Awards Ceremony Closes Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity Exhibition

January 18, 2023 | News, Research, UToday, Alumni, Arts and Letters, Medicine and Life Sciences, Natural Sciences and Mathematics
By Meredith Troxel



The Office of Undergraduate Research and the Carlson Library hosted their annual Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity Exhibition the week of Dec. 5, with more than 35 student-created posters and creative projects representing various academic colleges on display.

A special closing awards ceremony was held on Friday, Dec. 9., with remarks from Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs Dr. Risa Dickson. She commended the undergraduate researchers and stressed the importance of research at UToledo, offering a special thanks to faculty mentors.

From left, Wade Lee-Smith, an associate professor and president of UToledo’s Phi Kappa Phi chapter; Lexi Moser, Department of Art in the College of Arts and Letters, who won Most Creative; Derek Kluczynski, Department of Biological Sciences in the College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, who won Highest Potential Impact on Community; Abdullah Hisham Naim Alshurafa, Department of Pulmonary and Sleep Medicine in the College of Medicine and Life Sciences, , who won Best Overall Poster Design; and Dr. Risa Dickson, provost and executive vice president for Academic Affairs.

Wade Lee-Smith, an associate professor and president of UToledo’s Phi Kappa Phi chapter, assisted with presenting the student awards. Fueled by their motto, “Let the love of learning rule,” Phi Kappa Phi, a multidisciplinary honor society, offered monetary prizes to the award recipients for their exceptional undergraduate research and to encourage the love of learning.

The student award winners:

•  Most Creative. Lexi Moser, Department of Art in the College of Arts and Letters, with her project titled “Inquisite”;

•  Best Overall Poster Design. Abdullah Hisham Naim Alshurafa, Department of Pulmonary and Sleep Medicine in the College of Medicine and Life Sciences, with his project tilted “New Symptoms and Prevalence of Postacute COVID-19 Syndrome Among Nonhospitalized COVID-19 Survivors”; and

•  Highest Potential Impact on Community. Derek Kluczynski, Department of Biological Sciences in the College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, with his project titled “Sperm Centriole Role in Subfertility and Embryo Development.”