Oxford, MS – (JonesboroRightNow.com) – Nov. 15, 2024 – The Stamps Impact Prize, a competitive award program at the University of Mississippi to support undergraduate-initiated, faculty-mentored research and creative achievement projects, has announced its second cohort of recipients.
Abigail Johnson, of Jonesboro, a junior forensic chemistry major at UM, was named one of the Stamps Impact Prize winners. Johnson will pursue the project “Estimating Age Using X-Ray in Forensic and Archaeological Populations” with faculty mentor Carolyn Freiwald, associate professor of anthropology.
The program is the first of its kind in the nation to receive support from E. Roe Stamps and his family of Miami, Florida, which is being matched by an investment from the university. Ole Miss students applied for the awards, which provide financial resources for their research projects.
The Stamps Impact Prize is intended to enhance undergraduate academic experiences. Leading the program is Ken Sufka, who said he’s “thrilled to see many high-quality projects (submitted for consideration) from extraordinary students across a diversity of disciplines represented on our campus.”
“UM’s ability to support, in a significant way, these student-initiated, faculty-mentored research and creative achievement projects makes for an exceptional undergraduate experience which we hope will launch students into high-impact careers and/or entry into highly competitive graduate programs,” said Sufka, distinguished professor of psychology and pharmacology and research professor in the Research Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences.
“It is exciting to see through the lenses of our students’ bright young minds the important issues needing to be addressed in science, culture and society,” he said. “To have these creative minds explore their great ideas as UM undergraduates certainly makes you wonder what larger impactful issues they will tackle in the years to come. This is exactly what the Stamps Impact Prize wants to support and nurture.”
Any Ole Miss undergraduate student is eligible to apply for exceptional educational pursuits through the Stamps Impact Prize.