The Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) program supports active research participation by undergraduate students in any of the areas of research funded by the National Science Foundation. REU projects involve students in meaningful ways in ongoing research programs or in research projects specifically designed for the REU program. Several School of Science students have been awarded these highly competitive internships for the summer.

• Victoria Lim, a junior with a double major in Chemistry and Mathematics, is a recipient of one of the 2013 Society of Chemical Industry (SCI) Scholarships. Vickie will be interning with Croda, Inc. in Edison, N.J.  The 10-week program, with a stipend of $6300, will involve “working in a world-class product laboratory with Croda Applications and Product Claims scientists to formulate and evaluate the effectiveness of prototype personal care products containing Croda ingredients. The candidate will gain expertise in formulating skin care cosmetics and in hair care product claim methodologies such as scanning electron microscopy; measuring hair fiber tensile and hair fatigue strength; and analyzing dynamic mechanical colorimetry and calorimetry. Internship work will result in a future co-authorship in a personal care industry trade magazine.”

• Rebecca Newton, a graduating senior, Pathways scholar and Chemistry major and Mathematics minor, was selected to receive an Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education (ORISE) fellowship. ORISE provides undergraduate participants with a better knowledge of their anticipated field of study. Participants conduct authentic research while networking with researchers and fellow students. Rebecca will do research work at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, Ga. during the summer of 2013. Her supervisor and mentor is Dr. Udeni Alwis in the Tobacco & Volatiles branch. Rebecca will be staying in intern housing at the Emory University campus. As part of the fellowship, Rebecca will receive a monthly stipend of $2,500.

• Marcella Noorman, a graduating senior with a Mathematics major and Physics minor, will be studying this summer in the Budapest Semesters in Mathematics (BSM) program, a study abroad program for undergraduates in mathematics. She will be taking mathematics and culture courses in English from Hungarian professors, while taking advantage of Hungary’s history of producing creative and world-renowned mathematicians. The instructors of BSM are members of Eötvös University, the Mathematical Institute of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, and Budapest University of Technology and Economics, the three institutions known for having educated more than half of Hungary’s highly acclaimed mathematicians.

• Annie Brunelle, a junior Honors Mathematics major, will be participating in a summer Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) hosted by The Lyman Briggs College at Michigan State University and funded by the National Science Foundation and the National Security Agency. Twenty students were chosen for the REU in Experimental Mathematics to work with mathematics faculty from Lyman Briggs College. Each student will receive a stipend of $3,200, housing, and a meal allowance. Travel money to the REU site and to make presentations at conferences will also be provided. Professors Dan Dougherty, Igor Nazarov, and Aklilu Zeleke will guide the student research. Annie anticipates to be studying “Random Walks on Spheres and Harmonic Functions“, however, the projects are assigned upon arrival to the program.

• Jackson Streeter, a senior Pathways scholar and Mathematics major, will attend a summer Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) in Applied Mathematical Modeling at Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisc. This program is funded by the National Science Foundation. The research project will last ten weeks and the students receive a $5,000 stipend as well as campus housing, a food stipend and paid travel. Jackson’s project of interest will be Natural Gas Forecasting and he will be working in the GasDay lab to determine how much natural gas customers of WE Energies will need each day for the next week, as well as help predict future usage.

• David Strength, a senior majoring in Computer Science with a minor in Mathematics, will be participating in the 2013 Summer Program for Interdisciplinary Research and Education (SPIRE) in Emerging Interface Technologies. SPIRE-EIT is a 10 week research experience for undergraduates program that combines classroom training with hands-on research projects. Iowa State University‘s Virtual Reality Applications Center (VRAC) and Human Computer Interaction (HCI) program are the hosts for this program. The SPIRE-EIT undergrads will form research teams, each team is led by a VRAC|HCI faculty member and assigned a graduate student mentor. Over the course of the summer, SPIRE-EIT undergrads will create new technological solutions to challenges in human computer interaction and present their results at a year-end symposium. Interns will conduct research in the field of Human Computer Interaction while learning and implementing a number of technologies including computer graphics, modeling and painting software, and virtual reality equipment. Students selected to participate in the program will receive housing, a meal plan and a stipend of $5,000 for the summer.

• Angela Gaetano, a junior Pathways scholar and Mathematics major, will be participating in the 2013 summer Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU). It is a 10-week program at Ohio Wesleyan University and is funded by the National Science Foundation. The topic she will be researching with Dr. Scott Linder is Sampling Distribution of Regression Statistics with Data Subjected to Type II Censoring. The participants receive a  $4,800 stipend, a food allowance, free housing, and travel funds.

• Alice Curtis, a junior majoring in Mathematics, will be participating in The Summer Institute for Training in Biostatistics (SIBS) funded by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) and NationalCenter for Research Resources (NCRR).  The program held at the University of South Florida, Tampa, is designed to stimulate undergraduate students’ interests in pursuing a graduate program in Biostatistics. Biostatistics is a growing field that has become indispensable in advancing medicine and improving health. Yet nation-wide there is a critical shortage of biostatisticians with postgraduate-level training.  It also exposes the students to exciting career opportunities in health-related fields. Tuition, lodging, food and traveling expenses are all paid for by the program and participants can earn college credit.

Belmont University music education majors Shelby Nichols, Ruby Chandler, Lacy Thurman and Elyse Burke engaged in a service-learning project partnering Technique and Literature for the Violin II with Moves & Grooves, a  Nashville After Zone Alliance (NAZA) program at Croft Middle School. NAZA is a network of established after school providers, each serving middle school students in a different geographic zone and with their own particular focus and mission. Students who participate in Moves & Grooves explore learning through the arts. Belmont’s instrumental music education majors prepared the Moves & Grooves middle school participants for a violin ensemble performance on April 20 for the Mayor’s Awards Ceremony at the Amazing Race and Showcase at Hadley Park Community Center.