Undergraduate research opportunities open doors for psychology students

March 15, 2010

Psychology students at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater are getting a head start on science careers by conducting laboratory research as undergraduates.

Psychology professor Meg Waraczynski and two of her former students, Jenn Salemme '09 and Ben Farral '08, will publish their research on the mammalian brain system in Behavioral Brain Research, an international, interdisciplinary journal that focuses on behavioral neuroscience. The UW-Whitewater research team studied how rats respond to different stimuli in terms of ranking what demands the most attention in their environment. The study can be linked to drug addiction and how addiction affects the brain's ranking system.

"To have two undergraduate students as authors on a paper like this is unusual," Waraczynski said. "Most of my colleagues who do work like this are at research institutes and the undergraduate students there typically clean cages and feed rats."

Salemme and Farral know the benefits of being published. Salemme, who's doing post-baccalaureate work at the National Institute of Mental Health in Washington, D.C., thinks the experience will help her get into a Ph.D. program.

"It's really pretty awesome; not a lot of undergraduates get published," she said. "It will help me out. Most of the time you have to be published to get into a Ph.D. program."

Waraczynski has been involving motivated students in her research since 1994. Her undergraduate students run the lab's day-to-day operations, something she said is unusual.

"UW-Whitewater offers a lot more opportunities for undergraduate research than most people think, and the opportunity is something you can put on your resume that will get you places," Farral said.

Farral had opportunities to present research at national conferences for both undergraduate- and graduate-level research. He said his research experience has made all the difference as he’s continued his education, working on his master's degree at UW-Madison while also working for Covance, a drug research company in Madison.

"Working with Meg was the biggest help. She's the best mentor you can get," he said.

Waraczynski said that grants help tremendously in funding the research and that contributions from alumnus Roger Ganser '67 have been instrumental for the lab. Salemme received the Roger Ganser Scholarship, an undergraduate research grant, which helped fund the group's rat research.

"Ganser's scholarship goes to biology majors and it's really due in part to his generosity that these students have had the chance to be published in an international journal," Waraczynski said.

The research gave Salemme and Farral the chance as undergraduates to present their work before 30,000 people at the international Society for Neuroscience meeting.

"I'm very proud of all of my students," Waraczynski said. "I'm amazed at what these kids do. I always tell my colleagues, 'You won't believe what they're doing.'"

Waraczynski said that working with the students is not only rewarding through the success of the lab experiences but also through the fresh outlook the undergraduates provide to her.

"As a mentor, undergraduate students keep you on your toes more than graduate or post-graduate students do," she said. "They ask things right out of left field and these questions keep things fresh; they keep me thinking."

It's that fresh way of thinking that makes Waraczynski happy about what she's doing in science.

"I'm encouraged that the next generation is going on; we're leaving a legacy to the field," she said. "I'm sending scientists into the field and that's become more important than the work itself."