Info session

Zen Faulkes, UTPA REU director, will be doing a little chittin' and chattin' on all manner of summer research programs. Learn:

• Who to turn to for recommendation letters


• What research programs are looking for in their students


• When applications are typically due


• Where to look for summer research programs


• Why UTPA students are in high demand for summer programs


• How competetive the programs are

The focus will be on biology, but the tips should apply to almost any research program. UTPA's own REU program will also be discussed.

Learn all about it by coming to SCIE 2.288 on Thursday, 31 January 2008, at noon.

Mark the calendar!

The deadline for this year's REU cohort will be Friday, 29 February 2008. There will be an application form online sometime in early February.

SICB 2008

L to R: Maria Calagui, Tracy Muniz, Natali Meijia, Cassie Rivas, Mike Torres. Absent: Claudia Tamez.

And a good time was had by all!

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