Terrence Murray Professorship Expands Undergraduate Research in Biology at UMass Amherst
Jan. 21, 2009
| Contact: | Daniel J. Fitzgibbons 413/545-0444; Priscilla Clarkson, 413/545-3902 |
AMHERST, Mass. – Through the support of the Terrence Murray Professorship at the University of Massachusetts Amherst’s Commonwealth College, Patricia Wadsworth of the biology department is developing a course that will guide senior honors biology students to design and execute their thesis experiments.
Wadsworth was recently named to the Murray Professorship, established in 2002 by the FleetBoston Financial Foundation in honor of its chairman to expand academic opportunities for honors students. “Professor Wadsworth’s new courses will dramatically expand research opportunities for honors students in biology,” says Priscilla Clarkson, dean of Commonwealth College, the honors college at UMass Amherst. The professorship is awarded competitively on a rotating basis to distinguished UMass Amherst faculty.
Students in the course will use new technology to examine the process of mitosis, or cell division. Cells divide millions of times each day in the human body and errors in that division can lead to disease. Using similar biological methods—fluorescent “tags” and light microscopy to track proteins—students will address questions of their own design. In the first semester, they will explore the most current literature on mitosis, develop testable hypotheses, and learn the molecular genetic steps necessary to tag the proteins of interest. In the second semester, they will learn to use light microscopy equipment, culture live cells, use the genetic tools they developed in the first semester, and generate and analyze original data. Demand is expected to be high for the year-long sequence, according to Clarkson.
“The Murray Professorship demonstrates how private philanthropy enriches our students’ academic experience,” says Charlena Seymour, provost at UMass Amherst. “This professorship honors our distinguished faculty and has resulted in innovative research projects for undergraduates.”
The first Murray Professorship was awarded to Arthur Keene of the anthropology department, who developed the course “The Ethnography of Us,” in which students researched their peer group to determine what faculty needed to know about their students to create a more effective teaching and learning environment. The students shared their findings with each other and faculty.
Commonwealth College is the honors college at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. It provides an affordable alternative for the state’s highest-achieving students, and is known for its small classes and emphasis on undergraduate research. Students in the college can pursue any of the undergraduate degrees offered at UMass Amherst. Its most recent incoming class of 610 freshmen achieved an average SAT critical reading and math score of 1320 and ranked in the top 5 percent of their high school class. The college is celebrating the 10th anniversary of its first incoming class this year.
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