April 27, 2026
Photos by Roger Missen and Logan Jackson
For one week each spring semester, students and postdoctoral fellows from every discipline at the University of Missouri gather for one large celebration of research and creative activity. From oral presentations to poster presentations to an art showcase, Show Me Research Week allows students to gain valuable experience by putting their work on display.
This year, 433 students presented a research project. Of those, 328 were judged by 133 volunteers, mostly consisting of faculty and graduate students. One of this year’s judges, Pritish Tosh, BS ’99, MD ’03, participated in undergraduate research as Mizzou student, and went on to become a professor studying infectious disease at the Mayo Clinic. The experience was so special to him that he returned to campus specifically to serve as Show Me Research Week judge.
“I remember presenting my own poster at a similar event when I was an undergraduate and coming away with a sense of excitement for research and discovery,” Tosh said. “I thought this would be a great opportunity to foster that same spirit in a new generation of scientists.”
Congratulations to this year’s Show Me Research Week winners!
AWARD WINNERS
Applied Design
- Lancing Moore; Navaeh Neal; Janelle Godwyll; Nate McCann; Bishop Lamm; Lani Redecker
Project: Parametric Modeling and Digital Fabrication Workflows for Bio-Based Material Systems
Mentor: Debora Verniz, assistant professor, architectural studies
- Chloe Romero
Project: Style That Changes the Story: A Kate Spade x Coloplast x Medtronic Collaboration
Mentor: Nicolette Leiby, assistant teaching professor, textile and apparel management
- Joshua Amelunke
Project: Daylighting Retrofit Impacts on Energy Performance in Historic Masonry Buildings
Mentor: Jayedi Aman, assistant professor, architectural studies
Artistic Expression
- Emily Popa
Project: “Ag Ain’t Just Cows and Corn” — A Zine on Unexpected Agricultural Careers
Mentor: Frances Dickey, associate professor, English
Behavioral and Social Sciences
- Olivia Evers
Project: Temporal and Linguistic Contingency as Predictors of Children’s Language Outcomes
Mentor: Nicholas Smith, assistant teaching professor, speech, language and hearing sciences
- Aleena Li
Project: Perinatal Change in Neural Responding to Infants and Infant Attachment
Mentor: Ashley Groh, professor, psychological sciences
- Arasto Sadeghi
Project: Examining Gender and Race Identity Intersections within Racial Minority Focused News Representations
Mentor: Christopher Josey, associate dean for undergraduate studies, College of Arts and Science
- Ryuto Hashimoto
Project: Demographic Shift and the Future of Higher Education
Mentor: Bradley Curs, associate professor, education leadership and policy analysis
- Holly Ortman
Project: Wearable Digital Health Interventions for Post-Discharge Sepsis Risk and Behavior Change in Older Adults: A Systematic Review
Mentor: Blaine Reeder, associate professor, nursing
- Chaeli Stenuf
Project: Why Nurse Innovations Stay at the Bedside: A Systematic Review
Mentor: Kimberly Powell, associate professor, nursing
- Anna Vogts
Project: Peer Norms and Teacher Practices in Relation to Student Prosocial Behavior
Mentor: Christi Bergin, professor, educational, school and counseling psychology
- Karry Weston
Project: Differences in Hospital Breastfeeding Support for Rural and Urban Missouri Mothers
Mentor: Linda Bullock, professor emerita, nursing
Engineering
- Samantha Friedman and Nick Thomason
Project: Reconstructing an Ancient Amazonian Geoglyph in Virtual Reality
Mentor: Fang Wang, associate teaching professor, engineering and information technology
- Sophia Mueller; Taegan Talley; Anthony Gandolfo; Rachel Hanenkratt
Project: Assessment of Feed Preference in Lactating Holstein Cows
Mentor: Veridiana Daley, assistant professor, dairy nutrition and modeling
- Ahmed Jasim
Project: Energy and Environmental Applications, Nanocrystalline Self-Assembly and Electron Microscopy Role in the Discovery of Condensed Layer Deposition
Mentor: Yangchuan Xing, professor, chemical and biomedical engineering
