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Show SPRING 2010 Steve Roens MESSAGE FROM STEVE ROENS Steve Roens UROP Director Greetings and welcome to the 2010 Undergraduate Research Abstracts. I want to congratulate all of the students who have published their cutting edge research in this tenth edition. As this journal will attest once again in 2010, undergraduate research continues to grow at the Universi-ty of Utah as it does across the nation. Again this year we see an increase in the number of abstracts we publish describing the research and creative projects accomplished under faculty supervision by our most talented undergraduates. This issue of the Abstracts contains contributions by many students who received assistantships from the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP). UROP provides undergraduates with opportunities to work one-on-one with faculty sponsors on research and creative projects. To find out how to become involved in UROP, please visit our web site at http://www.urop.utah.edu. I would also like to recognize the students in the Honors College, the LEAP Program and the Psychology Senior The-sis Program whose abstracts appear in this journal as well as students who participated in the fourth annual Utah Conference on Undergraduate Research, hosted by Southern Utah University in February, and all other students across the campus who have worked on research/creative projects with faculty sponsors, and whose abstracts are included here. In order for undergraduate research/creative projects to take place, faculty sponsors are indispensable. I want to acknowledge these accomplished professionals who, with full teaching loads and extensive commitments to their own research, generously give of their time to mentor students in research and creative projects. I would like to thank Sally Emmet, Administrative Program Coordinator, for recruiting Honors students' abstracts for the journal. I would also like to acknowledge the 26 students who participated in this year's "Research Posters on the Hill" event at the Utah State Capitol, whose abstracts are published in a special section of the journal, as well as Associate Vice President for Research Cynthia Furse whose office sponsors the event, Jacob Bender from the University Writing Center, and Kaye Clark, Executive Assis-tant, and Kim Wirthlin, Vice President of the University's Office of Government Relations. I am most grateful to Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs David Pershing, Vice President for Research Thomas Parks, and Senior Vice President for Health Sciences, Dean of the School of Medicine and CEO of University Health Systems Lorris Betz for their generous support of UROP. Without their help we would not be able to provide students with the rich experiences in research and creative work that they currently receive. Finally, I am especially grateful to UROP Assistant Director Jill Baeder, who is unquestionably the face and spirit of UROP and the organizational and editorial force behind the Undergraduate Research Abstracts and to Senior Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs John Francis for his support, encouragement, and unending flow of good ideas. 4 |
