UA News

The UA Honors College will host a forum featuring some of the best original research on campus, all done by undergraduate students.

One of the unique experiences available to undergraduate students at The University of Arizona is the opportunity to engage in original research. UA undergrads work alongside research professors, graduate students and post-doctoral fellows, often in paid positions, and often are included as authors on papers published in academic journals.

Thirty of these students will present the results of their independent research at the 21st annual Undergraduate Research Forum, sponsored by the UA Vice President for Research and the Honors College. The event is Feb. 20 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the Student Union Memorial Center South Ballroom.

The students represent departments as diverse as anthropology, biochemistry, materials science and engineering, and psychology. The forum provides the public a view of students’ scholarly work that is contributing to health-related research, developing new techniques and studying wildlife in natural contexts.

For more information, contact the Honors College at 520-621-6901.

The students, their majors and faculty mentors, and the title of their presentations include:

• Sunny Albright (anthropology, Assistant Research Scientist Jarita Holbrook) - “An international comparison of gender dynamics in astronomy”
• Dok Andrzejczak (psychology, Professor W. Jake Jacobs) - “A day in the life”
• Aubrey Arrington (psychology, family studies, Assistant Professor Matthias Mehl) - “Music preferences and music-listening behavior among Myspace.com users”
• Ahmed Badran (biochemistry and molecular biophysics, Associate Professor Indraneel Ghosh) -"DNA SEER: A sensitive approach for the direct detection of DNA”
• Alex Birdsill (psychology, molecular and cellular biology, Associate Professor Lee Ryan) - “Cerebral differences related to obesity measured by MRI”
• Stacey Borrego (biochemistry and molecular biophysics, Associate Professor Joy Winzerling) - “Characterization of mosquito IRP”
• Natalie Brown (molecular and cellular biology, Assistant Professor Joyce Schroeder) - “MUC1 and STAT protein interactions in human ovarian cancer”
• Katherine Bruhn (anthropology, art history, Assistant Research Anthropologist Terry Woronov) - “Art and ESL education in multi-cultural classrooms”
• Randi Byrd (nutritional sciences, Professor Linda Houtkooper) - “Calcium intake and its relationship to bone mineral density in postmenopausal women”
• Evan Carter (pychology, Assistant Professor David Sbarra) - “Physiology of prayer: Does prayer mediate physiological reactivity in the face of stress?
• Troy Comi (chemistry, molecular and cellular biology, mathematics, Assistant Research Scientist Karen McGinnis) - “Alternative splicing of Mop 1 in the Zea Mays smu-2 mutant"
• Stephanie Cordova (sociology, Assistant Professor Kraig Beyerlein) - “Satisfying and keeping members: A look at competing mega churches"
• Jason Dittmann (physics, astronomy, Associate Professor Juan Restrepo) - “Convective adjustment in box models”
• Kristine Dorame (materials science and engineering, Associate Professor Anthony Muscat) - “Selective etching of alloys in supercritical carbon dioxide”
• Binh Duong (materials science and engineering, Professor Tribikram Kundu) - “Study of ultrasonic wave propagation in a fluid wedge”
• Andrew Friedman (systems engineering, Assistant Professor Leo Lopes) - “Graphical elided representations of optimization models” (Grant-funded 2006-07)
• Yekaterina Gruzinova (interdisciplinary studies, Latin American studies, economics, Associate Research Social Scientist Raul Saba) - “The CAFTA question in Costa Rica”
• Morgan Helfrich (geosciences, Senior Research Associate Kiram Lezzar) - “A comparison study of grain size distribution and mineralogical analysis of sandy sediment: Lake Tanganyika, East Africa”
• David Hernandez (physics, astronomy, Assistant Professor Romeel Davé) - “On the origin and history of stars in spiral galaxies”
• Tasneem Kaochar (computer science, Professor Saumya Debray) - “Identifying unreachable code for compaction of the Linux kernel”
• Monica Kelly (psychology, Assistant Professor Patricia Haynes) - “Sleep deprivation and emotional regulation in medical students”
• Benjamin Mills (chemical engineering, Associate Professor Anthony Muscat) - “Self assembled lipid bilayers on semiconductor surfaces”
• Sara Ottman (biochemistry and molecular biophysics, mathematics, Professor Marlys Witte) - “Postnatal lymphangiogenesis assay”
• Tara Pullano (religious studies, philosophy, Assistant Research Scientist Jarita Holbrook) - “An archival study of medieval Jewish astronomy”
• John Putz (psychology, Assistant Professor David Sbarra) - “What lies beneath: Understanding depression through an allostatic load framework”
• Emily Ricq (chemistry, biochemistry and molecular biophysics, Research Scientist Lynne Oland) - “Biological evaluation of a novel D-threo-PDMP analogue in Manduca sexta”
• Kristen Scheckel (nutritional sciences, Associate Professor Donato Romagnolo) - “Anti-cancer properties of rosemary”
• Laura Stein (ecology and evolutionary biology, Associate Professor Alexander Badyaev) - “Male provisioning of incubating females in a passernine bird: An overlooked aspect of fitness?”
• Lissette Velasquez (general biology, Associate Professor Joy Winzerling) - “Transferrin expression patterns in Aedes aegypti mosquitoes”
• Marius Wamsiedel (sociology, Associate Professor Thomas Willard) - “Landscape, bourgeoisie, and national identity: An equation proposed by seventeenth-century Dutch painting” - (Grant-funded 2006-07)