We are thrilled to announce the 2025 Undergraduate Library Research Award winners, sponsored by Brookens Library and the Friends of Brookens Library. This award recognizes UIS undergraduate students whose academic work demonstrates exceptional information literacy skills and incorporates the use of Brookens Library’s collections and services.
After careful review and deliberation by our committee, we are pleased to present the following winners:
First Place:
Cameron Brown for their project titled “Canary in the Crow’s Nest: William Kidd’s Trial as an Extension of Henry Avery’s” - Prize: $500
Second Place:
Abhishek Soni for their project titled "Bridging Physics and Machine Learning: Exploring SEIR Epidemiological Modeling using Physics-Informed Neural Networks" - Prize: $400
Third Place:
Noel Gauen for their project titled "The Business of Oppression: The United States’ Demand for Forced Labor in the Democratic Republic of the Congo" - Prize: $300
Fourth Place:
Abbie Hasty for their project titled "Understanding the Growth of Online Sports Betting Among America’s 18-24-year-old Population: A Study of Marketing Techniques Used by Major Online Sports Betting Advertisers" - Prize: $200
Fifth Place:
Nathan Davis for their project titled "Water Quality Evaluation of Lake Springfield and the Emiquon Preserve using Macroinvertebrates" - Prize: $100
In addition to the monetary awards and public recognition, each of the winners will also have their projects/papers deposited in ý digital repository, IDEALS. Winners for this and previous years are listed on the Brookens Library Undergraduate Research Awards’ page with links to work in
Thank you to everyone who participated in and supported this award. The quality of submissions this year was exceptional, and we are proud of our students' scholarly achievements. We look forward to continuing to foster a culture of research excellence at UIS.
The 2025 Brookens Library Undergraduate Research Award Committee:
Brooke Depenbusch, Assistant Professor, Legal Studies
Mallory Jallas, Head of Information Literacy and Academic Outreach, UIS Library
Holly Kent, Associate Professor, History
Sally LaJoie, Instructional Services Librarian, UIS Library
Rick Stokes, Clinical Assistant Professor, Biology
Yuan Wen, Assistant Professor, Management, Marketing, and Operations