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9th Annual Undergraduate Symposium for
Scholarly & Creative Work

Wednesday, April 11, 2007
Keynote Speaker: C.L. Max Nikias

2007 Symposium Program

2007 Awards Banquet Program

2007 Undergraduate Symposium Prize Winners

$1000 First Prizes and $500 Second Prizes were awarded in each category

Arts

Honorable Mention Aaron Levinson
The Red Earth: Living With Nature in East Africa
Faculty Sponsors: Joanna Demers, USC College; Amanda Pope, Cinematic Arts
Honorable Mention Mariana Evans
Sunrise (short film) 
Faculty Sponsor: Robert Ballo, Kenny Hall, and Duke Underwood, School of Cinematic Arts
2nd Prize Eugenia Sangiovanni
Complicating Oversimplification
Faculty Sponsor: Ann Page, Fine Arts
1st Prize Roger Zare
Green Flash
Faculty Sponsor: Morten Lauridsen, Composition, Thornton School of Music

Humanities

2nd Prize Tina Huynh
More than Pretty Women: The Geisha and Courtesan in Popular Western Film
Faculty Sponsors:Margaret Rosenthal, Italian and Comparative Literature, USC College
1st Prize Kristin Butler, Carly Dykes, Hannah Marcuson, Elizabeth Martin del Campo, Georgiana Nikias, Ashley Sands
Reexamining the Past: a Multi-University Collaborative Research and Mentoring
Faculty Sponsors: Karen Stern, Lynn Swartz Dodd, and Bruce Zuckerman, Religion, USC College

Life Sciences

Honorable Mention Margaret (Maggie) Cass
Novel repellant activity of motorneurons in the guidance of commisural axons
Faculty Sponsor: Samantha Butler, Neurobiology, USC College
Honorable Mention Nihal Patel
Sites of Ethanol Action in Purinergic P2X3 Receptors
Faculty Sponsor: Daryl Davies, Pharmacology and Pharmaceutical Sciences
Honorable Mention Anuj Aggarwal
Molecular Strategies to Identify Sites of Alcohol Action in LGICs
Faculty Sponsor: Daryl Davies, Molecular Pharmacology and Toxicology
2nd Prize Brad Johnson
Anammox in Catalina Island Sediments
Faculty Sponsor: John Heidelberg, Biological Sciences, USC College
1st Prize Martin Wainstein
Ultrabasic Geomicrobiology from the Cedars Peridotite: Life at pH 11.5
Faculty Sponsor: Kenneth Nealson, Earth Sciences, USC College
Interdisciplinary Award
Brad Johnson
Anammox in Catalina Island Sediments
Faculty Sponsor: John Heidelberg, Biological Sciences, USC College

Physical Sciences & Engineering

Honorable Mention Mario Bialostozky
A Non-Invasive Method for Evaluating Cardiovascular Health
Faculty Sponsor: David D’Argenio, Biomedical Engineering, Viterbi
Honorable Mention Becky Gallagher
The Efficiency of Biogenic Silica Burial in Cascadia Basin Sediments
Faculty Sponsor: Douglas Hammond, Earth Sciences, USC College
2nd Prize Elizabeth (Nicole) Ball, Glenn Fischer, Bradford Foley, Jeffrey Thompson
Magmatic and Volcanic Plumbing Systems, Crustal Evolution, and the Search for the Mysterious Mojave-Snow Lake Fault: 2006-07 Earth Sciences Undergraduate Team Research in th High Sierra
Faculty Sponsors: Lawford Anderson, Valbone Memeti, Scott Paterson, and Geoffrey Pignotta, Earth Science, USC College
1st Prize Andrew Horning
Around the Ring: Molecular Geometry & Energy Transfer In Photosynthetic
Faculty Sponsor: Stephen Bradforth, Chemistry, USC College
Interdisciplinary Award
Pavitra Krishnaswamy, Israel Morales, Jeanie Paik
An Interdisciplinary Study of Apoptotic Effects Induced by Nanoelectropulses on Cancer Cells
Faculty Sponsor: Martin Gundersen, Electrical Engineering, Physics and Astronomy, Material Science

Social Sciences I

Honorable Mention Nicholas Scurich
Applying Value to Decisions in Actuarial Predictions of Violence: A Bayesian
Faculty Sponsor: Richard John, Psychology, USC College
Honorable Mention Nicole Schneider
The relation between self-esteem and eating behavior
Faculty Sponsor: Carol Koprowski, Institute for Prevention Research, Keck School of Medicine
2nd Prize Camille Boudreau
Finding An Effective Way to Question Children Using ‘Before’ and ‘After’
Faculty Sponsor: Thomas Lyon, USC Law
1st Prize Janelle Colangelo, Hannah (Brice) Keltner, David Press
Religiosity and Perceived Stress among College Students
Faculty Sponsor: Juliana Fuqua, Health Promotion Disease Prevention, Keck School of Medicine
Interdisciplinary Award Ashley Sands
Rewriting the History of Technology: unique proof of tin bronze manufacture
Faculty Sponsor: Lynn Swartz Dodd, Religion, USC College

Social Sciences II

Honorable Mention Kimberly White
Manipulating Skin Tone: The Effects of Skin Tone on Self Esteem and Mood
Faculty Sponsor: Brian Lickel, Psychology, USC College
Honorable Mention Anna Bokarius, Matt Wallace
Sources of Linguistic Knowledge in Second Language English Article Acquisition
Faculty Sponsor(s): Tania Ionin and María Luisa Zubizarreta, Linguistics, USC College
2nd Prize Hala Mohammad
Media portrayal & Middle Eastern women: Reconstructing Orientalism & Empire?
Faculty Sponsor: Ellen Seiter, Cinema Critical Studies
1st Prize Celeste DeFreitas, Ashlee Welday
Baby Linguists: Infants attend to complex vowel patterns to understand speech
Faculty Sponsor(s): Toben Mintz, Psychology & Linguistics; Rachel Walker, Linguistics, USC College
Interdisciplinary Award Melanie Billow
Young Maltreated Children’s Ability to Answer and Understand Oath-Taking Competency
Faculty Sponsor: Thomas Lyon, USC Law

Most Innovative
sponsored by USC Stevens Center

Honorable Mention Aaron Levinson
The Red Earth: Living With Nature in East Africa
Faculty Sponsors: Joanna Demers, USC College; Amanda Pope, Cinematic Arts
2nd Prize Pavitra Krishnaswamy, Israel Morales, Jeanie Paik
An Interdisciplinary Study of Apoptotic Effects Induced by Nanoelectropulses on Cancer Cells
Faculty Sponsor: Martin Gundersen, Electrical Engineering, Physics and Astronomy, Material Science
1st Prize Joel Linke, Kristin Swihart
Wave Generation for a Surfing Environment by Bottom Moving Bumps
Faculty Sponsors: Adam Fincham, Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering, Viterbi

Photos

2007UGS_1     2007UGS_2

2007UGS_3     2007UGS_Keynote