2026 Honors College Thesis Fair

You are invited to join the Honors College community in exploring the diversity of honors student thesis projects at the 2026 Thesis Fair! There are opportunities to engage both in-person and virtually on Friday, May 29, 2026.

Event Details

Lightning Talk Sessions

Learning Innovation Center 343 and on Zoom
9-10:00 a.m.
10:30-11:30 a.m.
Noon-1:00 p.m.

Hear brief presentations from honors students about their thesis projects in the Learning Innovation Center on the OSU Corvallis campus and over Zoom.
Zoom Meeting ID: 926 4413 6202 Password: 243032

The schedule of presenters is listed below.

Poster Displays

Learning Innovation Center Third Floor
11 a.m.-1 p.m.
Connect with students at posters displaying their thesis work.

 

9 a.m. Lightning Talks: LInC 343

In person at the Learning Innovation Center (LINC 343) and via Zoom.

Esha Ahmed 

  • Thesis: Elucidating the Impact of Metabolic Factors on the Neuroendocrine Control of Reproduction: Responses of Immortalized Kisspeptin Neurons to Hormonal and Metabolic Signals

Hassan Abderahman

  • Thesis: Sugar, Sex, and Death: High-sugar diet interacts with reproductive costs to modulate lifespan in Drosophila melanogaster

Harlene Buehler

  • Thesis: Identification and Quantification of PFAS from Thermal Degradation of Fluoropolymers 

Fakhria Saadat

  • Thesis: Membrane and Protein-Protein Interactions of Ferlin C2A-C2B Linkers

Ethan Shingleton

  • Thesis: Soaring in the Snow: An Analysis of Observational Systems Required for Autonomous Flight in Polar Regions

Cosette Fowler 

  • Thesis: Measuring Wellbeing through Sport

Sara Vargas

  • Thesis: How Estrogen Signaling Shapes Outcomes in EGFR-Mutant Lung Cancer

Lilli Ahlers

  • Thesis: A Systematic Review of Nutrition and Substance Abuse  

Jack Derbenti

  • Thesis: The Objectivity of Moral Judgement

Matthew Koteskey

  • Thesis: Effects of Ocean Acidification on Nickel Speciation and Bioavailability in the Northeastern Pacific

 

10:30 a.m. Lightning Talks: LInC 345

In person at the Learning Innovation Center (LINC 345) and via Zoom.

Finley Taylor

  • Thesis: Evaluating the Impact of Shape and Configuration of Porous Networks on Saturated Soils

Natalie Donato

  • Thesis: Picture pore-fect: Mapping shark electroreceptor pores with novel methods using photograph-based 3D models

Charlotte Robison

  • Thesis: Planning for “The Big One”: Revisiting Recovery Times from the 2013 Oregon Resilience Plan 

Kim Tu

  • Thesis: Investigating the Effects of Reishi Mushroom Extracts on Caenorhabditis elegans Lifespan and Reproduction

Julia Martin

  • Thesis: Acting Conscientiously: An Ethical Analysis of Conscientious Objection in Healthcare

Sean Counihan

  • Thesis: Understory Spider Abundance and Diversity Under Varying Structural Conditions in a Coastal Oregon Forest

Hannah Dempsey 

  • Thesis: Pointwise Convergence of Solutions to the Linear Schrödinger Equation

Sara Vargas

  • Thesis: How Estrogen Signaling Shapes Outcomes in EGFR-Mutant Lung Cancer

Troy Lopez

  • Thesis: Building a Lightweight Security Incident and Event Management Tool for Academic Cyber Defense Competitions

Bodie Fahey

  • Thesis: Mining for Sovereignty in Kanaky: Settler-Colonialism, Indigenous Resistance, and the Land Back Movement in New Caledonia

Mason Olander

  • Thesis: Interrupting Robot Two: Further Investigation of Proxemics in Social Robotics  

Riley Callahan

  • Thesis: MYC-Dependent Lipid Profiles

Noon Lightning Talks: LInC 343

In person at the Learning Innovation Center (LINC 343) and via Zoom.

Shawn Durr

  • Thesis: A Tale of Two Speakers: How Race Shapes Judgment in Health Messaging

Allison Bisgard

  • Thesis: AMR in wastewater

Megan Sykes

  • Thesis: They See Me Rollin’, They Hatin’: Disabled Students’ Sense of Belonging in Oregon Higher Education

Lucy Heine

  • Thesis: Developing a Photo-Identification Catalog for Broadnose Sevengill Sharks (Notorynchus cepedianus) in the Northeast Pacific

Hayden Gosnell

  • Thesis: A Tale of Two Purines: Guanosine Imitates Adenosine Stimulation of Immune Cell Activity in Drosophila melanogaster

Nathan Co

  • Thesis: Navigating Empathy and Professional Boundaries in Patient/Provider Relationships 

Riley Whisler

  • Thesis: Conversations with my Grandfather: How Basketball Shaped Life in Off-Reservation Native American Boarding Schools and Rural Native Alaskan Communities

Shengdong Li

  • Thesis: Simple, Fast: Falling Leaves

Augustine Schoonveld

  • Thesis: Robot Interpreters: The Ethical Implications of Using AI for Medical Interpretation

Cassidy Hayes-McQueen

  • Thesis: Spirit & Sound: The Identity, Community, and Culture of the Oregon State University Marching Band

Guilermo Morales

  • Thesis: Design and Validation of an XR Reality-Based EMG Training System for Prosthetic 
    Control Using Head-Mounted Display