Paxton Smith, Grand Prize, Humanities, center, with her George H. Mitchell Award.
Each spring, The University of Texas at Austin recognizes undergraduate students for superior scholarly or creative achievement. The UT Co-op George H. Mitchell Award honors undergraduate students who have demonstrated unparalleled dedication and achievement in their fields of study.
All awards are faculty nominated, and the selection committee consists of diverse faculty members.
This year, 70 undergraduate students submitted their research or creative project in one of four categories: artistic/creative, humanities, social sciences, and science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). A committee of faculty members reviewed each application and selected four from each category to recognize as semifinalists. Of the 16 semifinalists, six submissions were selected as recipients of the 2025 UT Co-op George H. Mitchell Award and four were selected for special recognition.
Awardees received awards from $7,000 to $1,500 for their submission, and were presented with their award by Dr. Richard Reddick, Senior Vice Provost and Dean, Undergraduate College.
2025 UT Co-op George H. Mitchell Award Recipients
Gabriella Roque Olveira Nomura
Award: $7,000
Major: Biomedical Engineering Honors
Category: Grand Prize, STEM
Winning Project: TriSwinUNETR Lobe Segmentation Model for Computing DIR-free CT-ventilation
Paxton Smith
Award: $7,000
Major: Advertising
Category: Grand Prize, Humanities
Winning Project: A War on My Body; A War on My Rights
Xingrui Long
Award: $5,000
Major: English Honors
Category: Humanities
Winning Project: The Cybernetic Body: Modeling the Hermeneutic-Cybersocial in Neuromancer’s Recursive Governance
Anika Bhatia
Award: $5,000
Major: Psychology
Category: Social Sciences
Winning Project: The Relationship of Cognitive Intraindividual variability to Psychiatric Symptoms in Older Adults With and Without Objective Cognitive Impairment and Subjective Cognitive Complaints
Cecily Gibson
Award: $5,000
Major: Plan II and Chemistry
Category: STEM
Winning Project: The Relationship of Cognitive Intraindividual variability to Psychiatric Symptoms in Older Adults With and Without Objective Cognitive Impairment and Subjective Cognitive Complaints
Demian Chavez Galvan
Award: $5,000
Category: Artistic/Creative
Major: Theatre and Dance
Winning Project: Drama as a Methodology for Nahuatl Language Revitalization
2025 George H. Mitchell Award - Special Recognition
Chase Patterson
Award: $1,500
Major: Plan II and English
Category: Artistic/Creative
Project: Eternal Travelers: The Renga of Rangerworld
Rhea Lazar
Award: $1,500
Major: Molecular Biology
Category: Humanities
Project: Evaluating a Community-Centered Digital Health Navigation Tool: The Health Maze Program
Caroline Whitmarsh
Award: $1,500
Major: Plan II and Psychology
Category: Social Sciences
Project: Examining the Domain-General, Teacher-Rated, and Reading-Specific Working Memory
Akshara Ramaswamy
Award: $1,500
Major: Psychology
Category: STEM
Project: Acute and post-acute sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 infection: a review of risk factors and social determinants
2025 George H. Mitchell Semi-Finalists
- Leah C. Austin, Artistic/Creative
- Aveen Ghodsi Jafari, Social Sciences
- Lauren Allyn Rader, Social Sciences
- Rachel Schmidt, STEM
- Emma Vorndran, Humanities
- Grant Gilker, Artistic Creative