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 research achievement by a graduating senior, has been awarded to Christina Leigh Belanger, a biological sciences major in the College of Creative Studies, and Emilee Jeanette Woods, a linguistics major in the College of Letters and Science.
Belanger, of Vacaville, was described by her mentor and adviser, Professor Bruce Tiffney, as "perhaps the best research mind I have met in 27 years of undergraduate teaching."
Her work on Fossil California Butterclam has resulted in two published research papers.
Belanger will attend graduate school in paleontology at the University of Chicago in the fall.
Woods, of Fresno, was recognized for her research on the sociolinguistic ethnography of a multiracial youth "hip-hop" program in South Los Angeles. Her senior thesis on the subject "is an astonishingly strong piece of work," wrote her thesis advisor, Professor Mary Bucholtz. Woods will continue her studies as a graduate student in linguistic anthropology at UCLA, where she is the recipient of a multiyear fellowship.
Doctoral candidates Sherry Tomiko Hikita and Pankaj Sakharam Karande have each received a Fiona Goodchild Award for Excellence as a Graduate Student Mentor of Undergraduate Research.
Hikita, of Santa Barbara, is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Molecular, Cellular and Marine Biology.
Karande, of Goleta, is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Chemical Engineering.
Approximately 25 percent of all UCSB undergraduates are involved in organized research efforts, often working on teams with faculty members and graduate students. The campus each year awards about $200,000 in research grants to undergraduates.
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