Funded by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the awards give students the chance to attend regional, national and international scholarly meetings in the natural sciences, mathematics, health, psychology, or science and mathematics education.

At these gatherings, Bates students present and defend their research while meeting and learning from top scholars in their fields.

For a budding scholar, developing an articulate public voice is nothing short of a requirement. If you can’t present your research, whether to fellow scholars or your roommate, “then your work is simply less valuable,” says Professor of Biology Will Ambrose.

Winners of 2008-09 Hughes Student Travel Grants

Amod Basnet ’11 and Justin HoShue ’09 attended the October 2008 Symposium on Undergraduate Research in Rochester, N.Y., to present their poster on “Low Frequency Fluctuation in the Multi-mode Regime of Vertical-Cavity Surface-Emitting Laser with Optical Feedback.” Faculty mentor: Professor of Physics Hong Lin.

Thomas Broge ’09 will attend, April 18-22, 2009, the American Physiological Society’s Experimental Biology meeting in New Orleans, La., to present his research poster entitled “Moderate Hyperoxia Inhibits Glomus Cell Proliferation in the Carotid Body of Neonatal Rats.” Faculty adviser: Assistant Professor of Biology Ryan Bavis.

Cora Chisholm ’10 and Ngoc Pham ’10 will attend, July 12-15, 2009, the 21st International Symposium on Chirality in Breckenridge, Colo., to present the poster entitled “Calix[4]resorcinarenes and Cationic Cyclodextrins as Water-Soluble Enantioselective NMR Shift Reagents.” Faculty adviser: Charles A. Dana Professor of Chemistry Thomas Wenzel.

Miranda Gallo ’09 attended the February 2009 Molluscan Neuroscience Meeting in San Juan, Puerto Rico, to present her poster on “Characterization of a Novel GluR5/6/7-immunoreactive Cell Group in the Buccal Ganglia of the Pond Snail, Helisoma trivolvis.” Faculty adviser: Associate Professor of Biology Nancy Kleckner.

Owen Harris ’08 attended the November 2008 Society for Neuroscience annual meeting in Washington, D.C., to present his senior research in a poster entitled “The CB1 Antagonist Rimonabant is Mono-and Adjunctively Therapeutic in an Animal Model of Parkinson’s Disease without Producing or Enhancing Dyskinesia.” Faculty adviser: Professor of Psychology John Kelsey.

Benjamin Levin ’09 attended the March 2009 37th Annual Benthic Ecology Meeting in Corpus Christi, Texas, to present his research poster, “Geographic Variation in Growth of Greenland Smoothcockle.” Faculty adviser: Professor of Biology William Ambrose.

Gillian Leibach ’09 will attend, April 22-25, 2009, the Society of Behavioral Medicine Annual Conference in Montreal, Canada, to present her senior thesis poster, “Body Esteem and Disordered Eating Among Adolescents with Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus: Pump versus Injection Users.” Faculty mentors: Psychology lecturer Susan Langdon and Professor of Psychology Kathryn Low.

Caitlin McMahon ’09 attended the March 2009 37th Annual Benthic Ecology Meeting in Corpus Christi, Texas, to present her poster entitled “Long- and Short-Term Effects of Baitworm Digging on the Feeding Behavior of Ring-Billed Gulls on Mudflats in Maine.” Faculty adviser: Professor of Biology William Ambrose.

Kristen Meyers ’09 and Kristen Young ’09 will attend, April 18-22, 2009, the American Physiological Society’s Experimental Biology meeting to present her research in a poster entitled “Exercise Performance in Moderate Hypoxia in Rats with Impaired Carotid Bodies.” Faculty adviser: Assistant Professor of Biology Ryan Bavis.

Jeremy Muench ’10 attended the January 2009 Joint Mathematics Meetings in Washington, D.C., to present his poster, “Partitions-in-a Box.” Faculty adviser: Assistant Professor of Mathematics Pallavi Jayawant.

Dana Oster ’09 attended the March 2009 Geological Society of America’s Northeastern Section Meeting in Portland, Maine, and the April 2009 Geological Society of Maine’s spring meeting at Colby College in Waterville, Maine, to present her research poster, “Mapping Short-Term Barrier Beach Processes to Model Transgressional Shore Lines in 2100 from Sea Level Rise.” Last fall, Oster won the $500 first prize at the University of Maine’s October 2008 Climate Change 21 Forum. Faculty adviser: Professor of Geology Michael Retelle.

Elizabeth Rogers ’09 will attend, June 24-28, 2009, the 89th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Mammalogists at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, to present her research on “Black-legged Ticks (Ixodes scapulan’s) Occurrence, Burdens of Small Mammals, and Infection Rates by Borrilia burgdorferi in Southwestern Maine.” Faculty adviser: Visiting Professor of Biology Ronald Barry.

Stuart Ryan ’09 attended the March 2009 37th Annual Benthic Ecology Meeting in Corpus Christi, Texas, to present his poster, “Effect of the Polar Front on Growth Rates of the Hairy Cockle Clinocardium ciliatum.” Faculty adviser: Professor of Biology William Ambrose.

Gregory Sousa ’09 attended November 2008 Society for Neuroscience annual meeting in Washington, D.C., to present his senior thesis research poster, “Distribution and Impact of Neuropeptide F (NPF) within the Buccal Feeding Circuitry of the Pond Snail, Helisoma trivolvis.” Faculty adviser: Associate Professor of Biology Nancy Kleckner.

Madeline White ’09 attended the January 2009 Conference for Undergraduate Women in Physics at Yale University in New Haven, Conn., to give a presentation on her senior thesis research entitled “Construction of a Computational Stellar Model.” Faculty adviser: Professor of Physics Eric Wollman.

Kristen Young ’09 will attend, April 18-22, 2009. the American Physiological Society’s Experimental Biology meeting to give present her poster, “Chronic Hyperoxia Alters the Early and Late Phases of the Hypoxic Ventilatory Responses in Neonatal Rates.” Faculty adviser: Assistant Professor of Biology Ryan Bavis.

-H. Jay Burns, Office of Communications and Media Relations

Squeezing the equivalent of two semester-long courses into just six weeks, the Hughes Summer Scholars Program at Bates is a real academic workout for the first-year students involved.

“But the program really focuses on giving support and making sure that we have the resources we need to succeed,” says Reid Christian, of Pownal, Maine, one of the 11 Bates students taking part in the second annual program.

Created by Bates and funded by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the six-week program aims to bring into science and mathematics a wider range of students, including students from groups underrepresented in those fields. Participants are competitively selected from students already accepted by Bates and who have shown an interest in the two fields.

“It enriches the sciences and math when investigators who represent the demographic complexity of the world bring multiple perspectives to challenging questions. And the program supports that,” says Pamela Baker ’69, a biology professor at Bates and director of faculty research and scholarship in the dean of faculty’s office.

“One of the main goals is to help students transition from high school to college life,” says Jennifer Koviach-Côté, an associate professor of chemistry who is teaching one of the two courses in the Hughes program.

The Hughes scholars receive full academic credit for the two courses during the June 22-Aug. 1 program. They live together in student housing, spending long days and late nights on academic work (and sometimes taking a break for recreation such as a hike up Tumbledown Mountain).

Koviach-Côté’s course deals with the physical configuration of molecules and how their forms affect their functions. The other course, exploring mathematical systems of diverse cultures, is taught by lecturer in mathematics Grace Coulombe, director of the college’s Math and Statistics Workshop.

The courses highlight differences between high school and college-level learning. They start students developing the time-management and study skills they’ll need to thrive academically. ”We go much faster and expect our students to take more responsibility for their education than they do in high school,” says Koviach-Côté.

The Hughes program also introduces participants to the places, practices and especially the people of Bates. A key objective, in fact, is to encourage the Hughes scholars to bond and network with people who can advise, guide and support them as they adapt to college life. In addition to faculty, these supporters include upperclass Bates students who work as teaching assistants in the courses and the student “residence fellows” who live with the Hughes participants.

The Hughes scholars themselves constitute a mutual-aid group that will help ease the pressures of the regular academic year. “We’re really supportive of each other,” says Reann Gibson, a student from Mattapan, Mass. “We stay up late with each other, helping each other out with work. On the weekends, we’ve done a few trips.”

Is it making a difference? “Definitely,” she says. There has been some work, she says, “that I don’t think I could have done by myself without help from other people’s insights on the problem.

Lauren Okano, a Wyoming resident who participated in the inaugural Hughes Summer Scholars Program last year and is a rising Bates sophomore, confirms the importance of these relationships. “I came into the school year with faculty connections and 11 friends, and I was already adapted to living at Bates.

“Knowing some of the faculty around campus made the biggest difference,” she adds. “I knew exactly who to go to if I needed something in particular.” This summer, Okano won a competitive summer research fellowship enabling her to work as a research assistant with Baker, who is Helen A. Papaioanou Professor of Biological Sciences at Bates and an authority on the role of the immune system in periodontal disease.

One of the nation’s largest philanthropies, the Hughes Medical Institute is a nonprofit research organization dedicated to advancing biomedical research and science education in the U.S. Learn more at the HHMI Web site.

Medals, plaques and cash awards were given to creators of outstanding science projects at the high school’s “Night of Excellence” last Tuesday, June 1.

The high school presents the annual fair with assistance from Bates College in the forms of student coordinators engaged by the college’s Center for Service-Learning, support from a science education grant funded by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and the participation of Bates students, staff and faculty among the judges.

“Without Bates, the fair would not be nearly as successful,” said Donald King, head of the high school’s science team. Typically, more than 450 students take part in the fair.

For their study of the capillary effect in carnations, ninth-graders Maria Delcourt and Ashley Stuart earned “Best of Fair” honors. “It was interesting to learn about the science in simple things, like flowers,” Stuart said.

First prize for the ninth-grade category went to Matt Gutshell, who explored the properties of sound passing through chambers of varied size. Second place in the ninth grade went to Tim Gilbert, third to Rachel Spilecki, and honorable mention to Ken Roy.

In the 10th grade, Andrea Lama won first place for her investigation of chlorine’s effects on plant life. Matt Bouchard and Jacob Chaloux shared second place, Mina Moore and Sarah Peters third, and honorable mention went to Thomas Robataille.

In the combined category for 11th and 12th grades, Nathaniel Jillette earned the top honor for his examination of animal requirements for light. Kelsey Varney and Sam Leeman earned second place, Ally St. Pierre and Becky Boyle took third, and Tracy Bradley was the honorable-mention recipient. All ninth- and 10th-graders at the high school are required to do a science project, and upper-class students take part as required in specific courses.

The fair is designed in part to introduce students not only to the information and skills specific to the problems their projects address but, more importantly, to the rigors of the scientific method.

The yearlong science fair project “really gives the students a chance to understand the experimental method at a deeper level, to be creative and to pick up a sense of what it takes to complete a long-term project,” said Gabrielle Voeller, of Denver, a Bates sophomore who served as this year’s science fair coordinator.

“It brings out a new kind of thinking, where one concept is worked on the entire year and the student has a chance to really develop ideas.”

The Bates students who help judge the fair also get an educational benefit, especially those studying science and education. “Their experiences at the fair support and challenge what they think they know and understand,” said Sue Martin, of the Center for Service-Learning.

The Howard Hughes Medical Institute announced today that it has awarded Bates College a grant, Bates’ fifth from HHMI, for $1.2 million to support science education.

The grant will help fund ongoing Bates programs in student research and collaboration with schools in the greater community. The grant will also go toward new programs exploring intersections between math and the other sciences, such as mathematical modeling of physical phenomena and bioinformatics — the use of very large research databases in fields such as genomics.

“The continued support Bates receives from HHMI speaks to the extraordinary quality of our science and mathematics program,” said Bates College President Elaine Tuttle Hansen.

This round of HHMI funding totaled $49.7 million in grants to 42 institutions in 17 states and Puerto Rico. The four-year grants ranged from $500,000 to $1.6 million. Bates was among 198 institutions invited to compete for the grants.

Located in Chevy Chase, Md., the institute awarded grants to Bates in 1991, 1993, 1996 and 2000. The 2000 grant, for $1.3 million, has supported a wide range of programs at the college — from helping fund the purchase of a nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometer to supporting the science fair that Bates helps organize each year at Lewiston High School. HHMI funding fuels student and faculty research, nurtures curriculum development and encourages students to consider careers in math and science.

“It’s gratifying that efforts we think are so valuable to Bates students, faculty and the community are also considered important on a national level,” says Associate Professor of Biology Lee Abrahamsen, whose students have helped teach biology in local schools.

“It’s all about connections: connections between people, connections between what we learn in the classroom and what the real applications are, connections between learning and citizenship.”

Bates is one of nine U.S. colleges that have received five HHMI grants. The others are Carleton, Haverford, St. Olaf, Smith, Swarthmore, Wesleyan, Williams and Xavier.

In bolstering undergraduate science education, HHMI aims to help colleges and universities face a variety of challenges, such as staying abreast of emerging knowledge, strengthening interdisciplinary collaborations and encouraging minorities to pursue scientific careers.

Although its investigators conduct research at universities and medical schools, HHMI supports science at colleges because they too play a vital educational role, according to Peter Bruns, HHMI vice president for grants and special programs. “Colleges are a better learning environment for some students,” says Bruns, “and they serve underrepresented minorities extremely well.”

Presented in partnership with the Bates College Center for Service-Learning, the fair features more than 450 projects created by students in grades 9 through 12.

Projects are eligible for medals and cash awards bestowed for best-of-fair and first-, second- and third-place prizes in each of three grade divisions — 9th, 10th and upper-class. Last year, 30 LHS students were honored for their work on a dozen projects.

Projects run the gamut of scientific disciplines. Last year’s winning entries included studies of dissolved oxygen in springtime meltwater, the relationship between exercise and blood pressure and the variance in freezing rates among different juices.

The fair is made possible in part by a partnership with the Bates Center for Service-Learning. Bates students help organize the fair, and last year’s fair involved more than 60 Bates faculty, staff and students who spent an afternoon judging the projects and talking to participants. The college also supports the fair through a Bates Science Education Outreach Grant funded by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

Cash prizes were designated for best-of-fair and for first, second and third place in three grade-level categories. Prize money was provided in part by Bates College through a Bates Science Education Outreach Grant funded by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

Other awards will go to students who did not place in the top 10 but demonstrated significant effort and knowledge in their projects and presentations.

Best-of-fair went to Tarrah Bowen, a 10th grader whose project examined the effects of caffeinated soda on blood pressure. She competed with more than 400 other projects for best-of-fair.

Elisha Armour and Sara Choate received first prize in the upperclass division (11th and 12th grade) for a project that determined which location in the high school harbored the most bacteria. First prize in the 10th grade division went to Renee Castonguay for a project examining the impact of music on thought processes. Nathaniel Jilette received first prize in the 9th grade division for his study of erosion.

In the upperclass division, second prize went to Tiffany Boisvert and Elise Jack for a project on diabetes. Second prize in 10th grade went to Ashley Nadeau and Amanda Toussaint, who looked at chlorine content in drinking water, and in 9th grade the prize was awarded to Roxanne Healey and Amanda Sasseville for their comparison of the strengths of various glues.

Third prize in the upperclass category went to Kari Gronin for the project on stress in medical professions. In the 10th grade, this prize was awarded to Alexis Handy and Katie Lauze for their comparison of the drying rates of nail polishes. In the 9th grade, Matt Parker and Tony Travaglini received third prize for their investigation of the aerodynamic efficiency of different fabrics.

The five auxiliary awards went to:

Kyle Dupuis, 9th grade, for studying computer processor efficiency;

Deneiges Labbe and Kat Ustach, 11th grade, for studying artificial cartilage;

Matt Chateauvert and Audrey Ellis, 12th grade, for a project on the healing of bones;

Kerri Smith, 12th grade, for investigating bipolar disorder;

and Travis Lowe, 12th grade, for his project on human evolution.

The starting time for the “Night of Excellence” will be announced later.

The projects are eligible for medals and cash awards bestowed for best-of-fair and first-place through third-place prizes in each of three grade divisions — 9th, 10th and upper-class.

Project topics in past fairs have ranged from psychology to botany to meteorology. Last year’s winners included students studying the flame retardance of common household materials, the nature of dreams, the relationship between temperature and wind speed, and the effects of nutrition on blood.

“Science-fair projects give kids their first experience in real science,” says Mike Hutchins, head of the high school science department. The fair also addresses key indicators in the State of Maine Learning Results.

New this year are the upper-class grade division, the sponsorship of prizes by businesses and organizations, and the opening of the fair to elementary school students. Elementary school classes will visit the high school to view the projects during the fair.

The Lewiston High School Science Fair is made possible in part by a partnership with the Bates Center for Service-Learning. The fair “is a wonderful opportunity for Bates to share its resources and for its students to learn more about the community,” says Sue Martin, assistant director of the center.

Last year’s fair involved more than 60 Bates faculty, staff and students who spent an afternoon judging the projects. The college also supports the fair through a Bates Science Education Outreach Grant funded by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

Made possible by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI), the Bates Science Education Outreach Grant Program offers Maine K-12 schools support for equipment, curriculum development and other projects that will improve science teaching and learning. To be eligible for funding, proposals must involve direct collaboration between a K-12 teacher or administrator and Bates faculty or students.

Grants of $100 to $10,000 are available for science education projects during the academic year or for summer curriculum development projects. Any project with a well-designed plan, a sound and well-articulated budget and a clear K-12 school-Bates College collaboration will be considered.

March 15 is the deadline for proposals to be implemented this summer or during the fall 2002 semester, with notification by May 1.

Past projects supported by the Bates Science Education Outreach Program have included the redesign of a sixth-grade physical sciences curriculum, acquisition of computers for high school sciences, enhancement of kindergarten reading programs with science materials, purchase of microscopes, water quality kits and other equipment for teaching science at the elementary level, and a mathematics project that integrates junior high school and high school math curricula and students.

HHMI, one of the country’s largest private scientific institutions, furthers all fields of science, biomedical research and medicine, including science education. Bates has received several HHMI grants to enhance science and mathematics education at the college level. The Science Education Outreach Grant Program at Bates is intended to help cultivate the next generation of scientists.

School systems, administrators, or teachers anywhere in Maine may apply for the outreach grants, but preference will be given to proposals submitted by teachers and administrators from under-resourced schools and from schools in Androscoggin, Franklin and Oxford counties.

Proposals are reviewed by the Hughes Council, a group of Bates science and mathematics faculty members. The Council awards strong, coherent proposals that address science education in light of the Maine Learning Results standards, serve a significant number of K-12 students and teachers, enhance current science offerings or propose revisions to existing curricula, demonstrate a long-term commitment to proposed science education enhancements, and articulate a solid collaboration among K-12 educators and/or students and Bates students and/or faculty.

To request an application form, call or e-mail Kerry O’Brien, assistant dean of the faculty at Bates, at 207-786-6065 or this  e-mail. Proposals must be delivered or postmarked by March 15 and sent to the Office of the Dean of the Faculty, Bates College, 2 Andrews Road, Lewiston, ME 04240.

Bates College has received a $1.3 million grant from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the nation’s largest private supporter of science education from elementary school through postdoctoral studies.

The HHMI grant will support a broad range of activities, including summer fellowships for students conducting science research with Bates faculty; students conducting applied science outreach projects such as water-quality work for municipalities; the development of new science courses and teaching laboratories; and curriculum development projects between Bates students and local K–12 science teachers.

The grant will also fund science education initiatives aimed at encouraging more Bates math and science students to consider careers in K–12 teaching. Two colloquia for Bates faculty and Maine K–12 teachers on precollege science education and the Maine Learning Results are being planned, and new Bates courses on the methodology of teaching science will be developed.

“I am particularly excited about the portion of the award earmarked for the development, in collaboration with colleagues in the Department of Education, of programs that will encourage our students to become involved in secondary level teaching,” said T. Glen Lawson, a biochemist, associate professor of chemistry at Bates and a member of the HHMI grant planning committee.

“This support will provide Bates with a tremendous opportunity to become actively involved in meeting one of the most serious and widely spread challenges currently faced by our education system, a shortage of adequately prepared high school and middle school science teachers.”

Bates’ global information system and lab instrumentation for courses in the life sciences will be upgraded, and weather stations will be installed on the Bates campus and at the 574-acre Bates-Morse Mountain Conservation Area, in Phippsburg. The Bates Science Education Outreach Grant program, supported by the recent HHMI grant, will continue to fund science education improvements in underresourced K–12 schools in Maine.

“The colleges and universities receiving these grants contribute greatly to the education of both scientists and nonscientists,” said HHMI President Thomas R. Cech. “These grants will help them do what they do best: provide undergraduate research opportunities and build bridges between the sciences and the humanities. I expect that these programs will serve as models for other undergraduate institutions.”

The Bates grant is among $50.3 million that HHMI recently awarded to 53 colleges and universities to support science education programs. HHMI invited 224 U.S. colleges and universities to submit grant proposals. The recent $1.3 million grant, among the largest HHMI awarded this year, is the fourth grant that Bates has received from HHMI in the past decade.

HHMI’s grants program supports science education in the United States and a select group of researchers in other countries, complementing its principal mission: research in cell biology, computational biology, genetics, immunology, neuroscience and structural biology with its own scientific teams. About 350 investigators are employed in HHMI laboratories at 72 academic medical centers and research institutions across the United States. Altogether, the Institute has awarded more than $850 million in grants, primarily to enhance science education from preschool through postdoctoral studies.

At Bates, the HHMI grant will support a broad range of activities, including summer fellowships for students conducting science research with Bates faculty members; students conducting applied science outreach projects such as water-quality work for municipalities; the development of new science courses and teaching laboratories; and curriculum development projects between Bates students and area K-12 science teachers.

The HHMI grant also will fund several science education initiatives aimed at encouraging more Bates math and science students to consider careers in K-12 teaching. Two colloquia for Bates faculty and Maine K-12 teachers on precollege science education and the Maine Learning Results are being planned, and new Bates courses on methodology of teaching science will be developed.

“I am particularly excited about the portion of the award earmarked for the development, in collaboration with colleagues in the Department of Education, of programs that will encourage our students to become involved in secondary-level teaching,” said T. Glen Lawson, a biochemist, associate professor of chemistry at Bates and a member of the HHMI grant planning committee. “This support will provide Bates with a tremendous opportunity to become actively involved in meeting one of the most serious and widely spread challenges currently faced by our education system Ñ a shortage of adequately prepared high school and middle school science teachers.”

Bates’ global information system and lab instrumentation for courses in the life sciences will be upgraded, and weather stations will be installed on the Bates campus and at the 574-acre Bates-Morse Mountain Conservation Area in Phippsburg. The Bates Science Education Outreach Grant program, supported by the recent HHMI grant, will continue to fund science education improvements in under-resourced K-12 schools in Maine.

“The colleges and universities receiving these grants contribute greatly to the education of both scientists and nonscientists,” said HHMI President Thomas R. Cech. “These grants will help them do what they do best provide undergraduate research opportunities and build bridges between the sciences and the humanities. I expect that these programs will serve as models for other undergraduate institutions.”

The Bates grant is among $50.3 million that HHMI recently awarded to 53 colleges and universities to support science education programs. HHMI invited 224 U.S. colleges and universities to submit grant proposals. The recent $1.3 million grant, among the largest HHMI awarded this year, is the fourth grant that Bates has received from HHMI in the past decade.

HHMI’s grants program supports science education in the United States and a select group of researchers in other countries, complementing its principal mission: the conduct of research in cell biology, computational biology, genetics, immunology, neuroscience and structural biology with its own scientific teams. About 350 investigators are employed in HHMI laboratories at 72 academic medical centers and research institutions across the United States. Altogether, the Institute has awarded more than $850 million in grants, primarily to enhance science education from preschool through postdoctoral studies.