Drew Birrenkott, Joanna Lawrence, Tobias Lunt, Rebecca Reese, Alice Wei
Drew Birrenkott is a fifth year senior graduating in May with majors in biomedical engineering, biochemistry, and political science. In 2013 Drew was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship and in October, 2014 will begin a two year master’s degree program in Development Studies at the University of Oxford. With the Zillman Award, Drew will be traveling to Chennai, India to implement the CaRe Monitor he designed along with four other BME students for their BME design course. The CaRe Monitor is a cardiorespiratory monitor designed specifically to monitor the heart and respiration rates of infants at risk for apnea in developing countries. Drew is very excited for this opportunity as it will allow him and his design team to make the project they have spent the last two and half years designing available to the people that need it most.
Joanna Lawrence is a senior at the University of Wisconsin studying archaeology. This summer she will participate in the 4-week excavation of the Bronze-Age in Hungary. Joanna will assist with the continued uncovering of this ancient site, practicing valuable excavation techniques and gaining further knowledge in her primary area of interest: the daily lives and identities of Bronze Age Europeans. Joanna will graduate with a BA in Anthropology with honors this May, and in October will begin her graduate studies in European Prehistory at the University of Cambridge.
Tobias Lunt is pursuing a joint MS in Agroecology and Plant Pathology. This summer, he will be traveling to Ethiopia to build on an existing effort to investigate food security levels in communities in the southwest region of the country. The project is introducing a novel orange-fleshed sweet potato variety to smallholder farmers to improve agronomic output, improve caloric intake at the household level, and reduce incidence of vitamin-A malnutrition. Tobias wishes to contribute to making food systems more resilient, more equitable and less impactful on environmental systems.
Brontë Mansfield is a junior majoring in Art History and English, with an emphasis in nineteenth-century art and literature. This summer, she will use the generous funds from the Zillman Award to support research to write her senior honors thesis. Brontë will be investigating Victorian depictions of mermaids and their relationship to contemporary Darwinian theories of evolution. Brontë is very much looking forward to traveling to London this summer, and spending time researching in prominent museums and libraries.
Rebecca Reese is a junior studying genetics. This summer she will be going to the University of Oxford through the UW-Madison SCORE program. There she will be interning in a lab for eight weeks studying developmental epigenetics. Rebecca is very excited to carry out her own project in a field of genetics that is relatively new. Rebecca intends to go to graduate school after graduating from UW-Madison where she will study cellular and molecular biology. She is looking forward to taking the knowledge she gains from the summer SCORE program throughout her academic career.
Akshay Sarathi is a graduate student in the department of Anthropology. His research interests include the development of seafaring technology on the East African coast c. 20,000 years ago and in recording the material culture of fast-disappearing traditional fishing communities in the same region. At long last, he is nearing his goal of earning a doctorate in archaeology and becoming a professor. He plans to use his Zillman award to travel to Tanzania over the summer where he will survey archaeological sites to evaluate their suitability for excavation.
Alice Wei is a junior pursuing a major in Medical Microbiology and Immunology as well as certificates in African Studies and Global Health. This summer, she will work as a public health research intern at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago. Her work will encompass clinical, epidemiological, and community-based research on pediatric allergies and asthma. As a passionate advocate for providing preferential healthcare options to all, and bridging health disparities, she is looking forward to learning these novel skills and applying them in her future career in public and global health.
Other Zillman Award Winners:
2017, 2016, 2015, 2013, 2012, 2011,
2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005