Honors Student Grants
Attending NCUR in April? Visit the Honors Funding for NCUR webpage.
First-Year Honors Mentor Program Grant
Grants up to $250 (individual) or $500 (group) are available to support research expenses incurred by students participating in the First-Year Honors Mentor Program. Requests for funds are made jointly by student(s) and mentor.
Application deadline: February 8, 2024
Information & guidelines
Details on eligibility criteria, funding policies, and application and award procedures
Excel (.xls) file to be completed electronically and submitted via CyBox; additional instructions are provided on the form and in the information and guidelines
College of Agriculture and Life Sciences
Abigail Larkin
Faculty mentor: Silvina Arias – Plant Pathology and Microbiology
Project name: Characterization of the Relationship between Iron Deficiency Chlorosis and Fusarium Diseases in Soybean in a Hydroponic System
Renee Hartung
Faculty mentor: Gwyn Beattie – Plant Pathology and Microbiology
Project name: Characterizing the Antibiotic Resistance Profile of a Collection of Plant Pathogenic Bacteria
Mia Ringholz
Faculty mentor: Nicholas Peters – Plant Pathology and Microbiology
Project name: Discovery and Characterization of Bacteriophage which Target Pathobiont Strains of Escherichia coli
Elizabeth Semmann
Faculty mentor: W. Allen Miller – Plant Pathology and Microbiology
Project name: Translation of Maize Associated Tombusvirus
Olivia Spader
Faculty mentor: Olga Zabotina – Biochemistry/Biophysics & Molcular Biology
Project name: Cloning of Xyloglucan Synthesizing Enzymes in Yeast Cells Using the CSLC4 Promoter
Saumya Balaji
Sarah Crowley
Tristan Weers
Faculty mentor: Shuizhang Fei – Horticulture
Project name: Trait Improvement in Kentucky Bluegrass and Bulbous Bluegrass
Eva Born
Luke Eggert
Faculty mentor: Walter Moss – Biochemistry/Biophysics & Molcular Biology
Project name: Identifying Functional RNA in Coding Regions
Abigail Champion
Chloe Smith
McKenzie Flemming
Carissa Gerwig
Eli Engelkes
Faculty mentor: Melha Mellata – Food Science & Human Nutrition
Project name: High Throughput Screening of Bacterial Conjguation Inhibitors
Ivy College of Business
College of Design
Thomas Brustkern
Gabrielle Van Paemel
Caroline Cinatl
Faculty mentor: Raluca Iancu – Art & Visual Culture
Project name: 3D Printing and Laser Cutting Applications for Screen Printing
Brenna Akason
Lauren Anderson
Wyatt Hackman
Aryanna Marquez Acevedo
Brianna Rivera
Faculty mentor: Verena Paepcke-Hjeltness – Industrial Design
Project name: Visual Notetaking
College of Engineering
Eric Bernhagen
Faculty mentor: Joe Charbonnet – Civil, Construction & Environmental Engineering
Project name: Chemical Markers of Bioactivity Relevant to PFAS Fate and Transport in Wastewater Treatment
Joshua DeJohn
Faculty mentor: Sid Pathak – Materials Science & Engineering
Project name: Engineering Multilayered Metal-MAX phase Nanolaminate Materials for Tunable Strength and Toughness
Elijah Erickson
Faculty mentor: Eric Cochran – Chemical & Biological Engineering
Project name: Flexible Framework Fillers in Epoxy Systems
Elena Escalada
Faculty mentor: Kejin Wang – Civil, Construction & Environmental Eng
Project name: 3D Printing Form Art for Concrete
Charles Frayman
Faculty mentor: Boyce Chang – Materials Science & Engineering
Project name: Understanding Degradation of Seed Lubricants Using radioactive Labelled Compounds
Andrew Meder
Faculty mentor: Todd Kingston – Mechanical Engineering
Project name: Anodization of Aluminum on ITO Glass
Eagan Kirk
Faculty mentor: Eric Cochran – Chemical & Biological Engineering
Project name: Scalable One-Pot Toughening of Biobased Plastics
Halle Mohan
Faculty mentor: Nicole Hashemi – Mechanical Engineering
Project name: Transport of Perscribed Antibiotics Across the Placental Barrier in Vitro
Eli Norris
Faculty mentor: Todd Kingston – Mechanical Engineering
Project name: Microfluidic Channel Fabrication Feasibility
Colin O'Gara
Faculty mentor: James Michael – Mechanical Engineering
Project name: How Accurate Is Forensic Bloodstain Analysis
Jefferson Roberts-Dobie
Faculty mentor: Eric Cochran – Chemical & Biological Engineering
Project name: Demonstration of 100% Biobase Acoustical Tiles
William Sadler
Faculty mentor: Mehari Tekeste – Agricultural & Biosystems Engineering
Project name: Integrating Dynamic Loading Moved Earth In Soil Cutting Application As An Artificial Intelligence (AI) For Training
Evan Sarnell
Faculty mentor: James Michael – Mechanical Engineering
Project name: Using Light (and Spectroscopy) to Improve Performance of High-speed Propulsion
Ana Soares
Faculty mentor: Eric Cochran – Chemical & Biological Engineering
Project name: Synthesis of Green Polymers from Muconic Acid
Michael Stogdill
Faculty mentor: Eric Cochran – Chemical & Biological Engineering
Project name: Unsaturated Diacids for the Synthesis of Bio-Advantaged Nylon 6,6
Aadhi Subbiah
Faculty mentor: Eric Cochran – Chemical & Biological Engineering
Project name: Trojan Horse Repeat Sequences for Chemically Triggered Recycling of Polyethlene Terepterephthalate for Films and Bottles
Kyle Tsujimoto
Faculty mentor: Eric Cochran – Chemical & Biological Engineering
Project name: FMSG(ECO):REPAIR-Reactive Extrusion for Polymer upcycling Achieved through Intrachain Remanufacturing
Cloey Waterbury
Faculty mentor: Brian Steward – Agricultural & Biosystems Engineering
Project name: Modeling and Testing Tracks for Off-Highway Vehicles
Nolan Zimmerman
Faculty mentor: James Michael – Mechanical Engineering
Project name: Developing an Opposed Flow Burner for High-speed Propulsion Studies
Samantha Austin
Jack Fitzgerald
Faculty mentor: Hartanto Wibowo – Civil, Construction & Environmental Engineering
Project name: Use of Physical Models as Teaching Tools for Engineering Statics
Karina Buls
Caleb Zea
Faculty mentor: Hartanto Wibowo – Civil, Construction & Environmental Engineering
Project name: Building Simple Shake Table for Earthquake Simulation
Ryan Flaskamp
Alejandro Sanchez
Sophie Miller
Faculty mentor: Alice Alipour – Civil, Construction & Environmental Eng
Project name: Smart Morphing Facades for Tall Building Wind Mitigation
Tyler Gardner
Natalia Judka
Faculty mentor: Ian Schneider – Chemical & Biological Engineering
Project name: Easy-fab Alginate Chambers for Measuring Biological Activity of Cells
Joshua Kamp
Noah Madison
Faculty mentor: Sid Pathak – Materials Science & Engineering
Project name: Structure and Properties of the Lead-Tin and Lead-free Solders for In-Space Applications
Jamie Lutowsky
Viviana Mina
Faculty mentor: Nicole Hashemi – Mechanical Engineering
Project name: Placenta-on-a-Chip: In vitro Study of Glucose Transport
Selman Pepeljak
Angela Knight
Faculty mentor: Beena Ajmera – Civil Engineering
Project name: Influence of Shearing Rate on the Residual Shear Strength of Soils
Raina Pfeifer
Viviana Mina
Faculty mentor: Michelle Soupir – Agricultural & Biosystems Engineering
Project name: City-to-Farm: Using Municipal Wood Waste to Reduce Agricultural Pollution
Ethan Rogers
Madison Vosburg
Faculty mentor: Cheng Wang – Electrical and Computer Engineering
Project name: Emerging Non-volatile Memory for Machine Learning Hardware Acceleration
Samuel Schroeder
Janus Golczewski
Alexis Feeney
Faculty mentor: Ravikumar Gelli – Electrical and Computer Engineering
Project name: Software Defined Networking and Cybersecurity for the Power Grid
College of Human Sciences
Thenuki De Mel
Faculty mentor: Qian Wang – Food Science & Human Nutrition
Project name: Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms of Klotho in Aging and Chronic Diseases
Emily Pedersen
Faculty mentor: Qian Wang – Food Science & Human Nutrition
Project name: Gene Editing of High Risk Mutations in Alzheimer's Disease
College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
Ellen Kirby
Faculty mentor: Aaron Wood – Geological And Atmospheric Sciences
Project name: Detecting Ancient Global Warming Events in the Geologic Past
Austin Petfalski
Faculty mentor: Eric Underbakke – Biochemistry, Biophysics & Molec Biology
Project name: Development of a Novel Recombinant Expression Strategy for Focal Adhesion Kinase
Seth Pistek
Faculty mentor: Kirill Kovnir – Chemistry
Project name: Development of Ternary Transition Metal Phosphide Catalysts (TMPs) for Hydrogen Evolution Reaction
Elizabeth Quam
Faculty mentor: Hua Bai – Genetics, Development & Cell Biology (LAS)
Project name: Determination of the Post-translational Modification of Fatty Acid Synthase (FASN)
Shea Sopher
Danielle Nagaito
McKenzie Kennis
Faculty mentor: Donald Sakaguchi – Genetics, Development & Cell Biology - LAS
Project name: Characterization of Differentiation of Retinal Progenitor Cells
Mentor grant recipients from previous years are listed in the Grant Recipient Archive
University Honors Program Grants
Grants of up to $750 are available to help cover project expenses for Honors capstone projects.
Application deadlines:
Fall: October 13 and November 10
Spring: February 9 and March 30
Information & guidelines
Details on eligibility criteria as well as funding, application, and award procedures
University Honors Program Grant application
This is an online application that routes through Qualtrics for electronic signatures
Ally Abel
Faculty mentor: Roxanne Ziman - AVC/Biomedical
Project name: 3D Models as a Tool for Learning Dogfish Shark Anatomy: An Analysis of Student Satisfaction
Adam Eichorn
Faculty mentor: Shan Jiang - Materials Science & Engineering
Project name: Influence of pH on Viscosity and Stability of BaTiO3 Nano Ink
Seth Harbecke
Faculty mentor: Kathleen Delate - Horticulture
Project name: Simple Sugar-Based Fertilizer Impacts on Corn Growth and Nutrient Content
Sean Hartmann
Faculty mentor: Justin Remes - English
Project name: Experimental Film
Megan Hellman
Faculty mentor: Sara McMillan - Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering
Project name: Restored Wetlands for Water Quality and Wetland Mitigation
Ashley Hipnar
Faculty mentor: Monica Haddad - Community and Regional Planning
Project name: From South to North: What Urban Areas are Doing to Address Climate Justice
Khanh Hoang
Faculty mentor: Kristin Rozier - Aerospace Engineering
Project name: Autonomous Flight for a Quadcopter Drone
Karly Jans
Faculty mentor: Michael Rentz - Natural Resource Ecology and Management
Project name: Investigating Job Satisfaction in Iowa Veterinary Clinics
Elizabeth Jones
Faculty mentor: Teresa Paschke - Art and Visual Culture
Project name: Feminine Heritage within Stitches
Abigail Keiser
Faculty mentor: Jason Gillette - Kinesiology
Project name: The Effects of Footwear and Barefoot Conditions on Slackline Performance in Single-Leg Stands
Gregory Ling
Faculty mentor: Nathan Neihart - Electrical and Computer Engineering
Project name: Compute Module Tester
Sierra McCoy
Faculty mentor: Billy Beck - Natural Resource Ecology and Management
Project name: Campus Trees of Iowa State
Diana Mulder
Faculty mentor: Leonor Leandro - Plant Pathology
Project name: Verification of a qPCR Assay for Detection of Phialophora gregata in varied Soybean Tissues and Brown stem rot suspect samples
Sydney Pantini
Faculty mentor: Sekar Raju - Management and Marketing
Project name: Warmth and Competence: A Comparison between Virtual Assistants and Humans
Matthew Pealer
Faculty mentor: Amy Erica Smith - Politcal Science
Project name: Examining the Relationship between Misinformation and Social Dominance Orientation
Lindsey Reyes
Faculty mentor: Raluca Lancu - Art and Visual Culture
Project name: On Moonlight's Edge: Book-making Project
Pauline Scribano
Faculty mentor: Kevin Schalinske - Food Science and Human Nutrition
Project name: Construction of Fire-Safe System for Bioelectric Control Methodology
Sura Smadi
Faculty mentor: Elizabeth Stegemoller - Kinesiology
Project name: Salivary Cortisol Levels in Marching Band Members Before and After Rehearsal
Jack Strait
Faculty mentor: Andrew Gleeson - Architecture
Project name: Abstraction and Interactivity: An Exercise in Design Representation
Previous UHP grant recipients are listed in the Grant Recipient Archive
Stewart Research Award
Grants of up to $750 are available to help cover project expenses for Honors capstone and other research projects. Preference for these awards will be given to research that is likely to result in a student-authored or coauthored publication.
Application deadlines:
Fall: November 10
Spring (funds permitting): February 9
Information & guidelines
Details on eligibility criteria as well as funding, application, and award procedures
Stewart Research Award application
This is an online application that routes through Qualtrics for electronic signatures.
Bennet Fate
Faculty mentor: Leonor Leandro - Plant Pathology
Project name: Investigating the Effect of Different Biochars in Controlling Seedling Root Rot in Soybean Plants Inoculated with Pythium sylvaticum
Arann Raven
Faculty mentor: Matthew Hill - World Languages and Cultures
Project name: An Examination of the Research History of Mylohyus nasutus
Morgan Simms
Faculty mentor: Rachel Eike - Apparel, Events, and Hospitality Management
Project name: Sustainability in Textiles
Previous Stewart Award recipients are listed in the Grant Recipient Archive
Honors Student Enrichment Grant
Grants of up to $300 are available to help cover travel and/or registration expenses to present research at a national conference, or expenses related to the preparation of a manuscript for publication. Preference will be given to students presenting at an academic or professional conference.
Applying for financial support to attend NCUR 2024?
Go to NCUR Funding for more information.
Do not submit a Student Enrichment Grant application.
Application deadlines:
Applications are accepted on a rolling basis, funds permitting. Once all funding has been allocated for a given academic semester, the website will be updated and no additional applications will be accepted until the following semester.
Information & guidelines
Details on eligibility criteria as well as funding, application, and award procedures
Student Enrichment Grant application
This is an online application that routes through Qualtrics for electronic signatures
Morgan Simms, Interior Design - Attending the Fashion and Circular Economy Symposium in Fort Collins, CO
Faculty mentor: Rachel Eike
Project name: Sustainability in Textiles
Rachel Currant, Genetics, minor in Spanish - Attending National Conference on Undergraduate Research in Eau Claire, WI
Faculty mentor: Donald Sakaguchi
Project name: Development of Nerve Regeneration Method Using a Gelatin Scaffold Platform for the Three-dimensional Culture of Neural Stem Cells
Bennett Fate, Biology, Environmental Science, minor in Spanish - Attending National Conference on Undergraduate Research in Eau Claire, WI
Faculty mentor: Leonor Leandro
Project name: INvestigating teh Effect of Varying Biochars in Controlling Seedling Root Rot in Soybean Plants Inoculated with Pythium sylvaticum
Karly Jans, Biology, Animal Ecology - Attending National Conference on Undergraduate Research in Eau Claire, WI
Faculty mentor: Michael Rentz
Project name: Investigating Job Satisfaction in Iowa Veterinary Clinics
Soren Hellyer, Materials Engineering - Attending National Conference on Undergraduate Research in Eau Claire, WI
Faculty mentor: Sid Pathak
Project name: Studying the Effects of Aging on the Structure and Properties of Off-Eutectic Pb-Sn Solder Joints for In-Space Applications
Isabelle Lein, Biology, minor in Spanish - Attending National Conference on Undergraduate Research in Eau Claire, WI
Faculty mentor: Donald Sakaguchi
Project name: Development of Nerve Regeneration Method Using a Gelatin Scaffold Platform for the Three-dimensional Culture of Neural Stem Cells
Previous Student Enrichment Grant recipients are listed in the Grant Recipient Archive
Dr. Robert M. Melampy Grant
A Grant of up to $500 is available to students in Animal Science to help cover project expenses related to the research they are doing within their field of study. Preference will be given to students participating in the First-Year Honors Mentor Program, and will be awarded each year for a Spring or Summer term. View a sample application here.
Application deadline: February 8, 2024
Online application form: Melampy Grant application
This is an online application that routes through Qualtrics for electronic signatures.
Annika Miller
Project info and bio to come
Previous Melampy Award recipients are listed in the Grant Recipient Archive
Chi-Wai Ho Principles of Community Awards
Grants are available to help fund research or activities that promote understanding and mutual respect among people of different races, backgrounds, and experiences. Projects that have tangible or measurable results and have the potential for a recurring impact will be prioritized.
Application deadlines:
Fall: October 13 and November 10
Spring: Febuary 9 and March 30
Information & guidelines
Details on eligibility criteria as well as funding, application, and award procedures
Application
This is an online application that routes through Qualtrics for electronic signatures.
Atlas Cahill, Rebecca Dinslage, Katelyn Squiers
Faculty mentor: Gloria Betcher - English
Project name: "Mapping the BIPOC ISC Student Housing Experience to 1950
Grant Recipient Archive
First-Year Honors Mentor Program Grant (2019– )
University Honors Program Grant (2005– )
Stewart Research Award (2005– )
Honors Student Enrichment Grant (2018– )
Dr. Robert M. Melampy Grant (2019– )
Chi-Wai Ho Principles of Community Award