Award for Distinguished Creative Activity & Research Mentoring

Each year, the Undergraduate Research Center recognizes a member of the Occidental community for excellence in creative activity and research mentoring. 

Award Details

Award: 

$2000 and recognition with the keynote address at the annual Summer Research Program conference. 

Eligibility: 

All members of the Occidental community (including alumni) are eligible for this award and to nominate for this award. 

Selection: 

Members of the Undergraduate Research Committee evaluate nominations based on the quality and scope of the faculty member’s undergraduate research mentoring. Letters of nomination are solicited in the spring and should address the nominee’s undergraduate research mentoring contributions, mentoring philosophy or approach, and evidence of success as an undergraduate research mentor.

Recipients

Sabrina Stierwalt (Physics) is an observational astrophysicist who researches the internal and environmental processes driving star formation in nearby galaxies. She uses multi-wavelength observations from the X-ray to the radio to understand how gas is converted into stars. She currently explores the universe as an Assistant Professor of Physics at Occidental College in the heart of Los Angeles. She leads the NSF-funded program TiNy Titans, the first systematic study of the gas dynamics and star formation in interacting dwarf galaxies. Over a dozen Occidental students have worked on this project and submitted their work at conferences all over the country. Prof Stierwalt is also the Vice Chair of NASA's Cosmic Origins Program Analysis Group Executive Committee where she acts as a liaison between NASA and the astronomy community. She works to make science and the stars more accessible through a program to bring an inflatable planetarium to communities that have been historically excluded from STEM.

Darren Larsen (Geology) research interests lie at the nexus between paleoclimatology and geomorphology, where he uses a range of tools, field observations, and analytical techniques to answer questions in these highly interdisciplinary fields. Much of his work involves investigating sedimentary archives to develop a greater understanding of Earth’s climate system (for example, through changes in glacier extents, environmental conditions, and monsoon behavior) and surface processes (such as landslides, erosion rates, and sediment transport). He is particularly interested in the sedimentary record of abrupt climate change, glacial-lacustrine sedimentation, and neotectonic activity in Arctic and alpine regions and landscape evolution and the interaction of living organisms with their physical environment. Ongoing research projects in Iceland, Peru, the Western US, and elsewhere provide numerous opportunities for professional collaborations and student involvement.

Laural Meade headshot

Laural Meade is a Resident Professor in the Department of Theater and Performance Studies at Occidental College. In classrooms and on the mainstage of Keck Theater, she collaborates with students on their research and production in playwriting, acting, directing and theater theory. Her specialties include musical theater, ensemble creation, and the fine art of theater-going (on Friday nights you can often find her shepherding students to all manner of performance venues throughout L.A. - and meeting with artists afterward). As the director of the annual New Works Festival, she has mentored 100+ student writers through the process of developing their original scripts for live audiences in collaboration with professional artists from the local theater community. In her creative life beyond Oxy, Laural makes music as the choir director for The Secret City (an “art church” that celebrates all forms of creativity), and as a singer around town. Her current project explores the life and risque song catalog of jazz great Sophie Tucker. 2023-24 will mark Laural’s 26th year on the faculty at Oxy. She also calls the college home as a graduate - earning a B.A. in theater here before completing an M.F.A. in playwriting from UCLA.

Contact Undergraduate Research Center
Library

2nd floor, Old Wing, Room 253A

Phone: (323) 259-1414
urc@oxy.edu

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