Thirty undergraduate college students from around the nation will have the chance to spend a summer getting paid to explore the world of biological research, thanks to the efforts of scientists at the University of Rochester's Medical Center and River Campus.
A team of scientists led by David Pearce, Ph.D. , a researcher in the Center for Neural Development and Disease at the Medical Center, has received $285,000 from the National Science Foundation as part of a program to encourage students to pursue a career in science. The funds will pay the stipends and other costs for 30 undergraduates - 10 each summer for the next three summers - to do biological research in the University's laboratories.
Each of the 10 students will work closely with a faculty mentor in the broad area of biological sciences, which includes several departments at the Medical Center and River Campus. Elaine Sia, Ph.D., associate professor of Biology, is helping Pearce run the program.
The funds come through NSF's Research Experiences for Undergraduates, which currently supports two similar summer research programs at the University. In the Department of Physics and Astronomy, students look at problems in areas such as astrophysics, laser physics and quantum optics, while in the Department of Chemistry, areas such as spectroscopy and polymer chemistry are the subject of research.
The new program will focus on cellular and molecular biology across the University. While there are many REU programs nationwide, the new one granted to Rochester is one of only a handful that are based at major medical centers.