Undergraduate Award for Humanities and STEM Research

The Undergraduate Award for research and/or scholarship connecting humanities with science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) is given annually to a Purdue undergraduate student on the West Lafayette campus who best exemplifies the synergistic potential of humanities and STEM in a single research project. This award is open to all Purdue West Lafayette undergraduates, including international and part-time students. The 2024 Award winner will receive $2,000.

Selection decisions for this scholarship/award typically happen in the spring for each upcoming academic year. If you are selected to be a recipient, you will receive an email from the Division of Financial Aid notifying you that there has been an update to your financial aid package. You can check your MyPurdue account, the financial aid tab, at any time for updates.

Winners

  • 2024: Colby Smock
  • 2023: Katie Schwind
  • 2022: Samuel Bakeis, Yagmur Onder
  • 2021: Ethan Edwards, Ethan Glaser, Justin MacNeill

Criteria

The recipient of this award will,

  1. exhibit exemplary research and writing skills
  2. have completed or made substantial progress on a research project with humanities/arts and STEM components between January 1, 2023 and December 31, 2023
  3. have participated in
    • an OUR (Office of Undergraduate Research) program or
    • in a college or department undergraduate research effort, or
    • have been selected to publish in JPUR: Journal of Purdue Undergraduate Research
  4. submit a product of their research (documents and/or photos)
  5. be in good academic standing and working on their first degree at Purdue University WL
  6. permit Purdue Libraries and School of Information Studies to use their photo, story and name in communications (social media, newsletter, etc.) in conjunction to the Award

Application Process

Please complete this application form by March 3, 2024.

The deadline for all applications for the Undergraduate Research Award for Humanities and STEM is March 3, 2024.

Notification of the award will be made by the Dean of Libraries and School of Information Studies.

The award will be presented in April. For clarifications or questions, please call the Libraries Administrative Office at 765-494-2902 or email us at deanoflibraries@purdue.edu.

About the Undergraduate Research Award for Humanities and STEM

This award was established in 2020 with creativity, passion and generosity from Stephen Pater (BSAE ’65, MSAE ’66) to encourage and inspire undergraduate students to pursue blended research in humanities and STEM fields.

Mr. Pater retired as a computer systems security specialist at Boeing Company. He previously held several positions at Boeing, including systems data analyst and information systems project engineer. Prior to Boeing, he worked in information systems planning at Rockwell International.

As a Purdue student, Mr. Pater was a member of the Symphonic Band. He was also involved in Sigma Gamma Tau, an aerospace engineering honor society, and Tau Beta Pi, the second-oldest honor society in the country and the only engineering honor society to represent the entire engineering profession. After graduation, Stephen joined Volunteers in Service to America (VISTA), which took him to southern California for a time. He earned his MBA from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) Anderson School of Management and spent some time during his career teaching at UCLA extension campuses.

Today, he calls himself a proud “Boilermaker Bruin.”