When asked the inevitable question of "What did you do last summer?" upon her return to Tufts next fall, junior Liz Macari will have an impressive response: "I [worked on determining] the mechanism for the cause of the autoimmune disease Sjogren's Syndrome."
That's not all, folks... The Summer Scholars highlighted in this article are not the only ones conducting unique and exciting research projects: - Sophomore Maura Allaire will work with civil and environmental engineering professor Richard Vogel to assess urbanization's impact on the quality of the watershed environment. - Sophomore Anisha Khaitan will work with psychology professor Haline Schendan to conduct neuropsychological studies of memory and vision. - Sophomore Samantha Jordan will work with medical school professor Larry Feig to explore the biological function of Ras-GTPases. - Sophomore Bonnie Bangli Chou will work with computer science professor Soha Hassoun on Double Magic. - Junior Elisa Kantor will study the effects of cross-race bias in the law with psychology professor Sam Sommers. - Junior Tim Wagner will work with English professor Lecia Rosenthal to study death, meaning, and memory in the plays of Samuel Beckett. - Junior Adam Drobnis will work with biology professor David Cochrane to determine the effect neurotensin has on mast cell VEG-F expression and secretion. - Junior Leandra Godoy will work with child development lecturer Jannette McMenamy to research the types of preventive intervention available to children at risk for ADHD. - Junior Robbie Goldstein will work with Sackler School of Biomedical Sciences professor Erik Selsing to analyze B-cell development in a mutant mouse strain. - Sophomore Jeremy Setton will work with biology professor Jan Pechenik to study the metamorphosis of the slipper limpet. - Sophomore Naomi Mower will work with urban and environmental policy and planning professor Sheldon Krimsky to study the scientific integrity of the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, the DSM-IV-TR. - Junior Sydney Lauren McKinney will work with American Studies Professor Lisa Coleman to research jailed black women and HIV/AIDS. - Sophomore Jason Bauer will work with classics professor Anthony Tuck to research central Italy's early exchange and industry. - Sophomore Luke Brown will work with drama and dance professor Virginia Johnson to research 18th century costuming for the TV miniseries "The War that Made America." - Junior Kate Burns will work with drama and dance professor Barbara Grossman to develop a script for a play inspired by the life of Edna St. Vincent Millay. - Junior Brian Wolly will work with history professor Evan Haefli to research Northern secessionism in revolutionary and post-revolutionary America. |
Another 29 students will have similarly impressive responses: Macari is one of the 30 students that make up the University's 2004 Summer Scholars.
Instituted in March 2003, the Summer Scholars program enables undergraduates to collaborate with faculty mentors at Tufts' undergraduate schools, graduate schools, and affiliated hospitals. Scholars, who must agree to pursue no other employment for the duration of their research, receive $3,500 for their work and up to $1,000 for supplies; faculty mentors also receive a $1,000 stipend.
Macari's $3,500 will be going towards her work with Dental School professor Driss Zoukhri on mice with Sjogren's Syndrome, in which lymphocytes and plasma cells attack moisture-producing glands.
There is currently no cure for the syndrome, and its cause is unknown - though not for long, if Macari has anything to do with it. "I'm looking forward to doing hands-on research and applying what I've learned in the classroom to the lab," she said. "It sounds dorky, but it's true."
Junior Annie Wang is also looking forward to performing hands-on work. "This project sounded very exciting to me because it would allow me to pursue my own [research]," said Wang, who will spend her summer working with Gordon Huggins of the Molecular Cardiology Research Institute and focus on how the genetic mutations found in congenital heart disease affect the formation of the heart's chambers.
Junior John Prensner's summer research will also involve hands-on lab work: he'll be conducting organic chemistry syntheses to evaluate inositol phosphoglycans' viability as drug delivery agents.
"I don't have any personal attachments to inositol phosphoglycans, although they are useful molecules," Prensner said. "Rather, I picked this topic because I think I'll learn from it. I also think that I'll enjoy working with [chemistry professor Marc d'Alarcao]; there's no sense in applying for a Summer Scholarship if you don't like your mentor."
Junior Matt Nathanson agreed: "I'm most excited about getting to know my mentor and experiencing the stress and excitement of generating your own data."
"I'll be designing the experiment from the ground up," added Nathanson of his research on emotional and neutral memory retention. "I'll be the one setting it up, and I'll be the one performing trials next fall with Psych 1 students, so basically, it's all on me." The data Nathanson gathers about memory encoding (with the help of clinical psychology professor Lisa Shin) will be analyzed with relation to the brain in a future study.
Junior David Turkington also hopes to increase his psychological expertise, but in the area of the dynamics of organizational structure. Using computer simulations, Turkington will work with economics professor Yannis Ioannides on "[incorporating] ideas from psychology and neural networks into economics models."
"Since I have an active role in determining the direction of our work, I'm excited to see how it takes shape and what kind of results we see by the end of the summer," Turkington said.
Aided by psychology professor Donna Mumme, junior Nirit Gradwohl will also be conducting psychological research, observing young children in developmental psychology labs to explore whether "disgust messages" - like sour facial expressions upon seeing a bug in a pitcher of water - help them to understand contamination.
"[I] decided to see if social referencing might teach [kids under seven] what the disgust facial expression looks like, what contamination means, and what types of things to avoid," Gradwohl said.
Junior Josh Hyman's research will also involve children, albeit older ones. "As No Child Left Behind is forcing all states to implement high school accountability tests in reading, writing, math, science, and history, I want to do research on how [the tests] affect arts and music education," said Hyman, whose dual interests in education and music led him to his topic and his mentor, Economics Professor Thomas Downes, who is interested in educational policies' effects.
Though most of his research will be statistical or on the computer, Hyman said that he hopes to visit area schools and discuss accountability testing with Massachusetts policy makers.
Sophomore Russell Sargent is interested in testing of a different sort: for his research on surface resistivity, he'll be testing very thin strips of copper to see how sulfur molecules affect the strips' electromagnetic resistance.
"In the whole new world of very thin metals and technology getting smaller and smaller, things behave very differently than in the normal world - this type of research gets more and more necessary," said Sargent, whose mentor is physics professor Roger Tobin.
Sophomore J. Jeremy Sueker, whose mentor is Community Health Lecturer Dr. Charlene Galarneau, has a project that will take him far beyond Tufts' physics labs: along with a friend who attends Brown, Sueker will be visiting South Africa's University of the Western Cape and helping to overhaul the school's HIV/AIDS program.
"We'll be helping them evaluate a new comprehensive education program, including a peer education component," said Sueker, who also visited South Africa last year. "We'll be looking both for real measurable impacts it's having [and] how it's being received by students."
Sophomore Andrea Merrill, who will be studying the quality of geriatric patients' perioperative care in relation to their race, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status, said her summer research is an amazing opportunity for her as an aspiring physician. "Not only do I get to design and conduct my own research project [with Dr. K. Francis Lee of Baystate Medical Center's Department of Surgery], but I also get to attend clinical lectures and ground rounds, consult with residents and fellows, and shadow physicians in their daily work," Merrill said.
Like Merrill, sophomore Karolina Mizeracka views her research with great anticipation. "I've always been interested in molecular biology and the biochemical aspect of living organisms," said Mizeraka, whose topic is the role of bone morphogenetic protein (BMP) signaling in the development of the embryonic kidney.
"I'm excited about being able to answer questions that haven't been addressed yet about the development of organs," said Mizeracka of her research on African clawed-toe frogs. "I'm also excited about presenting my project at the Society of Developmental Biologists Annual Conference in Calgary this July."
Sophomore John Papp's research on multi-national businesses and capital income taxation also involves a trip: he'll be going to Washington, D.C. to work with one of mentor and economics professor Gilbert Metcalf's colleagues. "He has a great data set with information on a ton of countries," Papp said. "We're going to use it to see if our model works."
The model Papp refers to is what he and Metcalf plan to develop in order to predict the way capital income taxation affects the growth of capital. "I've always been fascinated by the idea that we can use math to predict what is going to happen tomorrow," Papp said.
