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Celebrating UCLA's Undergraduate Research Week (May 18-22), the Library Prize for Undergraduate Research recognizes and honors excellence in undergraduate research at UCLA.
This year, seventeen students will be receiving cash prizes ranging from $299 to $599 for their exceptional research papers or projects and use of UCLA Library collections and services. Their research will be available on the University of California’s open access publishing platform, eScholarship(opens in a new tab).
Throughout the week, the winners of these thirteen prizes across eight categories will be recognized on the Library’s social media accounts and will be celebrated at an award ceremony alongside their advisors and other special guests.
Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences First Prize ($599)
Researcher: Rebecca Soto '27
Project: The Role of Familialism in Explaining the Relationship Between Childhood Sexual Abuse and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Among Hispanic Young Adults
Advisor: Dr. Bonnie Goff
"UCLA Library’s services significantly shaped my research process. I scheduled a consultation with Jason Burton, the Psychology subject librarian, to refine my search strategy. This guidance helped me distinguish between research that merely included Hispanic samples and research that operationalized cultural constructs."
Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences Second Prize ($299)
Researcher: Aya Ibrahim ‘26
Project: Roots Uprooted: Environmental Degradation and Control as a Tool of Occupation in Palestine Literature Review
Advisor: Dr. Chris Jadallah
"In addition to using [UCLA Library] databases, I attended workshops on writing literature reviews, research methodologies and citation practices. These workshops helped me understand how to synthesize research and write my review effectively while citing in proper APA format. These resources helped me refine search strategies, evaluate scholarly sources and organize materials, allowing me to build a detailed literature review."
Science, Engineering & Mathematics First Prize ($599)
Researcher: Vyas Koduvayur ‘27, Priya Ravi ‘27, Olivia Wu ‘27, Rongying (Flicka) Zhang ‘27
Project: Human Rhinovirus Leverages Multi-layered Immune Evasion Mechanisms to Bypass Host Defenses
"[UCLA] Library databases, research guides, and software services played a central role in shaping our research direction, analysis and final product. The library taught us how to critically evaluate sources and communicate scientific ideas effectively — skills that will continue to shape our journeys long after college."
Science, Engineering & Mathematics Second Prize ($299)
Researcher: Jessica Leung ‘27, Sonia Tran ‘26
Project: Locomotor Transitions as Early Markers of Atypical Neurodevelopment in Autism Spectrum Disorder
Advisor: Dr. Rujuta Wilson
"We used UCLA Library’s Research Methods guides, which shifted our perspective from simply gathering data to critically 'making judgments about the text.' Virtual Research Help Desk [staff members] were the heart of our technical journey, allowing us to directly [improve] the overall quality of research in our final bibliography."
Best project using resources from UCLA Library Special Collections First Prize ($599)
Researcher: Will Bollini ‘26
Project: DIY 2 Survive: Burnout, Belonging, and Building Something Better
Advisor: Dr. Jessica A. Schwartz
"UCLA Library Special Collections were central to the development of my zine. Access to the UCLA Punk Archive allowed me to examine material culture directly rather than relying solely on secondary descriptions. Observing the texture, layering and construction of archival garments expanded my analytical skills, teaching me how to ‘read’ objects as cultural texts. The conceptual shift from personal expression to research-informed critique was driven primarily by my engagement with UCLA Library resources."
Best project using resources from UCLA Library Special Collections Second Prize ($299)
Researcher: Ema Sato ‘26
Project: A Fire Ignored: Environmental Justice and Oral Histories of the 2025 Los Angeles Wildfires
Advisor: Dr. David Gere
"The methodological core of this project was shaped by the UCLA Library Center for Oral History Research. I learned to structure interviews around lived experience rather than predetermined conclusions, revising my questions to emphasize sequence, sensory detail and agency."
Best project using resources from an international collection First Prize ($599)
Researcher: Pavan Radhakrishnan ‘26
Project: Nicolae Sulac’s Orchestra Lăutarii: National Turn in Soviet Moldovan Folk Music
Advisor: Dr. Joy Calico
"Perhaps no single person influenced my project more than the UCLA Music Librarian, Matthew Vest... Important pieces of advice that stuck with me ranged from general topics, such as the idea of research as a recursive process and making the best use of Interlibrary Loan (ILL) borrowing before my winter break trip, as well as more specific observations on Eastern European archives. The structured guidance I received significantly helped me avoid many of the mistakes I had made during my previous research trip."
Best project using resources from an international collection Second Prize ($299)
Researcher: Pilar Taylor ‘26
Project: Superimposition; Examining the Layered Meaning of Maya Ruins in Yucatan, Chapter 2; Izamal
Advisor: Dr. Robin Derby
"The UCLA Library website was incredibly helpful throughout this process both in having available materials, and in conveniently organizing them. Archaeological and historical journals and secondary sources, largely accessed through UCLA Library, helped round out these perspectives by providing context and theoretical frameworks."
Best project using resources from the William Andrews Clark Memorial Library First Prize ($599)
Researcher: Valery Klepova ‘26
Project: To Be Damned or Diagnosed: Transgressive Desire Between the Moral and the Pathological in The Monk and Lolita
Advisor: Dr. Allison Kanner-Botan
"The experience of consulting [UCLA Library] archival resources was truly indispensable, to this project itself and to my development as a scholar—I was able to access works that have not been made accessible in print or online at all, making the [Clark Library’s] resources irreplaceable and necessary."
Best project using resources from the William Andrews Clark Memorial Library Second Prize ($299)
Researcher: Alfons Rosales ‘26
Project: Recipes in Transition: Comparisons of Recipe Documentation in Late Medieval and Early Modern Cookery
Advisor: Dr. Matthew Fisher
"The [Clark Library] space was beneficial to my research by allowing me to add a practical component to my study alongside the textual analysis of the surveyed recipes. This experience has helped me deepen my understanding of research as something broader than simply accessing the UCLA Library page."
Best project on music after 1900 First Prize ($599)
Researcher: Eden Ulrigg ‘27
Project: From the Steppe to the Stage: The Westernization and Cultural Restructuring of the Mongolian Horse-head Fiddle
Advisor: Dr. Helen Rees
"The [UCLA Library] catalog and research guide helped me to discover databases I would not have known about otherwise, including JSTOR and ProQuest. They were both invaluable to my research; I would not have otherwise discovered several secondary sources about the long and complicated history of Mongolian politics, identity and culture."
Best research project completed for the Cluster Program ($599)
Researcher: Maria Baig ‘29
Project: It’s Not Just a Joke: Dismantling Gender Violence Through Spoken Word Performance
Advisor: Dr. Luke Yarbrough
"The most significant support I received came from two members of my cluster's Library research team... Meeting with both of them at different stages of the process meant I was able to course-correct as I wrote rather than having to restructure after the fact. From these experiences, I learned both new methods of source-finding and how to structure an argument so that each claim builds meaningfully on the one before it."
Best project using resources from the UCLA Film & Television Archive Research and Study Center ($599)
Researcher: Megan Vahdat ‘27
Project: Embodied Displacement: Stress Dysregulation and Cultural Discordance in Clinical Care among Iranian Refugee Women
Advisor: Dr. Alina Dorian
"For communities often underrepresented in mainstream research, access to diverse research is absolutely essential to future empowerment. UCLA Library enabled me to merge my identities as both researcher and descendant in a sweeping project that merges history, science, and art in an attempt to improve the lives of Iranian refugee women"