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25 Accepted to Research Conference

February 23, 2007

Twenty-five Occidental College students have been accepted for the National Conference on Undergraduate Research (NCUR), an annual spring event in which students showcase their findings at the national level.

The contingent is the largest ever to represent Occidental.

“Participation in NCUR provides a tremendous opportunity for our students to present their outstanding work,” said Chris Craney, director of the Undergraduate Research Center and professor of chemistry. “Over the last decade, undergraduate research has become a signature program at the college involving hundreds of students and the majority of faculty members.”

Craney said the large number of Occidental students invited to NCUR is due in part to Occidental hosting the Southern California Conference for Undergraduate Research (SCCUR) in November. It was the first time since 1996 that the college put on the event. Consequently, students and faculty became more aware of conference opportunities, he added.

Since 2005, a total of 55 Occidental students have been invited to NCUR. This year’s total is greater than that of any other nationally ranked liberal arts college and of the totals at Berkeley (16), UCLA (10), USC (10), Caltech (4), Yale (2), and Stanford (1).

The 21st annual NCUR will be held April 12-14 at Dominican University of California in San Rafael. The conference regularly hosts 2,000 students and their faculty members from colleges and universities across the country. Student presenters are involved in scholarly and artistic activities representing a range of disciplines that include creative arts, mathematics, business, social science, humanities, physical and life sciences, natural resources and engineering.

Since its inception in 1987, NCUR has become a major annual event. Participants hear and discuss undergraduate research through oral presentations, interdisciplinary poster sessions and artistic performances and visual art exhibits. In addition, NCUR presents an opportunity to hear nationally prominent speakers and to discuss educational policy, programs, and funding for undergraduate scholarly work.

Following are the Occidental students accepted to attend (included are hometowns, majors and titles of research projects):

  • Kevin Adler ’07, Livermore, politics: “Social Trust and Civic Engagement in Ferndale, Calif., and Coromandel, New Zealand”
  • Philipos Arsenis ’09, Pleasant Hill, politics: “Privatization of Water Management in Argentina”
  • Sergio Arteaga ’08, Inglewood, diplomacy and world affairs: “How Student and Teacher Expectations and Bias Affects Participation in the English Classroom”
  • Yohualli Balderas ’07, Harbor City, biology: “L-DOPA Induced Abnormal Involuntary Movements in 6-OHDA Lesioned Rats: Towards a Model of Transplant-Induced Dyskinesias”
  • Kevin Batton ’07, Los Angeles, English and comparative literary studies: “Oxy-at-Arms: A Student’s-Eye History of Occidental College in Wartime, 1916-1941”
  • Matt Bonal ’07, Pasadena, English and comparative literary studies: “Zones of Indistinction in Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness”
  • Sara Cohen ’07, Burbank, English and comparative literary studies: “My Jewish Soul: A Memoir in Prose and Poetry”
  • Zinzi Edmundson ’07, Providence, R.I., English and comparative literary studies: “On Not Becoming Too Old for One’s Victories: Authentic Dasein and the Openness to Time in Homer’s Odyssey”
  • Sean Ganley ’07, Burbank, biology: “The Effect of Age on the Development of Abnormal Involuntary Movements in L-DOPA Treated in Parkinsonian Rats”
  • Hana Goldschmidt ’07, Berkeley, biochemistry: “The Critical Role of Glucose-6-Phosphate Dehydrogenase Dimer Interfact: Proteolytic Studies”
  • Mele Ihara ’07, Los Angeles, independent pattern of study: “Pindar & the Joy of Reception in Pythian 8”
  • James Joyce ’07, Short Hills, N.J., Asian studies: “Clashes in Agency and Resonance: Appropriating the Intangible Geisha Image at the Pacific Asia Museum”
  • Zachary Kaplan ’07: “Imaging Homo Sacer: Photography and Bare Life”
  • Shannon Klebe ’07, Redwood City, biology: “Exposure to Depressant Drugs Leads to Neuronal Death Within the Developing Piriform Cortex”
  • Tom Lam ’08, Los Angeles, chemistry: “Study on the Reactions of 1,4-Napthoquinones with Alkanedithiol
  • Katie Marshall ’08, Moscow, Idaho, biology: “On the Taxonomic Status of the Oceanic Reed Frog”
  • Tuan Ngo ’07, Santa Ana, diplomacy and world affairs: “The Politics of Manufacturing Vietnamese Identity in Australia”
  • Nicole Rebec ’07, Pasadena, history/English and comparative literary studies: “From Housing to Home Plate: Chavez Ravine, Cultural Transition, and the Construction of History”
  • Alison Reed ’08, Salt Lake City, English and comparative literary studies: “Evading Culpability in Postmodernist Second Person Fiction: To Whom Does the ‘You’ Refer?”
  • Erin Richey ’07, Medford, Ore., cognitive science: “The Role of Cognates and Homographs in Bilingual Word Recognition”
  • Derek Ross ’08, Los Angeles, chemistry: “An Enantioselective Synthesis of S-(+)-Fluoxetine (Prozac)”
  • Steven Salisbury ’08, Tucson, Ariz., biology: “The Development of Venomous Prey-Capture Mechanisms in the Genus Conus”
  • Nikolai Schweingruber ’07, Mountain View, diplomacy and world affairs: “Perceptions of Healting & Justice in Sierra Leone”
  • Jessica Simes ’08, Los Angeles, critical theory/social justice/sociology: “To What Degree Does Anti-Semitism Among African Americans Simply Reflect Anti-White Sentiment?”
  • Yumi Tomita ’07, San Carlos, biochemistry: “The Knowledge, Attitude and Practice of Herbal Medicines Among Western Medicine Doctors in Hong Kong”