There was an incredible amount of energy surrounding the undergraduate poster sessions during PhysCon 2016. Nearly 360 students eagerly shared experiences from summer Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REUs), sustained research experiences at their universities, and outreach projects conducted by their chapters. A dedicated group of faculty and graduate students made their way through the ballroom, providing feedback and making difficult decisions regarding which posters would win cash prizes from The Optical Society Foundation.

The Optical Society Best Poster Award: Applied Physics

• Francisco Ayala Rodriguez, University of Texas at El Paso, Correlations Between Thickness and Nanostructure in Soft-Templated Mesoporous Carbon Membranes
• David Goodloe, Birmingham-Southern College, Analysis of Boron Atom Incorporation in Boron-Doped Nanostructured Diamond Films Using X-Ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy
• Matthew Huber, Rhodes College, Multi-Parameter Analysis of Bladder Mechanical Properties Using Ultrasound Bladder Vibrometry
• Matthew Iczkowski, High Point University, Micro- and Macrorheology of Agarose for Use as a Potential Mucus Simulant
• Connor Murphy, Grove City College, Development of Aluminum-Air Fuel Cells and Aluminum Iodine Batteries as Energy Storage Devices
• Mackenzie Ridley, Berea College, Parameter Optimization for Porosity Reduction of Thin Film TiB₂+AlMgB₁₄ Laser Deposition on High Carbon Steel Tracks
• Raul Rodriguez, St. Mary’s University, Modeling Zinc Whisker Formation: A Monte Carlo Simulation
• Amiras Simeonides, High Point University, Construction and Testing of a TIRF-FCS Microscope
• Arvind Srinivasan, Saint Mary’s College of Maryland, Magneto-Optical Trapping of 85Rb and its Applications for Gradient Magnetometry
• Collin Wilkinson, Coe College, A Novel Proton Imager

The Optical Society Best Poster Award: General Physics

• Austin Bradley, George Mason University, Evaluating the Charged Particle Rejection Requirement for an Experiment to Measure the Branching Ratio of KL to pi0 nu nubar
• Patrick Carroll, Miami University, Magnetic and Magnetocaloric Properties of Mn_5−xCo_xGe₃ Compounds
• Gage DeZoort, University of Virginia, Anomalous Signal Reduction in the CMS ECAL Trigger
• Ava Ghadimi, City University of New York, Searching for Sources of Astrophysical Neutrinos: A Multi-Messenger Approach with VERITAS
• Shoji Hishida, California State University, Fresno, Analysis of Thermal Properties of Pr_1-xNd_xOs₄Sb₁₂ in the Range 10–300 K
• Keenan Hunt-Stone, Howard University, DREAM2: Using Apollo CPLEE Observations to Constrain Lunar Surface Charging
• Calvin Leung, Harvey Mudd College, Generating Bell Test Measurement Settings with Cosmic Photons
• Haley Marez, Sacramento State, Working on the FTK with the ATLAS Experiment
• Daniel Terrano, Cleveland State University, Light Scattering Study of Mixed Micelles Made from Elastin-Like Polypeptide Linear Chains and Trimers
• Ilona Tsuper, Cleveland State University, Light Scattering Characterization of Elastin-Like Polypeptide Trimer Micelles
• Robert Valdillez, North Carolina State University, Measuring the Neutron Spectrum of 250Cf with a Time of Flight Measurement

The Optical Society Best Poster Award: Theoretical/Computational Physics

• Nikolaos Dokmetzoglou, Davidson College, Implementation of Recursion Relations in Gluon Scattering Amplitude Calculations in AdS(4)/CFT(3)
• Rosa Wallace, University of Colorado Denver, Three-Dimensional Potential-Field Source – Surface Modeling of the Evolution of Coronal Structures