Five students received Undergraduate Research Awards from the UGA Libraries. Presented since 2007, the awards recognize excellence in library research and academic inquiry.
As part of the application process, students describe their research journeys, challenges and discoveries in short essays.
They also describe how the Libraries’ resources, services and personnel help them make their discoveries and explore new lines of inquiry in creative ways.
The five recipients are awarded cash prizes, which many past recipients have used to support further development of their projects and presentation of their work at conferences around the country.
The 2016 first-place winner in the first-third year category is Elizabeth Hardister for her research into developing accurate hurricane forecasting to more safely evacuate coastal health care facilities. Hardister’s faculty mentor was Curtis Harris, and her librarian mentor was Ian Thomas.
The runner-up in the first-third year category is Gabrielle Stetcher for her inquiry into Victorian artists’ appropriations of Shakespeare’s Desdemona in oil painting. Stetcher’s faculty mentor was Dorothy Todd, and her librarian mentor was Caroline Barratt.
In the senior division, the first-place winner is Brooke Martin, who described her project researching the history of reed organs and composer Stephen Foster’s music. Her research informed the new musical arrangements she created and performed at her senior recital at the Hugh Hodgson School of Music. Her faculty mentors were Jean Martin-Williams and Catherine Kilroe-Smith. Her librarian mentor was Kevin Kelly.
The two runners-up in the senior division are Andrew Disharoon for his research developing soybean that is resistant to mosaic virus, and Andrew Jarnigan for his exploration of the Sadrist movement in Iraq in which he used resources at UGA and at the Hoover Institution archive at Stanford University.
Disharoon’s faculty mentor was Wayne Parrot, and his librarian mentor was Elizabeth Holdsworth. Jarnagan’s faculty mentor was Kevin Jones, and his librarian mentor was Nan McMurry.