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| REU/REV 2010 organizers and participants |
2010 REU/REV Program
Thirteen undergraduates, three veterinary students and two high school teachers from 16 different institutions across the United States were chosen to participate in the 2010 summer Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) and Research Experience for Veterinary Students (REV), held June 7-July 30, 2010. During the eight-week long program, participants lived on campus at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville (UT), and worked in teams with UT faculty to conduct research at the interface of mathematics and biology. The award included a stipend, housing and some funding to support travel. Research topics for the 2010 program were modeling the effects of climate change on ant foraging behavior in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park; predicting the park's biodiversity; modeling Johne's disease in cattle; modeling the growth and development of plant pathogens; and modeling the dynamics of cat populations in the community.
2010 REU/REV Organizers (Univ.of Tennessee-Knoxville): Paul Armsworth (NIMBioS); Sharon Bewick (NIMBioS); Sarah Duncan (NIMBioS); Shigetoshi Eda (Dept. Forestry, Wildlife, Fisheries); William Godsoe (NIMBioS); Kimberly Gwinn (Dept. Entomology and Plant Pathology); Jaewook Joo (Dept. Physics and Astronomy); Suzanne Lenhart (NIMBioS); John New, Jr. (Dept. Comparative Medicine, Veterinary College); Steven Wise (Dept. Mathematics)
2010 REU/REV Participants: Samrachana Adhikari (Mount Holyoke College); Dubravka Bodiroga (Hood College); David Bulger (Oral Roberts Univ.); John Collins (Univ. of Tennessee Knoxville); Crystal Drakes (Kansas State Univ.); Kelly Geyer (Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State Univ.); Ashley Jackson (North Carolina A&T State Univ.); Reka Keleman (Iowa State Univ.); Evan Lancaster (Blackman High School); Tyler Massaro (State Univ. of New York, Geneseo); Luong Nguyen (Mount Holyoke College); Ejebagom Ojogbo (Fisk Univ.); Steven Rekant (Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State Univ.); Janelle Scott (Kansas State Univ.); Meredith Spence (North Carolina State Univ.); Ngoc Thai (Truman State Univ.); Jillian Trask (Bearden High School); Guang Yang (Appalachian State Univ.)
As one participant put it, "I learned about mathematical/spatial modeling using computer software that I hadn't used before, and also learned a lot more about the process of investigating data associations in a mathematically rigorous way. It was a great learning experience!"
REU/REV Profiles
Click on the names below for more comments from some of the REU/REV participants .
John Collins
Major: Math
School: Univ. of Tennessee
Hometown: Knoxville, TN
REU/REV Research Project: Ant Foraging and Climate Change
Crystal C. Drakes
Degree: B.S. Animal Sciences, Tuskegee Univ.
School: Kansas State Univ. College of Veterinary Medicine
Hometown: Trinidad and Tobago
REU/REV Research Project: Modeling Johne's Disease
Ejebagom John Ojogbo
Major: Computer Science
School: Fisk State Univ.
Hometown: Abuja, Nigeria
REU/REV Research Project: Modeling Cat Population Dynamics at the Community Level
Jillian Trask
Degree: B.S. Mathematics, Keene State College
School: Taught math at Bearden High School and will attend Univ. of Tennessee in the fall 2010 as a master's student in mathematics
Hometown: Knoxville, TN
REU/REV Research Project: Biodiversity in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park
Read about an EcoEd Webinar: Math, Computing, Undergraduate Ecology Education and Large Datasets: An Example from a Citizen Science Program that includes a discussion of NIMBioS' REU program and describes the work of REU students who analyzed data from Discover Life in America's All Taxa Biodiversity Inventory (ATBI) based in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
To read more about the team who modeled the growth and development of plant pathogens, click here.
Click on the podcasts below to hear William Godsoe's interviews with NIMBioS' 2010 REU participants. Dr. Godsoe was one of the REU mentors.
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Samrachana Adhikari, Mount Holyoke College
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Jillian Trask, University of Tennessee graduate student in math, former math teacher at Bearden High School, Knoxville, TN
Related Links
Main NIMBioS Summer Research Experiences page
NIMBioS
1122 Volunteer Blvd., Suite 106
University of Tennessee
Knoxville,
TN 37996-3410
PH: (865) 974-9334
FAX: (865) 974-9461
Contact NIMBioS
