Psychology Students Sample a Taste of The Future in San Francisco
Robert Frank, associate dean for research and graduate studies, recalls his first professional meeting as an undergraduate senior as a "life-changing experience." This summer, eight psychology students sampled that feeling during the International Symposium on Olfaction and Taste (ISOT) in San Francisco, where each was an author on a poster presentation.
(Media-Newswire.com) - Robert Frank, associate dean for research and graduate studies, recalls his first professional meeting as an undergraduate senior as a "life-changing experience."
This summer, eight psychology students sampled that feeling during the International Symposium on Olfaction and Taste ( ISOT ) in San Francisco, where each was an author on a poster presentation.
Senior Melinda Brearton says she has a new perspective about research she has been doing in the Smell and Taste lab. She left the conference, she notes, with a greater appreciation for experimental psychology.
"Before the conference I had a hard time seeing my research as having much practical application," says Brearton, first author on a poster on odor memory and cognition.
"I was aware of how my work could fit into having a better understanding of odor identification and memory but I couldn't help but feel that the work I was doing was very narrowly focused and didn't have much value beyond Dyer Hall … I got to see firsthand how every little bit of research fits together to create a clearer picture of the larger subject being studied."
Erica Mannea, also a senior, was first author on a poster on odor perception and aging.
"Working firsthand with participants, statistical analysis and interpreting results are just a few things that will be useful in graduate school and in a career as a psychologist," she says.
"After reading various articles from 'big names' in the field, it was just amazing to be able to interact with them in person."
That's just how Frank felt years ago at his first conference.
"I met a number of the big names in the field and I could actually carry on a conversation about their research, and mine," he says. "It was incredible! Watching my students have this same experience is very, very satisfying. And they did quite well. "
Other students attending were:
• Jason Bailie: Graduate student supported by NIH funding in Frank's lab and winner of a National Institute of Aging travel fellowship to the meeting – the only person given this award who was not an MD or PhD. Bailie first-authored a poster on better understanding sense loss in older adults. • Konstantin Rybalsky: Graduate student in Frank's lab; first author of poster on odor memory and cognition. • Brittany Carlisle: Undergrad research assistant and poster author. • Katie Pointer: Undergrad research assistant supported on minority travel grant from ISOT. • Katie Vander Griff: Undergraduate research assistant and poster author. • Briana Wallace: Undergraduate research assistant and poster author.
Also making the trip were Bob Gesteland, professor emeritus of cell biology, who received the Max Mozell Lifetime Achievement Award at the meeting; Mary Beth Genter, Environmental Health, who gave a symposium talk about environmental toxins and the olfactory system; Jenny Tong from Internal Medicine, who is working with students on olfaction and appetite; and Carolina Reisenman, who will join the Department of Biology in 2009 as an assistant professor of biology.
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