The HFAN All Star Award celebrates the heart of our community: students whose growth, leadership, and care have shaped our research group and lifted others along the way. The award honors students who embody the values that define our research efforts (curiosity, care, and community) and is a testament to the exceptional contributions and dedication of our student researchers. 

In earning this award, students complete the full arc of a researcher’s journey: from compliance and ethics to technical mastery, mentoring, and national dissemination. This training pipeline prepares them for success in graduate and medical programs, competitive fellowships, and scientific leadership.

Each All Star receives a personalized certificate and is recognized at our annual lab celebration.

This recognition is conferred each year to students who achieve all of the following accomplishments:

• Completed core training in human subjects research, including compliance with regulatory standards, ethics, human subjects protections, and the history of human subjects protections in the United States.

• Learned how to set up, calibrate, and validate the eye tracking hardware on which our research relies.

• Reviewed relevant literature and helped design an experiment.

• Recruited participants, collected data, analyzed data, created data visualizations, and co-authored a presentation on the results.

• Trained at least one student researcher on how to use our equipment and follow our research protocols, and acted as a mentor towards a junior team member.

• Held a leadership role in the group and managed a project team. 

• Presented at the Symposium of University Research and Creative Expression (our local institution's annual conference) and traveled to an external conference to present.

• Prepared and submitted at least one travel grant application and at least one research grant proposal.

Each All Star has not only grown as a researcher, but has forever changed our lab for the better.

We are endlessly proud of each student who helps make our lab a place of belonging, growth, and joyful discovery.