2026 Research and Creative Activity Awards

“NAU Award for Most Significant Research/Scholarly Work Laura Gray-Rosendale , professor, Department of English. Gray-Rosendale conceptualized and co-edited “Basic Writing in the 21st Century,” the first comprehensive, user-friendly guide guide to writing. The nominator called it “the culmination of decades of dedication to basic writing pedagogy and scholarship” and said it will “have a transformative impact on the discipline.” NAU Award for Most Promising New Artistic or Creative Scholar Evangeline Jiménez , assistant professor, Department of Theatre. Jimenez’s research focus, which includes working on a book, is on how people’s everyday actions and bodily experiences affect how they create, understand and pass on cultural meaning and spiritual knowledge. Her research also includes Latiné performance and dramaturgy and performance as an interdisciplinary method and applied practice beyond the theater. NAU Award for Most Promising Graduate Artistic or Creative Scholar Malia Levison , master of fine arts student, Department of English. Levison’s creative project, “Laying Eggs for Ravens,” is a book-length graphic memoirs that combines nonfiction, poetry and visual art to tell a story of persistence, survival and friendship. The nominator calls it an ambitious project that “brings together a wide array of subjects centered around the question of ‘what is intimacy,’ which serves as its core.” NAU Award for Most Promising Graduate Student Research Scholar Ely Miller , Ph.D. student, Department of Biological Sciences. Miller’s research combines computational biology, systems biology and infectious disease modeling to address critical problems in predicting and understanding complex biological systems. His publication records includes contributions to eight peer-reviewed publications and preprints, including first author on a publication assessing the effectiveness of early early COVID-19 mitigation strategies in the Navajo Nation and surrounding states. NAU Award for Most Promising New Research Scholar Pranay Ranjan , assistant professor, School of Earth and Sustainability. As part of his work in environmental social science, behavioral theory and survey design, Ranjan played a central role in the development, implementation and longitudinal testing of NAU’s Culture of Sustainability Survey. The nominator also noted his ability to translate complex insights into actionable guidance for practitioners, including working with private farmers and landowners to advance conversation. NAU Award for Graduate Research Mentorship Igor Steinmacher , associate professor, School of Informatics, Computing, and Cyber Systems. In his NAU career, Steinmacher has mentored 15 graduates students and is currently mentoring six grad students at both the master’s and doctoral level. His mentees have gotten tenure-track positions at universities throughout the world and have co-authored peer-reviewed publications and won national awards. NAU Award for Most Impactful Community-engaged Research, Scholarship or Creative Activity Nicole Walker , professor, Department of English. In the last year, Walker authored “Writing the Hard Stuff: Turning Difficult Subjects Into Meaningful Prose” and “How to Plant a Billion Trees: A Memoir of Child Trauma and the Healing Power of Nature,” which weaves her story with the way forests support and heal themselves. The books are a culmination of her work in the humanities and as writer-in-residence for NAU’s Center for Ecosystem Science and Society. NAU Award for Undergraduate Research Mentorship Sonya Xiao , assistant professor, Department of Psychological Sciences. Xiao has mentored dozens of students since coming to NAU in 2022, including 19 students who presented at international conferences, 10 students who have presented at the Undergrad Symposium, six students who have been first author on a presentation and eight students who are part of a peer-reviewed publication.

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