Personal Narratives from CLAS Grant Recipients

Jessica Wignall

Aduncospiculum halicti is a nematode that lives in close association with certain species of Halictidae bees throughout Virginia, including representative social and solitary hosts. Because of this variation, the nematode-bee association is a perfect candidate for studying evolution and genetic variation of parasites in hosts with varying social structure. I am studying the level of inbreeding of the nematodes that live in the bees. I am expecting more inbreeding to be apparent in the social host nematodes when compared to the solitary host nematodes, and for the level of inbreeding to increase in the social host nematodes as the season progresses. Inbreeding is a dangerous genetic effect that can lead to homozygosity of, and therefore expression of, deleterious recessive genes, which would in the long run lower the nematode fitness and survival. This information would be invaluable towards approaching other systems of parasites and pathogens, and studying long-term fitness of a symbiont.

I am working in the lab of Doug Taylor in the Biology Department, dissecting the bees and extracting nematodes when they are found in the bees. After extracting DNA from these wild caught nematodes I am then using the DNA in genetic studies to determine relatedness of the nematodes. After using sequencing methods and population genetic techniques to determine the degree of inbreeding in the nematodes of each host species, and for each point in the bee season, I will then be able to draw conclusions about how host social structure affects parasite gene flow across the season.

Prashanth Parameswaran

I was initially very eager to prove 'experts' wrong about the extent of international influence in the Thai insurgency, and went to Southeast Asia having done extensive research that supported my argument. However, when I arrived in Southern Thailand, a series of preliminary interviews indicated that my hypothesis was incorrect. International linkages had not transformed the ideological orientation of the insurgency, where grievances still remained primary local and links were limited to weapons and training exchanges. I thus embarked on a different question: Could Islamic religious education, thus far portrayed as a source of the insurgency, be used as a solution to reduce the violence? I discovered various innovative methods of using Islamic education to transform perceptions of Buddhists and Muslims. Two that were especially noteworthy: 1) a grassroots effort called the Southern Thailand Peace Network (STPN), which sought to inject peace education into Islamic curriculum to change perceptions of youth, and, 2) a proposal by current ASEAN Secretary General Surin Pitsuwan, who suggested that a public fund be established for Islamic religious schools to promote transparency regarding funding usage, because thus far, government suspicions were high regarding Islamic schools and the insurgency. I published several articles in regional newspapers, a piece in Global Politics Magazine, and a commentary on a think tank website in Singapore.

Elliott Woods

In July 2005, I walked into Clemons for my first class: The Darkside of Hollywood: Film Noir. Looking around the room at a dozen or so young students, I was nervous. I felt impossibly far from where I’d just spent the last year of my life and from where most of my thoughts still dwelled. Four months earlier, I waited on the tarmac for the bird that would carry me home. The lumbering C-130 finally dropped onto the runway. Seconds later I walked up the ramp. I scanned the hazy perimeter, took stock of the thousands of meters of wire I’d pounded in the suffocating summer heat. Inhaling a last lungful of burning, dusty air, forcing a smile, I turned my back on the Iraqi plains. It was over. With the drone of the props lulling me to sleep, I wondered about where we would all go, what we would do, what would become of us “back in the world.” I daydreamed the dream that kept me going on every mission, of sitting in an air-conditioned classroom, charged with the task of learning and building fortifications of knowledge. I realized for the first time that I was no longer dreaming. Transitioning to civilian life – in my case student life – is an enduring process. This film follows several Iraq veterans as they navigate the challenging road from war to peace, a road I walk with them. Telling their stories, I tell my own.

Kenneth Evans

At the start of my second semester at the University of Virginia, I sought out a research position under Dr. Keith Williams, a specialist in Raman spectroscopy and molecular electronics. After spending two semesters building the lab from the ground up, Dr. Williams supported my project development and study of single-walled carbon nanotube (SWNT) field-effect transistors (FET). Starting with just a few devices provided by Dr. Richard Superfine at UNC, I developed an experiment to study the electron-phonon interactions in SWNTs by conducting simultaneous Raman and transport measurements. As my research evolved, I channeled my energy towards making my own SWNT-FETs. With the CLAS Research Grant and additional funding from Dr. Williams, I constructed a chemical vapor deposition chamber for catalytic growth of SWNTs and was formally trained in the University of Virginia Microfabrication Laboratory. By the end of my third year, I produce my first SWNT-FET.

The following summer I attended the Research for Undergraduates (REU) program at Rice University. Working under the guidance of Dr. Bruce Weisman, I developed and executed a ten-week project to produce controllable change in the electronic structure of micelle-suspended, disaggregated SWNTs through sidewall functionalization with ozone. Using fluorescence spectroscopy, I was able to observe previously unreported, systematic red-shifts in the emission and excitation peaks of nine different chiralities of SWNTs.

This semester I have continued work on the simultaneous Raman and transport experiment, which is now close to producing a paper, and started to serve as the teaching assistant for ECE 407: Introduction to Nanoscience. The research experience I have acquired at UVa has given my life an academic direction. Next fall, I plan to attend graduate school in applied physics or electrical engineering.

Sonny Duong

I am currently studying the links between circadian rhythms and metabolism in a mouse model. Our lab has generated a mouse lacking the functional Nocturnin protein (aka ccrn4l), a circadian regulated protein implicated in posttranscriptional regulation. Previous studies have shown that mNoc -/- confers resistance to obesity when fed a high fat, high carbohydrate diet. My specific project is attempting to elucidate the mechanism by which the KO mouse is resistant to obesity, with a current concentration on mechanisms of lipid uptake in the proximal intestines. I am working with intestinal sections stained for fat to examine morphological differences consistent with other models of deficient lipid uptake. Additionally, I am conducting blood tests and feces collection to measure triglycerides induction in the blood and in the feces. All of these experiments will help pin down why the Nocturnin KO mouse cannot easily gain weight.

Note that the work I’m doing now is very different from my grant proposal. I initially intended on studying the lower body temperature phenotype of the mice, but those experiments proved impossible to carry out. I have learned that science is an ever-shifting, unsure thing. What you’re doing tomorrow is almost certainly not what you planned today, that’s just the nature of the beast.