The John A. and Irene F. Francis Endowment Fund was established by John A. Francis in memory of his wife, Irene F. Francis, and to acknowledge the work of his son, John G. Francis, professor of political science at the University of Utah. The Francis Endowment Fund recognizes outstanding undergraduate researchers in the arts, social sciences, and the humanities.
The availability of this program and number of scholarships offered may vary from year to year, depending on funding. The student and mentor are recognized at the annual Undergraduate Research Awards Ceremony.
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Each Fall, students in their second semester of UROP or recently completed 2 semesters of UROP are invited to apply for a $1200 scholarship to support a third semester of research with the same faculty mentor during the following Spring semester. (Seniors graduating in the spring semester are also eligible to apply. Please note, priority will be given to students who have completed 2 semesters of UROP).
Preferred students majoring in the arts, social sciences, humanities or interdisciplinary. (Student must be enrolled during the semester of the scholarship). The scholarship is awarded at the beginning of the Undergraduate Research Scholarship semester and the award is contingent on the student having successfully completed any UROP requirements.
Students are advised that the Undergraduate Research Scholarship may be counted against their financial aid eligibility.
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Application opens: October 1
Deadline to Apply: December 1
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Nia Brooks (Tracey Lamb) - Investigating the Role of Microglia in Experimental Cerebral Malaria
Cameron Davis (Douglas Mackay) - Probing the Role of Nup50 in the DNA Damage Response
Gabriel Hammond (Timothy Webster) - Genomic Analysis of Male Reproductive Skew in Bornean and Sumatran Orangutans
Halisha Knipe (Timothy Webster) - Correcting a Bioinformatic Alignment Error in Archaic Genomes
Clara Kramer (Jeffrey Bates) - Temperature-Dependent Effects of Nanoparticle Addition on the Performance of an Alternative Polymer Ski Base Material
Haley Parsons (Katie Baucom) - Cultural Adaptations and Modifications to Behavioral Interventions: Application to Diabetes Prevention for Latine Adults
Rachel Ricks (Anandh Babu Pon Velayutham) - Does Dietary Blueberries Modulate Tau Aggregates and Prevent Alzheimer's Disease Complications in PS19 Mice?
Maddox Riewald (Aaron Puri) - Characterization of an Anti-Fungal Natural Product Produced by Methylobacter tundripaludum strain 21/22
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Callie Avondet (Sara Grineski) - Effects of Specific Mentor Competencies on Undergraduate Researcher's Experiences During COVID
Hunter Carlson (Jesse Chirstensen) - Lower Limb Kinematics and Kinetics Associated with Walking in Older Adults with End-Stage Hip Osteoarthritis
Aidyn Eldredge (Timothy Webster) - The Evolution of Cytokine Tissue Specificity Among Primates
Kailee Ferret (Leslie Francis) - Methods to Increase University Access to Reproductive Healthcare
Hailey Hollins (James Gagnon) - A unique cardiomyocyte subpopulation present in regenerating hearts
McKenna Hunt (Sudha Jayaraman) - Challenges to the ability of EMS systems to locate an emergency in low-resource settings: a qualitative study
Raina Miller (Moriel Zelikowsky) - Studying Domestic Violence with Neuroscience: A New Approach to Trauma
Kimberly Ponce Gonzalez (Katherine Supiano) - Nursing Home Social Worker Perceptions and Process of the PLGS
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Cloe Butler (Ana Antunes) - Beyond The Birds & The Bees: Comprehensive Sexuality Education for Immigrant and Refugee Youth
Kendal Chatard (Tim Webster) - Great Ape Genetic Load
Shaistah Din (Marissa Diener) - Cytomegalovirus education improves pregnant women's awareness and prevention behaviors
Gauri Garg (Adam DeHavenon) - Correlation of Physical Activity and Nutrition with White Matter Hyperintensity Disease
Wyatt Hudgens (Jim Curry and Juliet Carlisle) - "Representational Congruence, Constituency Groups, and Environmental Policy"
Sarah Orozco (Veronica Valdez) - Belief and Practice: How English Language Teacher's Dispositions Show Up in the Classroom
Sohyun Park (Annie Fukushima) - Marketing for Gender-Based Violence Consortium (GBVC)
Madeleine Sorenson (Rebecca Utz) - Family Caretakers: The Socio-Emotional Impacts of Caring for Loved Ones at the End-of-Life
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Ayana Amaechi (Marco Bortolato) - Understanding Sex Differences in Pathological Aggression
Dallas Blackburn (Ella Myers) - Inequitable Participation in School Community Councils
Tania Cervantes-Hernandez (Akiko Kamimura) - Dating/ intimate partner violence and social media project
Mariah Erickson (Jack Silcox) - False Hearing and the N400 ERP Component
Grace Mason (Jessica Sanders) - The University of Utah Sexual and Reproductive Health Care and Education Needs Assessment
Olivia Mauchley (Akiko Kamimura) - Discrimination Against Asian Americans During the COVID-19 Pandemic
Sophia Schuman (Conan Kinsey) - Identifying Resistance Mechanisms to Hydroxychloroquine/Trametinib in Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma
Maia Southwick (Monisha Pasupathi) - Feeling Heard in Disagreements Across Relationships
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Sydney Cahoon (Melissa Schaefer) - Laws and Regulations of the Primate Pet Trade in the United States
Steffi Falla (Trafton Drew) - Electrophysiological Components of Tracking Objects Through Predictable and Unpredictable Occlusion
Chelsea Li (Douglas Grossman) - Investigating Expression of CDKN2A (p16) and Inosine 5'-Monophosphate Dehydrogenase (IMPDH) in Human Nevus and Melanoma Cells and Tissue
Sherry Liao (Eunkyung (Julie) Jeon) - Comparing the Listening Effort, Working Memory, and Speech Perception of School-aged Normal Hearing Listeners and Cochlear Implant Users
Sophie McQuinn (Tiffany Love) - The Effects of Childhood Trauma and Sex on Brain Structure
Kira Tanghe (Jim Martin) - Don't Overestimate the Power of the Force
Evan Tayler (Shane Macfarlan) - The Historical Demography of Baja California, Sur
PARENT FUND
Rachel Cantrell (Ryan Looper) - Synthesis of Tan1057-D Antibiotic Analog(s)
Jabob Tadje (Wayne Potts) - Effects of Infection Pooling on Virulence
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Charlotte Brickwood (Prof. Melissa Schaefer) - Comparing Behaviors of Western Lowland Gorillas [Gorilla gorilla gorilla] in Indoor and Outdoor Zoo Enclosures
TaCara DeTevis (Prof. Leona Yi-Fan Su) - Organizational Crisis Management: Public Twitter Response Following E. coli Outbreak in Chipotle Restaurants
Chaise Edebiri (Prof. Noel Voltz) - A Storm at Southern: The Impact of Hurricane Katrina on Southern University at New Orleans
Jordin Hartley (Prof. Jennifer Watt) - A Fire History Record for Phyllis Lake Idaho, USA
Bridgett Johnson (Prof. Jared Rawlings) - Literature Review of Research in Early Childhood Music Education
Ellie Kaiser (Prof. Tanya Flores) - Preliminary Data Collection for Corpus of Phonological Acquisition by Hispanic Hearing-impaired Children
Luciana Salmi (Prof. Elisabeth Conradt) - Study of the contribution of social support in the effects of prenatal maternal anxiety and depression exposure on newborn neurobehavior
Carly Shields (Prof. Marissa Diener) - Needs of Youth with Autism Spectrum Disorder in Health Care Settings
Megan Tyler (Prof. Maureen Mathison) - Gamification of Biology Literacy
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Emily Brixey (Prof. Lien Shen) – The Magical Girl’s Influence on Female Empowerment
Sally Goodger (Prof. Maeera Shreiber) – The Ethics of Fairy Tale Retellings of the Holocaust in Children’s and Young Adult Literature
Tyler Herrera (Prof. James Curry) – United States House of Representatives: Understanding the Self-Executing Rule
Emma Martin (Prof. Jerry Root) – Medieval Perspectives in Religious and Secular Contexts: the Legend of Theoplilus and the Romance of the Rose
Tyler Mattinson (Prof. Paul Bernstein) – Mechanism Behind the Improvement of Visual Performance by Carotenoids
Eve Olson (Prof. Rachel Hayes-Harb) – Voice Onset Time in Arabic and English Stop Consonants
Ashma Shrestha (Prof. Elisabeth Conradt) – A Biobehavioral Approach to Measuring Emotion Dysregulation in Pregnancy
Vai Suliafu (Prof. Eric G. Poitras) – Using Mouse Cursor Coordinates to Predict the Learners’ Usefulness Rankings of Online Resources with an Intelligent Web Browser
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Sam Katz (Prof. Michael Cottle) - Stockham: The father of digital audio recording
Erika Longino (Prof. Jose Galarza) - A sustainability master plan for navajo communities in need
Juliana Penham (Prof. Katharine Coles) - Poemage: visualization of sonic elements in poetry