Grants support summer research

Fourteen members of the Bates College faculty have been awarded funding for student research assistantships this summer.

Eight members of the science faculties received Student-Faculty Research Grants funded by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Chevy Chase, Md. Six faculty members in the humanities and in economics received Bates Summer Research Apprenticeship Grants.

Both grant programs give students the opportunity to engage in intensive long-term research. The grants typically defray student living expenses, among other project costs, over eight to 10 weeks.

Such support affords “a fantastic opportunity for both faculty and students,” says John Kelsey, professor of psychology and recipient of a 2003 Hughes grant.

While it allows the former to maintain momentum on long-term projects, Kelsey explains, students especially benefit. “They get to do the kind of concentrated research they might not otherwise be able to do. If they’re working as a waitress or in construction during the summer, they wouldn’t get a chance to do that.”

The Hughes Student-Faculty Research Grants support research in the sciences. Projects funded this summer include investigations of the food web in salt-marsh pools, the mountain geology of New Hampshire’s Presidential Range and the carbon cycle of coastal Maine.

The Summer Research Apprenticeships support projects in all disciplines. This summer’s funded projects involve literature, economics, political science, religion and theater.

Here’s a complete list of the grant recipients and projects:

Hughes Student-Faculty Research Grants/Chemistry: Rachel Austin, assistant professor of chemistry (The Determination of Mechanisms of Hydrocarbon Metabolism in Aerobic and Anaerobic Organisms); Jennifer Koviach, assistant professor of chemistry (Developing a New Method for the Synthesis of 2-deoxydisaccharides and Using the Method to Synthesize the Disaccharide 1); and Thomas Wenzel, professor of chemistry (Carboxymethylated Cyclodextrins and Their Lanthanide Complexes as Chiral NMR Shift Reagents).

Hughes/Environmental Studies: Curtis C. Bohlen, assistant professor of environmental studies (Using Stable Isotopes to Examine the Food Webs of Natural and Restored Salt Marsh Pools).

Hughes/Geology: J. Dykstra Eusden, associate professor of geology (The Strain Partitioning and Structural Geology of the Presidential Range, New Hampshire); and Beverly Johnson, assistant professor of geology (Investigation of Terrestrial Organic Carbon Cycling on Maine Coastal Environments Through the Last 12,000 Years).

Hughes/Neuroscience: John E. Kelsey, professor of psychology (The Effects of Lesions of the N. Accumbens Core or Shell on Context-Specific Locomotor Sensitization to Nicotine); and Cheryl McCormick, associate professor of psychology (The Effects of Corticosterone on the Developing Rat).

Bates Summer Research Apprenticeships: Lillian Nayder, associate professor of English (Editing Felicia Skene’s ‘Hidden Depths’ ); Lavina Shankar, assistant professor of English (A Part, Yet Apart: South Asians in Asian America); Michael Oliver, associate professor of economics (The International Monetary System Under Pressure, 1964-1972); John Baughman, assistant professor of political science (Legislative Success and Political Salience); Robert Allison, professor of religion, and James Hart, academic technology project manager (The Watermark Initiative: WWW Implementation and Data Base Integration Project); and William Pope.L, lecturer in theater (The Black Factory).