{"id":12055,"date":"2016-06-28T13:14:51","date_gmt":"2016-06-28T17:14:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/rinsfepscor\/?p=12055"},"modified":"2016-06-28T13:14:51","modified_gmt":"2016-06-28T17:14:51","slug":"surfs-up-2016-rhode-island-undergrads-in-research-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/rinsfepscor\/2016\/06\/28\/surfs-up-2016-rhode-island-undergrads-in-research-2\/","title":{"rendered":"SURF’s up 2016: Rhode Island undergrads in research"},"content":{"rendered":"

Research fellow:<\/strong> Stephanie Peramas\"Peramas_Stephanie\"<\/a>
\nHometown:<\/strong> Richmond, VA
\nSchool:<\/strong> University of Rhode Island<\/a>
\nMajor:<\/strong> Animal Science
\nMentor:<\/strong> Steven Irvine
\nProject:<\/strong> Temperature effects on marine invertebrate physiology<\/p>\n

Before starting her 2016 Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship<\/a> (SURF) with Rhode Island NSF EPSCoR, Stephanie Peramas had not worked professionally in a lab,<\/p>\n

But, the URI junior more than made up for any lack of experience with her enthusiasm and passion for her field of study.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am such a science geek,\u201d Peramas says, laughing, taking a break from her research in the Irvine lab, in the Center for Biotechnology and Life Sciences. \u201cI love biology. It\u2019s like you\u2019re uncovering the secrets of the world.<\/p>\n

She heard from friends about the SURF program, and their positive experiences inspired her to apply for a fellowship. Lab research had been something she thought about pursuing, but she didn\u2019t know if she might prefer working in a lab or out in the field.<\/p>\n

\u201cSURF has exposed me to the wide scope of research in so many different ways \u2014\u00a0through fieldwork, lab work, quantitative data, qualitative analyses.\u00a0I feel like I\u2019m learning a lot in a short period of time.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The RI EPSCoR SURF program offers undergraduates the chance to explore life as a scientist through a 10-week, hands-on, intensive research experience conducted under the guidance of a faculty mentor. Once accepted to the program, students earn a stipend and equipment support. They also participate in professional development activities and present their research findings at the end of the summer, during the annual RI SURF Conference hosted by URI.<\/p>\n

\u201cI knew what I was interested in, but I didn\u2019t know where I wanted to go,\u201d explains Peramas. \u201cThere aren\u2019t a lot of research opportunities for undergrads.\u201d<\/p>\n

A class during the spring semester gave Peramas a taste of what genetic research might be like and inspired interest in her current project. It was enough to encourage her to dive in and apply for the SURF program. She is now spending the summer looking at the effects of global warming on sea squirts, investigating how factors as increased temperatures and acidity levels impact the development of embryos.<\/p>\n

Sea squirts, which look like small, colored blobs, and often spend their life attached to docks or rocks, belong to the group known as tunicates. They are studied because of their genetic relationship to other invertebrate and vertebrate animals.<\/p>\n

\u201cSURF has exposed me to the wide scope of research in so many different ways \u2014\u00a0through fieldwork, lab work, quantitative data, qualitative analyses,\u201d Peramas says. \u201cI feel like I\u2019m learning a lot in a short period of time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Story and photo by Amy Dunkle<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Research fellow: Stephanie Peramas Hometown: Richmond, VA School: University of Rhode Island Major: Animal Science Mentor: Steven Irvine Project: Temperature effects on marine invertebrate physiology Before starting her 2016 Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) with Rhode Island NSF EPSCoR, Stephanie Peramas had not worked professionally in a lab, But, the URI junior more than made […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[21,51,1],"tags":[90,702,741],"class_list":["post-12055","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","category-surfsup","category-uncategorized","tag-animal-science","tag-surfri2016","tag-university-of-rhode-island"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/rinsfepscor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12055","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/rinsfepscor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/rinsfepscor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/rinsfepscor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/rinsfepscor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12055"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/rinsfepscor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12055\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/rinsfepscor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12055"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/rinsfepscor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12055"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/rinsfepscor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12055"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}