Undergraduates enjoy amazing research opportunities
Many of our undergraduate biology, zoology and botany students are engaged in exciting research projects with our faculty, post-docs and graduate students. The University Scholars Program and the Biology URAP program are two ways for students to get involved. Each spring, many of our undergraduate students present their research in the Undergraduate Research Symposium. This year, two presentations were recognized by the graduate student judges as particularly meritorious: Collette Cook, for her poster titled “Sexually dimorphic dorsal coloration in a jumping spider: do male color patterns mimic bees?” (Taylor Lab, Entomology) and Emily Griffith for her talk, “The evolution of tarsal spurs in Galliformes” (Kimball Lab). Additionally, small research grants ($250) were awarded to two outstanding undergraduates from Biology: Daniela Perez to support her project, “Variation of Organ Position in Snakes” (Lillywhite Lab) and Gabby Mizell for her project, “Ontogenetic variation in costs & benefits of a widespread ant-plant mutualism” (Palmer Lab).