Student Scholars Engage in High-Level Research
Archived article from Apr 26, 2004
Student receives Goldwater Scholarship for merit in the sciences
Rutgers–Newark sophomore Stephanie C. Lazzaro is in rare company: She is one of only 310 college undergraduates nationwide to receive a $15,000, two-year Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship.
The Goldwater Scholarship, named for the late United States senator, is considered the nation’s premier undergraduate award for students studying mathematics, science and engineering. In recent years, 56 Goldwater Scholars have gone on to be named Rhodes Scholars and 66 have received Marshall Awards.
Lazzaro, who graduated from Bergen County’s Academy for Medical Science Technology in Hackensack, is the first-ever Rutgers–Newark student to receive the Goldwater. Only 11 other Rutgers students have received the scholarship in the 18-year history of the program, the last in 2000. She joins eight other Goldwater scholars from New Jersey, who are studying at universities, including the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of Pennsylvania and University of Chicago.
Lazzaro is a member of the Honors College at Rutgers–Newark, a four-year, undergraduate college-within-a-college whose students are selected from the best and highest-achieving students admitted to the Newark College of Arts and Sciences.
Her aspiration is to contribute to the growing body of research in behavioral neuroscience, focusing on learning, memory, and Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease. Lazzaro already is working toward that goal by interning in the neuroscience lab of Mark Gluck, an internationally known researcher in those fields at Rutgers–Newark’s Center for Molecular and Behavioral Neuroscience (CMBN). She was only a senior in high school when she began working in Gluck’s lab, as part of an externship.
“Although technically a sophomore, Stephanie functions in our lab more like a graduate student. She has acquired skills usually seen only in students far more advanced, and she is intimately involved in all aspects of experimental design, analysis and execution,” Gluck said. “I expect by the time she graduates, she will be a co-author on several scientific papers.”
Lazzaro said that she hopes to make great advancements in neuroscience research and neurosurgery someday. The chances are good, she believes, “thanks to CMBN’s great research facilities, the researchers and professors who inspire and encourage me each day and the support of this scholarship.” After completing her undergraduate studies, Lazzaro plans to enter a combined MD/Ph.D. program to further her studies.
Since its creation in 1986, the federally funded Goldwater Foundation has awarded 4,272 scholarships, valued at $42 million, to encourage students to study mathematics, the natural sciences and engineering. Scholarship awards can be applied to tuition, fees, books and room and board.
-By Carla Capizzi
NIH’s Minority Biomedical Research Support Grant helps train students for research careers
“In science, the best education you can get includes hands-on experience in a research lab,” said Ann Cali, professor of biology at Rutgers–Newark.
Cali is the principal investigator for the school’s Minority Biomedical Research Support (MBRS) program grant, which was recently awarded a $2.6 million, four-year renewal by the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
Cali’s ability to communicate the thrill she gets from academic research is at the heart of what has made the MBRS so successful during its 18-year tenure at the Newark campus. The program pairs faculty mentors with aspiring student scholars, funding opportunities for 10 undergraduate and 11 graduate students to work in the research laboratories of participating professors.
Undergraduates in the program are awarded paid positions in the labs as well as travel and research funding. The package for graduate students is even more generous, paying student fees and providing a stipend in addition to funding for travel and research.
continued...
Page 1 of 3
Next >
|
