Award Information
In keeping with the interdisciplinary spirit of this campus-wide event, PRD judges evaluated presentations primarily on how effectively presenters communicated their research to a non-specialist audience. Judges included undergraduate and graduate alumni, faculty, staff, and members of the community. Fifteen awards were given for three-minute video presentations. Another five awards were given to recognize presenters with a submitted video and who presented during the on-campus Showcase.
Below are the 2025 winners.
PRD25 Awards Ceremony
Arts & Humanities Awards
Recognizes one presentation by an undergraduate student and another by a graduate student or post-doctoral researcher whose presentation illustrates the power of the arts and humanities to deepen cultural understanding, inspire action, or provoke thoughtful discussion. If a creative work, the presentation should convey the ideas and themes being explored in a way that explains the complex concepts in an engaging and accessible way. Projects that translate academic research into public dialogue or that engage diverse campus and community audiences are especially valued, highlighting the lasting impact of the humanities on both personal and societal levels.
The intent of this award is to recognize scholarship in the arts and/or humanities, including artistic practice and creative works. Students should showcase their arts and humanities projects to illuminate for non-specialist audiences the motivations, methods, approaches and outcomes of their scholarship or creative works.
Award value: $1,500
Jeffery Chen, Class of 2025
Theater and Music Theater
Advisers: Shariffa Ali, Chesney Snow, Michael Berry
Title: A Life Worth Living: A New Neuroscience Musical
Yassine Ait Ali, Graduate Student
French and Italian
Adviser: Dean James Van Wyck
Title: Promoting Cinema in Princeton
Orange & Black Awards
Awarded to presentations that receive the highest scores in the combined video + Showcase presentation category among all submissions. Presenters must participate in the live Showcase. Awardees will have their presentation featured on the PRD website and the presenter names will be announced during the live event. Four awards will be made, valued at $1,500 each.
Talia Akoh-Arrey, Graduate Student
Molecular Biology
Adviser: John F. Brooks II
Title: Biological Timekeeping: Circadian Regulation of Gut Immunity
Jessica Wang, Class of 2026
Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Advisers: Christina Riehl and Josh LaPergola
Title: Predator Alert: Alarm Calls and Social Signaling in a Tropical Bird (Crotophaga Major)
Maggie Wang, Class of 2026
Computer Science
Adviser: Brian Kernighan
Title: Evaluating Infringement Propensity in Text-to-Image Models
Henry Gage, Graduate Student
Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Adviser: Rob Pringle
Title: Hot, Hungry, and Scared: How do Africa's Large Herbivores Coexist?
Outstanding Presentation Awards
Awarded to presentations that receive the highest scores among all video submissions. Awardees will be featured during the live Awards Celebration and will have the opportunity to discuss their research with a moderator. Four awards will be made, valued at $1,500 each.
Yeraldi Loera and the EEB331 Research Team, Graduate student
Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Adviser: Dr. Bridgett vonHoldt
Title: The role of population ancestry in the conservation of Mexican gray wolves (Canis lupus baileyi)
Gabrielle Ross, Class of 2027
Computer Science; Astrophysical Sciences
Advisers: MIT Professor Andrew Vanderburg; NSF Graduate Research Fellow at MIT Zoe de Beurs
Title: DEATHSTAR: A System for Confirming Planets and Identifying False-Positive Signals in TESS Data Using Ground-Based Time-Domain Surveys
Ana Claus, Graduate Student
Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
Adviser: Kelsey B. Hatzell
Title: Making Batteries More Sustainable—One Element at a Time
Ron Shvartsman, Class of 2025
Physics
Advisers: Mary Stoddard; Howard Stone
Title: How do Bird Eggs Breathe? Gas Exchange and Formation of Avian Eggshells
FitzRandolph Gate Award
A symbol of the University's openness to the worldwide community, the FitzRandolph Gate Award represents the presentation that is considered the “fan favorite” by the Princeton community. Two awards valued at $1,000 each are given for the video presentation and Showcase presentation with the most votes received.
Friends, family, members of the community, and other supporters are encouraged to vote for their favorite presentations. Voting for the favorite video presentation takes place over the weekend prior to Princeton Research Day. Voting for the favorite Showcase presentation takes place exclusively in person during the Showcase event on Princeton Research Day.
Showcase Award
Karina Li, Class of 2026
Economics
Adviser: Henry Shim
Title: The Impact of the 2008 Global Financial Crisis on Private Health Insurance Enrollment for Middle-Income and High-Income Families
Video Presentation Award
Humnah and Fatima Zohra Poonawalla, Class of 2027
Environmental Studies
Adviser: Jessica Laus
Title: A Historical Lens: Examining Educational Inequities Across the State of New Jersey in Collaboration with Salvation and Social Justice & the Latino Action Network Foundation
Sponsored Awards
Campus Impact Award
Sponsored by Campus Life
Recognizes one presentation by an undergraduate student, graduate student or post-doctoral researcher whose research positively impacts the Princeton University campus community in some way. In particular, research that has a demonstrable, meaningful and potentially lasting impact on some or all campus populations can be considered for this award. This could mean positively impacting the life of other students; illuminating something important about campus or certain campus populations that may lead to action; responding to an important campus need; and/or research that connects or impacts University community members across roles.
Award value: $1,500
Maya Butani and Sukaina Shivji, Class of 2026
Health and Health Policy
Adviser: Sebastian Ramirez Hernandez
Title: The Health Outpost: A Novel Health Intervention Created via Equity-Centered Design-Thinking for Princeton’s Campus
Princeton University Library (PUL) Awards
Sponsored by the Princeton University Library
Recognizes one presentation by an undergraduate student and another by a graduate student or postdoc who has clearly articulated thoughtful or innovative use of Library resources and services.
These awards would recognize research projects that make innovative use of library resources and services. For example, a project might use Special Collections materials, online exhibits, digitization services, support for research data management, GIS and maps, or statistical software support. A project might actively include partnership with a librarian, a subject specialist or a curator. A project might build on the Library’s commitment to surface hidden collections through curation, digitization, online exhibits and visualizations.
Award value: $1,000
James Zhang, Class of 2025
Computer Science
Advisers: Brian Kernighan; Wouter Haverals
Title: Optical Document Recognition (ODR) with Large Vision-Language Models: Enhancing Metadata Creation and Digitization in Libraries
Graduate Student Impact Award
Sponsored by the Graduate School
Recognizes one presentation by a graduate student whose presentation clearly communicates the potential positive impact their research has on enriching or improving our culture, community or society. The emphasis on clearly communicating the “potential” impact of one’s research to a general audience indicates that presentations will be evaluated on effective communication skills, not the merit of finished outcome.
Award value: $1,500
Erin Phillips, Graduate Student
Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Adviser: Rob Pringle
Title: A Dead Giveaway? Simulating the Impact of Large Carnivores on Scavenging Dynamics in an African Savanna
Sustainability Research Award
Sponsored by the Office of Sustainability
Recognizes one presentation by an undergraduate student, graduate student, or post-doctoral researcher whose research positively advances Princeton University’s commitment to sustainability on campus and beyond. In particular, the Sustainability Research Award prioritizes research that uses the campus as a living laboratory for sustainability problem-solving or focuses on sustainability issues at local, regional, or global scales. The research in sustainability can span various disciplines, including social sciences, natural sciences, humanities, and engineering, and can impact a range of subjects, such as greenhouse gas emissions, water usage, responsible design, waste reduction, environmental justice, healthy habitats, stormwater management, food and agriculture, and transport.
Award value: $1,500
Vitus Larrieu, Class of 2026
Computer Science
Trace Zhang, Class of 2026
Electrical and Computer Engineering
Nora Graves, Class of 2026
Computer Science
Advisers: Andrés Monroy-Hernández, Varun Nagaraj Rao, Yuhan Liu
Title: GPTFootprint: Increasing Consumer Awareness of the Environmental Impacts of LLMs
Innovation Awards
Sponsored by the Princeton Entrepreneurship Council
One award will be given to an undergraduate research presentation, and another award will be given to a graduate student, postdoc or early career researcher presentation.
The Innovation Award recognizes our Princeton community members who model to the highest degree not only research and scholarship, but also applied and courageous creativity “in the service of humanity”. The Award celebrates innovators who bravely balance risk and reward, pivot when their pathways require re-direction--while still pursuing their "North Star" purpose and seek to scale solutions that are not just different, but better. In doing so, innovators build bridges, break barriers, and benefit society in tangible and lasting ways.
The judges will evaluate the research on its quality and creativity as well as the degree to which its storytelling clearly communicates its pathway to scale and broad, societal benefits to humanity.
Award value: $1,000
Alana Hoffert, Class of 2025
Spanish and Portuguese; Interdisciplinary Humanities
Advisers: Paloma Moscardo Vallez, Noreen Goldman
Title: Empowering Hispanic Adults in Northern Michigan by Assessing and Addressing Health Literacy
Serene Dhawan, Graduate Student
Neuroscience
Adviser: Bradley Dickerson
Title: Flying Lessons: Mapping the Neural Circuits that Control Wing Motion
Undergraduate International Research Award
Sponsored by the Office of International Programs
Recognizes one undergraduate researcher whose project best demonstrates the importance of international engagement and on-site research, illustrating that the best way to understand and contribute to our globalized world is to experience other places and other cultures firsthand. This award will be given to the project that demonstrates most clearly the importance of on-site, immersive research in a setting outside of the United States.
Award value: $1,000
Katie Horan, Class of 2025
Religion
Advisers: Andrew Chignell, Advisor; Bryan Lowe, Principal Investigator
Title: Spiritualizing Soil: Biodynamic Agriculture and Disabled Belonging in the International Camphill Movement
All winners and videos
View award winners and videos from past Princeton Research Days: