: A Statistical Approach to Quadrature | Ben Ong | Pavlis Honors College |
| Elise Zahrt | Biomedical Engineering | Left Atrial Appendage Occlusion Vs. Oral Anticoagulation for Stroke Prevention in Atrial Fibrillation After Catheter Ablation: A Patient Specific Flow Dynamic Assessment | Hoda Hatoum | MacAllister |
| Ian Zuber | Physics | Exploring the Effect of Electric Charge on Cloud Processes | Dr. Raymond Shaw | Pavlis Honors College |
Check out the complete archive of SURF Award Recipients.