Franke Program Undergraduate Research Awards Made

May 16, 2014

The Franke Program in Science and the Humanities is pleased to announce the winners of its inaugural Undergraduate Research Awards. The Franke Program, made possible by a generous gift from Richard (’53) and Barbara Franke, is committed to forging new links between the humanities and the sciences across Yale. The undergraduate fellowships offered by the program support the work of seniors at Yale College whose research is at the intersection of humanistic, artistic, and scientific fields.

From a very strong field of applicants, the following nine students have been chosen to receive and have accepted awards of between $1000 to $2000: Lamtharn (Hanoi) Kantrakul (Applied Physics, Music), Maureen O’Hanlon (Architecture), Yeon Woo Park (Molecular Biophysics & Biochemistry), Lillian Xie (Economics), Derek Braverman (Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology), Patrick Cage (Environmental Studies), Deena Gottlieb (Cognitive Science, Religious Studies), Theresa Oei (Molecular Biophysics & Biochemistry), and Maria Ratskevich (Cognitive Science).

Awardees will attend dinners with Franke Program faculty in the Fall 2014 term and will present the results of their projects in the Spring 2015 term.

A list of the awardees and the titles of their projects follow.

Yeon Woo Park
“Science and Religion: The Historical Origin of Scientific Realism”

Lamtharn (Hanoi) Hantrakul
“Surrogate soundboards for novel real-time transmission of instrumental audio”

Lillian Xie
“Identifying Ming Dynasty Blue-and-White Porcelain through Chemical Characterization of Magnaese Oxide Contaminants in Cobalt Pigment”

Patrick Cage
“‘To Till It and Keep it’”: Religious Environmentalism in Place on Land-Based Christian Intentional Communities”

Maureen O’Hanlon
“Apprenticeship in Material Craft for New Perspectives on Sculpture and Esthetics, with Brent Howard”

Derek Braverman
“Experimental Philosophy Research Investigating Health Care”

Theresa Oei
“Navigating the Reductionist Model Across Disciplines”

Deena Gottlieb
“The Psychological, Cognitive, and Evolutionary Bases of Supernatural and Religious Ideas”

Maria Ratskevich
“Global Early Childhood Care, Education, and Literacy: Evaluating the Efficiency of Links Between Research in Neuroscience and Program Implementation”