Past Winners

2023

1st place - Manu Sundaresan, Social Epigenetics: Tackling the Dynamic Human Genome

2nd place - Sophia Kang, Temperature-dependent sex determination: Evolutionary significance and the adaptive potential of sea turtles to climate change

3rd place - Kathryn Guo, Could you take a drug to learn a new language?

2022

1st place - Jielu Yu, The Need for Data Disaggregation and Population-Specific Interventions for Asian Americans

2nd place - Isaac Rand, Reviving Civic Data: Methods in Automatically Digitizing 1940 Census Block Maps

3rd place - Christopher Bo-min Song, The Mechanism of Regeneration in Cephalopods

2021

1st place - Hannah Richter, Our Big Blue (Noisy) Ocean: Effects of Noise Pollution on Marine Invertebrates

2nd place - Alex Emerson, Kelp Forests: A Surprising Ally in Climate Change Mitigation

3rd place - Jaeda Roberts, Potential Utilization of CRISPR for Clinical, Ecological, and Agricultural Advances

2020

1st place: Ahit Kaan Tarhan, Art & Science: Photochromism

2nd place: Ethan Pritikin, Creating Functional Algorithms in Healthcare Diagnostics Using AI

3rd place: Tiffany Vaughan, Florence Nightingale: Nursing A Calling

2019

1st place

What are the Odds? A Call for Statistical Integrity in the Age of Big Data

Alex Campili

2nd place

Hg in the System: 3000 Years of Andean Mercury Emission

Eva Haraldsdottir

3rd place

Millikan’s Verification of the Photoelectric Effect Lights the Way for Regenerative Medicine

Nivedina Sarma

2018

1st place

Long Distance Migration in Seafaring Birds
Jacob Johnson.

2nd place

The Opioid Epidemic: Limiting the Use of Opioids in Anesthesia
Nikita Mehta.

3rd place

Nomura's Jellyfish Blooms in the Sea of Japan
Sara Furukawa.

2017

1st place

Our Brains Work Better on Curiosity: The Connection between Curiosity and Memory Retention, and the Implications for Reform of the Education System
Sychelle Mikofsky

2nd place

Human Gene Editing: Miracle Technology or the End of Evolution?
Emi Lemberg

3rd place

Insight into the Evolutionary Purpose of Memory: Pairing Behavioral and Neurobiological Data
Clara Sava-Segal

2016

1st place
Complexity Theory and Immunity: Chaotic Hearts Lead to New Understanding of Depression
Stephanie Williams

2nd place
Colliding Cosmologies: Smallpox Epidemics in Jesuit Canada, 1637-1641
Colin Garon

3rd place
Oh No, Not Again: What Happens When a Whale Hits the Ground
Isaac Krone

2015

1st place winning paper
A Glimpse Into Our Future's Past: Plastic Debris In the Stratigraphic Record
By Xavier Zahnle

2nd place winning paper
Migrant Mysteries: An Elucidation of the Hispanic Health Paradox
By Stephanie Bi

3rd place winning paper
Social Rejection and Health
By Haozhe Shan

2014

1st place
REM Sleep: The Enigma that Remains
By Elle Sullivan

2nd place
A History of Inconceivability
By Michael Begun

2nd place
Starting with the Man in the Mirror: Psychopathy, Mirror Neurons, and the Legal System
By Sydney Reitz

This year there was a tie for 2nd place.

2013

1st place
The Demise of the Ancient Maya: A Cautionary Tale?
By Chelsea Leu.

2nd place
Polychlorinated Biphenyls and the Remediation of the Hudson River
By Hannah Mark.

2012

1st place
Unidentified Flowering Objects: Science Education, Environmental Education, and the Mysteries of the Backyards
By Noah Weisz

2nd place
Devil Transmissible Facial Tumors
By Annie Wang

2011

1st place
Eating Like Cavemen
By Anna Griffith

2nd place
Radiation Dose and Cancer Risk from CT Scans
By Jeremy Bancroft Brown

2010

1st place
Karl Popper and Antarctic Ice: The Climate Debate and its Problems
By Peter Borah

2nd place
The Oceanic Acid Trip: Why CO2
By Michael Roytburd

2009

1st place
The discovery of the polymerase chain reaction: A scientific (and personal) journey
By Laura Felley

2nd place
Could Not the Race of Men Be Improved?
By Laurel K. Mylonas-Orwig

2008

1st place
Combating the Spread of Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus: A Question of Research and Public Reaction
By Laura Felley

2nd place
Sellout
By Conor Hughes

2007

1st place
Climate Change and Coral Bleaching
By Eric Chan

2nd place
Colliding Interests: The Future of Particle Physics
By Bihui Li

2006

1st place
The Survival of Science: What Scientists must do to defuse the evolution controversy
By Stephen Brusatte

2nd place
After Petroleum: The transition to a New Transportation Fuel Source
By Daniel Isaac Wolf

2005

1st place
Kin
By Bihui Li

2nd place
Engineers of our own Disaster: Dike Construction, Land Reclamation, and their Hidden Consequences
By Stephen Brusatte

2004

1st place
Craig Segall Lost Worlds: The Late Pleistocene Extinctions and the Modern Crisis

2nd place
Stephen Brusatte Continents Adrift and Sea-Floor Spreading: The Revolution of Plate Tectonics

CONTACT INFORMATION

Barbara Kern
702-8717
The John Crerar Library, Office 129
crerar-prize@lib.uchicago.edu