UROP Outstanding Mentor Awards
The UROP Outstanding Mentor Award Ceremony will be held Thursday, April 22nd from 12:00pm – 12:50pm Eastern Daylight Time.
This $500 monetary award recognizes UROP research mentors for their outstanding mentorship of UROP students. The award recipients were nominated by their UROP students and selected by a committee composed of UROP Staff and Peer Facilitators. These individuals have shared their passion for their work, a talent for teaching, patience in training novice researchers, and have most notably taken an interest in their students’ academic, personal and professional futures.
Outstanding Mentor Award winners will be announced during the ceremony and posted on the UROP website.
Outstanding Mentor Nominees
Omar Ahmed, PhD Fadhl Alakwaa, PhD Samer M Ali, PhD Kevin Bakker, PhD, MSc Katherine Bauer, PhD Audrey Bennett, MFA Melissa Borja, PhD Subba Rao Chaganti, PhD Luciana de Souza Leão, PhD Ron Eglash, PhD Matt Friedman, PhD Siria Gámez, PhD Candidate Lorenzo García-Amaya, PhD Mark Guzdial, PhD Nabih Haddad, PhD Kayla R. S. Hale, PhD Candidate Kurt D. Hankenson, DVM, PhD Kim Kearfott, ScD Peter Kim, PhD Candidate Jackie Kleinsasser, PhD Candidate Pennelope Kunkle, Research Coordinator Ian Lang, MPH Vincent Longo, PhD Candidate Kenneth Lowande, PhD Stephanie Lu, BBA Nathaniel Thomas Marshall, PhD Pooja Neiman, MD, MPA Nikhil Parekh, MD, MPH Zachary Reese, PhD Candidate Giulia Riccò, PhD Amanda Schutz, PhD Sylvia Simioni, PhD Candidate Julia M. Smith, PhD Candidate Matthew Solomon, PhD Ben Swanson, DDS/PhD Candidate Nadia R. Sutton, MD, MPH Elizabeth Trinh, PhD Candidate Thomas Valley, MD, MSc
Award Ceremony Keynote – Dean Curzan

Anne Curzan is the dean of the University of Michigan’s College of Literature, Science, and the Arts (LSA), the Geneva Smitherman Collegiate Professor of English Language and Literature, Linguistics, and Education, and an Arthur F. Thurnau Professor. From 2012-2016 she served as the faculty athletics representative for the University of Michigan, and from 2015-2019 she was associate dean for the humanities in LSA. Her research focuses on the history of the English language, attitudes about language change, language and gender, and pedagogy. Professor Curzan has received university awards for outstanding research and undergraduate teaching, including the Henry Russel Award and the John Dewey Award. She has published multiple books and dozens of articles; her most recent books include Fixing English: Prescriptivism and Language History (2014) and the third edition of the co-authored textbook How English Works: A Linguistic Introduction (2012). She has also created the audio/video courses “Secret Life of Words: English Words and Their Origins” and “English Grammar Boot Camp” for Great Courses. Professor Curzan wrote for six years for the blog Lingua Franca for the Chronicle of Higher Education and is the featured expert on the segment “That’s What They Say” on local NPR affiliate Michigan Radio.
Personal website: https://acurzan.english.lsa.umich.edu/