REU at SICB

Myself and all the students in UTPA REU program will be attending the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology meeting in San Antonio next month. See you then!

How to get noticed

Aaron Ellison's recruiting trip for his REU program went well. During his presentation, he mentioned one of those things that should be obvious but isn't, and is therefore very important.

Most research programs require some kind of essay, which I tend to call a "personal statement." Aaron noted that most of the applicants to his program wrote completely generic personal statements, and gave no indication of why they wanted to be in that particular program.

By saying something like, "I want to be in your program, because I see it focuses on bee research, and I have been fascinated by bees since I read this paper by Dr. Jones...", you might get yourself past the first cut of applications.

Recruiting visit

Aaron Ellison of Harvard Forest will be visiting our campus next Tuesday, 27 November 2007, to recruit for the Harvard Forest summer REU program.

Dr. Ellison is, among many other things, the co-author of the book A Primer Of Ecological Statistics. Which, he informed me when at dinner during an REU conference, was briefly outselling Bill Clinton's autobiography on Amazon.

Student profile: Cassie Rivas

What is your project about?

I am working on propagating plants using tissue culture methods. My focus is to find better protocols for the following plants: Nymphaea ( a water lily), Jatropha, and citrus.

What have you learned or enjoyed so far?

So far I have learned that every detail is extremely important as well as what tissue culture is and why it is used. What I really enjoy about research is that you really don't know what results your going to get and for me, that's exciting.

What are you looking forward to?

As time goes by I really hope that I get the results I am hoping for and I also look forward to attending the science events we are going to in order to learn more about what other type of science is being tested out there.

Supervisor: Andrew McDonald

Student profile: Natali Meijia

What is your project about?

Seagrass stress. Taking seagrass from its natural environment to a controlled tank and dropping the salinity to see if the seagrass endured any stress.

What have you learned or enjoyed so far?

I have learned that field and lab work are not as hard as suspected. I have become better acclimated with lab equipment and have become more educated in biology. I have also learned that the professors/mentors are very helpful in any way possible and help set a comfortable, stress free environment. I also learned that I enjoy doing both field and lab work.

What are you looking forward to?

As I go through the program I am looking forward to learning much more through hands on experience and completing a research project. I would also like to continue meeting many people who could help me succeed in the future.

Supervisors: Hudson DeYoe and Mike Persans

Student profile: Maria Calagui

What is your project about?

We are cloning genes from the DNA of metal tolerant plants and expressing the genes in yeast.

What have you learned or enjoyed so far?

I’ve come to respect and acknowledge the amount of effort brought into research. I’ve enjoyed meeting other students who are also in research thus establishing long lasting friendships and networking.

What are you looking forward to?

I’m looking forward to finishing my research project, presenting my results for my honors thesis and discovering where my interests lay.

Supervisor: Mike Persans

HESTEC Science Symposium

Now that the madness of HESTEC is over, I can share a few pictures from our visiting mentor's visit.

The audience at the Science Symposium, quivering with anticipation.

Zuleyma at the lectern.

Zuleyma describing her early experiences with animal behaviour, which included a close encounter with a deadly Venezuelan snake.

Lunch break! I'm to the right of Zuleyma, then Dean Ed LeMaster is barely visible to my right, then Hashim Mahdi, John Villareal, Jo Rampersad, Mircea Chipara, Lawrence William, Robin Fuchs Young, Irma Jimenez Conti, and Jon Lieman.

Zuleyma and students listening to a roundtable discussion hosted by M.D. Anderson Science Park faculty Robin Fuchs Young and Irma Jimenez Conti.