Twenty Occidental College students presented their work at the 2011 National Conference on Undergraduate Research held at Ithaca College in New York from March 31 through April 3.
The students have been conducting research in fields ranging from neuroscience to international studies to literature.
Faculty-mentored undergraduate research is a signature program of Occidental, and has attracted national attention. The number of Oxy presenters this year was more than the number of student researchers from Harvard, UCLA, Berkeley, and Johns Hopkins combined. Over the past six years, 170 Occidental student researchers have been invited to the NCUR. The conference, which began in 1987, now hosts 2,000 students and their faculty mentors from colleges and universities across the country.
The invited students--whose majors include chemistry, kinesiology, English and comparative literary studies, and art history--gave talks or displayed posters about their research. Topics included combating sex trafficking in India; stem cell pathways in the brains of people with Parkinson's disease; an analysis of the life and work of Mel Brooks and Woody Allen; empowering women through running in Ethiopia; and a government-protection program for artisanal cheese in Switzerland.
