ANN ARBOR—While most students are cramming for end-of-term papers and exams, three University of Michigan undergraduates will be in Washington, D.C., this week to present their research and lobby congressional members about the importance of undergraduate education. The students will participate in a poster session on Capitol Hill on Thursday (March 29), displaying their research, and having personal meetings with senators and representatives from their home districts.

“We were really lucky this year,” said Sandra Gregerman, U-M director of the Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program. “Out of the 60 students from around the country attending the session, three students are from the U-M, so proportionately, we did extremely well, which speaks of the quality of the work Michigan students do.”

U-M students submitted research abstracts months ago for U-M faculty members to review before submitting them to the Council on Undergraduate Research, a national organization based in Washington which sponsors the program.

“They’ve prepared posters on their research that will be on display in the Foyer of the Rayburn House Office Building,” said Gregerman.

U-M sophomore Laura Breymann of Okemos, Mich., is working on re-growing a bone. “Right now the main two ways to do it are through bone graphs and synthetic replacements, but we’re trying a different method, to preload cells into biomedical structures that are then loaded into the body.” Breymann’s faculty adviser is Prof. Scott Hollister in the Department of Biomedical Engineering.

Breymann personally invited Sens. Debbie Stabenow and Carl Levin to attend the poster session and meet with her. Breymann was “so surprised because after a week, Stabenow’s office called me back saying that the senator would really like to meet with me.” U-M senior Brian Debosch of Ann Arbor will present his research on glucose transport in the retina, which could play an early role in diabetic retinopathy, the leading cause of blindness in the United States. He is developing his project along with Prof. Arno Kumagai from the internal medicine department.

“More importantly than simply presenting the research we as individuals did, we are going to D.C. to show legislators the need for funding undergraduate research because it plays a major role in many lives,” Debosch said.

The poster prepared by U-M junior Sarah Hansen from Concord, Mass., is titled “Galaxy Clusters and the Butcher-Oemler Effect.” Her research examines the evolution of spiral and elliptical galaxies. Her data comes from Sloan Digital Sky Survey, “a mapping of the northern sky, probably the most detailed map astronomers have ever made,” Hansen said.

Hansen says she is thankful for her research opportunities at U-M and thinks federal funding is essential because “for me personally, this research has made me realize that I want to get a Ph.D. in astrophysics.” She has been developing her research with Prof. Timothy McKay through the physics department.

While lobbying for undergraduate research, U-M students also will have the opportunity to attend sessions on learning the legislative process in the United States.

EDITORS: For more information on students attending the trip and involved in the U-M Undergraduate Research Program, contact Sandra Gregerman at: (734) 647-2768.

Undergraduate Research Opportunity ProgramCouncil on Undergraduate ResearchScott HollisterArno KumagaiSloan Digital Sky SurveyTimothy McKay