CONGRATULATIONS TO THE 2025 FALL UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH SYMPOSIUM POSTER WINNERS!
Undergraduate research opportunities are part of the signature student experience at Colorado School of Mines, and every fall, undergraduate students who have conducted summer research present their work at the Fall Undergraduate Research Symposium. Thank you to Mines alum Dr. Joe W. Gray ’68 who provided generous support for the 2025 Fall Undergraduate Research Symposium.
This year, 68 undergraduates from 13 departments presented posters showcasing their research to symposium attendees.
Please join us in congratulating this year’s winners and recognizing their mentors!
#1 Tie | Emma Bateman, Senior, EDS | Mentor: Melissa Krebs, Ph.D., CBE | Designing Localized Drug-Delivery Solution for Women’s Health
#1 Tie | Wyatt F. Brooks, Senior, CH | Mentor: C. Michael McGuirk, CH | Controlling Zirconia Crystallization Towards the Synthesis of Phase Pure Polyethylene Depolymerization Catalysts
#2 | Micah Zumtobel, Junior, CBE | Mentor: Shubham Vyas, CH | Python-Driven Benchmarking of EPR Parameters for Fluorinated Species: Using Spin Traps to Investigate Degradation Mechanisms of Diverse PFAS Molecules
#3 | Caitlyn Castellion, Junior, CH | Mentor: Ramya Kumar, CBE | Sulfonated Polymer Brushes Sequester Fibroblast Growth Factors and Promote Human Mesenchymal Stem Cell Proliferation
People’s Choice Award | Ava Watson, Senior, ME | Mentors: Anne Silverman and Jordan Sturdy, ME | Pelvis Angle During Unweighted and Unilaterally Weighted Walking
Honorable Mentions:
Noah Link, Senior, CS; Shelby Gilson, Senior, GGE | Mentor: Juan Lucena, EDS | Invisible Sustainability Champions: Exploration of Small-Scale Recycling in Medellín, Colombia Through Community-Based Research
Ryan Roccanova, Senior, CH | Mentor: Shilai Hao | A New Method to Recycle Spent Lithium-Ion Batteries: Simultaneously Recover Transition Metals and Destroy Emerging Contaminants