{"id":9418,"date":"2014-04-18T11:52:01","date_gmt":"2014-04-18T15:52:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/epscortemp\/?p=9418"},"modified":"2014-04-18T11:52:01","modified_gmt":"2014-04-18T15:52:01","slug":"9418","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/rinsfepscor\/2014\/04\/18\/9418\/","title":{"rendered":"RWU grad finds SURF program made next step possible"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\"Kelsey<\/a>
Kelsey Lucas | Courtesy photo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cIf it wasn\u2019t for the SURF program, I probably would not be at Harvard right now.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

To measure the success of Rhode Island NSF EPSCoR\u2019s Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) program, we can look at any number of concrete data points, from the highly competitive applicant pool and number of students mentored to the tally of research projects and the ways in which they move science forward.<\/p>\n

But where in the spreadsheet do you factor in experience gained? What formula calculates how a life changes? How many doors open? Which new paths unfold?<\/p>\n

For all that the SURF program accomplishes in the name of science, the 10-week intensive summer research fellowship also boasts a profound and lasting impact on the individuals involved. SURF, it turns out, can be as life altering as the research it produces.<\/p>\n

The SURF advantage<\/strong><\/p>\n

A 22-year-old from Salem, Conn., Kelsey Lucas graduated in December 2012 from Roger Williams University with a bachelor\u2019s of science degree in biology and a minor in mathematics.<\/p>\n

Today, she is enrolled in graduate school at Harvard University \u2014 an opportunity, Lucas said, made possible by the Rhode Island NSF EPSCoR summer research program:<\/p>\n

\u201cIf it wasn\u2019t for the SURF program, I probably would not be at Harvard right now. The SURF program was extremely valuable \u2014 it let me do more extensive research than I would have been able to do during the school year, juggling classes.\u201d<\/p>\n

On one level, Lucas said, SURF exposed her to different aspects of research, which helped her figure out where she wanted to head. She gained insight and skills from fieldwork, setting up equipment, and producing a poster presentation.<\/p>\n

As she narrowed down her focus and set her sights on graduate school, Lucas said SURF proved to be invaluable.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe SURF program made my application so much stronger than it would have been otherwise,\u201d she said. \u201cOne of the comments I got a lot during my interviews was they were impressed by how much research experience I had.\u201d<\/p>\n

Upon her December 2012 graduation from RWU, Lucas secured a spring internship at the California Institute of Technology before being accepted into graduate school, where she had her pick from a prestigious list \u2014 Harvard, Brown, Tufts, University of North Carolina, and Georgia Institute of Technology.<\/p>\n

One thing leads to another<\/strong><\/p>\n

Both of her parents work in science-related fields, so Lucas had a lot of exposure to the discipline and knew in high school and going into college that she was interested in both science and math. But the specifics eluded her until she began working with Dr. Sean Colin, associate professor of environmental science at RWU.<\/p>\n

Lucas said she started on a marine biology and aquaculture track, but her research experiences eventually led her to the physics of biology and Dr. Colin, who was studying the physics of jellyfish swimming. His field of expertise lies in biomechanics and evolutionary ecology.<\/p>\n

The summer between sophomore and junior years, Lucas started working on an animal propulsion study with Nathan Johnson, then a biology undergraduate at Providence College and now a graduate student at Texas A&M-Galveston, helping collect data under the guidance of Dr. Colin and Dr. Jack Costello at PC.<\/p>\n

The researchers were looking at nature\u2019s design of the animal propulsive structure, specifically, both swimmers and fliers, and how they moved in water or air.<\/p>\n

\"Kelsey<\/a>
Kelsey Lucas works in a Harvard lab\u00a0| Courtesy photo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Frontiers of exploration<\/strong><\/p>\n

Tedious at times, the data collection involved scouring the Internet for videos of animals moving through the air and sea, following strict criteria to fit the study and then analyzing the data. Sometimes, the search proved futile, when a promising link turned out to be a home video with someone walking in front of the camera.<\/p>\n

But in all of the frames of movement recorded from the 10 different species they had viewed by that time, Lucas said, the pair of student researchers hit on something:<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were actually going to a meeting with Dr. Colin and Dr. Costello, and we had plotted all of our numbers on a graph to make the data presentable. We looked at the graph and suddenly we saw this straight line, and thought this actually could be something really cool. So we expanded our search to more animal groups and got more replicates.\u201d<\/p>\n

The unexpected find was the similarity in the movement of all of the animals even though air is less dense than water. They looked at more videos and animal groups \u2014 59 species, ranging from insects to whales \u2014\u00a0yet the line remained straight.<\/p>\n

When Johnson graduated, Lucas took over the project. After this year\u2019s winter break, she received word that the paper would be published February 2014 in the journal Nature Communications.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was really, really excited,\u201d she said. \u201cI think the first thing I did was step out of my office and tell my lab manager, \u2018You\u2019ll never believe what just happened!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Moving science forward<\/strong><\/p>\n

Dr. Colin said Lucas\u2019 trajectory is exactly the intention of mentoring and the opportunity SURF provides \u2014 train students to do research, and prepare them for graduate school and a career in science, where publications are the primary metric to gauge how individuals progress.<\/p>\n

The research relationship begins with strict instructions and guidance as students develop the necessary skills and confidence in their judgment.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt moves from a relationship where you are instructing them to becoming more of a collaboration,\u201d Dr. Colin said. \u201cIt becomes a give and take between professor and student. If a good student can get to that point, it helps influence the direction that research takes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lucas\u2019 journey began sophomore year, working with Dr. Colin, analyzing video of jellyfish, and wound up with two publications and lead authorship on a groundbreaking study. It was the perfect juncture of a lot of hard work and a little bit of happenstance<\/p>\n

Dr. Colin noted, \u201cKelsey had two publications, and that\u2019s pretty rare. She\u2019s definitely an extraordinary student, probably one of the brightest students I\u2019ve ever had.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Lucas, the Colin lab and the SURF program provided the best possible opportunity: \u201cI ended up in the completely right place.\u201d<\/p>\n

Story by Amy Dunkle | from the Spring 2014 issue of The Current<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cIf it wasn\u2019t for the SURF program, I probably would not be at Harvard right now.” To measure the success of Rhode Island NSF EPSCoR\u2019s Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) program, we can look at any number of concrete data points, from the highly competitive applicant pool and number of students mentored to the tally […]<\/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":[1,66],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9418","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","category-epscor-grads"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/rinsfepscor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9418","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=9418"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/rinsfepscor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9418\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/rinsfepscor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9418"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/rinsfepscor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9418"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/rinsfepscor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9418"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}