written by Matthew Brady \u201825<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The University of Rhode Island: An ESTEEMED University<\/strong> Leading in this field is Samantha Meenach, the Victor Baxt Professor of chemical engineering, and biomedical and pharmaceutical sciences. She specializes in pharmaceutical engineering, but she is also the director of the URI ESTEEMED (Enhancing Science Technology EnginEering and Math Educational Diversity) program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThis program allows early career undergraduate students to conduct honors level research in accordance with the National Institute for Health (NIH) definition,\u201d Meenach says, noting that the research is both incredibly beneficial not only for student experience, but also for the University\u2019s research enterprise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Engaging a wide range of students<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The ESTEEMED program is funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and trains students interested in the biological sciences and includes a focus on student experience in biomedical, bioengineering, biomedical engineering, and health science research. The NIH program engages students enrolled in URI\u2019s Talent Development program that focuses on recruiting and supporting historically underrepresented groups at the University.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe ESTEEMED program at URI exposes first and second year students to research opportunities in the biomedical sciences,\u201d Meenach explains. \u201cIt aims to encourage students to stay in STEM by getting them excited about research and exploring what \u2018doing research\u2019 really means.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n After students complete the Talent Development program the summer before their first semester at URI, the ESTEEMED program holds a weeklong orientation that emphasizes how research is conducted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThese students participate in activities in which they learn about what it truly means to conduct research,\u201d Meenach says. \u201cThey even have a chance to explore potential labs that they may choose to work in.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Giving students a world-class experience<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Liza Agyemang is a student in the ESTEEMED program working with Assistant Professor Irene Andreu in chemical engineering. Agyemang\u2019s research involves the construction of a new apparatus for observing magnetic nanoparticles and monitoring how they move over time. In her search for the lab that interested her, she explains that she toured multiple labs at URI to find the one that best suited her. In this search, she notes that her decision could have been drastically different depending on the areas of research to consider. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cInitially I chose working with DNA because I liked how it was a lot of physical work,\u201d Agyemang says. \u201cBut I ended up with Professor Andreu, whose work was more mechanical focused, and it was something I was used to.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Collaboration in science is nothing new, and with that comes a sense of togetherness and camaraderie. In addition to the ability to conduct unique experiments and research in these new facilities, Agyemang also hopes to see the already thriving community within the labs at the University continue to grow in a new building.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cCertain labs work together on projects\u2026 and it would be beneficial to expand more on those collaborations,\u201d says Agyemang. \u201cSo, if I can find a way to expand my research to a different field, I\u2019d like that too.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" written by Matthew Brady \u201825 The University of Rhode Island: An ESTEEMED UniversityThe University of Rhode Island (URI) has many research avenues that students and faculty can engage in, but one of the most profound are the biomedical and pharmaceutical sciences. Leading in this field is Samantha Meenach, the Victor Baxt Professor of chemical engineering, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":581,"featured_media":6115,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5988","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-momentum-fall-24-body"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/momentum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5988","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/momentum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/momentum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/momentum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/581"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/momentum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5988"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/momentum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5988\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6127,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/momentum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5988\/revisions\/6127"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/momentum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6115"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/momentum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5988"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/momentum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5988"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/momentum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5988"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
The University of Rhode Island (URI) has many research avenues that students and faculty can engage in, but one of the most profound are the biomedical and pharmaceutical sciences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n