Category: Undergraduate Research Scholars Program (URSP) – OSCAR

Blue Dog Bark: “God Talk” and Religious Cues by Centrist Democrats

Author(s): Drew Kolber

Mentor(s): Antti Pentikäinen, Mary Hoch Center for Reconciliation, Carter School

Abstract

The use of religious language by moderate Democratic politicians remains understudied despite extensive research on “God talk” among conservative Republicans. This gap is particularly significant for members of the Blue Dog Coalition, who represent constituencies with many “split ticket” voters; those who elected Democrats locally while voting Republican in the national election. Previous research has focused on coded religious cues in conservative political communication, primarily relying on media appearances and campaign rhetoric, while largely leaving House floor speeches unexamined. This study aims to analyze all 2,059 congressional floor speeches offered by the ten current Blue Dog Coalition members from the 116th through the 119th Congresses (2019-2025). It employs comparative content analysis alongside thematic analysis to capture both the frequency of religious language and the contexts in which it appears. Preliminary findings reveal that Blue Dog Democrats explicitly appeal to faith during commemorations of retiring or deceased constituents and colleagues, as well as when honoring mass casualty events. “God talk” – implicit, coded religious language – was found in references to community stewardship, heritage, and the value of “neighbors” in civic life. Blue Dog Democrats primarily deploy religious rhetoric during moments of change and loss, rather than in policy debates, suggesting a “Blue Dog Bark” focused on the virtue of associational life rather than partisan identity.

Audio Transcript

Hi there. My name is Drew Kolber, and today I’m so excited to share my research: Blue Dog bark: God Talk and Religious Cues by centrist Democrats. So what is God talk, and who are the Blue Dogs? So in the 1994 midterms, Republicans gained 54 seats in the house and eight seats in the Senate. It was the first GOP House Majority since 1952 and democratic moderates responded. Founding members of this caucus viewed the results of this election as a rejection of the Democratic Party moving too far left. And so in 1995 the coalition formed with 23 members and advocated fiscal responsibility, centrist values like pragmatism and really a dedication to the financial stability and national security of the country. Today, there’s 10 members of the Blue Dog caucus with a real local turn. There’s been a shift back to an emphasis on the specific values and needs the constituencies that these representatives represent. They focus on values like the right to repair, not taking money from corporate PACs and sometimes break party lines while holding to their espoused values, focusing on a place based politics, as opposed to a national one. What’s God talk? God talk is implicit, coded religious cues embedded in political communication, coded, particularly historically, for evangelical voters, without alerting out group members, is built on GOP operative David quo’s investigation in the 1980s into this strategy by conservative politicians to imbue subtle biblical references and hymn phrases and value statements which appeared innocuous to general audiences but really resonated with religious voters. And so this coded language relied on the receiver to infer political attachments. And as I shared, the predominant focus has been on the GOP and this evangelical constituency, but I feel that it’s obscured an important research gap, which is, how do Democratic politicians employ similar strategies? So these members of the Buddha coalition represent constituencies with many split ticket voters, people who elected Democrats locally while voting Republican in the national election, and this previous research was focusing on conservative political communication, and it didn’t look at the way that Democratic politicians were speaking. And so my study aims to analyze all the congressional floor speeches offered by the 10 current Blue Dog coalition members from the 116 to the 119th Congress is essentially the last five years, and employs comparative content analysis and thematic analysis to capture both the frequency of religious language and the context in which it appears, and I’ll share some of my preliminary findings later. So why is this question important? Church and State didn’t end their dialog at the establishment clause in the early years of our nation, the separation provided a mutual protection of each institution in which they weren’t held accountable for the failures or successes of each other, and provided distinct support systems for our country. And there’s a long lineage of thinkers and philosophers observing this rich tradition of associational life and religion in many different sects in the US, looking at Alexa de Tocqueville’s Democracy in America and the way that the Federalist Papers discuss the role of religion in the new nation, looking to more modern thinkers, Robert Putnam shared in 2000 that there’s a noticeable decline in social trust and associational Life. He talked about the Bowling Alone and people moving from bowling leagues to individual pursuits. And while I noticed this trend too, I also saw a prevalence in the collective social imaginary, this remaining presence of religion and religious language in politics. And I have my own experience with civil society and religion, as someone active in Jewish student life and Jewish community, and I was curious, how are politicians talking about religion? So to look at this question, I first had to determine my corpus. There’s a lot of different ways to look at political communication. You can look at tweets and newsletters. I wanted a really standardized way, and so I looked to ProQuest congressional and looked at the house floor speeches offered by this set of members of this Congressional Caucus. I also did some preliminary sense making using Max QDA, particularly content analysis, which tracked the frequency and context of key terms like biblical references and expressions of civil society and associational life, as well as thematic coding, identifying and interpreting patterns and then organizing around these themes, which is a prominent method of meaning making in conflict, analysis and resolution. So what did I find? The following are the word clouds of the most frequent terminology expressed by professor. Yes, by Representative Marie bus and camperez, Representative Jerry golden, Representative Lou Korea and Representative Adam gray. Each of these are current members of the House Blue Dogs and a really good start to my understanding of the Caucus’s way of speaking and their appeal to faith, because they really have this local turn this, this focus on the constituencies that they represent and their specific values, as opposed to a nationalized politics. And you can see community pops out even in the broader word cloud, representing the primary frequencies of the whole data set, there’s an appeal to associational life when it comes to service and honor and community and neighbors. These are terms that these representatives are using another way to visualize. This is their top most frequent words in this way. So what does this mean? Though, thematically, I noticed that the Blue Dogs appealed to faith when they were honoring retired or deceased colleagues or community leaders. I noticed that they appealed to faith in the response of mass violence or tragedy in their communities when they were expressing the value of religious freedom or honoring American culture. They also really appeal to faith when discussing military service and the notion of the ultimate sacrifice for those who died while in the service, and also, there was a prevalence of biblical imagery invoked in response to a perceived moral failing of their leadership. The following are some pulled quotes representing these various themes. Jared golden in remembering victims of a shooting in Maine in 2023 offered this daily devotional. Lou Correa and remembering the community member offered a prayer, may his memory serve as an example for all seeking to lead a happy and joyful life, may his spirit rest in peace. Marie Lucent kept Perez in honoring the survivors of a horrific fire in her district, talked about the strength of unity and community and neighbors. This term neighbors is a key term that I see over and over. Additionally, in referencing the impeachment of President Trump, Lou Correa talked about this idea of a shining city upon a hill, key biblical imagery and a call to
a greater America.
And these are, this is interesting. This is not how we might think moderate Democrats would speak. Then. This is pretty explicit, and yet, there’s also some of that coded God talk too. So there’s a combination of thematics and finds a really rich starting place to try to understand why did these politicians speak that way? And that’s what’s next, in order to understand why, we first had to understand how, how are they speaking? And that was the main object of this project. And I would be grateful to continue my research, to start to understand why, when it comes to the galvanization of voter constituencies when it appeals to faith are present or not,
and the ways in which these representatives speak.
So I’m so grateful to URSP, Oscar and Dr Karen Lee, my mentor, Antti, Professor Thomas Flores for his initial shepherding of my project. Professor Djupe for his guidance and language, and also Professor John Farina for his framing about the founders and their perception of faith in politics.
Thank you so so much.

Cells, Individuals, and Community OSCAR Undergraduate Research Scholars Program (URSP) - OSCAR

Eye health and phone screen time among college

Author(s): Akosua Mainoo

Mentor(s): Lawrence Cheskin, Nutrition and Food Studies

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to research the correlation between phone screen time
and eye health among college students. I hypothesized students who have a longer
weekly average phone screen time durations will have an increase in negative eye
health symptoms. To assess if students with longer weekly average phone screen
time duration have an increase in negative eye health symptoms. An online survey
of 100 GMU students regarding their current eye symptoms and phone usage will
be collected. The eye health survey was partly modeled after the NIH National Eye
Institute Visual Functioning Questionnaire – 25. Data collected will be analyzed in R
studio to find any correlations.. Students reported an average daily phone screen
time of 6 hours and 45 minutes, and higher screen use especially in dark or low-lit
rooms was significantly associated with increased eye symptoms such as dry, sore,
itchy, and blurred vision. Greater screen time was also linked to reduced sleep and
higher levels of doomscrolling, though sleep was not significantly correlated with
any specific eye symptoms.

Audio Transcript

N/A

College of Humanities and Social Science Making and Creating OSCAR Undergraduate Research Scholars Program (URSP) - OSCAR

Fountain of Truth: Women Artists and Their Perspective on Aging.

Author(s): Silas Fransen

Mentor(s): LaNitra Berger, Department of Art History

Abstract

The project is an art exhibit of women using art to share their experiences with aging. This project was greatly inspired by a paper titled, “Why Are There No Older Women in Heaven?” by Zirka Z.Filipczak. The article discusses an prevalent idea from the Renaissance and Baroque periods that chastity and virtuous women keep youthful appearances longer. This idea manifests and is kept alive through art of women saints being made young again in heaven, unlike their male counterparts. By linking a woman’s virtue to youth and beauty, age and undesirable traits become linked to sin. Older women become representatives of lust and envy. This obsession with youth and aversion of age continues into modern American culture and is kept alive through the beauty industry, Hollywood, social media and so on. The exhibit will display art by women in the NOVA area and will be displayed at the Hylton Performing Arts Center in Manassas. In the art I am looking for a variety of experiences and honest depictions of what it means to age as a woman. The goal for this project is to inspire women to feel more open to talking about their own experiences with aging as well as expose the public to a variety of experiences and conflicting feelings about what it means to age as a woman.

Audio Transcript

I want to begin by thanking the OSCAR Undergraduate Research Program for the opportunity to work on this project. I also would like to thank The Hylton Performing arts center for agreeing to host the exhibit and to all the artists that have submitted their artwork. Lastly I would like to thank my mentor for this project, Dr. Berger for guiding me in this project and helping me in realizing my vision for this project.
The project I have been working on is Fountain of Truth: Women artists and their perspective on aging.
I began my research for this project with the article: “Why Are There No Older Women in Heaven?” by Zirka Z. Filipczak, this article begins by looking through depictions of the Last Judgement in Baroque art and discovering that woman saints were always depicted young, unlike the men saints. She then connects these depictions to the Renaissance, during this time there was a growing belief that a woman who retained her virginity would keep her youthful appearance. For this reason, women saints were consistently depicted as young, to contrast youth and virtue, older women in art became the personification of envy and lust.
Even today, our culture has an obsession with youthful appearances. I have seen ads for preventative botox for people as young as their early 20’s
[Methodology and results] For this exhibit, I am looking for a variety of experiences and honest depictions of what it means to age as a woman and art that can give insight into how a person’s identity shifts due to age.
[describe results] Currently I have 5 works of art between three artists. And I am still collecting art submissions until January 9th.
I do not want to announce any of the artists just yet… but In the artworks so far there is an overarching theme of age being something to celebrate. These artists talk about how their identity becomes less externally driven and based more in a thoughtful self reflection after rejecting how they have been told to identify.
Each of these works of art are just so beautiful and so well thought out. It’s been really really wonderful to see how each of these artists are taking my idea at the start and really turning it into their own. It’s been a really wonderful experience.
The exhibit will run for 8 weeks, February 24th to April 11th at the Hylton Performing Arts Center in Manassas. It’s going to be a really wonderful experience, as I just stated and I hope to see you all there! Thank you so much, it’s been a really wonderful semester. Bye!

OSCAR Undergraduate Research Scholars Program (URSP) - OSCAR US, Global, and Beyond Winners

Between the Nile and the silk Road: Rethinking global health for certain needs and Chinese traditional healing

Author(s): Hadil Ali

Mentor(s): Peiyu Yang, Department of Modern & Classical Languages

Abstract

Traditional medicine continues to serve as a primary form of healthcare for millions of people worldwide, particularly in the Global South. In Sudan, traditional medicine encompasses herbal remedies, spiritual healing, and community-based practitioners whose knowledge is deeply embedded in cultural, religious, and historical contexts. Similarly, Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) represents a highly systematized non-Western medical tradition grounded in holistic diagnostic frameworks and extensive herbal pharmacology.
This project investigates the historical and cultural intersections between Sudanese traditional medicine and TCM, with particular attention to educational exchange, medical diplomacy, and informal knowledge circulation between Sudan and China during the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. Drawing on Sudanese ethnomedical literature, TCM scholarship, World Health Organization policy documents, and studies of China–Africa medical cooperation, this research examines shared herbal practices, concepts of illness, and approaches to holistic care. The analysis is further informed by informal conversations with Sudanese and Chinese doctors and herbal practitioners, grounding the literature in lived experience.
Findings suggest that while both systems emphasize balance, harmony, and culturally embedded healing, they differ significantly in institutional power and global recognition. Whereas TCM benefits from extensive state support and international visibility, Sudanese traditional medicine remains under-documented despite its widespread use. By centering South–South medical exchange, this project challenges Western-centric narratives in global health and highlights the importance of recognizing indigenous healing systems in the development of culturally responsive health policies.

Audio Transcript

Hello, my name is Hadil Ali, and I’m a student in the Department of Biology at George Mason University.
My research project is titled “Between the Nile and the Silk Road: Rethinking Global Health through Sudanese and Chinese Traditional Healing.”
This project was completed under the mentorship of Professor Peiyu Yang.
This research explores how two long-standing non-Western medical traditions—Sudanese traditional medicine and Traditional Chinese Medicine—intersect through history, education, and cultural exchange.
Slide 2 – Background
Traditional medicine remains one of the most widely used forms of healthcare worldwide, especially in the Global South.
In Sudan, traditional medicine includes herbal remedies, spiritual healing, and community-based practitioners whose practices are rooted in ancient Nile Valley civilizations and Islamic traditions. These methods are not viewed as alternatives to medicine, but as trusted and culturally grounded healthcare systems.
Traditional Chinese Medicine, or TCM, developed into a highly structured medical system centered on holistic diagnosis, herbal pharmacology, and balance within the body. Today, TCM also plays a role in China’s global health diplomacy, particularly in Africa.
Despite extensive research on each system individually, little attention has been given to how Sudanese and Chinese traditional medical systems may have interacted through education and medical exchange.
Slide 3 – Research Question
This gap in scholarship led to my core research question:
How did Sudanese and Chinese traditional medical systems interact through educational and cultural exchange, and what does this interaction reveal about non-Western approaches to global health?
Rather than framing Sudan as a passive recipient of medical aid, this project explores how medical knowledge circulated between two non-Western traditions through lived exchange.
Slide 4 – Methods
This project uses a qualitative, document-analysis approach.
I reviewed literature on Sudanese traditional medicine, including studies of herbal pharmacology, spiritual healing practices, and the social roles of local healers.
I also analyzed scholarship on Traditional Chinese Medicine, focusing on its diagnostic frameworks and theoretical foundations.
In addition, I analyzed research on China–Africa medical cooperation, including medical aid programs, educational exchanges, and policy documents from the World Health Organization.
This work was complemented by informal conversations with Sudanese and Chinese doctors and herbal practitioners, which helped ground the academic literature in real-world practice and contemporary experience.
Using a comparative framework, I examined shared herbs, health beliefs, and diagnostic logics across both systems.
Slide 5 – Key Findings
Several key themes emerged from this research.
First, there is significant overlap in herbal practice, including the shared use of herbs such as ginger, galangal, gum arabic, and senna. These herbs are commonly used to address digestive, respiratory, and inflammatory conditions.
Second, both traditions emphasize holistic concepts of health, where illness is understood as an imbalance involving physical, emotional, social, and spiritual dimensions.
Third, there is a clear imbalance in visibility and institutional support. Traditional Chinese Medicine benefits from state backing, formal education systems, and global recognition, while Sudanese traditional medicine remains under-documented and marginalized in academic and policy discourse.
Finally, the literature reveals a notable absence of grassroots perspectives from Sudanese healers and Chinese students, leaving many lived experiences unrecorded.
Slide 6 – Why This Matters
This research challenges Western-centered models of global health that privilege biomedical knowledge while sidelining indigenous healing systems.
By focusing on Sudan–China exchange, this project highlights South–South medical interaction and the ways healing knowledge circulates outside dominant Western frameworks.
Recognizing traditional medicine as legitimate and culturally meaningful has implications for global health policy, medical education, and patient care—especially in culturally diverse settings.
Slide 7 – Conclusion and Acknowledgements
In conclusion, Sudanese and Chinese traditional medicine share overlapping herbal knowledge and holistic approaches shaped by centuries of cultural exchange, trade, and diplomacy. Yet the contributions of Sudanese traditional medicine remain largely undocumented in global health narratives.
Future work will expand this project through oral histories and digital storytelling to better capture these underrepresented perspectives.
I would like to thank Professor Peiyu Yang, George Mason University, and the Undergraduate Research Scholars Program for supporting this research.
Thank you for listening.

Making and Creating Undergraduate Research Scholars Program (URSP) - OSCAR

Integrating Flavin Cofactor into Peptide Amphiphiles for Electron Transport

Author(s): Nathan Hernandez

Mentor(s): Lee Solomon, Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry

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Abstract

Flavin is a redox cofactor found in many biological systems. Its ability to support electron transfer makes them a valuable tool to study this process in nature. In this project, we are synthesizing an Fmoc-protected flavin amino acid for use in peptide-based model systems that mimic redox-active proteins. This work is part of a broader effort to design an artificial system that isolates the biological properties underlying natural protein functions while being free from the complexity of evolutionarily affected systems. These simplified systems will ultimately help us understand redox behavior in proteins and contribute to the development of next generation bioelectronic materials.

Audio Transcript

Slide 1

Hello everyone. My name is Nathan Hernandez, and I’ll be presenting the integration of Flavin cofactor into peptide amphiphiles for electron transport.

Slide 2

So our original research question was whether or not we could embed the flavin cofactor into peptide amphiphiles to create a synthetic material that supports directional electron transport.

Slide 3

My research question stems from the fact that life relies on electron transport and is seen in processes like cellular respiration and photosynthesis. Throughout these processes, there are proteins that guide electron transport in a very specific manner. They rely on well positioned co-factors like hemes, Flavins, and Quinones.  But the issue with these systems is that they’re super complex and sensitive to environments, and it makes it difficult to isolate and reengineer in controlled environments.

Slide 4

I decided to choose flavin because it’s a cofactor that’s already found in the body and is able to support 2 electron and one electron transfer. It’s an extremely versatile co-factor with predictable redox potential. It’s chemically robust enough to survive acids and solid-state peptide synthetic conditions. And there’s also an existing protocol for synthesizing flavor modified amino acids, which can then later be introduced into peptides.

Slide 5

A peptide amphiphile is a short peptide sequence with a hydrophobic tail. These sequences under basic aqueous conditions form fibers. The really cool part about peptide amphiphiles is that we’re able to modularly design them and change the charges, hydrophobicity, and change the sequencing.  Which means we’re able to place our co factors in specific positions along the peptide. And due to their ability to form fibers, we’re able to control highly ordered structures which allow us to create a potential for directional electron movement.

Slide 6

To synthesize the flavor modified amino acid, we follow synthetic steps set by carrel et al. in 1998. This includes the oxidation of the precursor with potassium, persulfate in an acid to introduce the nitroso intermediate, which is an orange crystal. Highly activated for nucleophilic aromatic substitution.  And the ipso substitution with Boc protected lysine and pyridine for 72 hours. Which yields a deep red product and forms the key carbon nitrogen bond linking flavor, precursor to the amino acid.

Slide 7

The next step is a reduction done by a hydrogenation catalyzed by palladium on carbon to convert the nitro group into an aniline group. Alloxan monohydrate and boric acid are added to cyclolize the isoalloxazine core. This step is crucial and must be done in the dark to avoid photodegradation. This is followed by Fmoc protection. Through the addition of Fmoc OSU, which installs a protecting group that is suitable for solid-state peptide synthesis. The final product is a bright yellow powder, which is the flavin modified amino acid.

Slide 8

After the amino acid is synthesized, we incorporate it into a peptide using our purepep chorus automated peptide synthesizer. Since the flavor monomer is bulky, we use a double coupling cycle to ensure that it is fully incorporated into our peptide. The peptide is then cleaved off the resin and precipitated with cold ether to yield the product.

Slide 9

The crude peptide is then purified through high performance liquid chromatography, and its mass is verified through mass spectrometry.

Slide 10

Our current results are that we’ve been able to synthesize the flavin modified amino acid and verified structure through NMR. We’ve also been able to synthesize crude peptide in high yield. However, we have been unable to fully purify this through high performance liquid chromatography.

Slide 11

Once our peptide is pure, we plan to analyze its structure through atomic force microscopy. This will confirm nano fiber formation, length, height, and bundling of those nanofibers. We will also use conductive atomic force microscopy to analyze the conductive properties of these fibers.

Slide 12

We will use redox Titrations with oxidizing and producing agents to analyze the electrochemical properties of our nano fibers. This will be done through step-wise edition of oxidants and reductants to cycle the flavin between oxidized and reduced states. We will monitor these changes through UV-ViS, spectroscopy, to track the characteristic flavin bands.

Slide 13

This work creates a simplified platform to study electron transport while avoiding the complexity of full proteins. This has potential applications and bioelectronic interfaces, implantable or wearable sensors in the next generation of circuitry.

College of Visual and Performing Arts Honors College Making and Creating Undergraduate Research Scholars Program (URSP) - OSCAR

Senior Thesis Short Film – Misafir

Author(s): Selma Veli

Mentor(s): Amanda Kraus, Collage of Virtual and Performing Arts

Abstract

This short film, Misafir, which translates to The Guest in English, is a mix of fantasy and drama set inside a Turkish household. The main character, Deren, invites her grandfather to her birthday celebration, unaware of the years of conflict between him and her mother. As Deren tries to uncover the truth behind their silence, an uninvited, mysterious guest appears. Her name is Kat, a cat-human who knows the family as if she holds it in the palm of her hand. And her presence stirs the tension in unsettling ways.
Misafir explores how, in uncommunicative families, the younger generation often feels displaced and even responsible for being the bridge or to pick a side. Many families carry silences and unresolved conflicts across generations, and this story shows how one small act of communication can open the door to healing.

Audio Transcript

Hi, my name is Selma Veli and I’m a film and video studies major concentrating in directing. For my senior thesis, I created a 10-minute short film supported by the Oscar research funds. With this support, I assembled a 25 person crew from George Mason University and cast seven Turkish speaking actors from New York. This short film, Misafir, which translates to “the guest” from Turkish to English, is a mix of fantasy and drama that takes place in a Turkish household. My main character, Deren, invites her grandfather to her birthday party, unaware of the conflict between him and her mother. As Deren tries to uncover the truth behind their silence, a mysterious guest appears. Her name is Kat, a cat humanlike creature that walks in the house and acts like she knows the family, but no one knows who she is or what she is and who even invited her. Misafir explores how in incommunicating families, younger generations often feel like they have to be the bridge between older generations or that they have to pick a side. And this story shows how one small act of communication can start the process of healing. One of the biggest challenges we faced was casting as it was really hard to find Turkish speaking actors, especially in the DMV area. My story was always in Turkish, but I was flexible to make it in English, but I knew it wasn’t going to be a true representation. We looked around in the DMV area. I asked friends and families, but one, no one really wanted to be in it. Second, they didn’t have the skills to be acting. So after receiving the funds, I was able to search beyond the DMV area and I found a bunch of beautiful actors in New York. But since this was a student film and I couldn’t offer payment, accommodation, their travel and stay was essential. So the funds really played a big role on helping me cover those. I also was able to achieve the look that I really wanted for the film. A lot of the props in the house or production design costume was also covered by the fund. The character cat had special props that she required. For example, her wig, her nails, her makeup, and her eye contact were some of the ways I was benefited by the Oscar found. On the production day, I’m 100% sure that our hospitality really satisfied our actors and bringed out the best performance out of them. Some of them were professional actors in the industry and they even came up to us and told us how professional and organized we were even though we’re just a student crew. Overall, the Oscar founding really made this film be a very professional, authentic, and pretty film that I’m very satisfied with. So, thank you for everyone who supported us and thank you Oscar for funding me.

College of Humanities and Social Science OSCAR Undergraduate Research Scholars Program (URSP) - OSCAR US, Global, and Beyond

When No Response is a Response: Predicting Survey Non-Compliance in Isolated, Confined, Extreme Analog Space Missions

Author(s): Amber Bartlett

Mentor(s): Lauren Kuykendall, Psychology

Abstract

Long-duration space exploration will place small, interdependent teams in isolated, confined, and extreme (ICE) environments, where they will face risks including communication delays, high autonomy, increased workload, team tension, and intense stress. All of these risks require research studies aimed at mitigating them, many of which take place at analog space stations. However, these analog missions, which aim to study human behavior in ICE settings, suffer from chronic survey noncompliance, which threatens data integrity and reduces the accuracy of crew monitoring. This project examines which individual characteristics predict who completes research surveys during missions at the Mars Desert Research Station, a Mars-analog habitat in Utah. Before their missions, crew members completed questionnaires assessing personality (with a focus on conscientiousness), their identification with their team, their cultural values (especially collectivism, or putting the group before oneself), and their difficulties with emotion regulation. During the mission, they were asked to complete brief daily and weekly surveys. For each person, I will calculate survey compliance as the percentage of assigned surveys completed, and I will use regression models to test whether conscientiousness, emotion regulation, team identification, and collectivism predict higher compliance. I will also test whether collectivism strengthens the link between team identification and survey completion, such that highly collectivistic crew members who strongly identify with their team are especially likely to respond. I expect that crew members who are more conscientious, better at managing their emotions, more strongly identified with their team, and more collectivistic will show higher survey compliance. The work integrates literature on ICE stressors, organizational citizenship behavior (OCB), survey methodology, and individual differences to generate actionable recommendations for designing analog-station research protocols and for operational monitoring in deep-space missions.

Audio Transcript

Hi, my name is Amber Bartlett. I’m an honors psychology student at George Mason University. My project is called “When No Response Is a Response, predicting survey non-compliance in isolated, confined, extreme, analog space missions”

My mentor is Dr. Lauren Kuykendall in the Industrial Organizational Psychology Department. So what is the big picture of my project? Long duration missions to Mars and to the moon will place very small crews into what we called isolated, confined, extreme, or ICE environments. These missions will involve tight living quarters, high workloads, autonomy, communication delays, and one of the tools we can use to track how these people are doing is through self-report surveys.

But the issue with doing research on ICE teams is the fact that the sample sizes are incredibly small, so when people skip surveys, we lose statistical power and increase the risk of error in our findings, and missingness is often not random. The people who stop answering might be the ones who are most stressed out, which means that things can be biased. So this leads to my core question, can we predict who complies with surveys before a mission? If we can identify likely non-responders ahead of time, then we can actually anticipate, model, and design around that.

So this project is a part of a collaboration between the University of Central Florida, where we’ll be using UCF’s IO Psychology PhD student Andres Käosaar’s data set from the Mars Desert Research Station. So MDRS is a Mars analog habitat where small crews simulate living on Mars. They’ll be conducting EVAs, conserving resources, and living in a confined environment.

And for this project, I will be using the data set that includes 99 individuals, 16 crew members, and a total of 761 habitat days. Most of the missions had teams of about six to eight members, and participation in Andres’ study was completely voluntary. Now because it was voluntary, I treat filling out these surveys as a type of organizational censorship behavior, and this is when people are doing small extra things at work that help their team organization, because doing his research survey was completely just to help his research.

So to understand why some people keep doing this extra work and why others don’t, I focus on four key constructs from the literature. So that’s including conscientiousness, emotional regulation difficulties, team identification, and collectivism within someone’s culture. So the knowledge gap is that analog space research already acknowledges chronic survey non-compliance and missingness.

However, individual level predictors or survey compliance and ICE teams remains undermodeled. We don’t have a clear guidance on what type of people are most likely to disappear from the data set, so my project is designed to help close that gap. So within this data set, participants completed pre-mission surveys which included measures such as conscientiousness, emotional regulation difficulties, team identification, and collectivism.

So during the mission, they received daily and weekly self-report surveys about their experience and well-being, and my main outcome is survey compliance, so this is defined as the percentage of assigned surveys each person completes over the mission. So based on this, I have five different hypotheses. First is higher conscientiousness will predict greater survey compliance.

Second, better emotional regulation will predict greater survey compliance. Stronger collectivism, stronger team identification, and collectivism moderates team ID compliance. All of this, I’m going to assume it will increase greater survey compliance.

Now with OSCAR’s help, I was able to visit MDRS in person, and these photos here show the habitat. It shows the people that I was with out there, and it really helped me understand what it’s like to be living in one of these space analog stations. So my next step is to run descriptive analysis on all of the hypotheses that I just showed you, and so that will be what I’m doing next semester.

The expected implications is that if my hypotheses are supported, this work suggests that voluntary survey compliance in ICE analogs is not random. It’s a predictable citizenship-like behavior rooted in personality, emotional regulation, and how people relate to their teams and groups. So this has several implications such as pre-mission screening, low burden monitoring, and then just identifying patterns of non-response, but also if my hypotheses are not supported, it means we should be looking somewhere else other than the OCB literature, which right now is where the main source of research is coming from when it comes to non-response and surveys.

So I want to thank my mentor, Dr. Lauren Kuykendall, Andres Käosaar, Dr. Seth Kaplan, Dr. Brielmaier, my psychology honors cohort, the MDRS director, and of course OSCAR URSP. If you would like a link to all of my resources that I’ve used, here’s a QR code for that. Thank you so much for listening.

Cells, Individuals, and Community College of Humanities and Social Science OSCAR Undergraduate Research Scholars Program (URSP) - OSCAR

Elementary School Gifted Program Identification and Secondary School Academic Outcomes for Black Students

Author(s): Ezra Lynch-Holland

Mentor(s): Adam Winsler, Psychology

Abstract

Gifted children show high potential to achieve but need specialized services to develop their capabilities. Black students specifically have been persistently under-identified as gifted and the efficacy of gifted programs for Black children is unknown. This psychology honors thesis will explore the impact of gifted identification on secondary school outcomes (6th through 12th grade) with data from the Miami School Readiness Project, a longitudinal study of students that attended Miami-Dade County Public Schools. Research questions include (1A) To what extent does being identified as gifted in elementary school contribute to secondary school academic outcomes for Black students?, (1B) Are positive effects mediated by elementary school academic performance?, and (2) Are the observed differences between gifted and not gifted Black students in secondary school the same for students in poverty vs. not in poverty, and for boys vs. girls?
The sample for this study includes Black students that had data for at least one year of high school (n ≈11,198). Of the sample, ~13% were identified as gifted in elementary school. Outcome data include cumulative high school GPA, standardized math and reading test scores in 8th and 10th grade, grade retention, attendance from 9th and 12th grade, school suspension, and on-time graduation. Multiple regression and logistic regression analyses will be done, controlling for initial child cognitive skills and social skills at age 4, gender, English language learner (ELL) status, poverty status, and early school performance. Results are expected to show gifted identification to be correlated with positive secondary school outcomes when compared to non-gifted students. It is expected that gifted education will show stronger positive effects for students in poverty and for boys.

Audio Transcript

Hello, my name is Ezra Lynch-Holland, and my Oscar URSP project is entitled, Elementary School Gifted Program Identification and Secondary School Academic Outcomes for Black Students. This project was done under the mentorship of Dr. Adam Winsler.
Federally, gifted children are those that display high potential for success intellectually, creatively, in a leadership capacity, or in a specific discipline. The federal government also acknowledges they need services not ordinarily provided by the school to develop these capabilities, and requires identification of gifted children. School districts tend to disproportionately over-identify students with higher socioeconomic statuses and under-identify those in poverty. When it comes to race, Black students are persistently under-identified nationally, even when they make up larger parts of the district’s population.
Black students’ education is particularly impacted by their relationships, where positive ones can act as a strong buffer against negative experiences. However, gifted Black students face isolation in gifted spaces from their non-gifted Black… and from their non-gifted Black peers, with T’s and being common in the latter. Microaggressions from both other students and teachers are present in gifted spaces in the form of underestimating their intellectual ability or belittling their interest in Black history and topics.
Black and Hispanic students tend to spend less time in gifted programs, and the improvements giftedness typically has on academic achievement are somewhat diminished in Black comparisons. Even so, it has been shown that the self-esteem of gifted Black students benefits more from gifted programs than their non-Black peers.
This study will derive from the Miami School Readiness Project dataset, or MSRP. It was a cohort sequential longitudinal study where data was collected from 2002 to 2020. Students included in the study are those that received subsidies for community-based childcare or public school pre-K, and then went on to attend Miami-Dade County Public Schools. In the larger study, the total number of students included that have data for at least one year between grades 6 and 11 is 32,885. 82% are on free and reduced lunch, and 52% are male. This study seeks to investigate if being gifted has positive academic impacts through secondary school by controlling for prior achievement and cognitive skills using school… administrative school data.
To be included in the study, a student will have had to be present for at least 8th grade and identify as Black in administrative school data. Bicep sample from the MSRP consists of 11,198 students that identified as Black, including Afro-Latina students. Around 13% of them were identified as gifted according to administrative school data. Outcomes that will be analyzed include cumulative high school GPA, standardized test scores in 8th and 10th grade, and school attendance, as well as grade retention, school suspension, and on-time graduation. Multiple regressions will be used for continuous outcomes and logistic regressions for categorical outcomes.
My research question 1A is to what extent does being gifted identified in elementary school contributes to secondary school academic outcomes and school engagement for Black students. I hypothesize that being identified as gifted in elementary school will be correlated with greater academic achievement and engagement outcomes when compared to non-gifted students.
My 1B question asks if positive effects are mediated by school, elementary school academic performance. My hypothesis is that after considering elementary school performance, being identified as gifted in elementary school will still have a higher correlation with those greater academic achievement and engagement outcomes. These mediators will be matched with their resultant outcomes for the regression models.
The research question 2 asks if the observed differences between gifted and not gifted students in secondary school are the same on the basis of poverty status and gender, as well as English language learner status. I hypothesize that boys, those in poverty, and those that aren’t English language learners will benefit more from gifts programs than their counterparts. And here are my references. Thank you.

College of Humanities and Social Science OSCAR Undergraduate Research Scholars Program (URSP) - OSCAR US, Global, and Beyond

Artificial Influence: How Artificial Intelligence (AI) Shapes Global Geopolitics

Author(s): Larion Krivtsov

Mentor(s): Patrick Ukata, Global Affairs

Abstract

Artificial intelligence (AI) has rapidly evolved from a technological innovation into a central force reshaping global geopolitics. As states race to harness AI’s economic and strategic potential, the technology has become a defining factor in international competition, cooperation, and governance. This paper examines how AI is transforming global power dynamics by shifting influence toward actors with advanced computational capacity, vast data resources, and strong innovation ecosystems. The analysis argues that AI functions as a dual-use geopolitical lever: it intensifies strategic rivalries among major powers while simultaneously creating new opportunities for collective regulation and shared ethical standards.
AI is altering the nature of conflict by enabling autonomous weapons systems, accelerating cyber operations, and enhancing disinformation campaigns that blur traditional distinctions between war and peace. These developments challenge established security doctrines and create new vulnerabilities that demand coordinated international responses. At the same time, AI exposes significant gaps in global governance, raising questions about accountability, transparency, surveillance, and human rights that existing institutions struggle to address.
Using a qualitative synthesis of contemporary scholarship, the paper maps AI’s geopolitical effects across four domains: great-power competition, military and security transformation, global governance architectures, and regional ethical perspectives. The findings show that while AI amplifies inequalities and fuels geopolitical tension, it also offers pathways for new regulatory frameworks and multilateral cooperation.
Ultimately, the paper contends that the geopolitical future of AI will depend not on technological inevitability but on the ethical, political, and institutional choices made by human actors. Ensuring that AI advances global stability and human well-being will require governance models that balance innovation, security, and shared responsibility.

Audio Transcript

Hello,
In the early twenty-first century, artificial intelligence has emerged not simply as a technological breakthrough but as a transformative geopolitical force—one that is redefining how power is created, exercised, and contested on the global stage. What once belonged to research labs and commercial enterprises has now become a central pillar of national strategy. Major powers—the United States, China, and the European Union—treat AI with the same seriousness that past generations reserved for nuclear technology. It’s entirely accurate to say that AI has emerged as a powerful and influential tool in shaping global political dynamics.
This transformation raises a key question: How does AI reshape global geopolitics by altering power relations, national security, and international governance? The answer, as this research argues, lies in understanding AI as a dual-use geopolitical lever. On one hand, AI fuels strategic rivalries, widening technological inequalities, and destabilizing traditional hierarchies. On the other, it creates unprecedented opportunities for shared regulation, ethical standards, and cooperative global frameworks.
AI is redistributing power in three critical ways.
First, it rewards states and corporations with data, computational capacity, and technological expertise—not those with traditional industrial strength. The result is a new form of digital stratification that determines who leads, who follows, and who risks being left behind.
Second, AI is redefining conflict itself. Autonomous weapons systems, cyberattacks powered by machine learning, and sophisticated disinformation campaigns blur the boundaries between war and peace. Deterrence, defense, and security doctrines are being rewritten in real time.
Third, AI challenges the foundations of global governance. It raises profound questions about accountability, transparency, and ethics—questions no nation can resolve alone. International law, built for an earlier technological era, must now confront algorithms that make decisions far faster than traditional institutions can respond.
But this story is not only about rivalry. It is also about responsibility. AI forces us to reconsider what human agency means in an age of automated decision-making. It compels us to think about who benefits from technology and who might be harmed by it. And it reminds us that the future of global stability will depend not on machines themselves, but on human choices—ethical, political, and institutional.
If nations view AI only as a weapon of competition, we risk repeating the mistakes of past arms races. But if we recognize its dual-use nature—its capacity to inspire both competition and cooperation—we can harness AI to strengthen global governance, promote shared security, and advance human flourishing.
In the end, the geopolitical future of artificial intelligence will be determined not by the power of our algorithms, but by the wisdom of our decisions. Let us choose a future where AI serves humanity—rather than one where humanity becomes subordinate to its own creations.
Thank you for your attention.

Undergraduate Research Scholars Program (URSP) - OSCAR US, Global, and Beyond

Game-Theoretic Analysis of International Pollution Policy

Author(s): Andrew Dara Or

Mentor(s): Moon Joon Kim, Economics, Mason Korea

O

Abstract

International pollution policy consistently fails to achieve meaningful emissions reductions, not because states lack environmental concern, but because the strategic structure of global cooperation rewards defection. This project applies game-theoretic analysis to explain why voluntary climate agreements break down and identifies the mathematical conditions under which cooperation becomes rational. Using a formal payoff model, I show that a country will only cooperate when the sum of sanctions and its discounted share of global climate benefits exceeds the domestic costs of mitigation and the gains from cheating:

(

)
≥

.
s+αPV(B)≥c+g.

A key finding is that the Social Discount Rate (SDR) plays a decisive role in shaping this inequality. Higher SDRs sharply reduce the present value of future climate benefits, making defection the dominant strategy. Real-world policy behavior in the United States aligns with this model: high SDRs corresponded with withdrawal from the Paris Agreement, while lower SDRs accompanied renewed cooperation.

Case studies of the Montreal Protocol and Paris Agreement demonstrate that successful treaties alter incentives through sanctions, financing, and monitoring. The analysis also incorporates recent evidence linking pollution to declining political participation, revealing a feedback loop that undermines enforcement. Collectively, these results highlight the need to redesign treaty incentives, lower discount rates, and reduce free-rider gains to enable durable climate cooperation.

Audio Transcript

Hello, my name is Andrew Or. I am a junior economics major at George Mason University, and for my USRP project. I will be presenting game theory analysis of an international pollution policy.  My research question is why do global pollution agreements so often fail and how can game theory help us design policies that may actually succeed? Although climate change is usually described as an environmental or scientific problem, at the international level, it is fundamentally a strategic problem. Every country benefits when global emissions fall, but the cost of reducing those emissions are domestic, immediate, and politically painful.  This misalignment between national incentives and global welfare explained why international cooperation has been so fragile and why so many treaties fail to produce real emission deductions. Game theory provides a powerful framework for mostly the incentive structure that drives state behavior and for identifying the policies needed to shift the equilibrium towards cooperation. Pollution mitigation is a global public good.  It is non-excludable, and it’s non-rival, because benefits are shared globally while costs are paid individually. States based a strong incentive to free ride. This is the core collective failure in global climate politics.  Clever negotiations resemble a repeated prisoner’s dilemma. If both countries collaborate, the world achieves the best outcome. However, if each country gains by defecting while the other cooperates, and mutual defection becomes a stable equilibrium.  This is why voluntary agreements without enforcement consistently underperform. The payoff matrix illustrate this problem. Cooperation requires immediate national cost, defection, offers short-term economic gains, cheaper energy, and competitive advantage.  Because of benefits of reduced pollution are long term and global, individual states rarely find cooperations rational to their own. This structure creates bias towards defection. The key variable to achieving cooperation is social discount rate.  In the United States during Trump’s 1st term, the social discount rate was from 3 to 7%, while during the Biden administration, the rate range from 2.5 to 5%. From a 2023 article by BRG, the recommended SDRs by economist is 2 to 3%. For environmental decisions because higher rates undervalue future climate stability.  Under the higher Trump SDR, the U.S. withdrew from the Paris agreement, halted green climate fund contributions and scaled back multilateral climate commitments. This behavior is fully consistent with the cooperation condition where high SDR equals lower PVB and defection becomes rational. Under Biden administration, the US rejoined the Paris agreement, resume GCF contributions, and renewed climate diplomacy.  Cooperation become more rational, once future benefits were valued appropriately. The 2 main case studies I chose to observe were the Montreal Protocol and the Paris agreement. The Montreal Protocol is the clearest example of a successful treaty because it altered the payoff structure.  Severe trade sanctions raise the cost of defection, the multilateral fund reduced the cost of compliance for developing states, and strict verification, reduced cheating gains, or free rider problems. Countries including the US, China, and India had strong incentives to comply because the treaty satisfied these conditions. The Paris agreement, on the other hand, lacked sanctions, binding targets, hard monitoring, or enforcement mechanisms, and major emitters have expanded coal use or failed to meet pledges because of this.  I generated model that will help represent this in action, and these are the variables I will use for clarification. The payoff from cooperating is the present value of long-term global climate benefit minus the domestic cost of mitigation. And the payoff from defecting is the cheating gains or free rider gains minus the sanctions for defection.  A state only has incentives to cooperate if C is greater than or equal to D. Based on the information from the US, I created a mock graph to help better represent this model. Defection is the predicted equilibrium, not a political accident. Cooperation emerges only when treaty shipped incentives, high SDRs mathematically erase long-term climate benefits, U.S. withdrawal and reentry match the model’s predictions, successful treaties share sanctions, financing, and verification mechanisms.  Game theory shows that international pollution policy does not fail because states are rational, it fails because strategic architecture rewards defection, to make cooperation rational, we must reshape the payoff matrix. There are 3 clear solutions. One is to raise sanctions and increase S, 2 is to reduce the free rider incentives by reducing G, and 3 is to reform discount rate policy lowering R.  Evidently, this research is not finished as there is many more variables to explore. I would like to express my sincere gratification to the USP for provide me with the opportunity to present and further my research, and I’m also grateful for my mentor, Professor Moonjun Kim, for his guidance and support through the project.

OSCAR Undergraduate Research Scholars Program (URSP) - OSCAR US, Global, and Beyond Winners

SPATIAL DYNAMICS OF LOCAL NEWS: MAPPING CITY CO-MENTIONS IN ALABAMA

Author(s): Tugce Burcu Gundogdu

Mentor(s): Myeong Lee, IST

Abstract

This study analyzes 31,004 Alabama news articles (2012–2024) to examine how cities are connected through co-mentions. Using a large language model, we extracted geographic references to build networks capturing spatial and symbolic ties. We developed a relationship typology to interpret these links. Preliminary results show that news categories shape distinct spatial patterns, offering insight into how media narratives influence regional identity and reveal the relational dimensions of news deserts.

Audio Transcript

1
00:00:07.560 –> 00:00:22.750
Tugce: Hi, everyone! My name is Tugce, I’m a third-year computer science student at George Mason, and my project, Spatial Dynamics of Local News, Mapping City Co-Mentions in Alabama, is about how local news connects cities in Alabama.

2
00:00:22.880 –> 00:00:45.090
Tugce: So, when we talk about news deserts, which is a term in information science that mentions… that describes places that don’t get enough local news coverage, or don’t have enough news outlets to cover their local news, we mostly focus on places that don’t get covered. But something we notice is that news doesn’t just talk about places, it also links them together.

3
00:00:45.340 –> 00:00:57.109
Tugce: For example, two cities might get mentioned in the same story because they share an event, a crime pattern, a rivalry, or a regional issue. These links tell us a lot about how local identity is shaped.

4
00:00:57.280 –> 00:01:01.840
Tugce: And they reveal a lot of information about a region’s new geography.

5
00:01:02.730 –> 00:01:21.400
Tugce: So, what we did is, we took about 31,000 Alabama news articles, ranging from 2012 to 2024, and we used an LLM to plot all the place names, and then built a co-mention network, which is kind of like a map of which cities appear together in stories.

6
00:01:22.950 –> 00:01:30.849
Tugce: We found 79,000 place mentions, 351 Alabama cities, and about 17,000 city pairings.

7
00:01:30.950 –> 00:01:38.430
Tugce: Then we looked at how often each pair of cities co-appears. This gives us an idea of the region’s news geography.

8
00:01:39.040 –> 00:01:51.910
Tugce: So, a few interesting patterns that I like to point out is Tuscaloosa was the main news hub overall, which makes sense because our news outlet is based there. And…

9
00:01:52.140 –> 00:02:09.830
Tugce: We see that Tuscaloosa is the city that gets mentioned together with a lot of other cities in news. And Birmingham becomes the center of crime-related news. So, in crime-related news, the other cities mostly get mentioned together with Birmingham.

10
00:02:10.000 –> 00:02:14.360
Tugce: And Montgomery becomes the center of political and economic coverage.

11
00:02:14.510 –> 00:02:34.510
Tugce: And, not surprisingly, Auburn and Tuscaloosa are super connected in sports stories because of their history of ongoing rivalry. So, what does this all mean? So, when we look at these connections between these cities and how much they appear together in news, we get a story and an idea and a

12
00:02:34.900 –> 00:02:49.240
Tugce: local identity appears about these regions. But when news desserts happen, they aren’t just about where coverage is missing, but also where relationships are missing, because we can’t see these stories.

13
00:02:49.310 –> 00:02:59.169
Tugce: So, some cities don’t just get less coverage, they rarely get linked to other places, which adds another layer of isolation for the news deserts.

19
00:03:32.300 –> 00:03:43.679
Tugce: So, thank you all for listening to my project. I would like to thank my mentors and professors for their invaluable guidance throughout this project. I am especially grateful to my mentor, Dr. Myeong Lee.

20
00:03:43.680 –> 00:03:58.979
Tugce: and Dr. Jieshu Wang for their mentorship, encouragement, and expertise, which shaped the development of this research. I also really appreciate the support of George Mason University’s Oscar program for providing a great research environment.

Making and Creating Undergraduate Research Scholars Program (URSP) - OSCAR

Tuning the Photoelectrochemical Properties of ReS₂ via van der Waals Heterostructures

Author(s): Linke Xu

Mentor(s): Yun Yu, chemistry and biochemistry department

Abstract

Rhenium disulfide (ReS₂) is a unique Transition Metal Dichalcogenide (TMD) known for its structural asymmetry, which dictates an intrinsic optical and electronic anisotropy. We investigated the influence of doping environment on this anisotropy. While intrinsic ReS₂ exhibits ideal anisotropic behavior, we found that p-type doping causes the angle-dependent properties to vanish. By engineering a van der Waals heterostructure and utilizing charge transfer doping from an ITO substrate, we successfully controlled and restored the material’s anisotropy. Our results demonstrate that the mechanism of photoelectrochemical response in ReS₂ is fundamentally coupled to the Fermi level position, allowing for rational design of specific-use optoelectronic devices.

Audio Transcript

Hello everyone, my name is Linke Xu, and today I am presenting my project,
“Tuning the Photoelectrochemical Properties of ReS₂ via van der Waals Heterostructures.” This work was completed in the Chemistry and Biochemistry Department at George Mason University.
ReS₂ is a fascinating two-dimensional material because its distorted lattice creates strong in-plane anisotropy—meaning its photoresponse depends on the angle of incoming light.
When I began this project, my goal was to explore whether light polarization could be used to influence photoelectrochemical reactions on ReS₂, especially hydrogen evolution. 53However, very early in the process we observed something surprising: the anisotropy did not behave consistently. Instead, it changed depending on the doping environment of the material.
This unexpected behavior prompted us to investigate a more fundamental question: What actually determines anisotropy in ReS₂—its crystal structure, or the electronic occupation of its band-edge states?
Based on these early observations, we hypothesized that anisotropy requires electrons in the Re d-orbital band-edge states. If the material become mes p-doped and those states are empty, the directional response should disappear. But if we raise the Fermi level again through charge-transfer doping, anisotropy should return.
1.56To test this idea, we exfoliated ReS₂ nanosheets onto two different types of substrates. Placing the flake directly on ITO induces n-doping, while transferring it onto a graphene/hBN stack isolates the flake and makes it p-type.
We then measured photoelectrochemical current and used scanning electrochemical cell microscopy, or SECCM under polarized illumination to map photocurrent anisotropy with spatial resolution.
Our results revealed a clear and consistent trend.
2.43First, when ReS₂ was n-doped on ITO, we observed strong anisotropy. Both the absorption and photocurrent showed the expected sinusoidal angle dependence, confirming that directional excitation was present.
3.01Second, when the same flake was placed onto the graphene/hBN heterostructure and became p-doped, the anisotropy almost completely disappeared. The photocurrent became nearly circular, indicating that the response no longer depended on angle.
3.22Finally, when we returned the flake to ITO, charge-transfer doping raised the Fermi level again—and the anisotropy reappeared.
3.34Because the crystal structure never changed, this reversible switching demonstrates that anisotropy is controlled electronically rather than purely structurally.
Overall, our findings show that the anisotropy of ReS₂ is not a fixed property of its lattice. Instead, it depends on whether the directional Re d-orbital band-edge states are occupied. By adjusting the doping environment, we can effectively turn anisotropy on and off, offering a simple and powerful strategy for designing polarization-dependent optoelectronic and photoelectrochemical systems.
4.25I would like to thank the OSCAR Undergraduate Research Scholars Program, my mentor Dr. Yu, my research partner Anna, and all members of our lab for their support throughout this project.
Thank you for listening.