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The conference gives students a chance to explain to the public the research they have spent the semester and, sometimes, the year working on.

By La Monica Everett-Haynes, University Communications
January 25, 2008

This is the time to learn about the world of exploration University of Arizona undergraduates – and some high school students – are living in, both inside and beyond their classrooms.

The Undergraduate Biology Research Program, or UBRP, exists to engage undergraduates in research typically reserved for UA faculty and graduate students. More than 100 students  who have participated in the program will present their research during the program’s 19th annual conference, being held Saturday.

Among the presenters are:

• Clayton Mosher, who studied the amygdala, a brain structure associated with emotion, to try to understand the basis of memory on the neurological level.
• Nikita Patel focused her studies on noroviruses, a grouping of viruses that are the leading cause of nonbacterial stomach flu cases in the world.
• Female Aedes aeypti mosquitoes were the focus of Amy Alabaster’s research. Alabaster studied how the mosquitoes took their blood meals in an attempt to figure out ways to control diseases the insects carry.
• Very little information is documented about the Arizona gray squirrel in the ecology literature, which is one reason why Elizabeth Baker focused her research on the species’ nesting habits.
• A group of Nogales High School students studied biodiesel as an alternative fuel source.

 

Of the participants, about 10 are either from Nogales High School in Nogales, Ariz. or Tucson's San Miguel High School. 

None of the students pay to participate in the program, which is voluntary. In fact, student research has been supported by a number of different funding sources, including the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Also, San Miguel High School students receive tuiton payments in exchange for their involvement.

The UA also provides grants to student researchers and recently announced that $40,000 had been allocated to the Undergraduate Research Fund for the 2008-2009 year.

UBRP encourages and prepares students to take careers in scientific and medical fields while connecting them with UA faculty and their research laboratories.

“Students develop problem-solving skills and learn scientific methods while working with their peers, graduate students, other advanced scientists and faculty,” said Carol Bender, UBRP director.

In some cases, students will take their research projects abroad.
“The program is therefore actively contributing to the scientifically literate work force of the state of Arizona and the nation,” Bender said, adding that these contributions are “a key to our future economic success in an increasingly sophisticated global environment.”

The conference is open to the public and will be held from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on the UA campus in the Life Sciences South Building, 1007 E. Lowell St.

It’s also a chance for future college students to learn about what the UA has to offer, Bender said. “It’s a great demonstration of how research supports the educational mission of the university.”