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Congratulations to the 2025 Undergraduate Research Contest Award Winners

The University Libraries Undergraduate Research Contest seeks to recognize and reward outstanding research conducted by undergraduate students at the University of Missouri.

This year the winner of the first place prize of a $500 scholarship is Nina Schmolzi, a senior studying anthropology. Her project was “Tracing Routes Through Roots: Unraveling the Bantu Migration Through Linguistics and Archaeology.”

The second-place winner and recipient of a $250 scholarship is Benjamin Peter, a senior studying electrical engineering. His project was “Robust Defense Against Extreme Grid Events Using Dual-Policy Reinforcement Learning Agents.”

Head shot of Benjamin Peter
Benjamin Peter, 2nd place winner

In addition Jackson Huenefeldt, a senior studying chemical engineering, was given an honorable mention for his project, “Sounds of the Energy Transition.”