Research Activities

Students

Erin Watt, Jean Paul Noel and Abbe Pauhle are learning psychophysiology techniques this summer. They are working towards applying these new skills to research projects in language and facial emotions. They are the first participants of the Psychology Dept. summer research program in Neuroscience generously funded by Dr Gordon Braatz.

Melissa Mackley is currently a particpant in the Undergraduate Summer Fellowship Program in Vision Science at the University of Rochester Center for Visual Science. http://www.cvs.rochester.edu/ug_fellowship.html

Matthew Chroust is currently a particpant in the UCSF REU program in Molecular Biosciences.

Lor Moua, Cathryn Nelson, Nick Murray, Erin Watt, and Abbe Paulhe attended the Undergraduate Neuroscience Conference of the Midwest (MidBrains) on Saturday, May 2, 2009 at Macalester College. The students presented the results of their research at the conference: "Effects of simulated hearing loss on vowel discrimination," by Lor Moua, Cathryn Nelson, and Nathan Heggem; and "Detecting auditory change blindness in sound sequences," by Erin Watt and Abbe Paulhe.

Lor Moua has been selected for the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Exceptional Research Opportunities Program (EXROP; http://www.hhmi.org/grants/individuals/exrop.html). The goal of this program is to "increase diversity within the ranks of the science professoriate." This program pairs outstanding students of promise with some of the top research investigators in the country for summer research experiences and also supports students through continued mentoring after the summer is over. Lor will be working in the lab of Julie Simpson at the Janelia Farm Research Institute (Ashburn, Va.) for the summer. Michael Ferragamo (biology, neuroscience) has been working with Lor on this opportunity and will act as Lor's mentor through the EXROP program.