Fondren Fellows 2026-2027

Annamika Konkola

Project: Preserving Plants Past: Digitally Uncovering Rice’s Hidden Herbarium

Bio: Hello! My name is Annamika, and I will be piloting an effort to digitize plant specimens in Rice's herbarium collection, making this currently inaccessible biodiversity data available to researchers worldwide. I am excited to collaborate with librarians, biologists, and botanists to integrate different perspectives into the digitization, and to learn more about spatial data and Harris County's changing ecology. On campus, I enjoy researching the evolutionary history canids using genomics, and occasionally write for the Rice Thresher. After Rice, I hope to become a veterinarian and in my spare time, I enjoy volunteering at the Houston Zoo and listening to music. I look forward to seeing what we accomplish this year!

Mentors: Cassidy Johnson, Jerrell Jones, Jordan Traylor

Carlos Mascorro

Project: Red Book of Houston

Bio: Coming Soon.

Mentors: Fay Yarbrough, Norie Guthrie

Chenni Wang

Project: AI-Enhanced Teaching of Text Analysis with Python: Connecting Library Instruction to Industry Documents Archives

Bio: Coming soon.

Mentor:Eileen Han

Elizabeth Perry

Project: Exploring Documents, Institutions, and Texts

Bio: Coming soon.

Mentor: Amy Huseby

Leah Packer

Project:  SlaveVoyages.org

Bio: I am Leah Packer, and I am a sophomore majoring in History and Linguistics on the Pre-Law track. I am a part of Sid government and am a member of the Rice Mock Trial team as well as the Rice Justice Project. Additionally, I am an Owl guide, so you might see me walking around campus giving tours. In my free time, I like to read, bake, and do crafts.

Mentor:Daniel Domingues

Leo Cunningham

Project: Demystifying Generative AI: Facilitating artificial intelligence literacy through video microtutorials

Bio: Coming soon.

Mentors: Ian Mellor-Crummey, Hannah Edlund, Dana Santoscoy

Leah Harvey

Project:  Exploring Documents, Institutions, and Texts

Bio: Coming soon.

Mentor: Amy Huseby

Madeleine Yuan

Project: SlaveVoyages.org

Bio: Coming soon.

Mentor:Daniel Domingues

Magnolia Hickey-Zamora

Project: Red Book of Houston

Bio: Coming soon.

Mentors:Fay Yarbrough, Norie Guthrie

Mason Istre

Project: The White House Scientists Archive

Mentors:Kenny Evan, Kirstin Matthews

Michelle Lee

Project: The White House Scientists Archive

Mentors:Kenny Evans, Kirstin Matthews

Ruiyang "Katie" Cui

Project: The White House Scientists Archive

Mentors:Kenny Evans, Kirstin Matthews

Rusham Goyal

Project: Readers’ Marks: tracing the past in Fondren’s rare book collections

Mentors:Rebecca Russell, Aysha Pollnitz, Philip Mogen

Saebyeok Keum

Project: Directories to geoData: Developing a Sanborn-Based Address Locator for Historical GIS

Mentors:Matt Drwenski, Sean Smith

Vani Gonzalez

Project: Implementing a Decision-making Framework for Using AI in Teaching

Mentor:Barber

Yilian Jiang

Project: Readers’ Marks: tracing the past in Fondren’s rare book collections

Mentors:Rebecca Russell, Aysha Pollnitz, Philip Mogen

Yining Hong

Project: Directories to geoData: Developing a Sanborn-Based Address Locator for Historical GIS

Mentors:Matt Drwenski, Sean Smith

Zara Farook

Project: The Ethics Evolution: Assessing and Advancing Research Integrity Training

Mentors:Mickey Stevenson, Daniel Kirienko

Jace Liu

Project: Demystifying Generative AI: Facilitating artificial intelligence literacy through video microtutorials

Mentors:Ian Mellor-Crummey, Hannah Edlund, Dana Santoscoy

AJ Partridge

Project: Readers’ Marks: tracing the past in Fondren’s rare book collections

Mentors:Rebecca Russell, Aysha Pollnitz, Philip Mogen