September 19, 2008
By Joy Hart
Through their research, SMU professors not only bring new information
and insights to their classrooms, but also serve as role models and
collaborators to students who conduct research in their laboratories
across campus. Maintaining a strong research program is significant for
a number of reasons, says James E. Quick, associate vice president for
research and dean of graduate studies. “Research programs serve as a
recruiting tool that helps a university attract the best students,” he
says. “Research also increases the diversity of ideas on campus and
creates opportunities for different departments to work together on
interdisciplinary projects.”
In support of SMU’s commitment to research at both faculty and student
levels – part of the University’s long-term strategic plan – Quick is
seeking to more than triple SMU’s annual research spending to $50
million. He emphasizes that the top 50 universities in the country, as
ranked by U.S. News & World Report, each conduct more than $50 million a
year in research. “The great universities of the 21st century will spend
significant amounts of funds on research,” he says. From anthropology to
engineering to religious studies, SMU undergraduate and graduate
students and their faculty mentors are discovering new knowledge and
playing an important role in higher education through their
contributions to research.
Lessons From Bolivia
Jill DeTemple (center) says she has learned from research conducted by Katie Josephson (left) and Erin Eidenshink. |
In summer 2007, SMU Seniors Erin Eidenshink and Katie Josephson
spent eight weeks in Cochabamba – Bolivia’s third-largest city –
researching gender roles and how they affect economic development
programs in that country. Eidenshink and Josephson received financial
support from the Richter International Fellowship Program,
which funds independent research abroad for students in SMU’s Honors
Program. Jill Detemple, assistant professor of
religious studies in Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences, served
as their adviser on the research. DeTemple, whose own research examines
the effects of faith-based development programs on religious identity in
rural Ecuador, spent a semester helping the two students develop a
research proposal. She later remained in contact with them by e-mail
while they were in Bolivia.
“I am immensely proud of what they accomplished,” DeTemple says. “They
applied knowledge that they learned in the classroom and developed
research skills. They have made the transition from being consumers of
knowledge to being creators of knowledge.” Now a book chapter written by
the students and DeTemple, describing the messages that faith-based
organizations communicate about gender roles, has been accepted into an
anthology under review for publication. “Their work highlights the ways
in which most development organizations and scholars presume that men
and women relate to households and family life,” DeTemple says. “While
we have noted that the evangelical movement in Latin America has brought
men in closer relationship to household life, Katie and Erin point out
that this has not necessarily freed women to become more active in the
public sector, nor has it led to gender parity in the household.
“I learned a lot from their research, and will look at gender roles a
little bit differently when I do my research,” she adds. DeTemple says
she also has enjoyed interesting conversations with Eidenshink and
Josephson. “Because no one else on campus is doing research in my area,
I don’t have these kinds of conversations unless I go to a professional
conference. They’re working in the field now. We talk as researcher to
researcher.” Eidenshink says that working with DeTemple and conducting
the research “empowered me to draw my own conclusions.” In addition,
DeTemple “challenged us to look at the research that already had been
done and then to analyze it based on what we had seen,” says Josephson,
a President’s Scholar. “We found that the facts were complex, not simple
and straightforward.”
For more information:
smu.edu/education/teachereducation/faculty/warepaige.asp
Encouragement Among The Test Tubes
David Son oversees the research of Christiana Rissing. |
Christiana Rissing (’03), a Ph.D. student in SMU’s Chemistry
Department, studies the interaction of dendrimers based on a tetravinylsilane
core with metals like copper, platinum and silver. Any interesting properties
that develop “could prove useful for medical and electronic applications,” she
explains. If she has any questions, Rissing can call on Associate Professor of
Chemistry David son, her adviser. She began studying with Son as an
undergraduate and stayed at SMU to pursue her Ph.D. because she enjoys working
with him.
“In the lab, we’re always teasing Dr. Son about his favorite line: ‘It looks
promising,’” Rissing says. “He always looks for and finds the silver lining. I
can work on a stubborn experiment for weeks, and I start questioning my
technique. Even when the results look bad, he will look at all the data and find
something that ‘looks promising.’ “It makes me want to go that extra step – read
that extra paper or search through the literature in case I’ve missed
something.” As a Ph.D. student, Rissing works independently, Son says. “I treat
her more like a colleague now. But, in the beginning, with any student, you have
to be a cheerleader. When I was a graduate student, more than half of my
reactions didn’t work. A big part of my role is to be an encourager.”
The Physicist’s Apprentice
Amy Hand learns the ropes in the physics lab from Tom Coan. |
Junior Amy Hand is writing a computer program to design a solenoid
magnet that students will use in the physics lab to study the properties of “muons,”
electron- like radioactive particles produced in Earth’s upper atmosphere. (A
solenoid magnet is made by wrapping copper wire in a pattern around a specially
shaped mechanical frame to produce a uniform magnetic field within the frame’s
interior.) Hand, a President’s Scholar, chose to study at SMU because of
research opportunities made available to undergraduates, she says. “Working with
a professor who has so much more experience and can guide me through a project
is a huge benefit.”
Tom Coan, associate professor of physics and Hand’s adviser,
helps students to develop a broad set of skills, from learning how to solder to
selecting and purchasing mechanical and electrical components. “There are a lot
of practical things and a bewildering assortment of things that students have to
learn to be efficient in a lab,” he says. Hand researches, tests and refines the
various components of her project, working closely with Coan to devise solutions
as issues arise. “The best way to learn the nitty-gritty details is elbow to
elbow with a mentor,” Coan says. “It’s like an apprenticeship. You have to
invest a fair amount of your time working with a student before you see any
return, but the work can be beneficial to both of us.”
Planting The Seed Of Research
Sophomore Jason Stegall (center) provides lab support to David Willis (left) and Paul Krueger. |
Sophomore Jason Stegall spent last summer in the SMU School of
Engineering’s Laser Micromachining Laboratory using a laser process called
micromachining to cut tiny channels on material that can be used to make
artificial bones. “I was testing to see how strong the laser needed to be and
how many pulses were required per task,” he says. A National Science Foundation
grant awarded to David Willis and Paul Krueger, associate professors of
mechanical engineering, supported Stegall’s research. The three-year grant funds
summer research opportunities for nine undergraduate students through 2009.
Through such grants the federal government is trying to encourage more students
to conduct research and go to graduate school in engineering and the sciences,
Willis says. “Part of the reason more students don’t go to graduate school is
that they don’t know what researchers do and don’t understand all the
opportunities that are available to researchers.” Stegall says he eventually
wants to become a college professor and do research and development for the
automotive or aerospace industries.
Collaboration In Print
Torrey Rick (right) collaborates with Ph.D. students Amanda Aland and Christopher Wolff. |
Torrey Rick’s research involves excavating sites as old as 10,000 years
on the Channel Islands off the California coast. “The work I do is extremely
collaborative,” says Rick, assistant professor of anthropology. “Students are an
important part of this work, helping to complete field and laboratory analysis
and often providing fresh ideas and perspectives. Conducting research also
benefits students by showing them how to navigate the world of scholarly
publication. Ultimately, doing research and publishing papers can help them
secure an academic position.” christopher Wolff will earn his Ph.D. in
anthropology with a focus on archaeology this summer and begin a postdoctoral
research fellowship at the Smithsonian Institution in the fall. He studies the
houses and social organization of a group of people whose cultural tradition,
found in Newfoundland and Labrador, is known as Maritime Archaic. They occupied
the region around 8,000 to 3,200 years ago.
He recently collaborated with Rick and Amanda Aland, another Ph.D. student, on
an article that was published in the Journal of California and the Great Basin
Anthropology. Wolff, the lead author, says, “Torrey is really good about getting
students involved and thinking about publication.” Another Ph.D. student in
anthropology, Lauren Willis, published a paper with Rick in the Journal of
Archaeological Science. Willis, who came to SMU because of the research Rick is
doing, says that “I can learn from reading, but talking to Torrey helps clarify
what I’ve read.”
For more information:
www.smu.edu/graduate
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