Nine Undergraduates Receive Research Awards!

Many of our college of sciences undergraduate students are actively involved in scholarly research. Today we are very pleased to announce that nine of our undergraduate researchers received Advance Leaf Awards for Excellence in Research, Creativity, and Scholarship!

On 2 April 2026 the Student Center for Research, Creativity, and Scholarship hosted a ceremony to present the 2026 Advance Leaf Awards for Excellence in Research, Creativity, and Scholarship and to honor the award recipients. Twelve awards were presented to nine College of Sciences undergraduate students. Ethan Adams received two awards and Izamary Lara received three awards!

The 13 nominees from the Ray P. Authement College of Sciences are: Ethan Adams, Tyler Borel, Susannah Donoghu, Kelsey Doucette, Sydney Francois, Lana Gaspard, Kaitlyn Hill, Bree Landry, Izamary Lara, Reese Provost, Thinh Thai, Clinton Vincent, and Joshua Vu.

Descriptions of the awards that were presented to our students, the names and majors of our award recipients, and the names of their mentors are listed below.

Awards in Education

This category covers research methods in Art or Music Education, Early Childhood Education, Elementary Education, Middle School Education, Secondary Education, Curriculum design, Teaching, and Kinesiology.

• 
  Susannah Donoghue, double major Computing and Informatics and Electrical and Computer Engineering
  Mentor: Dhan Fortela
• 
  Bree Landry, major in Geosciences
  Mentor: Courtney Poirier Chicola

Award in Health

This category covers research methods in health sciences. Disciplines represented include Nursing, Health Information Management, Exercise Science, Kinesiology, Health Services Administration, and Pre-Dental Hygiene.

• 
  Reese Provost, major in Biological Sciences
  Mentor: Ritwij Kulkarni

Awards in Life Sciences

This category covers research methods in life science. Disciplines represented include such fields as Biology, Microbiology, Environmental Science, Botany or Agricultural Science.

• 
  Tyler Borel, major in Biological Sciences
  Mentor: Wu Xu
• 
  Clinton Vincent, major in Geosciences
  Mentor: Brian Schubert

Award in Mathematics and Statistics

This category includes students preforming mathematical and statistical research, but it also includes work completed in any other field that applies unique or exceptional mathematical or statistical applications to the work.

• 
  Sydney Francois, major in Mathematics
  Mentor: Jimmy Kimball

Award in Physical Sciences

This category covers research methods in physical science or related projects. Disciplines represented include such fields as Geology, Physics, and Chemistry. This category may also be appropriate for Math or Engineering.

• 
  Izamary Lara, major in Chemistry
  Mentor: Brian Schubert

Award in International Impact

This award is for excellence in work that impacts countries outside the United States This award will also be given to work the increases collaboration between countries or people from varying counties.

• 
  Lana Gaspard, major in Biological Sciences
  Mentor: Nicholas Kooyers

Awards in Exceptional Performance in Dissemination

This category awards exceptional performance in dissemination of student research experiences (SREs), written or oral communications as well as performances and presentations were considered.

• 
  Ethan Adams, major in Biological Sciences
  Mentors: William Schmidt and Robyn Zerebecki
• 
  Izamary Lara, major in Chemistry
  Mentor: Brian Schubert

Provost Awards

This award is for work that is interdisciplinary or work that displays excellence across other award categories. This award also honors students who have completed exceptional research or creative/scholarly works despite challenging circumstances.

• 
  (This photo shows Ethan Adams with Provost Jaimie Hebert, President Ramesh Koluru, and Vice Provost Dianne Olivier)
  Ethan Adams, major in Biological Sciences
  Mentors: William Schmidt and Robyn Zerebecki
• 
  (This photo shows Izamary Lara with Provost Jaimie Hebert, President Ramesh Koluru, and Vice Provost Dianne Olivier)
  Izamary Lara, major in Chemistry
  Mentor: Brian Schubert