SURE

Past SURE Projects

Students who are selected to participate in SURE work one-on-one with a faculty mentor on a new or developing line of research in the natural sciences or mathematics. SURE research activities are expected to contribute in a meaningful way to the education of the student and to the research agenda of the faculty mentor.

Research Areas

In past years, SURE participants have:

  • Designed and built biofilm detectors.
  • Developed adaptive optics demonstrations for museum installations.
  • Studied the long-term effects of fluoxetine exposure on the third-trimester rats.
  • Developed low-cost seismic monitoring stations.
  • Studied molecular micelles.
  • Designed and built fiber-optic neural probes.
  • Discerned patterns of variability in winter temperatures across the Great Lakes Basin.
  • Studied the effects of oxytocin on object recognition tasks in rats and its relation to autism
  • Studied computational fluid dynamics modeling of an inertial particle separator in microgravity
  • Used GIS to find high priority neighborhoods for lead-free efforts.
  • Investigated the motional dynamics of drug molecules bound to molecular micelles
  • Studied the effects of salt pollution on local fungi

SURE 2010 Projects

The following student-faculty teams were awarded SURE grants for the summer of 2010:

  • Amber Bakkum, '12 — Physics, Prof. Kevin Crosby, Computational Modeling of Slosh Dynamics in the Orion Service Module Downstream Propellant Tank.

  • Brianne Birsa, '11 — Biology, Prof. Deanna Byrnes, Bat Ecology: Acoustic Monitoring of Local Bat Activity

  • Susan Craig, '11 — Chemistry, Prof. Kevin Morris, Identifying the Intermolecular Interactions Responsible for Chiral Recognition in Drug/Micelle Mixtures

  • John Egner, '13 — Biology, Prof. Deanna Byrnes, Bat Evolution: Building the Molecular Phylogeny of Dobsonia

  • Kyle Enot, '11 — Biology/Environmental Science, Prof. Tracy Gartner, Algae as a potential bioremediation tool for atrazine

  • Amanda Faint, '11 — Physics, Prof. Julie Dahlstrom, High Resolution Spectroscopic Studies of the Diffuse Interstellar Bands: The Fullerene Hypothesis

  • Katie Gast, '11 — Biology, Prof. Dan Choffnes, Characterization of Potential Endocrine Disrupting Compounds in the Southeastern Wisconsin Water

  • Adam Glover, '12 — Environmental Science, Profs. Scott Hegrenes and Tracy Gartner, Invasive Species Working Group

  • Tim Hamerly, '11 — Chemistry, Prof. Kevin Morris, Using NMR Spectroscopy to Study the Motional Dynamics of Chiral Molecules

  • Cassandra Kawell, '11 — Computer Science, Prof. Mark Mahoney, Software Evolution and the Moving Picture Metaphor

  • Stacy Kosinski, '12 — Biology, Prof. Dan Choffnes, Characterization of Potential Endocrine Disrupting Compounds in the Southeastern Wisconsin Water

  • Amy Macemon, '12 — Biology, Prof. Deanna Byrnes, Bat Ecology: Acoustic Monitoring of Local Bat Activity

  • Sarah Marble, '11 — Chemistry, Prof. Kevin Morris, Investigating the Association of Drugs and Chiral Micelles using NMR Spectroscopy

  • Alexandra Matzinger, '11 — Biology, Prof. Deanna Byrnes, Bat Ecology: Acoustic Monitoring of Local Bat Activity

  • Jennifer Nicklaus, '11 — Physics, Prof. Julie Dahlstrom, A Catalogue of Diffuse Interstellar Bands in the Near Infrared

  • Marie Pichler, '11 — Environmental Science, Profs. Scott Hegrenes and Tracy Gartner, Invasive Species Working Group

  • Anne Pioppo, '12 — Biology, Prof. Daniel Choffnes, Characterization of Potential Endocrine Disrupting Compounds in the Southeastern Wisconsin Water

  • Bill Quade, '11 — Environmental Science, Profs. Scott Hegrenes and Tracy Gartner, Invasive Species Working Group

  • Leann Quertinmont, '11 — Chemistry, Prof. Timothy Eckert, Syntheses and NMR Explorations of Enantioselective NMR Shift Reagents

  • David Reis, '11 — Psychology/Neuroscience, Prof. Dan Miller

  • Isaac Rothenbaum, '11 — Computer Science, Prof. Mark Mahoney, Software Evolution and the Moving Picture Metaphor

  • Kimberly Schultz, '12 — Physics, Prof. Kevin Crosby, Computational Modeling of Slosh Dynamics in the Orion Service Module Downstream Propellant Tank

  • Coty Tatge, '12 — Physics, Prof. Julie Dahlstrom, A Catalogue of Diffuse Interstellar Bands in the Near Infrared

  • Douglas Vodnik, '13 — Physics, Prof. Kevin Crosby, Mechanical Properties of Single-walled Carbon Nanotubes

  • Morgan Wiechmann, '12 — Environmental Science, Profs. Scott Hegrenes and Tracy Gartner, Invasive Species Working Group

Social Science Summer Research Program

The following students were selected to participate in the Social Science Summer Research Program:

  • Ian Brodie, '11
  • Jessica Conderman, '11
  • Andrea Leschewski, '11
  • Brian Zielinski, '11

SURE 2009 Projects

The following student-faculty teams were awarded SURE grants for the summer of 2009:

  • Elizabeth Dickinson, '10, Chemistry, Professor Kevin Morris
  • Lori Kollath, '11, Biology, Professor Elaine Radwanski
  • Christine Konecki, '11, Chemistry, Professor C.J. Stephenson
  • Zawadi Mageni, '11, Geography and Earth Science, Professor Julio Rivera
  • Michael Maher, '11, Chemistry, Professor C.J. Stephenson
  • Laura Neubauer, '10, Biology, Professor Thomas Carr
  • Scolastica Njoroge, '12, Biology, Professor Dan Choffnes
  • Jo Bartel, '10, Neuroscience, Professor Daniel Miller
  • Erin Zimmerman, '11, Chemistry, Professor Kevin Morris

In addition to these students, the following students were funded by external grants:

  • Isa Fritz, '10, physics, Professor Kevin Crosby
  • Katelyn Hartstern, '10, Chemistry, Professor Kevin Morris
  • Samantha Miller, '10, Environmental Science/Biology, Professors Tracy Gartner, Scott Hegrenes
  • Marie Pichler, '11, Environmental Science/Biology, Professors Tracy Gartner, Scott Hegrenes