Recent Indiana University School of Public Health-Bloomington graduates Claire Buddenbaum and Aidan Simons were recognized with the Provost’s Award for Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity. This prestigious award celebrates the achievements in research and creative pursuits by undergraduate students across campus. It includes five categories: Creative and Performing Arts, Humanities, Natural and Mathematical Sciences, Professional Inquiry, and Social and Applied Sciences.
Students are nominated by professors, and only five are selected by a committee of faculty and administrators. The mentors of each winner are also recognized to honor the collaborative nature of the award and their role in advancing the student’s educational and professional development.
Buddenbaum received the award in the Social and Applied Sciences category for her work with mentor Keisuke Kawata, professor in the Department of Kinesiology.
“This recognition is an incredible honor and highlights my academic and research work during my undergraduate years. It also reflects the tremendous support and mentorship I have had the past four years,” says Buddenbaum.
While working as an undergraduate research assistant in the Clinical Neurotrauma Lab, she contributed to studies on the effects of repetitive head impacts in high school football players and the long-term consequences of lifetime exposure to contact sports. She also currently helps lead the CONNECT study, which examines the connection between sexual behaviors and the brain. Working in the lab made her realize the importance of collaboration and perseverance.
“Claire has a rare way of making everyone around her better,” says Kawata. “She brings curiosity, kindness, dependability, and confidence into every project she touches. It has been a joy and honor to watch her grow from an eager freshman research assistant into a thoughtful young scientist with a clear sense of purpose."
This August, Buddenbaum will begin her dual Ph.D. program at SPH-B in Human Performance with an emphasis on motor learning and Neuroscience while working in Kawata’s lab.
Simons received the award in the Natural and Mathematical Sciences category for his work with his mentor Luis Chaves, associate professor in the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health.
Simons shared, “This award reflects not only the final products of my work, such as presentations and publications, but also the persistence, independence, and curiosity that developed along the way.”
Throughout his undergraduate career, Simons has helped publish three peer-reviewed research works under Chaves, involving the description of mosquito fauna in Monroe and Hamilton counties and self-regulation of mosquito populations in Bloomington in response to changing weather patterns. They were published in Current Research in Parasitology and Vector-Borne Diseases and Journal of the American Mosquito Control Association. His efforts resulted in a Best Undergraduate Research Award win with co-author Sage Lenfestey, a Microbiology major, at SPH-B Research Day in Spring 2025.
“I have seen Aidan grow both as a budding biomedical researcher, but also as someone deeply committed to public health and the health and wellbeing of communities,” says Chaves.
After graduating in May, Simons will be applying to medical school and preparing for the Medical College Admissions Test (MCAT).
This prestigious recognition of Buddenbaum and Simons highlights the high quality of undergraduate research happening at SPH-B that positively impacts campus and the community.
For more trailblazing stories about our students, faculty, and staff, visit go.iu.edu/48bx.