Fourteen University of Kentucky students spent the summer expanding their research skills through the Commonwealth Undergraduate Research Experience (CURE) Fellowship program, sponsored by the Office of Undergraduate Research and the Office of the Vice President for Research.

Established in 2022, the fellowship empowers undergraduates to become leaders for their respective communities by providing opportunities to develop new knowledge and skills through research within UK’s Research Priority Areas: cancer, cardiovascular diseases, diabetes and obesity, energy, materials science, neuroscience, substance use disorder and UNITE.

This “UK at the Half” features two students who were selected as CURE Fellows.

Guided by Ann Stowe, Ph.D., professor in the Department of Neurology in the UK College of Medicine, UK senior Murphy Byrd chose to focus her research on long-term therapy for stroke patients.

“I became interested in stroke research for two main reasons: one, there’s no long-term therapy for stroke. And two, stroke is extremely prevalent. It has even impacted my own family,” said Byrd, one of the 14 students in the program’s cohort. “I know it has affected many other families and if I can make one tiny contribution in any way, I’ll be pleased knowing that it will be one step closer to a new treatment.”

UK junior Carter Pryor worked with Kenneth Graham, Ph.D., in the College of Arts and Sciences’ Department of Chemistry, on finding new ways to measure the electric conductivity of certain types of materials.

Pryor emphasized that research at UK is for anyone.

“Research is not as intimidating as you might think. A lot of people are happy to work with you,” said Pryor. “Don’t be afraid to give it a shot because it really does have the opportunity to provide you with amazing experiences you wouldn’t get otherwise, no matter what field you’re going into. Even outside the sciences, there’s a lot of opportunities in research. I highly recommend it.”

Students selected as CURE Fellows received a $5,000 stipend to support their research endeavors during the Summer 2024 term.

Find the full list of this year’s CURE Fellows and hear from others about their summer experience online here.

“UK at the Half” airs during halftime of each UK football and basketball game broadcast on the radio and is hosted by UK Public Relations and Strategic Communications and UK Marketing and Brand Strategy. To hear the “UK at the Half” interview, click the play button above.