Research symposium honors senior scientists

How does a concerned ecology and evolutionary biology (EEB) major communicate the perils that green sea turtles face on a daily basis? Nicholas Lilly '07 confronted the issue in his EEB thesis, a novel portraying the issue in the context of a fictional Caribbean community, fusing it with the creative writing interests that he pursued with equal enthusiasm.

"I wanted to show that this was an important part of science, to communicate research to people who are not scientists," Lilly said.

Lilly was one of the 52 undergraduates who presented their research at yesterday afternoon's Undergraduate Research Symposium. Topics ranged from an investigation of HIV epidemic denials in South Africa to studies on bacterial identification of consumer products that mimic estrogen on a biochemical level.

The symposium was co-chaired by Tianhui Li '07 and Lester Mackey '07, who redeveloped the project with tips from alumni who organized it in 2004 and 2005, before it was abandoned last year.

Mackey spoke of the difficulties faced in recruiting faculty to act as judges of student research in the symposium. "By far the most difficult thing was obtaining professors as volunteers, who were doing so many things already that made it difficult [for them] to come out," he said.

The research projects and accompanying presentations were evaluated by a set of judges and were divided into three research categories: molecular biology, non-molecular biology and engineering. President Tilghman congratulated all the participants before announcing the evening's awards.

Alison Ralph '07 won in the molecular biology category, which attracted about 21 participants, for her study of the viral infection patterns along the neurons of nematodes, or roundworms. She also won the People's Choice Award, which was decided by votes of the symposium's audience.

"This [award] was just a bonus, I really enjoyed my project and the chance to do my senior thesis on this," Ralph said.

Sara Piaskowy '07, a civil and environmental engineering major, won the Engineering Award and the symposium's Grand Prize for her research in bayside flooding in low elevation regions of Seaside Park, N.J., resulting from their proximity to overflowing storm sewers.

Jennifer Andresen '07 won the Non-Molecular Biology Award for her project on the relationship between children's adaptive style and medically unexplained symptoms.

Poster presentations of the research were immediately followed by a keynote address by visiting Center for Human Values and psychology professor Jonathan Haidt from the University of Virginia.

"We wanted someone who could speak on a topic accessible for many people, someone who could show what could be done with a career in the sciences, someone who has achieved great success and someone who could make an inspirational speech to future scientists," Tianhui said.

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Haidt delivered a speech to a small group of participants, faculty and community members entitled, "A New Synthesis in Moral Psychology, Evolution, Intuition, and Even Politics."

Haidt refuted previous theories that based moral values around reason, claiming that they are first influenced by emotional cues. He added that people have an innate moral predisposition based on a possible genetic component.

His lecture focused on psychological analysis to describe the beliefs held by liberals and conservatives. Haidt said that liberals focus on two values — "kindness and fairness" — while conservatives base their moral value system on kindness, fairness, authority, group loyalty and purity.

"There are five evolved foundations of morality, most cultures build on all five, but liberals have limited down to two foundations," Haidt said.

The symposium was sponsored by the Engineering School, the Center for Mid-Infrared Technologies for Health and Environment, the Council on Science and Technology, Princeton's chapter of Tau Beta Pi and the Institute of Electric and Electronics Engineers.

"I got interested in [the program] because I wanted to be a researcher," said Dede Ukueberuwa '07, who sat on the symposium's student board. "I had heard of a similar program at a different school, and I thought, 'Why doesn't Princeton have something like this?' It's the only research symposium here with students from multiple departments."