Current Scholars
We are quite proud of our current McNair Scholars. Meet these leaders of tomorrow:
- Niamh Byrne
- Sydney Carter
- Alexander Cottrell
- Janiyah Gaston
- Carlos Gomez
- Austin Ingram
- Elisa Lopez
- Santonio Resonno
- LaMya Roach
- Zenaya Scott
- Dylan Sneed
- Melissa Valladares
- Robert Wray
Niamh Byrne
Major: Geology
College: College of Agricultural, Life and Physical Sciences
Mentor: TBD
Research Interest: TBD
Sydney Carter
Major: Physiology
College: School of Medecine
Mentor: Dr. Joseph L. Cheatwood
SRI 2024 Research Title & Abstract: Effects of CBD on mRNA markers of hippocampal neurogenesis in the rodent model of Chemo-brain
Chemotherapy, being the leading way to treat cancer, has proven effective in lengthening the lives of cancer patients. Still, it has the issue of causing several post-treatment cognitive deficits. One of the most widely used chemotherapeutic drugs, Doxorubicin (Dox), can cause several physiological and neurological disorders including cognitive deficits. Cannabidiol (CBD), a non-psychoactive component of Cannabis sativa, has been used as a possible neuroprotective agent against neurodegenerative disorders, including Chemo[1]brain. For the current study, Dox was administered to rats along with CBD given orally. Several rodent model-based behavioral tests were administered to assess anxiety and depression-like behaviors resulting from Dox administration. After completing behavioral tests, the hippocampal tissues were isolated from rats. We performed RT[1]qPCR analysis to study the mRNA expression of several markers of hippocampal neurogenesis. The experiment herein will provide insights into how CBD can improve changes in the specific biomarkers of hippocampal neurogenesis following chemotherapy. This also provides evidence supporting our behavioral tests of cognition stating neurogenesis as one of the mechanisms involved in the neuroprotective effects of CBD against Dox-induced chemo-brain. Understanding the mechanism associated with CBD alterations on the behavior deficits related to anxiety, and depression in our rat model can provide future avenues for translational studies to evaluate the efficacy of CBD in human chemo-brain studies.
Alexander Cottrell
Major: Zoology
College: College of Agricultural, Life and Physical Sciences
Mentor: Dr. Justin Boyles
Research Interest: Endangered animal species rehabilitation project
Janiyah Gaston
Major: Communication Studies
College: College of Liberal Arts
Mentor: Dr. Sandy Pensoneau-Conway
Research Interest: Generative AI and its impact on Public Relations Education
Generative AI and its impact on Public Relations Education The purpose of Public Relations is to cultivate the relationship between companies and their target audience. Building these relationships fosters engagement and communication. The PR field is being drastically affected by AI because of its increased use to perform common tasks from creating content to crisis management. With this increased use of AI in the industry, the question is raised should PR students be learning how to use it now. This research focused on how AI is changing the PR field and how PR instructors and students feel about incorporating AI into their course curriculum. We examined instructors’ and students’ perspectives on integrating AI into PR education. Some challenges include ethical concerns and potential job loss, while some benefits are faster work and more personalized communication. PR students can benefit from learning more about AI to enhance their practical skills and critical thinking.
Carlos Gomez
Major: History
College: College of Liberal Arts
Mentor: Dr. Theodore Cohen
SRI 2024 Research Title & Abstract: The Revolution Unrealized: A study on the conflict between revolution and military[1]industrial-agricultural effectiveness
The Makhnovschina was a revolutionary anarchist movement in Southeastern Ukraine that lasted from 1917-1921 during the Russian Civil War. During the movement’s existence, they fought for a vision of the future that would be composed of free soviets connected by ties of voluntary trade, protection, and comradeship devoid of any coercive authorities. Despite these clear goals, the Makhnovschina was repeatedly forced to strike opaque agreements with the Bolshevik Party to secure its survival against anti-communist forces, and these and other confusing events have unnecessarily obfuscated our understanding of the movement and its importance. In this study, I used a mix of primary sources from the Makhnovschina and secondary sources detailing the period to construct a mini-history of the Makhnovschina where I argue that the movement represented a nascent Third Russian Revolution, after the October and February Revolutions of 1917. Its eventual destruction by 1921, alongside the defeats of the 1921-1922 Kronstadt and Tambov Rebellions ensured that post-Imperial Russia would never know socialism without the Bolshevik Party before 1990-1991.
Austin Ingram
Major: Zoology
College: College of Agriculture, Life & Physical Sciences
Mentor: Dr. Frank Anderson
SRI 2024 Research Title & Abstract: Mapping terrestrial snail diversity across habitats in eastern North America
Some species have global distributions while others are highly localized, with ranges of only a few square meters. These distributions are driven by a suite of environmental variables and geological processes, and assessing the phylogenetic diversity of different habitats can help us understand the drivers of species distributions and assemblages. Eastern North America habitats harbor high levels of terrestrial species diversity; these habitats are characterized into ecoregions by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) based on shared environmental variables, land cover, etc. Land snails are an important component of eastern North American terrestrial ecosystems, but they are often overlooked in ecological research. They are also amenable to investigations of the drivers of species distribution due to their low vagility/high endemism and high representation in research collections. To investigate the drivers of land snail species assemblages in eastern North America, I compiled all land snail observations from eastern North America and built a phylogenetic tree using COI sequences. For each EPA Level III Ecoregion, I pruned the tree to only species found within, which allowed me to assess the phylogenetic diversity of that particular habitat type. The resulting map of eastern North American land snail phylogenetic diversity could be used to assess correlations between land snail diversity and environmental and historic factors.
Elisa Lopez
Major: Marketing & Supply Chain Management
College: College of Business and Analytics
Mentor: Dr. Terry Clark
SRI 2024 Research Title & Abstract: Using Sustainability as A Business Attribute from A Marketing Perspective
This research advances our understanding of how strategic environmental messaging in social media can shape consumer attitudes and behaviors by examining social media’s role in environmental advertising, using visual and informational cues to influence. Integrating insights from applied psychology with social media dynamics provides actionable strategies for promoting environmentally sustainable product preferences. It examines how using a logo to emphasize a product’s life cycle serves as an informative piece, helping consumers understand what they are buying and potentially evoking feelings of pride or accountability. This, in turn, may shape positive perceptions and behaviors toward sustainability, specifically focusing on brand image, purchase intention, and trust. Effective strategies aligning corporate interests, consumer behavior, and environmental responsibility are crucial for lasting impact. Emotions, guided by Higgins’ self-discrepancy theory, drive decisions aligned with self[1]perceptions to enhance positive feelings and avoid negative ones like guilt. Augmented by Social Judgment Theory and Cognitive Appraisal Theory, this study shows how individuals interpret environmental messages based on personal perspectives and emotional assessments. Surveys via Prolific engaged 400 US participants, assessing reactions to an ad featuring a fictional product life cycle logo. Findings show significant correlations between pride, brand image, trust, and purchase intention, especially among environmentally conscious individuals.
Santino Resonno
Major: Zoology
College: College of Agricultural, Life and Physical Sciences
Mentor: TBD
Research Interest: TBD
LaMya Roach
Major: Information Technology
College: College of Engineering, Computing, Technology, and Mathematics
Mentor: TBD
Research Interest: Significance of User Authentication
Zenaya Scott
Major: Political Science
College: College of Anthropology, Political Science, and Sociology
Mentors: TBD
Research Interest: Voter restrictions on the minority voters
Dylan Sneed
Major: Psychology/ Sociology
College: College of Health and Human Sciences
Mentor: TBD
Research Interest: Human Behavior: Empathy
Melissa Valladares
Major: Communication Disorders and Sciences
College: College of Health and Human Sciences
Mentor: Dr. Maria Claudia Franca
SRI 2024 Research Title & Abstract: The Impact of Socio-Economic Status on Language Skills and Development in Young Children
Socioeconomic status (SES) significantly impacts language skills and development in children. This meta-analysis focused on young children in the first years of life, up to and including 5 years and 6 months of age, and aims to investigate how wide the gap is, which can be found by reviewing assessments, which include vocabulary, syntax, and language processing. Investigating all areas of language, how they develop language, and how they develop due to the effect of SES is necessary to understand the gap. By understanding the width of the gap and which skills have a greater gap, intervention methods can be established to eliminate the gap. Intervention skills include promoting services already provided and viewing which ones are most efficient were also investigated. This study found that children from low-SES households perform significantly lower than those from high- and mid-SES groups, as shown in studies done on children as young as 7 months old.
Robert Wray
Major: Zoology
College: College of Agriculture, Life and Physical Sciences
Mentor: TBD
Research Interests:
REU 2024 Title: Attachment in Golden Retrievers: A Study of Loneliness in our Canine Companions
Since before written language humans have had a noticeable attachment to the loveable four-legged creatures we all know as dogs. Being such long-lasting companions there have been copious studies done to better understand dogs however, many questions remain to be answered. One such question is whether the attachment that dogs have to their owners is a biological trait stemming from their ancestry as pack animals or an environmental trait that stems from each dog's personal upbringing. This is just one of the questions we looked into in the Hecht Lab at Harvard University this summer. As part of a larger canine behavior and cognition study we set up a soundproof room where we performed four tests, one of which being a separation where experimenter and owner leave the dog in the room alone for a period of five minutes monitored by four cameras placed around the room, followed by a five-minute reunion period. We then created an ethogram for each of these tests and ran these videos through a behavior coding program known as BORIS to record the level of these behaviors. To ensure that our findings were accurate we decided to run this test only on full-blooded golden retrievers to have as little genetic diversity as possible. My hypothesis stated that if this attachment behavior is biological then we should see a similar level of anxious behavior during separation and proximity behavior during the reunion phase in all dogs that participated however, if the behavior is environmental, we should see a discrepancy as dogs who are left alone more frequently should be more “well equipped” to the separation. Hopefully this study can give us a deeper understanding of our canine companions and what it truly means to be man’s best friend.