Author: Eskin, Jodi

Research Assistant for Autism Intervention Systematic Review

Posted on September 12, 2024September 12, 2024 by Eskin, Jodi

Opportunity Description

Join our systematic review project focused on understanding the effects of interventions on the brain and behavior of individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs). We are conducting a comprehensive synthesis of neuroimaging and behavioral data from studies examining pre- and post-intervention changes in individuals with ASDs.

As a research assistant, your primary responsibilities will include:

Assisting with full-text screening of articles to determine eligibility based on our inclusion criteria.
Extracting data related to study design, participant demographics, intervention characteristics, neuroimaging, and behavioral outcomes.
Attending weekly team meetings (45 minutes online) to discuss progress, address challenges, and receive ongoing training and support.
Ensuring accuracy and consistency in data coding, and resolving discrepancies collaboratively.

This position offers an excellent opportunity to gain experience in research methods, systematic reviews, neuroimaging, and autism intervention research. Course credit is available for this role; however, monetary compensation is not available.

Time Commitment: Approximately 4-6 hours per week. Flexible schedule with an expected commitment for the Fall 2024 semester, with the possibility of extension into Spring 2025.

Student Qualifications
Required:

Junior or senior with interest in neuroscience, psychology, special education, or related fields.
Major in psychology, pre-med, neuroscience, education, or related field.
GPA of 3.5 or higher.
Attention to detail and ability to follow complex instructions.
Strong communication and teamwork skills.

Preferred (but not required):

Previous research experience or coursework in neuroimaging, systematic reviews, or autism spectrum disorders.
Familiarity with academic databases (e.g., PubMed, Scopus) and citation management software.

How to Apply
To apply, please submit your CV, a brief statement of interest, and your weekly availability for Fall 2024 to deborah.schneider-richardson@uconn.edu at your earliest convenience. Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis, so early submission is encouraged.

Mentor: Deborah Schneider, Post-Doctoral Research Associate
Department: Psychological Sciences (BrainLENS)
Email: deborah.schneider-richardson@uconn.edu
Timing: Fall 2024, Spring 2025, Summer 2025, Ongoing
Campus: Storrs

Research Assistant at ECOM (Expression, Communication, and the Origins of Meaning) Research Group

Posted on September 9, 2024September 9, 2024 by Eskin, Jodi

Opportunity Description

As an undergraduate research assistant at ECOM (Expression, Communication, and the Origins of Meaning Research Group), you will play a key role in organizing conferences and talks, contributing to the smooth execution of these academic events. You will also assist with research activities, particularly in conducting literature reviews to support ongoing projects. Additionally, if you have skills in website design, you will help maintain and update the ECOM website, ensuring it effectively communicates our work and events to the academic community. We are especially interested in students from philosophy, psychology, neuroscience, linguistics, or related fields, as this role offers valuable experience in both research and event coordination, along with the opportunity to enhance your digital skills.

Availability: Must be available to work approximately 9 hours per week, with some flexibility to accommodate key event dates. Specific times will be discussed during the interview process.

Student Qualifications
Academic Background: Must be an undergraduate student majoring in philosophy, psychology, neuroscience, linguistics, or a related field.

Research Skills: Ability to conduct thorough literature reviews, with a strong emphasis on critical thinking and synthesis of academic materials.

Event Coordination: Interest in or experience with organizing academic events, such as conferences and talks, is preferred.

Technical Skills: Basic proficiency in website design and maintenance is desirable but not required.

Communication: Strong written and verbal communication skills are essential for coordinating with event speakers, team members, and managing public-facing content.

Teamwork: Ability to work collaboratively in a team setting, as well as independently on assigned tasks.

Attention to Detail: Must be detail-oriented, especially in tasks related to research, event planning, and website content management

How to Apply
Interested students should submit the following materials to apply for this research opportunity:

CV/Resume: Include relevant academic background, coursework, and any previous research or event coordination experience.
Short Statement: Provide a brief statement (no more than 300 words) explaining your interest in this position, any relevant skills or experience you bring, and your availability.

Please send your application materials to Utku Sonsayar utku.sonsayar@uconn.edu

Mentor: Dorit Bar-On, Professor
Department: Philosophy
Email: dorit.bar-on@uconn.edu
Timing: Fall 2024, Spring 2025
Campus: Storrs

Research Opportunity – Robotics Design

Posted on September 4, 2024September 4, 2024 by Eskin, Jodi

Opportunity Description

The Ruka Lab in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering studies prosthetic and robotic grasping, manipulation, and controls. This position is a research experience focusing on end-effector and test object design. In addition to end-effectors, the choice of test objects is important to comprehensively validate the invention. Working on this project entails designing, building, testing, and iterating using 3D modeling software and additive manufacturing techniques. The student will be expected to work approximately 10hr/week and will primarily include independent design work and regular weekly meetings to discuss progress. Submitting work for publication will be contingent on good progress and interest from the student.

Student Qualifications
Experience with Solidworks or other 3D modelling software is necessary. Experience with MATLAB is a plus, as is experience with prosthetics and robotics, but not necessary. Those without prior research experience are encouraged to apply, so long as they are excited to work on creative hands-on design projects that they will help bring to life.

How to Apply
Please email Professor Yuri Gloumakov (yuri.gloumakov@uconn.edu), and include your year, major, classes you have taken related to design and engineering, a design portfolio (if you have one), how many hours per week you would like to work, and a brief description of why you are interested in this position. Attaching a resume is optional.

Mentor: Yuri Gloumakov, Assistant Professor
Department: Electrical and Computer Engingeering
Email: yuri.gloumakov@uconn.edu
Timing: Fall 2024, Spring 2025, Summer 2025, Ongoing
Campus: Storrs

• Congratulations, 2023 SURF Award Recipients!

Posted on April 25, 2023April 25, 2023 by Eskin, Jodi

The Office of Undergraduate Research is pleased to announce the selection of 48 undergraduate students to receive SURF Awards in support of their summer undergraduate research projects.

Click here to view the full list of Summer 2023 SURF awardees. SURF logo 2

Congratulations, SURF awardees! Your curiosity, initiative, and motivation were evident in your applications and you have an exciting summer of deep engagement with the process of academic inquiry ahead of you. We look forward to hearing about all you learn and discover!

We thank the faculty members who supported SURF applicants in a range of roles: mentors, letter writers, and faculty review committee members. SURF represents a collaborative effort between students and faculty. This program would not be possible without the support and participation of the UConn faculty!

OUR also extends thanks to SURF supporters in the UConn community. We are grateful to the Office of the Provost, the Office of the Vice President for Research, and to the Deans of the Schools and Colleges of Agriculture, Health and Natural Resources; Engineering; Fine Arts; Liberal Arts and Sciences; Nursing; and Pharmacy, who all pledged funding to the SURF competition this year. Alumni, parents, and friends of UConn also helped fund SURF awards. This collaborative funding effort ensures that SURF supports a diverse array of undergraduate research endeavors. We are grateful to all of our program partners for making intensive summer research opportunities available to students seeking to enrich their undergraduate experience in this way.

Once again, congratulations to the recipients of 2023 SURF awards, and good luck with your summer projects!

• Congratulations, 2022 SURF Award Recipients!

Posted on April 20, 2022June 13, 2022 by Eskin, Jodi

The Office of Undergraduate Research is pleased to announce the selection of 39 undergraduate students to receive SURF Awards in support of their summer undergraduate research projects.

Click here to view the full list of Summer 2022 SURF awardees. SURF logo 2

Congratulations, SURF awardees! Your curiosity, initiative, and motivation were evident in your applications. In spite of the challenges you faced this year, you have an exciting summer of deep engagement with the process of academic inquiry ahead of you. We look forward to hearing about all you learn and discover!

OUR also extends thanks to SURF supporters in the UConn community. We are grateful to the Office of the Provost, the Office of the Vice President for Research, and to the Deans of the Schools and Colleges of Agriculture, Health and Natural Resources; Business; Education; Engineering; Fine Arts; Liberal Arts and Sciences; Nursing; and Pharmacy, who all pledged funding to the SURF competition this year. Alumni, parents, and friends of UConn also helped fund SURF awards. This collaborative funding effort ensures that SURF supports a diverse array of undergraduate research endeavors. We are grateful to all of our program partners for making intensive summer research opportunities available to students seeking to enrich their undergraduate experience in this way.

Once again, congratulations to the recipients of 2022 SURF awards, and good luck with your summer projects!

• Congratulations, 2021 SURF Award Recipients!

Posted on April 21, 2021 by Eskin, Jodi

The Office of Undergraduate Research is pleased to announce the selection of 56 undergraduate students to receive SURF Awards in support of their summer undergraduate research projects.

Click here to view the full list of Summer 2021 SURF awardees. SURF logo 2

OUR also extends thanks to SURF supporters in the UConn community. We are grateful to the Office of the Provost, the Office of the Vice President for Research, and to the Deans of the Schools and Colleges of Agriculture, Health and Natural Resources; Education; Engineering; Fine Arts; Liberal Arts and Sciences; Nursing; and Pharmacy, who all pledged funding to the SURF competition this year. Alumni, parents, and friends of UConn also helped fund SURF awards. This collaborative funding effort ensures that SURF supports a diverse array of undergraduate research endeavors. We are grateful to all of our program partners for making intensive summer research opportunities available to students seeking to enrich their undergraduate experience in this way.

Once again, congratulations to the recipients of 2021 SURF awards, and good luck with your summer projects!

• Student Accomplishments – May 2020

Posted on June 11, 2020July 11, 2025 by Eskin, Jodi

accomplishments-heading

Please join us in congratulating the UConn undergraduates named below for their significant research and creative accomplishments in spring 2020. Students: if you have an accomplishment to share, please do so using this online form.

AWARDS

Congratulations to Christopher Choi ’20 (ENG, CLAS), Ariane Garrett ’20 (ENG), and Brittany Smith ’20 (ENG), the undergraduate recipients of 2020 NSF Graduate Research Fellowships! They are among the 12 UConn students and alumni who won NSF Graduate Research Fellowships this year.

Congratulations to Michael Hernández ’22 (CLAS), UConn’s newest Newman Civic Fellow. Michael is an Honors student at the Stamford campus majoring in Political Science and Economics. Michael has been active in pursuing social change through enacting innovative public policies such as the Afford to Dream Act which gives undocumented students access to financial aid at state colleges and universities.

PUBLICATIONS

Berk Alpay ’21 (ENG) is the lead author on publication based on his Holster Scholar research project:

Alpay, B.A., Wanik, D., Watson, P., Cerrai, D., Liang, G., & Anagnostou, E. (2020). Dynamic Modeling of Power Outages Caused by Thunderstorms. Forecasting, 2, 151-162, doi: 10.3390/forecast2020008

Ariane Garrett ’20 (ENG) is the lead author on a new publication from Dr. Kazunori Hoshino’s lab in Biomedical Engineering:

Garrett, A., Soler, G.J., Diluna, M.L, Grant, R.A., Zaveri, H.P., & Hoshino, K. (2020). A passive, biocompatible microfluidic flow sensor to assess flows in a cerebral spinal fluid shunt. Sensors and Actuators A: Physical doi: 10.1016/j.sna.2020.112110

SURF Award recipient Timothy Mason ’20 (CLAS) was a co-author on a recent publication from Dr. Barbara Mellone’s lab in Molecular and Cell Biology:

Palladino, J., Chavan, A., Sposato, A., Mason, T.D., & Mellone, B.G. (2020). Targeted de novo centromere formation in Drosophila reveals versatility and maintenance potential of CENP-A chromatin. Developmental Cell, 52, 379-394, doi: 10.1016/j.devcel.2020.01.005

EXHIBITIONS AND SCREENINGS

Spring 2020 included a series of scheduled art exhibitions and screenings by the following undergraduate students, some of which were canceled or delayed due to COVID-19:

Yosemite Lights Screening Poster Maggie Chafouleas ’22 (CAHNR) – UConn IDEA Grant recipient
Charlotte Lao ’20 (ENG) – UConn IDEA Grant recipient
Eric Wang ’21 (ENG) – UConn IDEA Grant recipient
Eric Yang ’21 (CLAS) – UConn IDEA Grant recipient
Yosemite Lights – A Travel Documentary

Nina Drozdenko ’19 (SFA) – UConn IDEA Grant recipient
What Are You? Documenting Filipino American Diversity Through Film

Esme Roszel ’20 (SFA) – UConn IDEA Grant recipient
My Dear Little Mother

Brock Sanford ’21 (SFA) – UConn IDEA Grant recipient
Working on a Dream

Hannah Smaglis ’20 (SFA) – UConn IDEA Grant recipient
Idiosyncratic

PRESENTATIONS

The COVID-19 public health situation in spring 2020 resulted in the shift to an online modality or cancellation of many scheduled professional conferences and meetings. Canceled events are denoted with an asterisk below; virtual conferences are denoted parenthetically.

Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology – January 3-7, 2020 – Austin, TX

Ariana Rojas ’21 (CLAS) – OUR Travel Award recipient
The Evolution of Gut Pattering in Tardigrades

American Astronomical Society Annual Meeting – January 4-8, 2020 – Honolulu, HI

Joyce Caliendo ’21 (CLAS) – OUR Travel Award recipient
Constraining the Gas Fraction of a Compact Quiescent Galaxy at z=1.9 with the Large Millimeter Telescope

Josh Machado ’20 (CLAS) – OUR Travel Award recipient
Ammonia Measurements in W51

Tyler Metivier ’20 (CLAS) – OUR Travel Award recipient
Simulating the Recovery of Merger Signatures with Illustris

International Saxophone Symposium – January 10-11, 2020 – Fairfax, VA

Ryan Adams ’22 (SFA), Noah Brisson ’20 (SFA), Sean McCormick ’20 (SFA), and Tessa Webb ’22 (SFA) – OUR Travel Award recipients
Paradigm Saxophone Quartet

Plant and Animal Genome XXVIII Conference – January 11-15, 2020 – San Diego, CA

Jeremy Bennett ’20 (ENG) – OUR Travel Award recipient
EASEL: An Integrated and Accessible Framework for the Annotation of Eukaryotic Reference Genomes

Akriti Bhattarai ’21 (CLAS) – OUR Travel Award recipient
Assembly and Annotation of the American Beech (Fagus grandifolia) Genome

Ava Fritz ’20 (ENG) – OUR Travel Award recipient
Investigating Genetic Signatures Associated with Reduced Mortality Against Emerald Ash Borer in Green Ash

Ryan Adams '22 (SFA), Sean McCormick '22 (SFA), Tessa Webb '22 (SFA), & Noah Brisson '20 (SFA)
Jeremy Bennett '20 (ENG) & Ava Fritz '20 (ENG)
Ariana Rojas '21 (CLAS)
Joyce Caliendo '21 (CLAS)
Tyler Metivier '20 (CLAS)
Victoria Reichelderfer '20 (ENG)
Owen Spangler '23 (ENG)

Joint Mathematics Meetings – January 15-18, 2020 – Denver, CO

Daniel Meskill ’21 (CLAS) – OUR Travel Award recipient
Noise-Induced Stabilization of Hamiltonian Systems

Electronic Materials and Applications 2020 – January 22-24, 2020 – Orlando, FL

Lucas Enright ’20 (ENG) – OUR Travel Award recipient
W-Band Dielectric Property Characterization of Yttria-Stabilized Zirconia at High Temperature

Victoria Reichelderfer ’20 (ENG) – OUR Travel Award recipient
Piezoresponse Predictions in Novel Ferroelectric Nanostructures

Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival (Region 1) – January 28-February 1, 2020 – Barnstable, MA

Edmond Vitcavage ’20 (SFA, CLAS) – OUR Travel Award recipient
Revolt. She Said. Revolt Again.

Conference on Higher Education Pedagogy – February 5-7, 2020 – Blacksburg, VA

Felipe Sanches ’22 (CLAS) – OUR Travel Award recipient (unable to attend)
Profiles in Courage, “Ganas,” and Belonging at a Major University

International Conference on Writing Analytics – February 6-8, 2020 – St. Petersburg, FL

Eli Udler ’20 (ENG, CLAS) – OUR Travel Award recipient
Applications of Data Science to Writing Center Research: Actionable Insights from Natural Language Data

Eastern Sociological Society Annual Meeting – February 27-March 1, 2020 – Philadelphia, PA

Jenifer Gaitan ’21 (CLAS) – OUR Travel Award recipient
Voces: First-Generation Latinx Students Discuss Their Support Networks

*American Physical Society March Meeting – March 2-6, 2020 – Denver, CO

Cong Hu ’20 (CLAS) – OUR Travel Award recipient
Modeling Hyperfine Coupling in Molecular Qubits

Northeast Modern Language Association Annual Convention – March 5-8, 2020 – Boston, MA

Owen Spangler ’23 (ENG) – OUR Travel Award recipient
The Positive Role of Humor in Historically Oppressed Communities

*National Conference of Black Political Scientists – March 11-14, 2020 – Atlanta, GA

Michael Christie ’23 (CLAS) – OUR Travel Award recipient
Fighting for the “Black Cerebral”: Black Virginians’ Struggle for Public Education, 1865-1875

Eastern Psychological Association Meeting – March 12-14, 2020 – Boston, MA (moved to virtual format June 17-18)

Julia Devincenzi ’20 (CLAS) – OUR Travel Award recipient
Approach Biases in People Demonstrating Problematic Gaming Habits

Marcella Dibona ’20 (CLAS) & Emily Hotz ’20 (CLAS) – OUR Travel Award recipients
EEG Mu Rhythm Desynchronization and Language in 18- and 24-Month-Old Infants

Steven Dorzens ’20 (CLAS) – OUR Travel Award recipient
Behavioral Biases in Regular Caffeine Users

Yvonne Laporte ’20 (CLAS) – OUR Travel Award recipient
Attention Bias Variability: Its Stability and Prediction of GAD in a Short-Term Longitudinal Design

*American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry Annual Meeting – March 13-16, 2020 – San Antonio, TX

Margaret Ann Lewerk ’20 (CAHNR) – OUR Travel Award recipient
Memory Complaints and Depression Treatment in Older Adults

Cognitive Neuroscience Society Annual Meeting – March 14-17, 2020 – Boston, MA (moved to virtual format May 2-5, 2020)

Stephanie Chinwo ’21 (CLAS) – OUR Travel Award recipient
Traveling Back in Time: How Do Temporal Terms Shape Our Expectations for The Unfolding Linguistic Input

Pavitra Rao Makarla ’21 (CLAS) – OUR Travel Award recipient
Empathy Influences Behavioral Perceptions and Eye Movements in Non-Literal Language Processing

*Eastern Society for Pediatric Research Annual Meeting – March 13-15, 2020 – Philadelphia, PA

Monitha Patel ’20 (CLAS) – OUR Travel Award recipient
Low Reported Cyberbullying in Patients Due to Misinterpretation of Cyberbullying

Seda Sahin ‘ 20 (CLAS) & Samantha Seibel ’20 (CLAS) – OUR Travel Award recipients
The Role of Gender in Adolescent Perceptions of Sexual Health Education

CUNY Human Sentence Processing Annual Conference – March 18-21, 2020 – Amherst, MA (moved to a virtual format March 19-21)

Lindsey Neri ’20 (CLAS) & Grace Roy ’21 (CLAS) – OUR Travel Award recipient
Investigating the Interplay between Morpho-syntax and Memory for Events: The Case of Past Participles

*American Pharmacists Association Annual Meeting – March 20-23, 2020 – National Harbor, MD

Maria Latta ’20 (PHR) – OUR Travel Award recipient
Evaluating University Support in the Sustainability of Public Health Programs: The CT WISEWOMAN Medication Therapy Management (MTM) Program

*Society of Behavioral Medicine Annual Meeting – April 1-4, 2020 – San Francisco, CA

Annika Anderson ’20 (CLAS) – OUR Travel Award recipient
Perceptions and Experiences of Women Testing Positive for BRCA1/2 Genetic Mutations: A Qualitative Analysis

Maya Benson ’21 (CLAS) – OUR Travel Award recipient
Executive Functioning and Foods in the Home Before and During an Online Behavioral Weight-Loss Program

Jason Chan ’20 (CLAS) – OUR Travel Award recipient
NIH Cancer Survivorship and CTBHI Genetic Grants

*Northeast Writing Center Association Conference – April 3-4, 2020 – Durham, NH

Amir Agoora ’20 (CLAS) & Erica Popoca ’22 (CLAS) – OUR Travel Award recipients
Grammatical and Stylistic Workshops Within the Writing Center

Jennifer Koo ’20 (CAHNR, CLAS), Rosemary O’Mahony ’22 (CLAS) & Deevena Annavarjula ’21 (CAHNR) – OUR Travel Award recipients
Exploring the Social and Emotional Dimensions of Disability in the Writing Center: Perspectives from Students with Dyslexia

Emily O’Hara ’20 (CLAS) – OUR Travel Award recipient
Writing Through Discomfort: Effective Tutoring of Complaints and Grievances

Yasmine Shwayhat ’20 (BUS) – OUR Travel Award recipient
Writing Center Scheduler Research

*Experimental Biology – April 4-7, 2020 – San Diego, CA

Chang Sun ’20 (CLAS) – OUR Travel Award recipient
Lack of Receptor of Advanced Glycation End Products (RAGE) Attenuates Long-Term Cigarette Smoke Exposure-Induced Vascular Dysfunction in C57BL6 Mice

*New England Science Symposium – April 5, 2020 – Boston, MA

Sarah Tsuro ’21 (CLAS) – OUR Travel Award recipient
Marginalized Identities on the Clinical and Psychosocial Keloid Impact on Quality of Life

*Benthic Ecology Meeting – April 7-10, 2020 – Wilmington, NC

Annalee Mears ’20 (CLAS) – OUR Travel Award recipient
Stoichiometry of Fear: Do Predators Affect the Balance of Carbon and Nitrogen in their Prey

*American Association of Physical Anthropologists Annual Meeting – April 15-18, 2020 – Los Angeles, CA

Srishti Sadhir ’20 (CLAS) – OUR Travel Award recipient
Investigating the Relationship between Skin Color and Vitamin D Deficiency in Baboons (Papio)

*Northeast Natural History Conference – April 17-19, 2020 – Stamford, CT

Sarah Anderson ’21 (CLAS) – OUR Travel Award recipient
The Effect of Group Size on the Aggressiveness of Nasutitermes Corniger Termites

Madison Molnar ’22 (CLAS) – OUR Travel Award recipient
Effect of Colony Ratio on Termite Combat Behavior

*American Psychiatric Association Annual Meeting – April 25-29, 2020 – Philadelphia, PA

Spencer Low ’20 (CLAS) – OUR Travel Award recipient
Growth Charts for Functional Brain Networks in Neurodevelopmental Disorders

Kailey Huot: The Power of Persistence

Posted on March 6, 2020 by Eskin, Jodi

Kailey Huot ’19 (CLAS) earned her bachelor’s degree last December and reiterates the need for persistence in seeking out a research experience.

Since I was in grade school I always knew I had a special interest in the math and science fields, but it wasn’t until high school when I figured out what I really wanted to do in the future; chemistry. My high school teacher completely sparked my interest in the concepts of chemistry, and I also had a strong interest in medicine, eventually combining both fields into a career goal of pharmaceutical sciences.

When I got to college, I was immediately enrolled into a First Year Experience course where several chemistry majors were told of different opportunities in our major, including research opportunities. I understood that UConn had recently invested money into STEM fields the year before I came to the university, but I did not understand the level of opportunity for each student to acquire a position as an undergraduate research assistant, not knowing that UConn was a Tier 1 research-based campus. I was instructed to look through the faculty members on the UConn Chemistry website, and started reading about different research projects and their publications. One of the first faculty members I clicked on was a woman from the Pharmacy Building named Dr. Marcy J. Balunas. Her research mainly focused on Natural Products in the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, and it immediately caught my eye. Not only was the research under pharmaceuticals, but she was studying different marine bacteria for potential bioactivity against pathogenic compounds, combining my interests of chemistry, medicine, and sustainability into one research opportunity.

I emailed her within two weeks of the start of my freshman year, asking if there were undergraduate positions open in her lab, as well as reading her most recent publication and sparking a conversation about her work with Hawaiian bobtail squids. To my dismay, she did not have any openings for undergraduates at the time, but told me to email her once the time to pick classes neared. Again, she didn’t have openings for the spring semester either, but I decided to continue our communication. I read several more of her publications, and would send her an email every few weeks with more information and questions about the research. By the time picking classes in the spring came around, she finally brought me in for a meeting with her, and was offered a position to start at the beginning of my sophomore year.

In the lab, I had the privilege of working with both microbiology and organic chemistry instrumentation and protocols. Strains of bacteria were first grown on an agar plate containing several nutrients to help the bacteria grow. From there, bacteria were transferred to liquid media and the culture scale increased, allowing more area for bacteria to grow. Once the cultures were scaled up to 500mL volumes, they were brought into the organic chemistry lab for extraction. With a main focus on more non-polar compounds, extractions using resin beads were able to trap target, non-polar molecules, while eluting unwanted polar molecules. The isolation process yielded a more purified version of the product, eventually preparing for tests of bioactivity and structure elucidation. In order to analyze the bioactivity of a bacterial strain, compounds were commonly tested against bacterial and fungal compounds such as Candida or MSSA. Upon doing so, my research found very little bioactivity in Hawaiian Bobtail Squid bacteria, despite indications of preliminary research.

Last year I made the decision to graduate a semester early, and was unable to give the same amount of time to the research lab as I had in the past, so I am no longer working in the lab. However, the experience and confidence I gained through working as an undergraduate in research was irreplaceable, and the skills I acquired will stay with me throughout my career as a chemist. This past summer I worked at Pfizer in Groton, CT as an organic synthetic chemist, and I owe a large portion of my success as an intern to the research opportunities that UConn has brought me. I will be graduating in December of 2019, and I have accepted a full-time position back at Pfizer in Groton to continue the research I had worked on over the summer. Without resources such as the OUR program at UConn, I wouldn’t be in the same position I am today, and I am eternally grateful for the opportunities that UConn and the Office of Undergraduate Research has brought me.

For anyone looking into a research position at UConn, my biggest piece of advice is to make yourself known to faculty members. If you continuously show your interest and excitement about the subject, your work will pay off and research faculty will be eager to hire someone so interested in what they are doing.

• Health Research Program – Opportunities for Summer 2020

Posted on January 14, 2020 by Eskin, Jodi

HRP student Grace Nichols ’20 (CLAS) using software to measure response rates of mice with hopes of understanding Tinnitus. (Sean Flynn/UConn Photo)

The Office of Undergraduate Research is pleased to announce the next phase of the Health Research Program (HRP). This program offers a pathway into undergraduate research for students with interests in health and/or the biomedical sciences. By facilitating connections between UConn Health researchers and UConn undergraduates, the program aims to involve more students in research at UConn Health.

For students interested in participating in this program for Summer 2020, here is the key information:

Summer 2020 opportunities are now posted on the HRP website. There are 30 opportunities that range from psychiatry to biological modeling, biomaterials to neuroscience, genetics to public health. The application deadline for these opportunities is 11:59pm on Monday, February 3, 2020.
All of these opportunities are slated to continue into the 2020-21 academic year. Continuation is contingent on satisfactory progress over the course of the summer and both student and faculty mentor interest in continuing the placement.
To be eligible for Summer 2020 HRP opportunities, students must plan to graduate no sooner than May 2021.
We do not expect that UConn shuttle service between Storrs and Farmington will be available during summer 2020 or in academic year 2020-21. Applicants should consider how they plan to travel to and from Farmington this summer and during the academic year. Further information about transportation options is available in the HRP FAQ.

Further details and answers to other frequently asked questions are available on the Health Research Program website. Students are encouraged to peruse the posted opportunities and begin preparing application materials for any placements of interest. We urge students to take care to consider the time commitment and schedule options involved in a given opportunity to ensure that they can accommodate these demands in their summer and academic year schedule.