This award provides continuing support for a Research Experiences for Undergraduates Site in the Department of Bacteriology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The program will provide an intensive summer research experience for ten undergraduate students in microbiology, molecular biology and related fields. Extra effort will be made to recruit qualified students who are women, minority or disabled, and/or who otherwise have limited research opportunities at their own institution. The main goal of the program is to attract and stimulate motivated students to pursue careers in research, while providing them with hands-on experience. The Department of Bacteriology has an internationally recognized research faculty, committed to both undergraduate and graduate education, who will direct individual laboratory research projects. Participating students will work as part of a dynamic research team investigating basic problems in cellular or molecular biology. Students will become familiar with the research techniques of microbiology, biochemistry, genetics and molecular biology using modern equipment and facilities in the Department of Bacteriology. Students will attend professional seminars and make written and oral presentations of their own research findings The Department has an established record of providing research opportunities for its own undergraduate students and has successfully managed a summer research program for sixty-one students since 1988.
