{"id":92910,"date":"2022-07-19T11:30:56","date_gmt":"2022-07-19T15:30:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/news\/?p=92910"},"modified":"2025-07-22T09:29:11","modified_gmt":"2025-07-22T13:29:11","slug":"students-faculty-collaborate-on-research-during-summer-science-institute","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/news\/2022\/07\/19\/students-faculty-collaborate-on-research-during-summer-science-institute\/","title":{"rendered":"Students, Faculty Collaborate on Research During Summer Science Institute"},"content":{"rendered":"

To the untrained eye it was just an ordinary leaf, a speck in a mass of summer green on an edge of the University of Mary Washington campus.<\/p>

But on a hot July morning, biology major Tessa Lanzafame spotted something interesting, a tiny green caterpillar that appeared to be gnawing. With a snip of her scissors, Lanzafame collected the leaf and the insect, then marked the location on a Google map.<\/p>

\"Biology
Biology major Tessa Lanzafame inspects a leaf for evidence of insects. She worked with Assistant Professor of Biology Josephine Antwi to learn what herbivorous insects and host plants are present on the UMW campus. (Suzanne Carr Rossi photo.)<\/figcaption><\/figure>

It was part of Lanzafame’s summer research with Assistant Professor of Biology Josephine Antwi, one project among 19 conducted during the 2022 UMW Summer Science Institute (SSI). The annual 10-week institute, in which students and faculty collaborate on research, concludes tomorrow – Wednesday, July 20 – with a public symposium. Student researchers will share their findings via poster or oral presentation from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. in the Digital Auditorium of the Hurley Convergence Center.<\/p>

It’s the 23rd<\/sup> year of the program at Mary Washington. Earlier this summer, UMW introduced the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences Summer Institute<\/a> (AHSSSI) inspired by the Summer Science Institute.<\/p>

Lanzafame, a Suffolk native who will graduate in 2023, has spent many hours scouring campus for larval leaf-chewing or gall-making insects, then monitoring and documenting their maturation in temperature-controlled growth chambers at the Jepson Science Center.<\/p>

With Antwi, she’s determining the insect species present and their specific plant hosts. She’ll continue the research during the academic year, with the eventual goal of publication.<\/p>

The chance to publish collaboratively is one part of the appeal to student participants, who are generally asked by faculty to apply for specific SSI projects and who receive a stipend for their work. Just as important is the chance to do meaningful, professional-quality work under scientifically rigorous conditions.<\/p>

“Internships are nice, but nothing can really teach you as much as doing a project from start to finish,” said Curtis Kasiski ’22, a Woodbridge native who’s working with Antwi to determine the dietary diversity of three species of bumble bees in rural, suburban and urban areas in the Fredericksburg region. “This teaches you so many things you don’t learn in a laboratory setting.”<\/p>

\"Student <\/a>
Student researchers Carolyn Willmore and Talia Tanner seine fish (a method of fishing that employs a net) for banded killfish near a Virginia power plant. They worked with Assistant Professor of Earth and Environmental Sciences Tyler Frankel. #MaryWashDay #TogetherUMW <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Student <\/a>
Student Shreya Murali researches cancer cell death by proton pump inhibitors. She worked with Associate Professor of Chemistry Randall Reif. <\/div> <\/div>
\"Assistant <\/a>
Assistant Professor of Earth and Environmental Sciences Pamela Grothe works with students Emmy Herrity and Jacob Cantor on using coral to gauge historic temperature patterns. <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>

Other students this summer are conducting similarly challenging and interesting research across a variety of STEM disciplines.<\/p>

The students who are selected by a panel of judges for the best research presentation and poster will each receive a scholarship award through the John C. and Jerri Barden Perkins ’61 College of Arts and Sciences Student Research Endowment. (Read about this year’s winners!)<\/a><\/p>

This year’s SSI students, their faculty mentors and project titles, are:<\/p>