IMSD Students Conducting Research Away from SDSU at Summer Research Institutions
The NIH-funded IMSD Program is a yearlong program that pays students to participate in research during the academic year and winter and summer breaks. Most IMSD Scholars use their summer “break” to increase their weekly hours in lab or work on publications; however some scholars apply to summer research programs (applications often due during the end of fall / early spring semester) to conduct research at a different institution for the upcoming summer. Five of our current 12 scholars conducted research in various locations around the country. Read about their summer research experiences below:
Ilex Beltran-Najera, Psychology, Senior
“This summer I had the honor of conducting research at Washington University (Wash U) in St. Louis through the Leadership Alliance Summer Research Early Identification Program. Throughout this experience I have had the opportunity to meet a variety of faculty, graduate students, and undergraduates who have been phenomenal motivators and advocates for my academic success. During my time at Wash U, I have worked under the supervision of Dr. Jonathan Peelle in his cognitive neuroscience lab. The Peelle lab focuses on integrating behavioral testing and neuroimaging techniques to investigate the cognitive processes and neural underpinnings involved in speech perception. This experience has aided my growth in becoming a well-rounded and malleable student by teaching me how to adapt to a new environment and diverse research techniques in a timely manner. ”
Adam Perez, Chemistry, Senior
“This summer I have been working through the SDSU-UCSD Partnership Scholars program to work in research related to studying cancer. I work in the Jesus Rivera-Nieves lab which examines inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) in patients and in mice. I use mice to mimic human IBD and study the honing of immune cells to receptors in the intestine. The process involves culturing cells with fluorescent or metal conjugate antibodies to test with Flow Cytometry or Mass Cytometry in order to identify cell populations.”
Adrian Rivera, Engineering, Senior
“This summer I had the opportunity to participate in research at NASA Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia. As part of the NIFS internship program students receive the opportunity to study under the NASA civil servant and develop a research project. My project was a parametric study of impact damage on curved panel sandwich composites. Using abaqus finite element software I created a script that constructed non-linear models for compression test with varying dent size and depth. The resulting parametric study yielded correlation with dent size and early unset buckling failure. My experience at NASA was unique walking among so many leading researchers in my specific field inspired me to want to learn and push the limits of my own knowledge.”
Kristine Dinh, Statistics, Senior
“This summer I worked at the Bilingual Development in Context lab with Dr. Giang Pham for a few weeks. I transcribed Vietnamese MAIN Cat stories using SALT for the project Dr. Pham is working on in Vietnam. In addition, I also got accepted to Dr. Shen’s Climate Center and Sustainability Studies this summer. I started working in his lab for about a week. During that one week, I learned R and how to read the temperature of the atmosphere and outside of the atmosphere. I then studied abroad at Chung-Ang University in South Korea for a month to learn more about the Korean culture, society, and language. Here, I also learned about the Korean art, economy, lifestyle, Korean pop culture, and more.”
