Appetite for Inquiry

Two graduating seniors and two graduate students have been recognized for their outstanding contributions to undergraduate research at UC Santa Barbara.

The Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Research for 2014 has been awarded to Meredith Inman of Healdsburg, who has completed a bachelor’s degree in history, and Elizabeth Levy of Agoura, who earned a bachelor’s degree in chemistry and biochemistry.

Inman won a place in the history department’s competitive, two-quarter Senior Honors Seminar for her final year at UCSB. Her resulting thesis, which explores the intersection of architecture and commerce in debates about London’s exclusive Regent Street in the late Victorian, Edwardian and interwar periods, was described by her faculty mentor as a “brilliant work of cultural, social and business history.”

Characterized as a “terrific writer, researcher and colleague,” Inman has also been applauded for her generosity of time and assistance with her fellow students.

Levy has worked closely with science faculty members and graduate students in her time at UCSB. Her role in applied research into light-activated gas release from donor molecules as a therapeutic agent resulted in co-authorship of a paper that became a 2013 cover feature in the Journal of the American Chemical Society. Her subsequent inquiry into synthesizing nanoparticles for drug delivery included eight weeks of collaborative study at China’s Fudan University, where she helped develop a new class of nanocarriers.

Described as a “truly excellent student with a genuine future in research science,” Levy was also cited for her leadership role in UCSB outreach efforts to expose local schoolkids to science.

Holly Roose and Marisa Weaver have each received a Fiona Goodchild Award for Excellence as a Graduate Student Mentor of Undergraduate Research. Roose is a doctoral candidate in history, where her research is focused on civil rights and social movements in the U.S. during the early 20^th century. A doctoral candidate in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Weaver’s primary area of interest is organic chemistry; specifically, she is working on the construction of aromatic cores containing nitrogen-aryl bonds using Diels-Alder chemistry. Both are recognized for their exceptional contributions to the scholarly development of undergraduate students.