Twenty-six undergraduates are spending eight summer weeks immersed in research projects through the Honors Program’s Center for Undergraduate Research Opportunities.
The students, who have earned 2009 CURO summer fellowships, are investigating topics in disciplines such as physics, literature, psychology, philosophy and veterinary medicine under faculty guidance
“Sometimes undergraduates’ research proposals have been developed during a class or research experience with a professor during the academic year,” said Pamela Kleiber, associate director of the Honors Program. “The essence of the summer fellowships is the uninterrupted opportunity UGA students have to investigate their research questions or problems more fully and be able to obtain support and encouragement from faculty mentors in the one-on-one interactions.”
Charles Ginn, a rising junior majoring in history and theater, combined his interests to develop his project. He is looking at the underlying themes of some Southern gothic literature authors to compare and contrast the fictitious lives of oppressed minority characters to the real civil rights struggles faced by their counterparts. His faculty research mentor is English professor Hugh Ruppersburg, who also serves as senior associate dean in UGA’s Franklin College of Arts and Sciences.
Whitney Ingram’s dream job is to work in a national nanotechnology laboratory focused on finding renewable energy sources. She is one step closer to her career goals because of her undergraduate research opportunities. Her summer project involves studying ways to speed up the photocatalytic behavior of titanium dioxide, which when induced by light, allows it to break down organic compounds, including harmful air and water pollutants. Ingram is working with physicist Yiping Zhao and doctoral student Wilson Smith, her research mentors.
New this year is the addition of Valeriya Spektor, a psychology major at the College of Wooster in Ohio, who is participating in the Howard Hughes Medical Institute Exceptional Research Opportunities Program. While she is on campus this summer, Spektor has been invited to participate in CURO activities. Her mentor is Susan Wessler, UGA Foundation Chair in the Biological Sciences and an HHMI Professor.
