By Shelby Gill
Participating in undergraduate research is a pedagogical badge of the Honors College experience. When students graduate with Latin honors, we celebrate their accomplishments with the saying “Audax at Sapiens” (bold but wise) envisaged as a pin on their gowns. By the time they move their tassel from right to left, they have written, defended and published a thesis on ScholarWorks.
For some students, research transforms their college experience and paves a new direction for their future and career goals. With dedicated support from faculty mentors, these five honors students took their research further, reveled in the unknown and became published first authors in the fields of apparel marketing, engineering curriculum, optical microscopy, educational STEM outcomes and brain criticality.
They presented at international conferences, won nationally competitive awards and most importantly, were intent on leaving their bold impact on the world and their field of study.
Ethan Batey (left) with his mentor Bin Dong (right).
Photos by Cheiko Hara
Ethan Batey heard the rumors about Organic Chemistry before he stepped foot in the class. The subject was touted as difficult and possibly the hardest course he would take. It was true; it was challenging, but once immersed in the properties and reactions of compounds, he was infatuated with problem-solving.
“I loved all the intricacies of chemistry on that physical level,” Batey recounted. “Why do things happen? How do they happen? I was intrigued.”
“The overwhelming majority of critique is intended to improve your work further. It is much more valuable than harmful. It’s not something to be anxious about.”
Batey, who is from Fayetteville, Arkansas, quickly changed his major from public health to chemistry and physics to concentrate on physical chemistry, the theoretical principles behind chemistry.
He began researching in earnest during his sophomore year, driven by a sense of personal responsibility.
“I’ve always been interested in how society learns information,” he said. “I felt a responsibility to learn new things and further develop what exists. I started researching so I could one day help someone else.”
Through Bin Dong, assistant professor of chemistry and biochemistry, Batey began studying optical microscopy and methods used in optics to study physical and chemical phenomena.
“Professor Dong is one of the greatest mentors I’ve had in my life,” Batey said. “He’s always there for consultation, and I take advantage of that quite a bit. But he very much allows me to be independent and explore my own interests in the wild.”
Batey’s passion for the subject was evident, and he soon first-authored a paper on spectral microscopy imaging of gold nanoparticles published in Analytical Chemistry. The paper hinged on a new method he created to characterize metallic nanoparticles.
“There are instruments that can give you an average of what thousands of nanoparticles look like,” Batey explained. “It’s very hard to see what they look like at a single particle level. This method can characterize the size and shape of just one.”
From there, Batey published research as a second author on bifocal parallax, a method the team developed to allow for 3D nanoparticle tracking.
“We can now track the rotation of particles,” Batey said. “That’s really important in direct delivery and nanomedicine applications.”
He just finished a third paper, as a first author again, published in Analyst. This time, he’s studying multicolor super-resolution as a fluorescence microscopy method. This allows for imaging past the theoretical resolution limit and for a rainbow of colors to be seen.
Batey received feedback and critique with each publication, something he urges fellow students not to shy away from.
“The overwhelming majority of critique is intended to improve your work further,” he argued. “It is much more valuable than harmful. It’s not something to be anxious about.”
His willingness for critique paid off when Batey won the nationally competitive Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship in 2024, funding a path to further his passion for research in graduate school.
His next big project is completing his honors thesis, and his research is running alongside a manuscript Dong’s team is working on. Batey views this project as a “synopsis” of his work on campus.
“This is the pinnacle of what I’ve done,” Batey concluded. “This research has been different. Even beyond my past publications, I am focused on the [quality of my] theory, experiments, everything. This is what I’m leaving behind.”
Faculty Feedback
BIN DONG / assistant professor of chemistry and biochemistry
“In mentoring undergraduate research, I firmly believe in introducing students to research opportunities early in their academic journey, complementing their classroom learning. Exposure to research opportunities equips undergraduate students with the skills to address scientific questions, thereby enhancing their academic success and fostering promising career prospects.
When confronted with specific challenges, I encourage students to explore solutions independently before seeking guidance. To maintain their progress, I conduct regular one-on-one meetings on a weekly basis. This mentoring strategy has proven effective and productive, yielding notable achievements.
This approach fosters an environment conducive to critical thinking, exploration, discovery and innovation.”
Sydney Burford (right) with her mentor Eunjoo Cho (left).
Photos by Whit Pruitt
“I’m a creative person. But I’m also very interested in the scientific process, data and understanding how the world works.”
In high school, Sydney Buford fell in love with patterning dresses, shirts and pants for her high school fashion shows. She experimented with masculine and feminine styles and even sought inspiration from her father’s art in graphic design and Mark Rothko’s abstract color fields. When one of her friends struck out on her own with a solo show, Buford jumped at the chance to both support the logistics and contribute her own line. As much as she loved to iterate on ideas for apparel, she was entranced by the event’s production and understanding of the attendees’ mindset – their urge to buy. The experience sold her on pursuing fashion.
“There is so much that goes into producing an event like that, and it is an amazing feeling to plan and construct art that can be worn down a runway along with a successful show,” Buford said. “I knew that I wanted to be a part of this industry for my career, no matter what sector I was working in.”
Buford, who is from Austin, Texas, chose the University of Arkansas because it allowed her to concentrate on the fashion industry while providing the opportunity to do serious research.
“I’m a creative person,” Buford shared. “But I’m also very interested in the scientific process, data and understanding how the world works.”
She was excited about undertaking the thesis process and searched for a mentor who shared similar research interests and would challenge her to quantify the artistry. Buford found that relationship with Eunjoo Cho, associate professor in the School of Human Environmental Sciences.
“Professor Cho has been a huge help to me,” Buford said. “I wanted a mentor I could be completely honest with. I knew I would hit road bumps and have questions, and I’ve always felt comfortable to share those experiences.”
Buford is studying the different factors that drive impulse buying like fashion involvement, online product presentation and product recommendations. Her findings were surprising; although relevancy in the industry and architecture of e-commerce is important, overall customers’ perceived value is generally regarded as the final click toward “buy now,” followed closely by fashion involvement, basically keeping up to date with fashion trends.
Buford describes this value as the middleman in her research framework. Perceived value is exactly what it says: the customer’s personal desirability of the product compared to the perception of competitors.
“The study revealed that perceived value predicts online impulse buying for fashion products,” according to Buford’s peer-reviewed paper, “The Effects of Fashion Involvement and Product Presentation on Consumers’ Online Impulse Buying Behavior.” To enhance the consumer’s value perception, Buford believes marketers should include product attributes, like diverse angles of photos and non-product features, such as product recommendations.
Buford encourages anyone in the e-commerce space to consider impulse buying as an effective strategy to increase sales.
Buford had the opportunity to present her findings at the International Textile and Apparel Association Conference, the largest conference in her field.
“Going into the conference, I didn’t know I would be one of the few undergraduates there,” Buford admitted, recalling being surrounded by Ph.D. students and professionals in the field. “It was nerve-racking, but it was also really exciting to be conducting this level of research at this age.”
The thesis experience encouraged Buford to consider graduate school after she has a few years of experience in the fashion industry.
“I’ve always liked to challenge myself,” Buford said reflecting on her choice to apply to the Honors College. “This whole project stemmed from my love of learning.”
Faculty Feedback
Eunjoo Cho / associate professor in the School of Human Environmental Sciences
“I believe undergraduate research is a high-impact learning practice, and it has been a great joy in my job. While conducting research in our discipline, students explore their interests in discovering new knowledge by pursuing the answers to the research question.
The one-to-one mentoring relationship positively impacts students’ learning process and career development. The experience also positively impacts my work as it leads to a deeper alignment between teaching and research. With students, I walk through each step in research to maintain the ideals of rigorous and ethical research and simultaneously guide them develop as a young scholar.
Students learn and develop research skills in different ways and at different velocities. I try to be a flexible, supportive and resourceful mentor for engaging undergraduate students in research.”
Kennedy Hicks has a weekly video call with her mentor Clare Brown who works at UAMS in Little Rock.
Photos by Cheiko Hara
Kennedy Hicks is serious about STEM education. She’s a Path Scholar majoring in biochemistry with minors in child services and medical humanities with the goal of being a pediatrician. In her free time, she conducts research with the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS), attends conferences across the country, spends summers with the U of A STEAM Camp and finds time to write a thesis about chickens.
Despite her packed schedule, she also diligently worked toward publishing a paper studying the correlation between socioeconomic status and STEM outcomes in the Journal of the Arkansas Association of Teacher Educators.
Hicks, who is from Little Rock, Arkansas, is working with Clare Brown, assistant professor at the UAMS Fay W. Boozman College of Public Health, as part of the S.U.P.E.R Project.
“One of the hardest steps is just taking the first step to commit and promote your work. However, I believe the worst thing you can do is not believe in yourself.”
The S.U.P.E.R. (Serving Underrepresented Populations through Engagement and Research) Project is an opportunity for undergraduate populations to attain a public health foundation and conduct community-based research, focusing on health disparities affecting Arkansas’s underrepresented populations.
“I knew I wanted to focus on Arkansas,” Hicks began. “There’s a racial disparity in health care workers. I wanted to fix that. My research focuses on STEM education and the path to becoming a physician.”
Her research showed associations between school-district-level and county-level variables with STEM performance, but, interestingly enough, not with AP STEM enrollment. Hicks believes resource allocation is the beginning to solve the discrepancy. And of course, she’s taken the problem into her own hands.
“I’ve started a continuation project,” she explained. “Now I’m focusing nationally, looking at federal and state funding.”
So far, the research is telling her that state funding is exacerbating the racial disparity in education.
Hicks credits Brown with giving her the tools to research such a complex problem. They meet weekly and set hard deadlines to balance Hicks’ studies and personal obligations while pushing her research forward.
“In a mentor, I want someone who is compassionate and understanding,” Hicks said. “We have open communication and understand each of us [has a life]. We are both vulnerable to the learning process and working together.”
Outside of her research with UAMS, Hicks has presented and attended conferences in her field. She believes the experience helped to prepare her for presenting her own first-authored paper at the 16th Health Disparities Conference hosted at Xavier University of Louisiana.
The presentation gave Hicks confidence and also helped her map a path forward with her research. She structured her presentation like a conversation and was given feedback on next steps.
In the Honors College, Hicks has found that same level of support as a Path Scholar.
“I have a family here: mentors, alumni, fellow Path students, staff,” she shared. “If I need help or need direction, I know which way to go.”
Hicks encourages other students to find a topic they are passionate about and take chances for both themselves and the progress of research.
“You did the work and know the most about your research, so show it off,” Hicks said. “One of the hardest steps is just taking the first step to commit and promote your work. However, I believe the worst thing you can do is not believe in yourself.”
Faculty Feedback
Clare Brown / assistant professor at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences Fay W. Boozman College of Public Health
“Mentoring students across all stages of their academic careers is such an exciting part of my job but mentoring undergraduate students is one of the most exciting parts. I have found that undergraduate students are so eager to learn, and they are still trying to figure out their career trajectories and goals. When students have access to research opportunities at the undergraduate level, they are more prepared for graduate level work, develop a better understanding of their career goals and recognize the value of research in addition to clinical fields.
When working with students at any stage of their academic careers, I have found three key factors that improve mentee-mentor rapport and student success: be available, be invested in the mentee’s success and ensure that the research is relatable to the mentee’s career goals.
Undergraduate first authorship is relatively rare, and I have no doubt that we will hear more about Kennedy Hicks in the future.”
Stephen Pierson (left) with his mentor Han Hu (right).
Photos by Cheiko Hara
While Stephen Pierson’s hydraulic performance results on heat sink research proved to be linear, he argues that the path to first authorship is not.
“When you’re starting out, the initial topic you choose to research doesn’t matter as much as the people you’re working with,” Pierson shared. “Your topic is inevitably going to change over time – you don’t have experience yet.”
Pierson, an Honors College Fellow and mechanical engineering major from Fayetteville, Arkansas, feels “lucky” to have found his mentor Han Hu, assistant professor of mechanical engineering, early in his academic career.
“I want to make impactful contributions to the field that can lead to new technologies to improve quality of life. I want to have agency in what I do.”
“I found a mentor who was willing to support me,” Pierson said. “Professor Hu is everything I could ask for in a mentor. When I’m looking for direction, or I’m too deep into a particular problem, he’s always there to give me advice and refocus my direction.”
Pierson began his foray into research by focusing on education – taking an interest in computer-aided manufacturing (CAM), software used to plan manufacturing. Based on this experience, he devised a framework for engineering coursework intended to compensate for weaknesses in recent graduates identified by a survey task force assembled by the American Society of Mechanical Engineering. The proposed curriculum hinges on design for manufacturing, which is part of a thrust “to emphasize holistically minded design” where all aspects of an engineering solution are considered concurrently. Pierson believes design for manufacturing has become a lost art as engineering education evolved in the latter 20th century.
While technical knowledge should remain the focus, Pierson believes in “the need to reconcile the hiring needs of industry with mechanical engineering curricula,” and introducing CAM into existing coursework could help fill that need. He presented his research at the American Society of Engineering Education Midwest Section Conference and the full coursework proposal at the National ASEE Conference in 2023.
From there, Pierson turned up the temperature of his academic exploration and leaned toward studying microchannel heat sinks.
At their core, heat sinks remove thermal energy to keep devices cool. For his research’s focus, Pierson took on the large task of looking at something very small: microchips. In a way, he deals with the oxymoron of modern technology. As technology grows in power, our chips get smaller and smaller, producing a lot of heat in limited space. He is working to remove the heat efficiently and improve scientific understanding of the failures that lead to rapid overheating.
His research on heat sinks earned him the first author byline at the ASTFE Eighth Thermal and Fluids Engineering Conference, and his accolades do not stop there. Out of 5,000 applications, Pierson won the nationally competitive Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship in 2023, cementing a new passion to pursue his doctorate.
He credits not only his aptitude for research but also his writing as the differentiator in his application.
“It may sound odd, but writing is probably my best skill as a researcher,” Pierson admitted. “I can articulate what the significance is as well as my goals for the future.”
As he plans his future, he nods to his experience at the Honors College and the opportunity to revel in undergraduate research as shaping his path forward.
“At one point, I wanted to go work for SpaceX or NASA,” Pierson said. “But now, I want to pursue my Ph.D. and maybe start my own lab where I can guide the direction of research. I want to make impactful contributions to the field that can lead to new technologies to improve quality of life. I want to have agency in what I do.”
Pierson will continue his education at the U of A, under the guidance of Hu, with the Distinguished Doctoral Fellowship in mechanical engineering.
Faculty Feedback
Han Hu / assistant professor of mechanical engineering
“Undergraduate research offers students a unique opportunity to apply classroom knowledge to real-world problems, develop critical thinking and problem-solving skills and contribute to the advancement of their field.
I always try to engage undergraduate students in research and adopt a student-centered advising philosophy. I believe the role of the advisor is to support students in research rather than just direct them. I have been trying to create a supportive environment for students where they feel valued and motivated to explore their research interests.
As I often emphasize to my students, technical feedback from collaborators, sponsors, and reviewers is an invaluable resource to improve their work. I hope they can approach critiques with an open mind, analyze the feedback critically, and use them constructively to refine their hypotheses, methodologies, and analyses. As students get more comfortable with research, writing a first-author paper becomes natural.”
Sam Sooter (left) with his mentor Woodrow Shew (right).
Photos by Whit Pruitt
“I enjoy seeing how these crazy, wild things that happen in the physical world emerge from much simpler rules.”
Sam Sooter spends his days looking for criticality. He values discussion with and elucidative feedback from mentors. His research focuses on the hypothesis that the brain operates close to criticality, a state poised at the edge of a phase transition.
Inspired by an AP physics class, Sooter, who is from Bentonville, Arkansas, bought undergraduate physics textbooks as a sophomore in high school and worked through them for fun. It was a natural step to begin concurrently taking classes at the University of Arkansas.
“I enjoy seeing how these crazy, wild things that happen in the physical world emerge from much simpler rules,” Sooter shared.
At age 16, Sooter began working in Woodrow Shew’s lab studying the brain criticality hypothesis. Shew, associate professor of physics, inspired Sooter to not only study physics but approach it with a neuroscience concentration.
By the time Sooter had enrolled at the U of A and secured an Honors College Fellowship, he was on the precipice of first-authoring a paper with Antonio Fontenele, a postdoctoral fellow in the Shew Lab. Science Advances published the paper in the spring of his freshman year. [WS1]
“If the mean number of neurons that a single active neuron activates is close to one, you see these big, scale-free fluctuations,” Sooter explains. “That’s what we call criticality.”
At its root, Sooter believes that criticality is optimal for computation and function. “The best way to design a brain from scratch is to put it close to criticality,” he added, which explains his motivation for studying it.
Through his research in the Shew Lab, Sooter has gained experience in data analysis and figure-making, using MATLAB to visualize his results.
“It’s not just about visual representation for others,” he says. “It’s about understanding the results better yourself. That’s the process of making a good figure.”
As a freshman, Sooter is close to finishing his second first-author publication. This time he is flexing his double major in mathematics to create a tool to calculate “distance to criticality” from recordings of neural activity. The tool is based on the momentum-space renormalization group from statistical mechanics and offers a more direct, higher time-resolution measure of nearness to criticality than has before been possible.
“I like this project because it has a theoretical bent,” Sooter laughed. “A significant part of this project is pen-and-paper math. You feel like you’ve gotten somewhere.”
For Sooter, a hands-on mentorship approach has proved to be effective. Each week, he presents his findings to Shew and Fontenele, along with Shew Lab collaborators Andrea Barreiro and Cheng Ly, who are associate professors of mathematics at Southern Methodist University and Virginia Commonwealth University respectively. They critique, discuss and Sooter iterates, making progress equation by equation. “At some point, it snowballs” and leads to results.
When he’s not probing the brains of mice, he tries to keep his studies well-rounded by taking advantage of Honors College courses that inspire his other interests, like politics. The honors experience mixed with the opportunity to try his hand at this level of research has impacted his career plans. Sooter also won the nationally competitive Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship in 2024 as a freshman.
“It has strongly shaped how I see my future,” he shared. “I’m set on going to grad school, completing a post-doc and starting a lab as a professor eventually.”
Faculty Feedback
Woodrow Shew / associate professor of physics
“How much you publish high-impact papers is the way that prestige is measured in science. For undergrad students, this is the best way to improve your grad school applications. Beyond writing papers, I involve Sam at every level of the process. He helps write grants, sees the reviewer feedback on our papers and grants and participates in brainstorming sessions for new ideas in the lab.
In our lab, there are always more interesting ideas than we have time to pursue. One of the most important choices, if our goal is to do impactful science, is picking which ideas are most likely to substantially advance the field of science that we are working on.
No two students are the same. Each comes with a unique story, one-of-a-kind skills, strengths, needs and aspirations. When it comes to students doing research in my lab, the key to maximizing success, fun and potential for a future in science is to be aware of each student’s individual qualities and be flexible in meeting the student where they are.”