Now in their 20th year, the Library Research Awards recognize and reward Loyola Marymount University students whose research makes expert and creative use of the services, resources, and collections of the William H. Hannon Library to produce a scholarly or creative work. Each entry includes the research project or paper, an essay explaining how the student conducted their research and used library resources, a bibliography, and a letter of nomination from the faculty member who assigned the initial paper or project.
The Library Research Awards are generously supported by professors Loretta and Richard Morris. Awards are given to undergraduate and graduate students, in both individual and group categories. Read more about this year’s winners below.
Undergraduate Library Research Awards
Individual Grand Prize
For the 2026 Undergraduate Library Research award, a grand prize of $1,000 will be awarded to Presley A. Taylor for her project, “Mitochondrial Dysfunction and Immunometabolic Reprogramming in Lyme Disease Associated Fatigue.” Taylor is a sophomore biology major who produced this work for an Independent Research course under the direction of Deepa Dabir.
The selection committee was impressed by how clearly Taylor described her methods, detailing how her initial OneSearch and PubMed searches were enhanced by use of Boolean operators, with results evaluated using the RADAR framework. Talyor consulted with a librarian for guidance with publishing and how to evaluate journal impact factors. Taylor’s bibliography included more than 50 references, consistently using primary sources, rather than relying on summaries or secondary sources. Dabir recommended this project “with strongest enthusiasm” (emphasis theirs), noting that this was graduate-level work with strong potential for advancing treatment of those living with Lyme disease.
Group Grand Prize
The group grand prize of $1500 (to be divided among them) will be awarded to Nicholas Aurino and Raihana Zahra for their project, “M4Health: A Multi-Modal, Multi-Domain, Multi-Platform, and Multi-Task Benchmark for Video-Driven Health Communication on Social Media.” Aurino and Zahra produced this work for an Independent Research course under the direction of Lanyu Shang.
In their essay, the team described their research journey from formulation and refinement of their topic to their final paper, which included the creation of a 130-keyword list to be used in their search. They began with Google Scholar and eventually consulted LMU Library’s LibGuides for reputable databases, including JSTOR, ACM Digital Library, and PubMed. The selection committee noted how ambitious, timely, and impactful this project was, especially because it dealt with misinformation. Shang specifically mentioned how the group used library resources to identify a gap in existing literature, which was crucial in the development of their research question.
Honorable Mentions
Laura Haushalter, a senior history and environmental studies major, won honorable mention and will be awarded $500 for her work, “Taxidermy and Technology: A History of Climate Change Exhibitions at American Museums of Natural History.” It was produced for HIST 5900 “Senior Thesis” under the direction of Amy Woodson-Boulton. The selection committee called the project “excellent and well organized” with clear documentation of Haushalter’s research journey detailing the use of librarian consultations, interlibrary loan, Zotero for citation management, and museum digital collections and multimedia archives to document museum exhibit content. Woodson-Boulton said the work was a “sophisticated, graduate-level project that has the potential to make a real contribution to the fields of climate communication, history, and museum studies.”
Mandy H. Nguyen, a senior biochemistry major, won honorable mention and will be awarded $500 for her work, “Role of Serotonin Receptor 2B in Development of the Heart Ventricles and Cardiac Valves.” Nominated by Maxellende Ezin, this work was produced for BIOL 4996 “Independent Research with Faculty.” Nguyen’s reflective essay described her research process, including utilizing the library’s biology LibGuide, searching PubMed for sources, and working with librarians to use Zotero to organize their findings. The selection committee noted that the faculty letter of recommendation was “glowing,” emphasizing Nguyen’s drive, independence, and advanced skills that exceeded expectations for the field of study.
The undergraduate award review committee included Christopher Cappelli, Prachi Jain, Jason Mitchell, Marisa Ramirez (chair), and Rachel Wen-Paloutzian.
Graduate Library Research Awards
Individual Grand Prize
For the 2026 Graduate Library Research Award, the individual grand prize of $1,000 will be awarded to Brock Herrington for his project, entitled “Between God and Gender: Rereading Śiva as a Proto-Hijra.” Herrington was nominated by Zoe Slatoff and produced the work for YGST 6015 “Foundations of Yoga Studies.”
The selection committee praised Herrington’s thoughtful approach, including his ethical considerations of the source selection. He acknowledged the responsibility of writing about a living marginalized community without having conducted fieldwork. Notably, Herrington’s reflective essay traced how his thesis emerged from the research itself: i.e., the parallel between Siva’s self-castration myth and the hijra nirvana ritual crystallized during searching, after which the student returned to the databases to confirm no prior scholar had already made this argument. His bibliography drew on major scholars across primary and secondary sources. Slatoff identified the paper as “profoundly original,” noting its relevance to yoga studies, south Asian studies, and queer studies.
Group Grand Prize
Zoe Bell, Bentara Cabanayan, Natasha Daniels, Daniel Falagán, Rebecca Lauffenburger, Jessica Ramirez, and Jane Frances Tse won the group award and will be awarded $2100 (to be divided among them) for their project “PhotoStory Reflections: Exploring Mental Health, Loss, and Community Healing after the Eaton Fire.” Produced for MFTH 691 “Research Methods” and MFTH 696 “Research/Clinical Paper,” and nominated by Nancy Choe, this work demonstrated effective and integrated uses of library resources, including research consultations, Boolean search strategies, databases such as Sociological Abstracts, and critical information literacy skills. Their bibliography spanned over sixty sources across six disciplines, from climate science and public health to art therapy, photovoice methodology, and Altadena’s social history, with sources current through late 2025. The selection committee praised the project as an excellent demonstration of the research-library partnership this award is designed to recognize
Of particular note, the project makes both methodological and substantive contributions to the field of study, utilizing “photostory”– an original adaptation of photovoice in which participants submit photographs they have already taken, centering pre-existing narratives and shifting the traditional power dynamic between researcher and participant– and a thematic analysis of 21 narratives from Eaton Fire survivors.
Honorable Mentions
Ava Lehrman won honorable mention and will be awarded $500 for her project “The Nicolay Hours: William H. Hannon Library’s New Medieval Manuscript.” Lehrman was nominated by Stephen Shepherd and produced the work for ENGL 5000 “Archeology of the Gothic Book.” The project describes the first scholarly examination of a manuscript so newly acquired that no digital facsimiles exist. The selection committee was impressed with Lehrman’s combination of personal communications with manuscript experts, primary sources, and secondary sources, including museum catalogs and French-language scholarship, to investigate whether evidence supports the bookseller’s attribution of the manuscript to the workshop of the Master of the Echevinage de Rouen.
The graduate award review committee included Cynthia Becht, Steph Gritz, Shalini Ramachandran (chair), and Judy Park.
Apply for Next Year’s Awards
Congratulations to our 2026 winners. The awards committees chose these entries because they demonstrated advanced information literacy practices, creative use of library collections and services, and clear evidence of significant learning. These works will be available in our Digital Commons. Remember, Lions: any work completed in spring 2026 is eligible for the 2027 award. So mark your calendars for next year.