I am in the pre-medical society, Global Medical Brigades, and the club tennis team. This past year I was a campus tour guide, but next year I will be a Learning Assistant for Dr. Gierasch in CHEM 351!

Read his abstract here...

The National Cancer Institute (NCI) is pleased to announce the 2014 Introduction to Cancer Research Careers (ICRC) Program.  The ICRC is designed to encourage individuals from populations underrepresented in science and/or financially disadvantaged backgrounds to seek internship opportunities at the NCI.  Successful ICRC applicants will take part in a 2-day campus visit to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, Maryland, where they will have the opportunity to learn about the various scientist-in-training programs, participate in laboratory tours, interview for either a summer or post-baccalaureate (1-year) internship.  Participants selected for internships receive a monthly stipend, round-trip travel, and summer housingsubsidy.

Our goal is to encourage a diverse group of talented students to explore careers in biomedical research.  You can help us meet this goal by sharing this information with students and faculty contacts you feel would benefit from this opportunity.  Please refer to the attached brochure and the ICRC website for additional information, http://icrc.nci.nih.gov.

Applications are due Monday, November 11th.  Supporting materials are due Thursday, November 14^th.

Meet David, he is a Physics major and an undergraduate researcher. The focus of his research will be to calculate, both analytically and numerically, the emission anticipated from the relevant radiation processes of jets such as synchrotron and inverse-Compton emission.

How did you find your mentor for year research project?
Last semester I decided that I wanted to do research and asked some people in my department about how to get started. I was directed to the astrophysics department and there I found one of the professors that I had taken a couple of courses with. Because I had taken classes that were relevant to the research subject that we would be doing, it seemed like a good fit.

How did you know this was the project you wanted to do?
I always enjoyed astronomy and I had also found that I liked the astrophysics course that I had taken last semester. The subject seemed to be very interesting and something that would give me a better idea of what working in the astrophysics field would be like.

Is this your first independent research project?
Yes, it is. It seems like something that is a great experience and perhaps something that I would have wanted to do more of if I could.

Do you get course credit for this work?
Yes, we placed the research for this semester under a category of a three-credit senior research 499 course. This will help me to fulfill the credit requirements for upper-level classes needed to graduate.

How did you hear about the Undergraduate Research Award (URA) program?
My mentor told me about URA. A researcher of his had previously been accepted as a URA scholar and he suggested that I apply as well.

What academic background did you have before you applied for the URA?
I had transferred from community colleges after deciding that I wanted to do physics. I then took all of the required courses in my major as well as a few electives before applying for the URA.

Was the application difficult to do?
It could have been fairly difficult due to the fact that it was hard to know many details of the subject that the research was going to be about prior to actually starting. With the help of my mentor it was not too hard, however.

What has been the hardest part about your research?
All of it is fairly challenging but enjoyable also. The theory is not very simple and it can be hard to understand how a quantitative analysis of a process is formulated based on a qualitative idea of the physical processes involved.

How does your research relate to your work in other classes?
The information and knowledge obtained from my classes is fundamental in the research that I am conducting. Also, as a result of the research requiring a large amount of in-depth topics, the knowledge gained will help me in future classes.

What are your career goals?
Hopefully I will find something related to what I have been studying and perhaps to what I have been researching. I am not certain about the exact area I want to go into but doing this research will help me decide.

Did you transfer to UMBC from another institution? Where?
I spent a little time taking classes at community colleges in the area before I decided that physics was the subject that I wanted to pursue.

Read more about David's research here... 

• 45,000 signed articles on every aspect of the visual arts, with more than 23,000 subject entries and 21,000 biographies
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Read more about Rajashree's research here... 

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