Andi Zhang, one of the 24 fellows in the 2017 Undergraduate Summer Research Fellowship (UGSRF) program through the American Physiological Society (APS), is spending her summer in the research laboratory of Irving H. Zucker, Ph.D., professor and chair of the UNMC Department for Cellular/Integrative Physiology.
A 2016 graduate of Omaha Burke High School, Zheng plans to attend the University of Nebraska at Omaha in the fall.
Fellowship recipients spend the summer in the laboratory of an established scientist and APS member. The UGSRF program recruits undergraduate students worldwide. Fellows are selected based on academic merit, the quality of the proposed experience and the availability of appropriate faculty mentors. Fellows must have fewer than nine months of research experience in a lab to be eligible. Special consideration is given to applicants whose socioeconomic background, access to educational opportunities and other life experiences suggest they would especially benefit from this type of program.
Each fellow receives a $4,000 stipend during their 10-week research experience and an additional $1,300 in travel funds to present his or her research at the APS annual meeting at Experimental Biology 2018 in San Diego, which is expected to attract nearly 14,000 attendees. Research hosts receive $300 for student lab supplies.
UGSRF Fellows will participate in hands-on research and learn to develop a hypothesis, design and troubleshoot experiments, collect and analyze data, and write and present results. In addition, fellows will have the opportunity to:
- network with other APS Fellows interested in and conducting biomedical or basic research;
- explore the nature of research and the scientific process;
- investigate physiology career options and what it takes to find career success;
- learn about scientific writing and draft a meeting abstract;
- learn about common ethical issues in figure and text preparation; and
- pose their career questions to members of the APS Advisory Board and APS Career Opportunities in Physiology Committee.