Select UM students to research in Nashville

Seven honors students will travel to the Capitol to share a variety of independent research with state legislators.

They were chosen along with 52 other undergraduates in Tennessee to participate in the sixth annual "Posters at the Capitol" event at the Tennessee state Capitol Feb. 8.

Colton Cockrum, assistant director of the Helen Hardin Honors Program, said the event is a great way to promote undergraduate research to state legislators.

"The Tennessee Board of Regents believes that by holding this competition, they will be able to showcase the top undergraduate researchers from each university," he said.

Cockrum said the real-life experience of this event can prove beneficial to students.

"They'll not only be traveling and meeting with legislators from their districts, but they'll also be representing The U of M, its honors program and their chosen departments," he said.

University of Memphis students attending include Jonathan Bennett, C.J. Hatch, Melanie Sparks, Caroline Melton, Aaron Turner, Kevin Newton and Omar Tamula.

Newton, a senior psychology major, said being selected to present his research is one of the highest honors of his undergraduate career.  

 "Research is time consuming," he said. "It is, of course, worth it, but the time needed is much more than I thought."

Daniel Baker, assistant chemistry professor, said he has been working with senior chemistry major Sparks on her project since the summer during a Research Experience for Undergraduates program.

"Melanie is contributing to a larger project aimed at the rational identification and characterization of novel drugs that target cancer and inflammatory diseases," he said.

Bennett, senior political science major, said the inspiration for his research came from a paper he wrote as a sophomore on why European countries did and did not adopt the Euro as their official currency. The paper was published in an undergraduate journal.

Matthias Kaelberer, chairman of the political science department, said he volunteered to be Bennett's faculty mentor after they had a discussion about his research one day.

"Jonathan has always had an overlapping interest in European monetary units," he said. "I believe his research will shed some light on the significance of central bankers' adaptation to the Euro."

While his research focuses primarily on the economic outcomes of Europe and the political choices that led to them, Bennett hopes it will add to even more research on how to prevent debt crises everywhere.

"It's really helped me understand what I would like to study in the future," he said. "I think it will make a very impressive addition to my resume when I apply for graduate school."