Last week, the W.A. Franke Honors College hosted its annual research presentation symposium, Franke Honors Pinnacle. Nearly 100 Franke Honors students presented their work at Pinnacle, showcasing diverse research projects that they have been working on throughout the year. Outstanding research is acknowledged with financial awards for Quest projects, senior thesis work, exploratory mini grants, and other special projects.

Last month, the W.A. Franke Honors College hosted its annual research presentation symposium, Franke Honors Pinnacle. More than 100 Franke Honors students presented their work at Pinnacle, showcasing diverse research projects that they have been working on throughout the semester. Each year, students are judged on their poster presentations in a variety of categories. Outstanding research is acknowledged with financial awards for Quest projects, senior thesis work, and creative video representations of senior research.

Franke Honors Pinnacle is an opportunity for students to present their research and creative projects to friends, family, and the broader University of Arizona community, with poster boards chronicling their entire journey from concept to finish. The presenters represent a mix of different projects from a wide range of disciplines—from fourth-year Wildcats presenting their long-awaited theses, to first-year, second-year, and transfer students who wanted to get a jumpstart on their research through the Franke Honors Quest program.

Five students from the W.A. Franke Honors College were involved in significant research regarding global gender equality, as well as Environmental, Social, and Governance commitments (ESG) in the workplace. The outcome of the research showed that gender equality is a key catalyst for accelerating ESG within business structures and vice-versa, indicating that women’s equality in terms of economic opportunity, educational achievement, health, survival, and political empowerment could be achieved within our lifetime.

W.A. Franke Honors College Assistant Professor of Practice, Dr. Caitlyn Hall, is an environmental engineer with a passion for interdisciplinary thinking and community-focused science. She and her team of faculty and staff from across the University of Arizona were recently awarded the 2022 CUES Spanning Boundaries grant for their project, Community Stories of Sustainability and Resilience: Sonoran Desert and Baja Regions.

W.A. Franke Honors professor Caitlyn Hall published A Hydrologist's Guide to Open Science in the European Geosciences Union. 

The Center for Transformative Healthcare seeks to advance collaborative, innovative and transformative interprofessional initiatives across disciplines, learning institutions, health care systems, research centers and communities at-large. 

Last year, the book selected for this year’s Catalyst common reading initiative captured the Flint water crisis. Penned by Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha, What the Eyes Don’t See: A story of crisis, resistance, and hope in an American city, taps into her personal experience in sleuthing the source of the city’s water problems.

What’s circulating in the air? Embedded and active in the soil? A part of living creatures, great and small – including us? The answer is microbes, and they outnumber human cells in each person’s body by 10-to-1. The news is both good and bad as they are needed but can create havoc if left uncontested as potential allergens.

Dr. Armin Sorooshian, a 2003 Honors College graduate now serving as a College of Engineering faculty member, is restless as he sits at his desk, early winter sunlight pushing through narrow gaps in the window blinds.