The Mendel Sato Research Award is designed to attract outstanding original research projects from courses taught in departments throughout WashU's Danforth Campus that draw from research conducted with the collections in the Julian Edison Department of Special Collections.

Special Collections is interested in a broad scope of projects and methods that draw from research conducted with the collections and can range from film to book arts and beyond. Projects can be in any medium from written papers to multimedia projects. We encourage bold applications of research that help us to understand our holdings in innovative new ways.

Award Details

• Each winning student will receive a prize of $500.00. Awards are subject to taxes.
• Winning projects and essays will be preserved in the WashU Libraries' Open Scholarship Institutional Repository with access open to the public.
• The WashU Libraries will display names of students and faculty mentors of winning submissions and they will be published on the Libraries' website and in promotional printed materials.

Eligible Students

Any WashU student at any class level in any discipline who has completed a research project in any format using materials from Special Collections for a credit course during the Summer 2024, Fall 2024, or Spring 2025 semesters is eligible to participate in the 2024-2025 competition. Only one project per course may be submitted. A group project can be submitted for the competition. If selected, the prize money will be divided evenly between the participants of that project.

Key Dates

Submission Deadline: May 16, 2025, at 5:00 p.m. for projects completed in courses during the academic year

Winner Notification: June 13, 2025