NSF Biological Sciences Capstone Project
Research Projects for Undergraduates in Biological Sciences
Sponsored by the National Science Foundation
NSF-funded laboratories in the Department of Biological Sciences offer research opportunities for undergraduate students culminating in a report that satisfies the Honors College Capstone Project requirement or credit in BIOS 399 for undergraduates who are not in the Honors College.
Admission. Students wishing to consider biology research as a Capstone Project are invited to a 1-day survey of NSF-sponsored research projects ongoing within the department. This event will take place annually in the fall semester. Students contemplating a career in biological research are encouraged to begin the Capstone/NSF Program in their sophomore year. Applicants are accepted into a research mentor's laboratory as space permits after submission of a resumé, personal statement of interests and goals, academic history, and choices of project areas of interest. All participating students are invited to an annual information session about graduate studies and careers in research biology.
First semester. During the first semester of participation, normally Spring or Summer semester, each student registers for BIOS 391, attends the mentor's weekly lab meetings, reads research literature in the mentor's research field and writes a term paper on a topic in that field.
Practicum. During 2-4 succeeding semesters, students conduct research in the mentor's lab, under guidance of the mentor and senior research students. These activities are recognized by registration in BIOS 399 and/or Honors supplemental activities courses. A written report is required each semester. Participating students should anticipate spending at least 10 hours in the laboratory each week.
Final year activities. In the senior year, graduating students present their work (Powerpoint talks or posters) to the other participating students and faculty members in a mini-symposium at the Honors College, participate in the campus-wide Student Research Forum and poster session and submit a Capstone Project Report.
Faculty and Research Subjects:
Mary Ashley - Molecular ecology, landscape genetics, conservation biology
Hormoz BassiriRad - Eco-physiology, plant nutrition and global climate change
Joel Brown - Foraging theory and game theory of predator-prey interactions and urban wildlife, local and global
Connie Jeffery - Protein structure and function, membrane proteins, moonlighting proteins
Robert Paul Malchow - Cellular & Molecular Processing of Neuronal Signals in the Retina
Terri A. Long - Elucidation of genetic regulatory networks involved in plant nutritient response
Donald Morrison - Genetic recombination and quorum sensing in the streptococci
Teresa Orenic - Pattern formation in the Drosophila adult limbs and nervous system
Thomas Park - Neurobiology of sensory systems
David Stone - G-protein regulated signaling, directional sensing, and cellular polarization in yeast
David Wise - Interface between community and ecosystem ecology; control processes in terrestrial food webs.