SPOTLIGHT

Undergraduate Research
Spring 2018
1 | SPOTLIGHT UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH
 EXPLORE
RESEARCH
GAIN THE KNOWLEDGE
THAT WILL TAKE YOU TO
THE NEXT LEVEL.
At UWF, research is our way of putting our
mind power and resources to work for the
region, so that we can all move into a
brighter future together.

Office of
Undergraduate Research
Undergraduate Research
Problem Solving Knows No Boundaries

As individuals, we cannot solve climate change,

water pollution, income inequality, terrorism,
racism or world hunger. Together, we can.

At UWF, research is driven by exploration and

discovery, whether it’s collecting water samples on
a boat in the Gulf of Mexico or preparing to create
a beautiful work of art. We believe that experience
opens doors, so we’ve made it a cornerstone of every
student’s experience.

Undergraduate students at UWF conduct research

reserved only for graduate students at other
universities.
3 | SPOTLIGHT UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH
From the Director

What most universities do with their graduate stu-
dents, UWF is doing with undergraduate students.
I continue to be inspired by the quality and range
of research in which UWF students and faculty are
engaged.
The Office of Undergraduate Research is making great
strides in its efforts to support and encourage more
undergraduate research at UWF. What was once an
activity limited to only a few high-achieving students
in a limited number of departments has transformed
to become integrated across campus, throughout the
student body.
Additionally, OUR has launched several new programs
in recent years designed to engage underclassmen in re-
search. including the Explorers program for underclass-
men to shadow faculty research, the FYRE program
for elite incoming Freshmen to immediately engage in
faculty-mentored research, and the OUR Works! pro-
gram to provide introductory paid research positions
for work-study eligible students.

In addition to the elite students, UWF is now using

research experiences to retain weaker students and to
motivate and engage the middle-tier students so they
can perform at their potential.

“Undergraduate research is a
cornerstone of a UWF education.
It is something that UWF excels at,
and it sets us apart from larger
universities.”
To achieve this goal, OUR’s flagship programs, the
OUR Project Awards for students to purchase research
supplies and the OUR Travel Awards for students to
present their research at professional conferences, have
been updated to be more inclusive of programs and
departments across campus.
During the last two years, OUR has supported over 500
unique students in our programs. During the 2016-17
academic year, OUR added students from 10 depart-
ments to our programs, and we now support 80 percent
of UWF undergraduate departments. We also saw a 25
percent increase in the number of students supported
by OUR that year over the previous year. And we are
having an impact! Students engaging in undergraduate
research are succeeding at UWF (illustrated by the
high retention and graduation rates of students in OUR
programs).
It is a privilege to work with so many exceptional under-
graduate students at UWF, and I am delighted to have
this opportunity to share our story of undergraduate
research.

Allison Schwartz, Ph.D.

Director, Office of Undergraduate Research

SPOTLIGHT UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH | 4

OUR Programs

OUR EXPLORERS
OUR Explorers is for students with no previous research experience. This program
is intended to spark interests in research and creative activities to inexperienced
undergraduate students, and preference is given to first and second year students. 
Explorers shadow multiple faculty members through their research activities.

OUR WORKS!
Open exclusively for federal work study eligible students, these assistantships offer up
to fifteen hours of paid research experience a week. The OUR Works! program aims to
introduce students to research and scholarly activities while providing opportunity for
professional development and one-on-one faculty mentorship.

OUR PROJECT AWARDS

Project awards provide funds (typically $500-$650) for undergraduate research students
to purchase materials and supplies or fund other costs associated with conducting re-
search under the guidance of a UWF faculty mentor (i.e., chemicals, equipment, gas to get
to museum or field site, make photocopies, print a research poster).

OUR TRAVEL AWARDS

Travel awards provide funds (typically $500-$1,000) for undergraduate research
students to present research findings at a professional conference. Awards can be used
for conference registration, airfare, meals, hotel, etc.

5 | SPOTLIGHT UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH

 FIRST YEAR RESEARCH EXPERIENCE (FYRE)
The First Year Research Experience (OUR FYRE) program is designed for high performing,
incoming freshmen to engage in research. FYRE participants are assigned a faculty research
mentor to work with for the academic year. Faculty mentors are selected from the student’s
major department or one closely aligned with the discipline and have a strong history of
working with early program researchers and those with little or no previous research experi-
ence. This program is intended to build a cohort of early researchers; build strong, early, and
long-lasting relationships between students and faculty; and build student research skills
that will be utilized and strengthened throughout their degree plan.

Real World Experience

National Conference for

Undergraduate Research (NCUR)
Through this annual conference, NCUR creates a
unique environment for the celebration and promo-
tion of undergraduate student achievement, provides
models of exemplary research and scholarship, and
helps to improve the state of undergraduate educa-
tion. OUR supported a group of 43 UWF students
who traveled to NCUR at the University of Memphis
in April 2017 and 40 UWF students to NCUR at the
University of Central Oklahoma in April 2018.

Student Scholar’s Symposium &

Faculty Research Showcase
The UWF Office of Undergraduate Research’s
Student Scholars Symposium and Faculty Research
Showcase is a day dedicated to celebrating UWF
research! It is an all-day event that includes research
panel discussions, exhibits, showcases, posters, oral
presentations, and so much more across all five
academic departments!

SPOTLIGHT UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH | 6

 OUR by the Numbers 2015-2017

OVERALL IMPACT

PARTICIPANTS
470
138 256
496 SYMPOSIUM
PRESENTATIONS
*2016-17 PROJECT AWARDS TRAVEL AWARDS
UNIQUE STUDENTS *2016-17

SUPPORTED

54 43 27
OUR WORKS!
19 NCUR EXPLORERS
EXPLORERS

43
GRANTED
*2016-17
GRANTED
54 800 (est.)

OUR WORKS! SYMPOSIUM

101
NCUR
PRESENTATIONS
*2016-17
PROJECT AWARDS
GRANTED

AVERAGE GPA FOR END OF SYMPOSIUM

YEAR OF PARTICIPATION PRESENTATIONS

EXPLORERS 3.47 GPA 2016-17

2015-16

OUR WORKS! 3.41 GPA 187

OUR PROJECT 3.36 GPA

470
OUR TRAVEL 3.31 GPA 360

NCUR 3.46 GPA

2017-18 (est.)

7 | SPOTLIGHT UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH

 % GRADUATED OR RETAINED FOR FALL
FOLLOWING PARTICIPATION

Including 33 students in GPA range 2-2.9 that were retained or

96% OUR PROJECT graduated or retained at rate of 97%.

97% OUR TRAVEL

Including 48 students in GPA range 2-2.9 that were retained or
graduated or retained at rate of 98%.

93% EXPLORERS
Including 4 students in GPA range 2-2.9 that were retained or
graduated or retained at rate of 100%.

Including 11 students in GPA range 2-2.9 that were retained or

91% OUR WORKS! graduated or retained at rate of 85%.

Including 7 students in GPA range 2-2.9 that were retained or

100% NCUR graduated or retained at rate of 100%.

% OF STUDENTS WITH GPA BETWEEN 2.0-2.9 GRADUATED BY,

OR RETAINED FOR, FALL FOLLOWING PARTICIPATION

96% 98%

100% 85%

OUR PROJECT TRAVEL

OUR WORKS
AWARD AWARD

2016-17 2016-17
2015-16 2015-16
No data available for 2016-17 at the No data available for 2015-16.
time of publication. Program started 2016-17.

100% 100%

EXPLORERS NCUR

2015-16 2016-17

No students in GPA range in 2016-17. No data available for 2015-16.

Participation started 2016-17.

SPOTLIGHT UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH | 8

 01
Undergraduate Research Has
UWF Senior Prepared to Pursue
Career as Physician-Scientist
After being accepted to the Office of Undergraduate
Research’s Explorers Program in the Spring of 2016,
Courtney Swain said she quickly fell in love with re-
search in the laboratory.
The Explorers Program gave Swain her first exposure
to research, allowing her to shadow Dr. Peter Cavnar, an
assistant professor in the Department of Biology, and
learn about his study of neutrophils, which are a type
of white blood cell that plays an important role in the
immune system.
“I was very much interested in his research with neutro-
phils, and during that semester, I learned the basics of
lab research and cell biology techniques,” Swain said.
That research experience led Swain to another research
opportunity during summer of 2016 at the University of
Alabama at Birmingham, where she worked under the
guidance of a physician-scientist.
Now a senior at UWF who is majoring in biomedical
sciences, Swain plans to pursue a doctorate of medicine
and of philosophy degree, or MD-Ph.D., and become a
physician-scientist.
9 | SPOTLIGHT UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH
“These professionals work and lead labs in the bio-
medical sciences, with many of them also working as
physicians in hospitals,” Swain said. “They are usually at
the forefront of major treatment projects or even drug
therapies that are introduced into the medical field.”
Swain, who has also received an OUR Project Award,
said the undergraduate experience she has had at UWF
has prepared her well for the competitive MD-Ph.D.
programs.
“I feel like undergraduate research not only builds the
foundation that you need for a career to become a phy-
sician-scientist, but helps shape exactly what you want
to do in research and what topics you want to focus on,”
she said.
During her time at UWF, Swain has focused her re-
search on how certain medications affect the immune
system.
A member of the Kugelman Honors Program, her senior
capstone project studies whether certain atypical anti-
psychotic drugs cause stress on neutrophils.

“ In December 2017, Swain received an award for top
I feel like undergraduate
research not only builds the
foundation that you need for a
career to become a physician-
scientist, but helps shape
exactly what you want to do in
research and what topics you
want to focus on.
” students, especially those hoping to apply for MD-Ph.D.
Swain studies blood samples as part of her research.
“I’m trying to get an idea of how these drugs work with
neutrophils because there is a side effect called neutro-
penia, which is where one has a very low concentration
of neutrophils in their blood stream,” Swain said.
poster presentation for cell biology for that research at
the 2017 Annual Biomedical Research Conference for
Minority Students.
Cavnar said he has been impressed with how Swain has
been able to focus her research.
“I’ve had tons of students who have general ideas of
what they want to do, but never that specific and who
found that research on their own and did all their own
background research,” he said.
Swain is also a “great mentor” to other undergraduate
programs, Cavnar said. “She is an example of what’s pos-
sible here if you are willing to work hard for it,” Cavnar
said.
SPOTLIGHT UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH | 10
 02

Made with acrylic sheets, welded steel and a lot of

hard work from three UWF students, the sculpture
“Coalescence” brightens the courtyard outside of one
of the College of Education and Professional Studies
buildings.

The impetus for the creation of the sculpture came after

Dr. William Crawley, Dean of the College of
Education and Professional Studies, and professors
expressed a desire to have artwork in the courtyard
that symbolized the values and mission of the college.

After some initial research on other public sculptures,

Coral Kieser, an art major, who created “Coalescence”
with her fellow students Eugene Broyles and Madi
Heinze, decided on the concept of an abstract heart,
which would reflect the many ways they felt the college
leadership was trying to help the community.
Coalescence Sculpture

11 | SPOTLIGHT UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH

 Art Students Use
OUR Project Award to Create
Outdoor Sculpture on Campus

Kieser applied for and received an Office of Under-

graduate Research Project Award that helped fund the
materials needed for the sculpture.

“It took the whole semester,” Kieser said. “It was defi-
nitely a process from start to finish, from figuring out
the material that we would need, to writing our pro-
posal for the grant to actually putting all of the pieces
together.”

Fonder commended the students for their creativity

and hard work on the sculpture.

“I’m super proud of the work that they have done,”

Fonder said.  “They didn’t shirk challenges, with
what they set out to do in the beginning.”

Kieser said she hopes the sculpture “reflects the hearts

“People walk through here all the time. We wanted to
honor the people that work here, show how they work
together so well,  and make this space more interesting
and exciting,” Kieser said. “That was the main thing
that we focused on while cultivating our design for the
sculpture.”
of those who see it.”
“We definitely learned a lot about working together,
which is reflective of the piece and the inspiration of
the piece,” she said. “This was a very wonderful experi-
ence for all of us.”

Carrie Fonder, a lecturer in the Department of Art, was

one of the students’ faculty mentors on the project,
along with Valerie George, an associate professor in the
art department.

“They did a really great job developing their research

after their initial concept started to take shape,”Fonder
said.

After deciding on the design, the students first built a

miniature model of the sculpture. As they prepared to
create the final piece, they built a cardboard version to
scale, Fonder said.

SPOTLIGHT UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH | 12

 03

Research from UWF Students Studies

Levels of Bacteria, Nutrients in
Bayou Chico

13 | SPOTLIGHT UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH

 “
A project by two UWF students that measured levels
of pollutants in the Bayou Chico watershed shows
how research is important in informing manage-
ment decisions made by state and local officials, We went out weekly and
said Dr. Jane Caffrey, a professor in UWF’s Center for
Environmental Diagnostics and Bioremediation.
collected samples and
abiotic parameters, and then
The research project by Sierra Hobbs, a sophomore
biochemistry major, and her colleague, Son Truong, would come back to campus to
a junior environmental sciences major, sampled nutri- process our samples
ent and bacteria levels in four tributaries leading into
Bayou Chico. Dr. Matthew Schwartz, associate profes-
sor of Earth and Environmental Science and Associate
Dean of the Hal Marcus College of Science and Engi-
”
neering, was a co-mentor on the project.
Hobbs said she hopes to specialize in the study of bio-
“We went out weekly and collected samples and abiotic geochemical nutrient cycling through coral reefs and
parameters, and then would come back to the effect that climate change is having on those cycles.
campus to process our samples,” Hobbs said.
“Coral reefs are such a biological hotspot … if we were to
They compared the levels of bacteria and nutrients to lose these coral reefs we would lose such diversity and
historical sampling data that had been collected abundance of marine species,” Hobbs said.
by the Bream Fisherman Association, a volunteer orga-
nization that for more than 50 years has sampled local “Sierra is a great example of why I enjoy working with
waterways. students,” Caffrey said. “She’s a smart and thoughtful
student who embraces challenges.”
“[The Bream Fisherman Association] has sampled
quarterly for many years. We sampled weekly for one
summer. Our summer averages were very similar to
their summer averages going back to 1999,” Hobbs said.
“Our data also correlated with their yearly averages.
Their yearly average was generally higher than their
summer average, which our nutrient levels supported.”

The data collected by Hobbs and Troung was compared

to data collected by the Bream Fisherman
Association from 1999-2016.

“Their data showed that bacterial contamination is a

serious and continuing problem in Bayou Chico
despite efforts by the state and county,” said Caffrey,
who was Hobbs’ faculty mentor.

Hobbs received a Travel Award from the Office of Un-

dergraduate Research, which paid for the students to
travel to New Orleans to present their research at the
American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting.

“I was able to make connections with faculty at graduate

schools and doing research that I would be interested
in,” Hobbs said. “It was also my first conference of that View of Bayou Chico
size; it was nice having the experience of being at a con-
ference with that many people and attending a variety of
seminars, workshops, and seeing research posters.”
SPOTLIGHT UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH | 14
 04

UWF Freshman Excelling in Research,

Will Present at NCUR Conference

As an incoming freshman at the University of West

Florida, Cara Womacks said she didn’t
know much about science research.

However, the National Merit Scholarship finalist received

a First Year Research Experience award from the Office of
Undergraduate Research that paired her with Dr. Alexis
Janosik, assistant professor in the Department of Biolo-
gy. Together, they are working on a project involving the
DNA barcoding of crabs collected from autonomous reef
monitoring structures in the Gulf of Mexico.

After only several months of taking part in the research,

Janosik said Womacks is already a natural at working in
the lab.

“Cara is an outstanding, amazing student,” said Janosik,

who is Womack’s faculty mentor. “Tasks that I would
think would take a few months to complete, and she has it
completed in just a week or two.”
The autonomous reef monitoring structures consist of
plates installed on artificial reefs. Just a few
months after being deployed, the plates are completely
colonized, Janosik said. So far, Womacks has catalogued
about 1,200 specimens, mostly of small crabs that were
collected, sorting them all to
morphotype and extracting their DNA.
Janosik said that just like every product in a grocery
store is given a barcode, each organism has a
genetic barcode that scientists use to distinguish species
and to catalog diversity.
“I think the basis of this project, to put it in a bigger con-
text, is to help catalog biodiversity in the Gulf of
Mexico and in particular invertebrate biodiversity,”
Janosik said.

“I’m really interested in ecology and learning how the
ecosystem works,” Womacks said. “Crabs, like any inver-
tebrate, are kind of at the bottom of the food chain. So any
changes to their population affects the entire ecosystem.
That really fascinates me.”
Womacks, who has decided to major in marine biology,
will give a poster presentation at UWF’s Student Schol-
ar Symposium and Faculty Research Showcase on April
19 and will also present her research at the National
Conference of Undergraduate Research held April 4-7
at the University of Central Oklahoma.

“It’s a big deal for freshmen to go to that conference,”

Janosik said.
15 | SPOTLIGHT UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH
 The research experience at UWF has also helped
Womacks develop a network of fellow researchers that
includes graduate students and faculty as well as better
understand the process for writing and applying for
grants.

“Four months ago, I knew none of that,” Womacks said.

“So it’s just been a huge learning experience.”

Working on the project has also led Womacks to already

make an important decision about her
education.

“It’s made me plan on going to graduate school,” she

said. “Before I was kind of iffy on that.”
Womacks and Janosik examine crabs in the lab.

SPOTLIGHT UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH | 16

 05

Looking to one day enter a doctorate of medicine As part of the study, mice are fed a high-fat, high-fruc-
and of philosophy (MD-Ph.D.) degree program, tose diet to develop obesity and Type 2 diabetes. Then,
Stephan Quintin found the perfect match when he some of the mice are put on an endurance exercise reg-
was accepted into the OUR Works! program at UWF. imen (e.g., treadmill running) to see if their symptoms
can be relieved.
The assistantships, offered exclusively to federal work
study-eligible students, offer up to 15 hours of paid re-
search experience a week. “
“MD-Ph.D. programs look more at research, so I really This program and my mentor-
wanted to prioritize research. The [OUR Works!] pro-
gram allowed me to do that,” Quintin said.
ship relation also helped me get
a summer internship at Johns
In the laboratory, Quintin has been able to marry two
of his main interests, exercise science and neurology, Hopkins, and I probably would
under the mentorship of Dr. Youngil Lee, assistant not otherwise have gotten that
professor in the Department of Exercise Science and
Community Health. if I did not have any research
“Our main topic is how regular endurance exercise pre-
experience at UWF
vents neuroinflammation that is caused by a high-fat,
high-carbohydrate diet,” Lee said.
”
17 | SPOTLIGHT UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH

OUR Works! Program Allows
Biomedical Science Student to
Be Paid for Doing Research He Loves
“I get to learn a lot of lab techniques to investigate neu-
roprotective mechanisms induced by regular endurance
exercise. Those laboratory skills (e.g., dissection of var-
ious regions of the brain, immunohistochemistry, and
cell culture) are very important to graduate schools be-
cause the skills will help me develop novel therapeutic
strategies against neurodegenerative diseases,”Quintin
said. “I do a lot of article reading. I read current research
papers, get up to date and get through a lot of material
I wouldn’t otherwise know unless I was in graduate
school.”
Quintin, a junior who is a biomedical science major, is
enthusiastic about research that shows that exercise can
have neuroprotective effects. “Drugs are necessary, but
I like the idea that we can have a non-pharmacological
intervention (e.g., regular endurance exercise such as
moderate intensity running) that can mitigate neuronal
diseases,” he said.
Quintin said the research experience at UWF has
opened up other opportunities for him.
“This program and my mentorship relation also helped
me get a summer internship at Johns Hopkins (Univer-
sity), and I probably would not otherwise have gotten
that if I did not have any research experience at UWF,”
Quintin said.
Quintin will return to Johns Hopkins University this
summer for another internship. He will also give a
presentation at this year’s Student Scholar Symposium
on research looking at how exercise affects symptoms
related to Type 1 diabetes.
Lee said Quintin will then present the research at the
Experimental Biology meeting held April 21-25 in San
Diego, which shows how endurance exercise helps
maintain healthy neurons in the cortex of the brain.
Lee said Quintin is getting a unique hands-on experi-
ence available in the field of biomedicine as an under-
graduate since those experiences are typically only
available to Ph.D. students.
“This laboratory experience is really good for him
because he is learning integrative mechanisms of the
body including the molecular and cellular level as well
as physiology, using the animal model of human disease
since my laboratory examines various protective mech-
anisms induced by endurance exercise at molecular,
cellular and physiology levels,” Lee said.
“I wish that he will be able to incorporate this biomed-
ical science knowledge into his medicine to develop a
novel therapy,” Lee said.
SPOTLIGHT UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH | 18