About the University Libraries Lance and Elena Calvert Award for Undergraduate Research
With the support of a generous endowment from Lance and Elena Calvert, the University Libraries Lance and Elena Calvert Award for Undergraduate Research recognizes excellence in undergraduate research projects that incorporate the use of University Libraries' collections and demonstrate sophisticated information literacy skills on the part of the undergraduate researcher. The award review committee considers the product of the research, but focuses on the research process: the demonstration of library research skills, adept use of library resources, and reflection upon the strategies utilized to investigate a research problem. Winners receive a cash prize and public recognition of their excellent work.
For more information on how to apply, please visit the Lance and Elena Calvert Undergraduate Research Awards page.
2024 Award Recipients
Musical Chills: The Impact of Age and Musical Ability, Isabella Aceituno
Variation in Las Vegas Tree Diversity Based on Socioeconomic Status, Fabrizio Ciccone
The Sun Goes Down in Juárez, Rosario Martinez
The Behemoth of the Last Ice Age: The Evolutionary Saga of the Columbian Mammoth in North America, Nathaniel Valentine
2023 Award Recipients
Municipal Waste in Southern Nevada: Understanding the Obsession with Garbage, Zachary Billot
One Last Month, or Clancy's Time-Box, Safiyya Bintali
Wearing My CROWN: An Exhibition About the CROWN Act, Chantal Chandler and Tabiya L. Conyers
The Analysis of Wartime Rape Using Postmodern Feminism in the Conflicts of Sierra Leone 1991, Bosnia-Herzegovina 1992, Darfur 2003, Allyssa Sabelle Chua
A Tool For Digital Bibliotherapy: Fostering Emotional Resiliency Through A Visual Novel, Joy Cooper
Ronald Reagan and War Rhetoric in the 20th Century, Allister Dias
Richard Owen: A Forgotten Icon, Devan Henriott
2022 Award Recipients
Discoveries in the Sand, Kaesee Bourne
The Federal Elections Bill and the End of Reconstruction in 1890, Elisa Hink
The Theoretical Challenges in Ukraine, Andrew Kim
Factors Associated with Telemedicine Usage and Acceptance Pre- and Since COVID-19, Shivangi Sinha
2021 Award Recipients
The Aftermath of Sexual Assault: Creating the "I Am More Than My Experience" Workbook, Isabella Chung
Comics for Pediatric Oncology Patients and Families: Education and Empowerment, Natalie Johns
Spanish from the "East Side" of Las Vegas: Simplification of Tense/Aspect Distinction in Ser and Estar in Spanish Heritage Speakers of Sunrise Manor, Nathalie Martinez
Addressing the Ecological Fallacy with Lagrangian Inference, Michael Schwob
2020 Award Recipients
Nevada’s Secret Killer: Opioid Deaths, Vanessa Marie Booth
Politicizing a Private Choice: How Interest Groups Draw Political Identity from Roe v. Wade and the Abortion Debate, Michelle Brown
Factors Associated with PrEP and PEP Uptake Among the LatinX Population, Santiago Gudiño-Rosales, Melva Thompson-Robinson, and Johanna Andrews
Art and Terror: Vergangenheitsbewältigung in Relation to the Red Army Faction, Joanie Lange
Analysis of Cryptotephra at Whitney Mesa Nature Preserve, Henderson, Nevada, Alex Newsom
Intimate Nevada: Artists Respond, Lauren Paljusaj and Anne Savage
A City on the Front Lines of an Epidemic: The Opioid Crisis in Las Vegas, Elia Del Carmen Solano-Patricio
2019 Award Recipients
Youth Culture in Great Britain: The Effect of the Rapidly Growing Universities 1963-1968, Aariel Armstrong
The Influence of the Warren Court and Natural Rights on Substantive Due Process, James Marmaduke
Predictors of Adolescents’ Interest in Stem Majors and Careers, Ei Myint
A Series of Political Russian Events to Exploit and Destroy the Volga Germans, 1914-1921, Kassidy Whetstone
Identi-Tea Podcast: An Original Play, Karsyn Wilson
2018 Award Recipients
Power Suit, Clarice Cuda
Testosterone and the Adult Male, Alex Straftis
From Bison to Cattle: The Ecology of the Southern Plains 1500-1750, Jenni Tifft-Ochoa
Julia Margaret Cameron's Photographs as Paintings, Winnie Wu
2017 Award Recipients
Polyandry around the World, Laura A. Benedict
Barbie Doesn't Have Bruises: Gendered Images of Anxiety and Avoidant Attachment Relationships in Film, Claudia G. Chiang-Lopez
Prescribing Change for Minority Students: Diagnosing Inequalities in Science Education in the Clark County School District, Brianna K. Cotter
British Appeasement 1936-1939: The Debate between Parliament and the Public, Kylie D. Johnson
Fourth Time’s a Charm, Ardennes Vickery
2016 Award Recipients
An Integrative Neurological Model for Basic Observable Human Behavior, Ryan M. Francis
Graphic Design for the Shark Reef Aquarium [Course Project], Alexxis Rodriguez
Modern Conflict in the Divided City: A History of Violence and Power in Hebron, the Israeli-Occupied West Bank, Daniel H. Waqar
2015 Award Recipients
Margaret Atwood and the Implications of the Word Love, Manuela Bowles
Jihad In The Global Village: Al-Qaeda's Digital Radicalization and Recruitment Campaign, Katie Cannata
New York Oneida: Land Claims, Federal Policies, State Intervention, and Casino Development, Lee M. Hanover
“Man? Where’s a man? Don’t let him go!”: Molina’s Trans/gender Web in Interpretation and Performance, Bella V. Smith
2014 Award Recipients
Proust, the Suffering Artist, Matthew G. Buyachek
The Spratly Islands Dispute: International Law, Conflicting Claims, and Alternative Frameworks For Dispute Resolution, Robin Gonzales
Mechanical and Transport Properties of Alkali-Activated Natural Pozzolans as Sustainable Binders, Brittany Radke
Keeping House on the Comstock: Irish Immigrant Women in Nevada, 1850-1880, Christina M. Thompson
2013 Award Recipients
Untangling Cultural Differences in Behavioral, Physiological, and Psychological Symptoms of Dementia and Alzheimer’s Disease, John S. Avant
Early Life Stress, Drug Abuse, Exercise Effects on BDNF and Sex-Influenced Exercise Differences, Karissa Dold
Governing through Permanent Campaigning: Media Usage and Press Freedom in Ecuador, Maria J. Flor Agreda
The Challenge of Studying Pedophilia, Ryuhei Kawamoto
2012 Award Recipients
An Examination of the Varying Role of the United Nations in the Civil Wars of Rwanda and El Salvador, Vanessa Jaramillo-Cano
The Influence of Social Contagion and Technology on Epidemic Non-Suicidal Self-Injury, Paul M. Kirsch
Las Vegas Strip Odor Remediation, Francell R. Rodriguez, Daniel Hoskins, and Guadalupe Gutierrez
Christine Jorgensen and the Media: Identity Politics in the Early 1950s Press, Emylia N. Terry
2011 Award Recipients
The Chinese in Northern Mexico: Immigration, integration, and discrimination in Mexican society, 1882-1940, Yesenia M. Alaniz
The Effect of response format on syllogistic reasoning, Adam S. Billman
Dynamic decision making and race games, Shipra De
2010 Award Recipients
It Hastened What We All Fought For, the End of the War: General Sherman's Campaigns through Atlanta, Georgia, and the Carolinas and How They Impacted the Civil War, Thomas J. Birmingham
Human Rights Abuses in 1970s Argentina, Vanessa Gomez
American Hypocrisy in Foreign Policy: Operation FUBELT and the Overthrow of Salvador Allende, David G. Huggins
The Age of Aquarius: The Reorientation of NASA after 1969, Junichi Miyamoto