Honors Scholar Theses from 2026
Exploring Stem Cell-Based Approaches to Ameloblast-like Cell Development: Progress and Limitations in Enamel Formation, Ava L. Abruzzese
AI in Wonderland, Bodj Oliver Alngohuro
The Development of a CRISPR-Based Calibrated Functional Assay for Classifying Pathogenicity of MSH2 and MSH6 Variants in Lynch Syndrome, Olivia N. Amodeo
When Mac Shouldn’t Smile Back: Anthropomorphic Logo and Effect on Consumer Perceptions of Generative Artificial Intelligence, Ainsley E. Ballard
The Extraction and Chemical Characterization of the Avian Pigments Turacin and Turacoverdin, Sarah R. Bekkali
Navigating the Gray Area: The Unregulated Surge of Unique GLP-1 and GLP-1/GIP Products, Jordyn Belcourt, Amy Sapowadia, and Charles Michael White
Munificence: The History and Legacy of the Munson Steamship Line, 1865–1955, Nicholas C. Benda
The Impact of Trump Administration Immigration Policies on Connecticut Educators and Families, Elena C. Bielesz
A Comparative Analysis of Two Play-Based Upper Extremity Training Programs in Improving Arm Motor Function in Children with Hemiplegia, Kara Borkowski
Internalized Homophobia as an Influence on Participation in HIV Prevention Among Young Men Who Have Sex with Men (YMSM), Kasey I. Brazee
Herding in Artificial Intelligence, John Cotter
Awareness of Green Infrastructure Projects near Johnson Creek Restoration Sites in Portland, Oregon, Kate R. Cullinan and Anita T. Morzillo
Negative Core Beliefs and Cognitive Fusion as Predictors of Depressive Symptom Severity and Course, Caila Flaemig
Sacrifice in the Name of Balance: The Role and Rights of Lesser Powers at the Congress of Vienna, Jacob Flinchbaugh
AI-Assisted Frame Selection for Sports Photography using Computer Vision and Multi-Modal Image Metrics, Sahana Ganesh
Policing the Bench: Why State Legislatures Target Judicial Ethics Commissions, Emily R. Grayson
“Parties vs. the People” Reconsidering the Voting Mechanisms that Entrench a Bi-party System in American Democracy, John A. Guthrie
Impact of Biomass Type on Hydrocarbon Yield and Chain Length Distribution Produced via Fischer-Tropsch Synthesis, Nicholas R. Hawe
Collaboration and Betrayal: Pius XI and a Changing World, Nathan B. Higgins
Factors Affecting Pedestrian-Vehicle Conflicts: An Empirical Analysis, Christo D. Jamo
DNA Strand Breaks by Small Molecules: From Genomic Hazard to Therapeutic Strategy, Clerin John
Prefrontal Engagement in Cognitive Flexibility Across Paradigms, Katarina Kalajzic
Herbivory of Phragmites australis Along a Salinity Gradient in Connecticut Wetlands, Sydney H. Kolz
Field Monitoring and Geometric Representation of a UHPC-Repaired Bridge Structure, Robert Lawler
Narrating Injustice: Race, Law, and American Literature, Taylor A. Levine
Diagnostic Ability of Rate of Torque Development for Patellofemoral Pain, Arun Loganathan, Neal R. Glaviano PhD, and Sungwan Kim PhD
Undergraduate Nursing Students’ Reactions to Germ Exposure Based on the Big 5 Personalities, Elizabeth MacDonald
Effects of Modifications to the Contextual Fear Conditioning Paradigm on Context Discrimination Deficits in Mice, Aditi Malpure
Assessing Knowledge and Decision-Making in Basic Genomics among Adolescents and Adults, Sidharth Masarur
Pathogenic Leptospira Adherence to Epithelial cells: A Comparison Between Different Hosts Based on Outcome of Disease, Imaan G. Masood
Artificial Intelligence: Revolutionizing the Insurance Industry, Taylor Michaud
Gender-Neutral Insurance Reform in the United States: Actuarial Challenges in Pricing and Reserving, Matthew O'Connor
Into the Mainstream: How White Nationalism Has Been Disseminated Online and Legitimized in the United States at Large, Shannon O'Connor
A Border of Broken Promises: The Unfulfilled Commitments of the CRC for Migrant Children at the U.S. Southern Border, Eva R. Passer
From Promise to Practice: An Analysis of the De Jure-De Facto Gap in the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, Alyssa S. Piccoli
Inosine Accelerates Cancer Cell Killing by the Experimental Antifolate UCP1162: Implications for Novel Combination Treatments, Reshma Ramesh, Charles Giardina, and Alan Kuo
Technical Debt Amplified by AI: Real-World Case Studies and Strategies for Mitigation, Alejandro L. Reilly
Trawling for Clues: Examining NEFMC Herring Amendment 8, Christopher Santoro
Multiplexing Reductive Alkylation of Peptides for Quantitative Proteomics, Kevin C. Souza
From Prescription to Plate: Redefining the Pharmacist’s Role in Food is Medicine Initiatives, Aleena R. Thomas
Gender Identity, Political Alignment, and Views on “Man or Bear” Trend among UConn Undergraduate Students, Erin Tumminello
Identifying and Quantifying the Presence and Benefits of Natural Products in Commonly Consumed Herbs, Fruits, and Teas, Angelica Velasquez
Too Big to Fail or Built to Survive? Government Intervention and Corporate Resilience in the Global Automotive Industry During the 2007–2009 Financial Crisis, Reagan A. Waurishuk
PRISM: Priming Relationships in Syntax and Mathematics, Michelle J. Zhu
Home Cage Pre-training Enhances Behavioral Task Performance in Head-fixed Mice, Richard Zou, Claudia Mizerek, and Nicholas Audette Dr.
Honors Scholar Theses from 2025
Student Unrest and The Growth of Repression on Campus: A Comparison of Administrative Responses to Student Activism at The University of Connecticut, Maryam Abu-Hasaballah
User-Centered Design of a Weight Loss Mobile App, Sunaina Advani
Detection of Covid-19 Variants, Christina Aglieco
The Politics of the Black Womb: How Education and Power Reinforce the U.S. Black Maternal Health Crisis, Foluke Akinkunmi
Reinventing Mathematics Learning: An Exploration of Undergraduate Mathematics Learning Post-Pandemic, Morgan R. Balesano
Mechanistic Investigation of Ring-Opening Polymerization of Polycaprolactone Using Tin(II) Catalysts: Ligand Effects and Biomedical Applications, Eva-LaRue M. Barber
Multimodal Benchmarking for NCAA Basketball, Brendan Barnett
Fluorescent Labeling and Size-Dependent Uptake of Mesoporous Silica Nanoparticles in Ovarian Cancer Tumor Spheroids, Kimberly R. Berardis
Deadly Choices: Political, Legal, and Moral Understandings of U.S. Supreme Court Death Penalty Decisions, Anabelle S. Bergstrom
Semantic Context Boosts Word Learning from Low-Informative Events, Wilona Boafo and Sumarga Suanda
How Individual Differences in Cue Weighting Influence the Link Between Memory and Speech in Noise Perception, Ava Buckmir, Anne Marie Crinnion, and Emily Myers
The Effect of Non-Profit Organizations on the Passage of Climate Change Legislation in Connecticut, John-Henry Burke
Quality of Affected Upper Extremity Use During a Ride-On Toy-Based Training Program in Children with Unilateral Cerebral Palsy: A Pilot Study, Megan Carlmark
Immune Response to Long-Term Lipopolysaccharide Infusion in Sheep, Laura A. Centanni
Comparative Methylation Analyses Across Juglans Species to Investigate Epigenetic Contributions to Fungal Resistance, Keertana Chagari
Cross-Country Differences in Adolescent Dietary Patterns and Body Mass Index: Spain and the United States, Rosa I. Chavez Jimenez
Age-Dependent Mineralization and Osteogenesis in Intact & Injured Murine Bones: A Histological and Immunochemical Study, Amogh Chittajallu
The Effect of Cellular Glucose Levels on Inotersen-Mediated Target Reduction in in vitro Cell Models, Andrea Durwin
Teachers’ Beliefs About ASL and Its Impact in the Classroom, Cecilia Echevarria
Trump’s Lies: An Examination of the Fictitious Perception of Latin American Immigrants as Violent Criminals, Sophia A. Esposito
Qualitatively different feedback effects in recurrent models of spoken word recognition, Isabella M. Fernandez and James S. Magnuson
Nurse-Physicians: From Nursing School to Practicing Physician, Tobias Fraedrich
Native Spaces: The Struggle for Colleges to Incorporate Native Frameworks into Curriculums, Eleanor A. Gelb
Assessing Leadership in Business: A Critical Investigation of Michelle Obama, Narineh Gevorkian
The Interaction Between Physical Activity and Fruit and Vegetable Intake on Body Composition, Om S. Ghetia
Relationships Between Health Behaviors and Markers of Oxidative Stress and Inflammation on Blood Pressure, Alison M. Godfrey
Assessing Leadership in Business: A Critical Investigation of Ray Dalio, Johan Gomez Hernandez
Identifying Trends Among University Club Athletes, Emma M. Griffin and Laura Jean Burton
Latitudinal Gradients in Arctic Willows and Their Effects on Stream-Riparian Systems, Donal Heaney
Engineering Affinity of YTH Protein to M6A-RNA, Katelynn E. Horvath
Trends and Transport of Tropospheric Ozone From New York City to Connecticut in the Summer of 2023, Michele Iraci
Effects of Tetrabenazine on Temporal Parameters of High-Effort Behaviors in Male and Female Rats, Angela M. Jacdedt
Teaching Strategies for Twice-Exceptional Students, Aidan S. Karpicz
Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction and Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy as Interventions for Generalized Anxiety Disorder: A Meta-Analytic Review, Amitojeroop Kaur
Does an Impaired Sense of Smell Make it Harder to Think About Things like Garlic?, Ishrat N. Khan
Neuroanatomical and Morphometric Differences in Children Who Stutter, Mohammad A. Khan
Creation of Tandem Mass Spectrometry Library of Synthetic Porphyrins, Kortney Knudsen
Stability Analysis of Thermohaline Convection With a Time-Varying Shear Flow Using the Lyapunov Method, Kalin Kochnev
Assessing Leadership in Business: A Critical Investigation of Lorne Michaels, Emily Laput
Depressive symptoms and associated factors among men who have sex with men in Malaysia, Fiora Lena
The Relationship Between Mindfulness, Daily Difficult Events, Perceived Stress and Anxiety Among College Students, Gabrielle Lessard
The Relationship between Dyslexia and Resilience, Hannah R. Linder, Martina Villa, Daniel Kleinman, and Nicole Landi
Decoding the Algorithm: The Mathematics Behind TikTok’s Short-Form Content Success, Ashley N. Lynch
College Sojourners' Reentry Experiences after Studying Abroad, Samantha Rose Maiolo
Understanding the Underrepresented: A Descriptive Deep-Dive into the Impact of Young Legislators, Eric T. Meade Jr.
Exercise as an Intervention for Postpartum Depression (PPD), Kylie P. Mistretta
Climbing and Crossing Career Ladders: An Analysis of Job Mobility Trends, Leon Nguyen
Awareness of Parental Trauma History and Intergenerational Trauma in Second Generation Trauma Survivors, Tram Nguyen