Big Questions, Big Experiences - Part 2

 

The Wyoming Research Scholars Program turns undergraduates into full-fledged researchers.

 

By Micaela Myers

 

Improving Earth System Models 
“WRSP gives students an opportunity to start building their research portfolio and allows them to be more competitive both in the job market and in graduate school,” says Department of Atmospheric Science Assistant Professor Daniel McCoy. “It also allows faculty the opportunity to work with really talented Wyoming students, and it allows Wyoming to support exceptional students from the state 
to represent us globally.”

One of the students McCoy works with is Dani Jones of Gillette, Wyo., who graduated last spring with her degree in environmental systems science with minors in math and geology. Jones stayed on in McCoy’s lab as a researcher and plans to pursue her Ph.D.

“I wanted to join WRSP because it gave me ownership in my work,” Jones says. “Because it was self-sustaining, it meant that I could work with almost any professor I wished, since it wouldn’t strain their funding. It also offered support that most other undergraduate research positions don’t such as a competitive hourly rate, funding for conferences and professional development workshops.”

Jones works on a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) project that focuses on improving Earth system models, which are our most advanced computer simulations that represent how the different components of the Earth interact with one another. 

“I compared the outputs from the Energy Exascale Earth System Model to observational values from DOE Atmospheric Radiation Measurement sites,” Jones says. “We looked at cloud microphysical properties that cause uncertainty in predictions of environmental conditions. Better understanding these properties helps us to improve Earth system models, which are used to safeguard public health, homes and agriculture.”

Since completing the WRSP program, Jones’ research has been funded by a grant supported by the DOE’s Atmospheric Systems Research and Earth and Environmental Systems Modeling through the EPSCoR program. Her research even resulted in a scientific paper currently under review.

“We looked at the number of droplets in clouds and the number of a type of particle in the air,” Jones says. “Understanding how the number of droplets changed in the past can be used to understand how the environment will respond to a similar change in the future.”

This work advances scientific understanding, gave Jones hands-on experience and aided the larger research goals of McCoy’s lab.

“Working with Dani was directly beneficial for work being done in my group because she was able to come in and produce professional-quality research that I ended up using as part of our deliverables to the DOE,” McCoy says. “It’s also very rewarding to be able to work with top-notch students and be part of their career trajectory.”

Jones says that McCoy’s mentorship was key to her success. As a newbie, she was given suggestions on research projects and could adapt them to her interests from there.

“I learned a lot about what my research interests were,” she says. “I really liked dealing with the model and cloud physics, and I was a bit less of a fan of using the observational data from the DOE, which is different from what I expected. I also liked the coding and creation of original work. This has affected the type of work that I will look for as I pursue graduate school. After that, I intend on being a researcher for a government agency such as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration or NASA.”

 

Asthma, Inhalers and Ice 
As a member of UW’s Nordic Ski Team, Sean Kraemer became interested in the fact that asthma occurs at a much higher rate in his chosen sport due to the high exertion, the cold temperatures and the poor air quality. He further learned that the necessary use of inhalers has caused debate because of potential doping. 

“There’s a lot of quantitative information, but there wasn’t a lot of qualitative information, and skiers didn’t really have much role in that decision making,” Kraemer says. 

Joining the WRSP program, Kraemer, who came to UW from Evergreen, Colo., studied these issues by interviewing top cross-country skiers who suffer from asthma, all the way up to the head of the International Ski and Snowboard Federation in Switzerland. 

“The majority of interviewed skiers connected air pollution and cold temperature exposure, especially at a young age, with the development and exacerbation of respiratory issues and the subsequent use of inhalers,” Kraemer says. Furthermore, his study revealed gaps in current literature and research on these issues. He also presented his research at a conference in Austria.

Kraemer recently graduated with his environmental systems science, geography and environment and natural resources degrees and stayed on at UW for his master’s degree in geology. 

“WRSP is special for so many reasons,” says Rachel Watson, who worked with Kraemer on the project and serves as the Learning Actively Mentoring Program director and senior faculty development professional for the Science Institute, Science Initiative Programs and Division of Kinesiology and Health. “The No. 1 thing is that it follows the student who’s funded for their entire four years. That vertical potential is very unique for an undergraduate research program. It allows the student to really mature as a scholar. Equally important is that it allows the student to ask their own innovative creative questions and conduct that research from inception to completion. It leads to them graduating with a different set of skills.”

For example, Kraemer knows how to complete Institutional Review Board ethics training, write a grant proposal and much more. He even conducted a second WRSP project on glacial lake outburst floods. 

“WRSP allowed me to have a holistic look at research, where I could see a project go all the way through its completion, instead of just being onboarded for a very specific analysis task,” Kraemer says. 

Having mentorship from his freshman year on has been invaluable, he adds. 

“Mentoring is partly just being present to dialogue as colleagues,” Watson says. “It’s something I deeply value. I learned just as much from Sean as he’s learned from me, I think. It’s absolutely precious to be able to walk alongside someone as they’re exploring, discovering and finding themselves.”

After graduation, Kraemer says his top priority is a job that gives him purpose, something he’s certainly found as a student researcher at UW. 

 

Impacts of Lake Stocking 
Stocking lakes for fishing is a common practice in Wyoming and across the country. But how does stocking impact the broader food web within a reservoir? It’s a question Department of Zoology and Physiology Assistant Professor William Fetzer and his team, including Skyler LaRosa of Moose, Wyo., study.

“What are the indirect effects of this stocking?” Fetzer asks. “One hypothesis we have is that, if you stock, you may create too many predators. Once those stocked fish are gone, these predators are still hungry. Is it negatively affecting native non-game fish?”

That’s a question that intrigued LaRosa, a senior majoring in wildlife and fisheries biology and management. When she began in the lab two years ago, she worked closely with graduate student Tristan Blechinger. After joining WRSP, she was able to propose and design her own research project.

“I’m studying white suckers, which are a really common fish found across the U.S. but especially in these larger reservoirs,” she says. “They make up a really large portion of the fish community, but we don’t really know much about them.”

White suckers are long-lived, and LaRosa is using part of the fish’s inner ear bone, called otoliths, to study each specimen’s age, growth, reproduction and mortality. She can then compare her findings to factors in the larger ecosystem, such as the amount of stocking and the number and types of predators.

Much of LaRosa’s research takes place in reservoirs within the North Platte River drainage, which includes Pathfinder, Alcova, Seminoe and Glendo. She believes white suckers are an indicator species that can reveal a lot about these food webs.

“It’s not just conservation of these native non-game species but considering what it means for managing these fisheries,” Fetzer says.
In the past, he has hired undergraduates in a limited capacity to do basic functions, but WRSP enabled students to become full-fledged researchers and lab members.

“WRSP allows her a lot more freedom and capacity to explore her research ideas,” Fetzer says. He hopes LaRosa’s results will lead to solid pilot data for the Wyoming Game and Fish Department, a publication and graduate school. Already, LaRosa took home a best poster award for her research presentation at a regional fisheries conference, and her independent project will help her stand out on applications.

In addition to the research itself, LaRosa gained big-picture benefits from being a part of WRSP.

“We take a WRSP seminar, and it’s really cool to see what different departments are doing and to talk to other people and get their input,” La Rosa says. “Through WRSP, you get to learn how to do a lot of skills on your own, like doing an actual proposal. We recently did mock interviews. In terms of career development, it’s been really cool to be around all these people who are like-minded and want to go further.”

 

Inside Air Flows 

Most of us have experienced the momentary terror of bad airplane turbulence, felt our car shake as a semitrailer breezed by or caught 
a truck’s draft on the highway, but these air flows are complex and not easily understood. Department of Mechanical Engineering Professor Jonathan Naughton and his team — which includes WRSP undergraduate Jonathan Crider of Sheridan, Wyo. —  study fluid dynamics, aerodynamics, characterization and control of turbulent flows, and wind energy.

“Jonathan is working with the type of instrumentation and in the flows that are characteristic of what we do,” Naughton says. “We take measurements looking at unsteady properties of flows. The amount of data you have to take to characterize that is quite challenging. If we can understand these complicated unsteady flows such as those with turbulence, it builds up that background and understanding. And if we understand them better, we can design things better based on that information.”

After working as a plumber and starting a family, Crider came to UW as a nontraditional student in mechanical engineering with a minor in electrical engineering, “I really wanted to get some hands-on experience with actual engineering disciplines, and I felt that experimental fluids was something that would be fruitful for my education,” he says.

But it turns out, Crider is learning about many other fields as well as part of the WRSP cohort.

“We all meet up, and I get to hear about the green index of Wyoming, constellations in the sky, the habits of bighorn sheep, the structure of leaves and all sorts of interesting research,” he says.

Naughton adds that the funding removes barriers, as faculty often can’t afford to pay undergraduate researchers. “Aside from the monies for research, there’s also money to do things like travel to conferences. That’s another really good source of exposure to what’s out there beyond school,” he says.

At a panel, Crider recently asked an employer what is needed on the job that the person hadn’t learned in school. “The overwhelming answer was they didn’t get real hands-on experience with working with sensors and looking at different physics and applying what they’ve learned,” he says. “The skills I’ve been developing in the lab are really going to help me in whatever avenue I end up going down, whether it’s research or industry.”

To gain that hands-on experience, WRSP students work closely with their mentors, who include at least one faculty member as well as graduate students.

“The mentorship is beneficial in my education and helping me to be a better student and to understand where I’m going and where my education could lead to,” Crider says. “Just having the graduate students and Dr. Naughton to guide the learning process is extremely helpful.”

Naughton says everyone in the research group can benefit. “When you put an undergraduate student in a graduate research environment, it stretches them, so having the mentorship there to help out when questions arise prevents overwhelm. It’s also really good for the graduate students to be exposed to mentoring early on, and they get somebody who’s helping them out with their research.”

Now a senior, Crider is considering becoming a graduate student himself.

 

Dinosaur Discovery
Brayden Green of Marshfield, Mo., was one of those dinosaur-loving kids who knows all of their names. But unlike many youngsters, the passion stayed with him. In fact, it’s what inspired his transfer to UW.

“I’d heard great things about the geology department, and UW is in dinosaur country,” Green says. “Whenever you hear dinosaurs and fossils, you think Wyoming, so it was only natural that I would have to end up here.”

Having already worked in paleontology with his grandfather and at local museums, Green immediately sought out the UW Geological Museum and applied to join WRSP. 

At the museum, Green studies osteoderms — bones set beneath the dinosaur skin that either offered protection or thermoregulation. 

“In the UW fossil collections, we have many osteoderms, but we don’t know where they belong on the animal, nor do we totally know which animal they belong to,” says Museum and Collections Manager Laura Vietti. “So we’re excited about Brayden’s research because it potentially will answer both those questions. He’s doing the methodology and creating the baseline for understanding how to interpret these osteoderms.”

Green uses a CT scanner to study the bones for identification, which is leading to another important area of study.

“There are interesting implications for this methodology,” he says. “Histology, which is just looking at the inside of the bone, requires thin sectioning, which is an intrusive method. CT scanning is not intrusive because you’re just imaging it. I’m interested to see, once I get all my data together, how these two methods compare.”

This fall, Green traveled to his second Society of Vertebrate Paleontology conference to present his research. The WRSP program covers his travel to the conferences, where Green met leaders in the field. 

“I think WRSP is an incredible program because it supports students at all levels,” Vietti says. “In addition to the conferences, it pays for their research time as well as lab analysis equipment. WRSP offers a holistic package for preparing students to conduct research, present their research and then connect to graduate programs.”

Green says that he gained knowledge, methods and connections from WRSP, adding that he highly recommends the program to other students. One of the aspects that makes the program a standout is the one-on-one mentorship. 

“I certainly wouldn’t be where I am now without the help of Dr. Vietti,” Green says. “She’s been great, helped me a ton with doing my posters and whenever I’m in a bit of a rut.”

Vietti says: “WRSP gives me that platform on which to mentor. It allows me not to worry about funding for equipment or travel but to instead focus on the student, and it allows the student to also focus on the research.”

After graduation, Green plans to pursue graduate school and to continue in the research field as well as to educate future generations on paleontology.

 

Click here for Big Questions, Big Experiences - Part 1