Two students earned grand prizes at the 2026 University Undergraduate Research and Arts Forum (UURAF), one of Michigan State University’s highest undergraduate research honors, for projects examining dairy cattle health and demographic diversity and power in Congress.
Lowell Monis, a senior majoring in data science, world politics, and computational and applied mathematics, investigated whether demographic diversity in U.S. legislatures produces policy benefits and influence. Alexandra Watson, a second-year animal science major with a pre-veterinary concentration, researched how elevated iron levels can harm milk production and the health of dairy cattle.
Both students used undergraduate research opportunities to address real-world problems and questions alongside faculty mentors. Their UURAF recognition highlights both their accomplishments and the impact of undergraduate research opportunities at MSU.
“Lowell and Alexandra did more than complete strong research projects,” said Brian Keas, director of the Undergraduate Research Office in the Office of Undergraduate Education. “Lowell’s work helps us better understand the persistent gap between representation and leadership in Congress, while Alexandra’s findings raise important considerations for dairy producers managing cattle health. Their accomplishments demonstrate what undergraduate students at MSU can contribute when given meaningful opportunities and strong mentorship.”
Every spring, UURAF showcases undergraduate research and creative activity, bringing student researchers from across the university to share their work with peers, faculty, staff and outside audiences. The grand prizes are among the highest honors awarded by forum judges.
Diversity and power in Congress
Monis looked beyond election victories and combed through a half-century worth of congressional and legislative data to explore whether a Congress growing in diversity has led to measurable policy benefits – in short, whether representative democracy is truly representative.
He was inspired by Hanna Pitkin, a political theorist whose classic theoretical framework on representation explores the difference between who lawmakers are and the policy outcomes they produce.
Monis analyzed 50 years of congressional and state legislative data, looking at representation trends, legislative effectiveness, and access to leadership roles. Monis found institutional bottlenecks formed after elections, leading to a growing leadership gap.
He discovered that while the number of women serving in the House grew from 3.6% to 29.2% from 1973 to 2023, they had little to no access to influential committee chair and leadership positions in a trend that has lasted decades.
An example comes from the 118th Congress, where women of color held a record 10.9% of House seats, but without a single committee chairpersonship.
“The impact of this work is in shifting the conversation,” he said. “Political reforms cannot stop at candidate recruitment; they must address the internal mechanisms of how legislative power is distributed once candidates take office.”
Faculty members and resources helped Monis complete his research. He worked under the mentorship of Dr. Matt Grossmann, professor in the Department of Political Science and director of the Institute for Public Policy and Social Research (IPPSR). Monis’ research utilized IPPSR’s CongressData and Correlates of State Policy platforms.
Dr. Andy Halterman, assistant professor in the Department of Political Science, taught Monis how to review political data in different ways through courses and mentorship. Dr. Devin Silvia, specialist and undergraduate director in the Department of Computational Mathematics, Science and Engineering, gave Monis a new lens for visualizing data, while he also credited Dr. Justin Micomonaco, assistant dean in the Honors College, for pairing him with Grossmann through the college’s Professorial Assistantship (PA) program.
“The primary takeaway from this analysis is that winning elections is only the preliminary hurdle,” Monis said. “For democratic institutions to truly reflect and serve diverse electorates, institutional power — such as agenda control and committee leadership — must be accessible rather than reserved behind partisan and structural barriers.”
His research doesn’t stop with his latest scholarly achievement. Monis plans to expand the legislative leadership framework to the U.S. Senate and state legislatures, and another research project featuring an epidemiological analysis of illegal drug purchase opportunities.
Dairy cattle health concerns
While Monis examined political representation and power, Watson’s research focused on a problem affecting half of all dairy cattle around the time of giving birth.
Watson completed her award-winning research during her first year at MSU.
Specifically, Watson explored an often-overlooked issue that affects about 50% of dairy cattle – how high levels of iron, commonly found in the unfiltered groundwater they drink, may lead to higher-than-normal fat loss around the time of calving. It is an issue that impacts cattle health, milk production, dairy farmer profitability, and industry sustainability efforts.
Watson found that high iron levels, especially in ferrous form, in groundwater increased fat breakdown and impaired insulin sensitivity, even when treated with chromium supplements.
Her findings could have an impact on the dairy cattle industry, as Watson said dairy nutritionists, veterinarians and producers all should be conscious of high iron levels in the water provided for dairy cattle.
A strong interest in biology, chemistry and veterinary medicine inspired Watson to pursue her high-level inquiry into how a potential dairy cattle health issue could be counteracted and prove the importance of research in improving medicine, both for animals and humans.
Watson completed her research in the Dr. G. Andres Contreras AdipoLab, a Comparative Adipose Tissue (AT) Biology research laboratory in the College of Veterinary Medicine. She credited Dr. Miguel Chirivi, assistant professor in the College of Veterinary Medicine, for teaching her about cell culture and experiments, Dr. Adam Lock, professor in the Department of Animal Science, for overseeing the project, and Contreras for guiding her through her latest research project.
She also thanked the Honors College for providing her with the professorial assistantship that brought her to the Contreras Lab and research opportunity.
Watson plans to continue her research with the Contreras Lab after spending the first two months of her summer working in the lab full-time. She hopes to further examine the effects of iron in dairy cattle metabolic and health and potentially begin providing diets and monitoring cattle at the MSU Dairy Cattle Teaching and Research Center. Additionally, Watson is working to publish her research in the Journal of Dairy Science Communications.
“I am very honored to receive this award, as it is further than I ever expected I would go in my first year at MSU. Culturing cells and carrying out these experiments required a lot of time and dedication, as they are on a strict schedule, but this was such a fascinating way to study science, and seeing significant results of my experiments was the best reward,” she said. “UURAF was an amazing display of all paths of research students may take at MSU, and entering the world of research has grown my knowledge and appreciation of science in so many ways.”
Learn more about UURAF at urca.msu.edu/uuraf.