The Office of Undergraduate Research (OUR) held its Spring 2023 Undergraduate Research Symposium on Friday, April 28, 2023, featuring 222 undergraduate researchers who presented 134 co-/authored research projects in different formats, reflecting different research stages.

This semester, 44 CCSD high school student co-authors presented with UNLV undergraduate research mentors. These students participated in the OUR Research Education Program (REP) for High School Students which recruits high school juniors and seniors interested in any areas of research and aims to engage them in scholarly discussions in collaboration with undergraduate mentors.

Out of 134 presentations, 76 (57%) will be published in OUR’s Digital Undergraduate Research Repository (DUREP) which provides UNLV undergraduate researchers with an additional open access outlet, along with OUR's Spectra Undergraduate Research Journal, and service dedicated to capturing, curating, reporting, and disseminating high-quality and mentored undergraduate research.

OUR’s triannual, professional, and judged symposia aim to showcase the impactful research undergraduates conduct at UNLV. OUR defines research in the broadest, most inclusive, transdisciplinary, and collaborative sense to bridge the gap between content learning and discovery learning.

The 222 undergraduate researchers, endorsed by 153 faculty mentors, presented 134 research projects and were judged by 60 academic and administrative faculty members.

OUR extends a sincere thank you to all faculty mentors, judges, family members and friends of the presenters, and, last but not least, the high school and undergraduate researchers for their contribution to advancing UNLV’s research education mission.

The winners for each presentation format and academic discipline include:

• Best Lightning Talk Presentation Award in Arts, Humanities, & Social Sciences
  Psilocybin-induced Dendritic Spine Density in the Prefrontal Cortex of PTSD Mice by Danilio Taloma Jr., April Contreras, & Dustin Hines, Ph.D.
• Best Podium Presentation Award in Arts, Humanities, & Social Sciences International Student Populations and Foreign Gift Giving by Caren Royce Yap & Brent Hathaway, Ph.D.
• Best Poster Presentation in Arts, Humanities, & Social Sciences
  Investigating Alterations of the GABA-B Receptor in a Tau Model of AD by Karissa McCurn, Amanda M. Leisgang Osse, Lemi Emiru, Andrew A. Ortiz, & Jefferson Kinney, Ph.D.
• Best Oral Presentation Award in Health & Natural Sciences & Engineering Insights into Early-stage Postzygotic Isolating Barriers in an Adaptive Radiation of Trees by Jaclyn Martinez & Elizabeth Stacy, Ph.D.
• Best Poster Presentation in Health & Natural Sciences & Engineering Regulation of a Co-component Signal Transduction System in Shigella flexneri by Jennifer Stevens, Cody Cris, & Helen J. Wing, Ph.D.