MANHATTAN — Excellence in research has earned several students at Kansas State University recognition through the eighth annual Kirmser Undergraduate Research Awards.

In May, the award committee, made up of faculty from varying disciplines, rewarded outstanding undergraduate research in topics ranging from French to social work. Grand prize awards were given in three categories: individual freshman, individual non-freshman and group. The individual grand prizewinners received $1,000 each, and the group grand prizewinners shared a $3,000 award. Honorable mentions were also named in two categories.

The awards are made possible through a gift from the Philip and Jeune Kirmser estate.

Both grand and honorable mention prizewinners are invited to archive their projects in the university’s institutional repository, the K-State Research Exchange, or K-REx, so that they are available online to the public.

The grand prize in the group research category was for the project “The Association Between Childhood Trauma and Social Anxiety Among Adults” for the Social Research Methods & Analysis class taught by Jung Sim Jun, assistant professor of social work.

Local students were recognized through the Kirmser Undergraduate Research Awards are Conor Bird, junior in social work, Great Bend, grand prize, group research project, “The Association Between Childhood Trauma and Social Anxiety Among Adults” and Jessi Kindscher, sophomore in social work, Hoisington, grand prize, group research project, “The Association Between Childhood Trauma and Social Anxiety Among Adults.”