University of Delaware
Office of Public Relations
The Messenger
Vol. 6, No. 1/1996
Undergraduate research ranges from cucumber beetles to Cypriot toys of
7th century B.C.

     The University's Undergraduate Research Program can take
interested students anywhere they want to go, from interviewing
the Wolof people in West Africa to an archaeological dig in
Cyprus to catching spotted cucumber beetles in their own
backyards.
     Joan Bennett, coordinator and the driving force behind the
Undergraduate Research Program since its inception in 1980,
estimates approximately 500 students each semester get involved
with research, becoming assistants or junior members of faculty
research teams and discovering how the process of research
unfolds.
     "Participants ordinarily have done well in coursework, and
they have a very strong interest in the course of discovery,"
Bennett says.
     Of the thousands who have pursued this "course of
discovery," the Messenger looked at five students who, Bennett
says, "have been in research long enough to know they enjoy the
process."
     Laura Jane Swanson, Delaware '97, from St. Joseph, Mich., a
biochemistry major, was introduced to undergraduate research when
she was named a Science and Engineering Scholar. Under this
program, which awards 50 research scholarships annually to
outstanding sophomores, Swanson served a 10-week, full-time
research apprenticeship during the summer before her junior year.
She's now writing her senior thesis, working toward an honors
degree.
     "I am trying to develop a method to determine the number of
phosphate groups on a given protein," she says. The method she
employs involves removing phosphates one by one and running
remaining proteins on electrophoresis [an electrochemical process
in which biological compounds in solution travel to a positive or
negative field because of the charge on the substances]. Proteins
can be separated into distinct components due to differences in
their mobility.
     Her adviser, Harold White, professor of chemistry and
biochemistry, says, "Laura Jane has a challenging research
project that has stymied students before her."
     Swanson says, "It's been fantastic. Even the frustration
involved-and there has been frustration- has been a real learning
experience.
     "This is a preview of what I want to do with the rest of my
life," she says, noting that she hopes to be a professor of
either biochemistry or molecular biology.
     Her efforts already have been recognized. Last April, her
presentation at the Collegiate Student Chemists convention took
first-place honors in the biochemistry division.
     Barry Messinger, Delaware '97, an art history major from
Wilmington, Del., began with a study of a donated artifact,
reportedly from Cyprus-a wheel dating back to the 7th century
B.C. His research has expanded into a study of the vehicles to
which the wheels were fastened. Usually, attached to children's
toys, they are almost always found in graves or tombs.
     "The topic is not something that's really been researched,"
Messinger says, so he must collect information from a number of
different sources, many in foreign languages. His senior thesis
is largely a catalog and survey of the vehicles that used the
wheel.
     After earning his Degree with Distinction, Messinger will
head to graduate school and a teaching career. But before that,
he wants to delve into more archeological digs, following up on
an expedition he participated in last summer.
      "Barry joined an expedition to Idalion, a site on Cyprus,
and he'll be going there again this summer," John Crawford,
professor of art history and Messinger's adviser, says. "He's off
to a great start. I didn't get to participate in a dig before I
was in grad school."
     Julie Fine, Delaware '97, from Newark, Del., is an
entomology major and a Science and Engineering Scholar now in her
second year in the research program. Her senior thesis involves
"researching the mating behavior of spotted cucumber beetles,"
she says, noting that these insects are found in local cucumber
and zucchini flowers and are easy to catch.
     Last summer, Fine had the opportunity to present her
research findings thus far at the Eastern branch meeting of the
Entomological Society of America, and, this winter, she will talk
at the society's national meeting, where she also has entered a
student competition.
     Her adviser, Douglas Tallamy, professor of entomology and
applied ecology, says Fine "represents the very best that the
undergraduate program has to offer. I would give my right arm for
more students like Julie."
     Fine also plans to attend graduate school-to study wildlife
management. Meanwhile, she continues her research, even though,
sometimes, she says, "the beetles just don't cooperate."
     Keith Hornberger, Delaware '97, a chemistry major from
Severna Park, Md., and a Science and Engineering Scholar, is
currently working on his senior thesis, which involves "looking
at how enzymes bind sugar phosphates." He does this by breaking
down the binding energy into its components, specifically, the
electrostatic and hydrobinding components.
     Hornberger's project from the summer of 1995, "Utility of
Yeast Hexokinase," won an award and will most likely be published
in the Journal of Organic Chemistry early next year.
     "I want to go into academia and be a professor," he says. He
also will graduate with an honors degree.
     Hornberger's adviser, H. Keith Chenault, assistant professor
of chemistry and biochemistry, says, "Keith is the kind of
undergraduate researcher that every adviser dreams of. Working
with him is truly fun."
     Anna White, Delaware '97, of Newark, Del., traveled the
farthest to gather her research data. An anthropology major, she
lived in Senegal, West Africa, from January to August to research
her senior thesis topic, "Gender and Attitudes Toward Family
Planning, Population Growth and Development in NDiabene Toube in
Senegal."
     White spent most of her trip observing and talking to women
who came for birth control information and counseling. She also
created a questionnaire to interview 70 women and men of the
village about their views on the same subject. The interviews
were an added challenge, considering that she used Wolof, the
major language spoken in Senegal. White sometimes used an
interpreter but says she eventually become fairly comfortable
using the language.
     Her adviser, Peter Weil, associate professor of
anthropology, says he's proud of how White worked so diligently
to prepare herself before undertaking the research, including
conquering the language barrier. "I was impressed that she did a
lot of her work in Wolof," he says.
     Shifting from the affluence of the United States to the
poverty of West Africa was difficult at first, White says, but
"after three or four months, you get used to the culture and
lifestyle."  Weil praises White's "tremendous initiative and
flexibility," adding that now she must undertake the "really hard
work of analyzing her experience." Support of students while they
conduct an analysis of research results is one of the good
aspects of the Undergraduate Research Program, he says.
     Currently, White is translating her interviews and giving
presentations about her experience in Senegal to other
anthropology majors, the UD's Cosmopolitan Club and students in
the African Studies Program. After graduating with a Degree with
Distinction, she plans to take a year or two off and then head to
graduate school with the support of a Truman Fellowship.
     Her father is Hal White, adviser to Laura Swanson.
                                 -Jennifer Bevan, Delaware '97