Newsroom

CORVALLIS - A group of undergraduate students are spending their summer at Oregon State University doing original research with OSU scientists, as part of the 2005 Howard Hughes Medical Institute Summer Research Program.

The student fellowships in the biological sciences are largely supported by a four-year, $1.9 million grant from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, which is designed to enhance the teaching of biological principles to college and pre-college students. This is the seventh year of the summer undergraduate research component at OSU.

Students are chosen for the competitive fellowships based on their interests, future plans, academic record and other factors. Each participant will earn $3,600 for the 11-week program, which also receives support from other OSU centers, the National Science Foundation and numerous research grants. OSU faculty from such fields as biochemistry, zoology and microbiology will direct research and serve as mentors to the students.

"Students will meet each other on a regular basis during the summer and participate in a three-day symposium at the end of the summer to present their results," said Kevin Ahern, faculty coordinator of the program at OSU. "OSU has long recognized the educational value of individual research, and the Howard Hughes grant substantially increases the number of students who are able to participate in this type of intense, full-time research experience."

The Oregon students who are participating in the program this summer include:

ALBANY

Sarah Jean, Brett Mellbye

BEAVERTON

Amy Dinh, Celeste Riley, Tony Tong

COOS BAY

Eddie O'Donnell, Nikki O'Donnell

CORVALLIS

Emily Clark, Chris Friesen, Andrea Garcia, Sara Hamilton, Aly Mohammed, Dave Paoletti, Eva Sandberg, Jing Sun, Amy Teegarden, Sara Tracy

GRESHAM

Melissa Calhoun

HERMISTON

Alex McKinnis

JEFFERSON

Adam Kirkpatrick

ONTARIO

Brian Kitamura

PORTLAND

Daniel Bai, Jennifer Atkin, Megan Christ, Peter Fuegy, Sara Haidar, Pachida Lo, Gautem Mankaney

RAINIER

Christopher Zielinski

SALEM

Mary McGregor, Lauren Osborn, Sarah Strawn, Tari Tan

SPRINGFIELD

Jason Neal-McKinney

ST. HELENS

Chelsea Mayo

TUALATIN

Erin Rieke

WEST LINN

Eric Brooks