Research fellow: Tracy Yeboah
Hometown: Worcester, MA
Major: Biology, pre-med track
School: Providence College
Faculty mentors: Maia Bailey, Jeffrey Markert
Project: Feeding and aggression behaviors of mysid shrimp

Rising senior Tracy Yeboah started on her pre-med track at an early age. Her mother told her that every time she bought her a doll, Yeboah would cut it into pieces and then sew it back together.

Yeboah, who was 16 when she arrived with her family in the U.S. from Ghana, said she remained unsure about which specialty she would pursue — perhaps neurosurgery, maybe general medicine. She opted for biology because she enjoyed research and wanted to keep her options open.

Having worked in the lab of Assistant Professor Maia Bailey, evolutionary biology, since spring semester of her freshman year, Yeboah is continuing her training under Bailey’s guidance this summer as a Rhode Island NSF EPSCoR Summer Undergraduate Research Fellow (SURF).

The researchers are investigating the mysid behavior and how the addition of a predator cue affects their interaction, explained Yeboah: “They are food for other fish, but we know very little about their behavior. We want to learn more about the species since they are an important food source.”

Part of Yeboah’s research work involves putting the mysid in a petri dish and filming them, first without and then with the predator cue to document how the mysid interact in each condition and whether behavior changes with the addition of the cue.

Although she has had several years of research experience in Bailey’s lab, Yeboah said she sought out the SURF program because she wanted to showcase what she had been studying and to learn from and work with the other fellows. She and the other 37 RI NSF EPSCoR SURF students will present their research and findings at the 8^th Annual Rhode Island SURF Conference on Friday, July 31, at the University of Rhode Island.

The undergraduate research opportunities at Providence College, said Yeboah, have given her experience in developing her own experiments and designing protocols: “This is a stepping stone for what is ahead of me.”

In the meantime, as she heads toward graduation next year, Yeboah said she now trains the underclassmen who will follow in her footsteps.

Story and photo by Amy Dunkle