Category: SRS Round 1 (November 2024)

CLOSED: Measuring physiological parameters in ground squirrels that hibernate (Jessica LaPrice)

On campus: this project is scheduled to begin on 6/2/2025 and run for 8 weeks, finishing on 7/25/2025.

Project Description

Students will work with 13-lined ground squirrels and their tissues to examine physiological interactions of food intake and reproduction. This summer may include a week-long travel trip to live-trap animals in the field. Activities will include live animal work (including daily animal care, measurement of metabolic rate, assisting with blood draws on lab animals), molecular lab work (including western blots and tissue sectioning), and computer work (including data analysis, and reading, critiquing, presenting, and writing scientific papers).

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Prerequisites

Students must have successfully completed the Biology intro sequence (BIOL 111 & 113) by spring 2025 to participate. Completion of a physiology course is recommended but not required.

Special Comments

A week-long domestic travel trip may be required at some point in the summer research experience to live-trap animals in the field and return them to W&L. This will likely involve camping and working outside under hot, cold, or rainy conditions. An interview with Dr. LaPrice is required for consideration for the position.

Project Information (subject to change)

Estimated Start Date: 6/2/2025

Estimated End Date: 7/25/2025

Estimated Project Duration: 8 weeks

Maximum Number of Students Sought: 2

Research Location: On campus

Contact Information: Jessica LaPrice (email: jlaprice@wlu.edu)

CLOSED: Foreign Direct Investment by Indian MNEs (Pooja Thakur-Wernz)

Remote: this project is scheduled to begin on 6/2/2025 and run for 10 weeks, finishing on 8/8/2025.

Project Description

This project focuses on the international expansion of Indian multinational enterprises through foreign direct investment (FDI). As part of this project, the SRS will work on data collection and cleaning. Specifically, the students will work on identifying the locations of the various foreign subsidiaries of the Indian firms. This data is available in raw form from the PROWESS database and the students will have to input the cleaned data into Excel.

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Prerequisites

Understanding of basic data collection using Excel.

Special Comments

During summer of 2025, the students will be able to do this work remotely, if needed. The student has an option to continue working on the project in Fall 2025 or Winter 2026 as part of a Directed Independent Research course. If the student is engaged and makes significant contributions to the manuscript, during the research process, they may be to invited join as a co-author.

Project Information (subject to change)

Estimated Start Date: 6/2/2025

Estimated End Date: 8/8/2025

Estimated Project Duration: 10 weeks

Maximum Number of Students Sought: 3

Research Location: Remote

Contact Information: Pooja Thakur-Wernz (email: pthakur-wernz@wlu.edu)

CLOSED: Dancers Talking Dance: Critical Evaluation and Response for New Choreography (Jenefer Davies)

Remote: this project is scheduled to begin on 6/16/2025 and run for 8 weeks, finishing on 8/8/2025.

Project Description

Students will learn the primary ways of conveying technical feedback for dance including verbal, visual, and kinesthetic processes and gain insight into understanding individual artistic vision, perspective and approach to making choreography. A specific critical feedback method will be taught and employed to create a common language when speaking about dance. Using these tools, students will review submissions for dance guest artists for 2025-26 and respond verbally and in writing to each. Reflection sessions will be conducted with each student and they will discuss their ranking of specific proposals, why they made particular choices, and provide individual responses to the works reviewed. Particular attention will be paid to a breadth of perspectives, cultures, and identities to create experiential opportunities and to highlight representation in dance.

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Prerequisites

Students should have studied and rehearsed choreography with faculty and/or guest artists and performed that work in a fully produced dance concert at W&L.

Special Comments

Taking DANC220: Dance Composition during winter term is recommended but not required.

Project Information (subject to change)

Estimated Start Date: 6/16/2025

Estimated End Date: 8/8/2025

Estimated Project Duration: 8 weeks

Maximum Number of Students Sought: 3

Research Location: Remote

Contact Information: Jenefer Davies (email: daviesj@wlu.edu)

CLOSED: Quantifying grassland soil carbon and productivity in Yellowstone National Park. (Bill Hamilton)

On campus: this project is scheduled to begin on 6/2/2025 and run for 8 weeks, finishing on 7/25/2025.

Project Description

In continuation of a 10-year collaboration with the National Park Service (NPS), we will begin the quantification of the carbon sequestration potential of Yellowstone grasslands by integrating soil and plant measurements with stable isotope enrichment experiments in the field and in the lab. This data will contribute to bison and grassland management decisions as well as ecological knowledge.

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Prerequisites

ENV 110 or BIOL 111/113

Special Comments

Potential trip to Yellowstone for 2 weeks in July.

Project Information (subject to change)

Estimated Start Date: 6/2/2025

Estimated End Date: 7/25/2025

Estimated Project Duration: 8 weeks

Maximum Number of Students Sought: 3

Research Location: On campus

Contact Information: Bill Hamilton (email: hamiltone@wlu.edu)

Reconstructing Volcanic Processes at Mt Ijen (Nicholas Barber)

On campus: this project is scheduled to begin on 6/9/2025 and run for 10 weeks, finishing on 8/15/2025.

Project Description

You will join Prof. Barberís Volcanology and Igneous Petrology (V.I.P.) to study the lavas produced by Mt. Ijen volcano, East Java. These samples were gathered on a field trip with W&L students last summer. We are attempting to reconstruct the eruptive history of Ijenís many volcanic vents, with a focus on Kawah Ijenís 1817 eruption. You will study sample microstructure, analyze 2D and 3D textural data, gather first-of-its-kind geochemical/microstructure data, and produce computational models (using QGIS, Python, and/or MATLAB) that fit your observations. You will do this in collaboration with local (Virginia Tech) and international (Cambridge, McGill, Gadjah Mada) partners. You will also participate in professional scientific conferences like the Geological Society of Americaís annual meeting in the Fall of 2025 (thanks to generous EEG department support) following our summer work together. I am looking for one to two students.

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Prerequisites

Ideally, the student will have prior experience with geoscience related cousework. However this is not required. If interested in relevant coursework: registering for EEG 322: Volcanology or any section of our “Dynamic earth” intro course this winter, or prior completion of EEG 211 (Earth materials) or EEG 105 (Volcanoes of the US) last academic year will be sufficient

Special Comments

Travel will be regional to visit supporting research facilitites/analogue field sites. 90% of work will be completed on campus in my lab.

Project Information (subject to change)

Estimated Start Date: 6/9/2025

Estimated End Date: 8/15/2025

Estimated Project Duration: 10 weeks

Maximum Number of Students Sought: 2

Research Location: On campus

Contact Information: Nicholas Barber (email: nbarber@wlu.edu)

CLOSED: Machine learning based method for rock texture analysis (Mengying Liu)

Hybrid: this project is scheduled to begin on 6/2/2025 and run for 10 weeks, finishing on 8/8/2025.

Project Description

The typical methods used to assess crystallographic texture of rocks are classical U-stage microscopy (which is based on light microscopy) or electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD, which is based on scanning electron microscopy). The first is an inherently laborious technique with low resolution, while the second is very time-consuming and could only take a limited number of grains per measurement. The idea of this project is to leverage both techniques’ strengths and develop an automated system capable of accurate crystallographic texture analysis using polarized light microscopy. Using machine learning, we can now analyze the polarization-dependent reflectance signals of crystalline surfaces from a stack of micrographs and register them with their crystal orientations. The success of the proposed research can revolutionize the texture analysis of rocks by reducing the time from days to minutes.

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Prerequisites

One student has taken Materials Engineering or Earth Materials or plans to take in Winter 2025; The other one student must have coding experience with MATLAB or Python

Special Comments

Students are expected to take one credit research during Winter or Spring 2025; One student might need to travel to the University of Cambridge for data collection.

Project Information (subject to change)

Estimated Start Date: 6/2/2025

Estimated End Date: 8/8/2025

Estimated Project Duration: 10 weeks

Maximum Number of Students Sought: 2

Research Location: Hybrid

Contact Information: Mengying Liu (email: mliu@wlu.edu)

CLOSED: Building W&L’s first digitial archive of rocks and minerals (Nicholas Barber)

On campus: this project is scheduled to begin on 6/9/2025 and run for 10 weeks, finishing on 8/15/2025.

Project Description

W&L hosts world class collections of rocks and minerals, most of which are locked in cabinet drawers away from the public eye. For the minerals on display as part of the generously donated Funkhouser collection, we are lacking crucial information about their origin, composition, and their role in W&L’s history. You will work alongside Prof. Barber to build W&Lís first digital archive of our teaching and research rock and mineral collection. You will work with Prof. Barber and the University library, using digital archiving tools like Omeka to design the database and develop the collection interface. You will also learn and apply geoscientific analytical tools like the scanning electron microscope (SEM) in the IQ Center to determine the composition and origin of unknown samples. This project will see you build a diverse suite of analytical and computational skills, while contributing to the preservation of W&L’s rich scientific and cultural history. After the conclusion of our work together, you will have the opportunity to present the results of your work at the Geological Society of America annual meeting in the Fall of 2025, thanks to generous EEG department support. I am looking for one to two students on this project.

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Prerequisites

No prerequisite knowledge or training required; passion for rocks/minerals/gems is crucial!

Special Comments

No corequisites or significant research travel.

Project Information (subject to change)

Estimated Start Date: 6/9/2025

Estimated End Date: 8/15/2025

Estimated Project Duration: 10 weeks

Maximum Number of Students Sought: 2

Research Location: On campus

Contact Information: Nicholas Barber (email: nbarber@wlu.edu)

CLOSED: Reciprocal interaction between pesticide-induced shifts in the tadpolesí gut microbiome and the epigenome (Leah Lanier)

On campus: this project is scheduled to begin on 6/2/2025 and run for 8 weeks, finishing on 7/25/2025.

Project Description

It is well established that the gut microbiome can affect the health of the brain and central nervous system. The central aim of our project is to develop a detailed understanding of the impact of chronic subacute low level exposures to different classes of pesticides and herbicides, similar to the kinds of exposure humans obtain from their food and environment on a daily basis, can affect the composition of the gut microbiome. Specifically, this summer we plan to determine whether there are associated changes in the tadpolesí epigenome.

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Prerequisites

No

Special Comments

No

Project Information (subject to change)

Estimated Start Date: 6/2/2025

Estimated End Date: 7/25/2025

Estimated Project Duration: 8 weeks

Maximum Number of Students Sought: 2

Research Location: On campus

Contact Information: Leah Lanier (email: lanierl@Wlu.edu)

CLOSED: Social Media and Blog Planning for Shenandoah (Beth Staples)

Remote: this project is scheduled to begin on 6/2/2025 and run for 10 weeks, finishing on 8/8/2025.

Project Description

Shenandoah, W&L’s literary magazine now in its 75th year, publishes fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction, and comics. It’s 75th anniversary issue will launch, along with a new website, on June 15, 2025. This summer research project will give students experience with our blog and social media accounts creating a plan for the summer and into the fall organizing special features and promoting the issue. Our blog features all kind of promotional contentóauthor interviews, videos, ìBehind the Poemî essays, Instagram takeovers, and more. Professor Staples seeks 2-3 Summer Research Scholars to assist with these initiatives. This is an invaluable experience for students to work directly with contemporary writers and to gain experience editing and designing content for the website and social media.

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Prerequisites

No prerequisites are required, but love for creative writing is a huge plus, as is experience with social media. Special consideration will be given to applicants who have already taken ENGL 453: The Shenandoah Internship class.

Special Comments

Project Information (subject to change)

Estimated Start Date: 6/2/2025

Estimated End Date: 8/8/2025

Estimated Project Duration: 10 weeks

Maximum Number of Students Sought: 3

Research Location: Remote

Contact Information: Beth Staples (email: bstaples@wlu.edu)

CLOSED: Reciprocal interaction between pesticide-induced shifts in the tadpolesí gut microbiome and the epigenome (Fiona Watson)

On campus: this project is scheduled to begin on 6/2/2025 and run for 8 weeks, finishing on 7/25/2025.

Project Description

Please note, project is in collaboration with Dr. Leah Lanier: It is well established that the gut microbiome can affect the health of the brain and central nervous system. The central aim of our project is to develop a detailed understanding of the impact of chronic subacute low level exposures to different classes of pesticides and herbicides, similar to the kinds of exposure humans obtain from their food and environment on a daily basis, can affect the composition of the gut microbiome. Specifically, this summer we plan to determine whether there are associated changes in the tadpolesí epigenome.

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Prerequisites

no

Special Comments

W2025 Neur 421/401 or BIOL 421/401

Project Information (subject to change)

Estimated Start Date: 6/2/2025

Estimated End Date: 7/25/2025

Estimated Project Duration: 8 weeks

Maximum Number of Students Sought: 1

Research Location: On campus

Contact Information: Fiona Watson (email: watsonf@wlu.edu)