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Fifteen Brown undergraduates named Royce Fellows for 2003-04
Fifteen undergraduates at Brown University have been appointed to Royce Fellowships for the 2003-04 academic year. The award provides financial support for a project of the student’s choosing and lifetime membership in the Society of Royce Fellows.
PROVIDENCE, R.I. – Fifteen Brown University students have
been named Royce Fellows for the 2003-04 academic year.
The Royce Fellows Program, established at Brown in 1996 by Charles Royce, a
1961 graduate and University trustee, celebrates exceptional academic
performance, creativity, leadership and community service by Brown
undergraduates. Recipients will receive financial support to undertake a
research, curricular or public service project of their choosing, to be carried
out over the summer or during the academic year. The award includes a small
stipend and additional support to meet such project expenses as travel to
conferences, purchase of books, and acquisition of software or research
equipment.
Recipients of the Royce Fellowship are also awarded lifetime membership in
the Society of Royce Fellows, which supports reflection and inquiry by
encouraging members to connect their scholarly work with that of their peers and
faculty sponsors. With the 15 newly announced fellows, the Society’s
membership now stands at nearly 200.
This year’s Royce Fellows their proposed research projects and faculty
sponsors are:
- Joshua Apte, a junior from Berkeley,
Calif.
The Energy and Climate Change Implications of Current and Future Window
Technologies
Recognizing the potential for reducing home energy consumption is limited by
available window design, Apte will evaluate the contributions window
technologies in the United States make to global warming. He will examine
emerging window technologies that can reduce energy consumption and will conduct
a cost/benefit analysis to ascertain the most promising technologies. Sponsor:
Steven Hamburg
- Jennifer Brodsky, a junior from Evanston, Ill.
Motivators and Barriers to Use of Prenatal Care Services in Rural
Honduras
Brodsky will explore why rural Honduran women with similar educational and
socioeconomic backgrounds demonstrate disparate usage rates of prenatal care.
Her research will guide Red Cross health interventions to increase prenatal care
and to improve maternal and child health. Sponsor: Susan Allen
- Julia Glenday, a junior from Durham, N.C.
Preliminary Study of the Potential for Carbon Biotic-Offset Projects in the
Kakamega Forest, Kenya
Glenday will study carbon storage patterns in Kenya’s Kakamega Forest to
evaluate the potential for trading carbon for funding through the Combined
Development Mechanism. Sponsor: Steven Hamburg
- Ethan Horowitz, a junior from Wilmette, Ill.
Beyond the City Limits: The Crisis of Race, Class and the Suburban Dream in
Southern Cook County, Illinois
Through a case study of African-American suburbanization of Southern Cook
County, Illinois, Horowitz will examine racial integration in suburban America
and hypothesize about the state of race and class in suburbia. Sponsor: Marion
Orr
- Anna Knoell, a junior from Phoenix, Ariz.
The Art of the Book and Related Matters
Knoell will examine the book as an instructive, aesthetic and physical object by
focusing on one of its structural elements – its binding. She intends to
produce several sets of four or five original handmade books, each book
exploring the unique history, qualities and possibilities of the binding method
used to construct it. Sponsor: Walter Feldman
- Michael Krawczynski, a sophomore from Northampton, Mass.
Volcanism and Volcanic Processes in Montserrat and Nevis, West Indies
Krawczynski will research the volcanic processes on the island of Nevis. He
hopes his research will contribute to a greater understanding of the timing and
mechanics of magma mixing and magma ascent rates on the island. Sponsor: Malcolm
Rutherford
- Ruth Lindberg, a junior from Cleveland Heights, Ohio
Efficiency vs. Empathy in the Industry of Health: The Use of Pesticides to
Control Infectious Disease in Rural Ecuador
Lindberg will interview women in Loja Province, Ecuador, to determine the extent
of pesticide use in their homes and communities. She will examine the range of
information women are given prior to chemical spraying in their homes and the
extent to which women avail themselves of alternative methods of insect control.
She will help local women learn how to reduce their exposure to pesticides and
to prevent insect-borne disease through alternative methods. Sponsor: Rachel
Morello-Frosch
- Katy Love, a junior from Champaign, Ill.
Those Left Behind: Third-World Women and Migration
In the face of economic necessity, males in rural Costa Rica are often forced to
migrate, leaving women in control of the family and community. Love will examine
how temporary migration disrupts traditional notions of gender by obliging women
to become household heads and community leaders. Sponsor: Paul Buhle
- Brendan O’Keefe, a junior from Prospect Harbor, Me.
Potential Top-down Effects of Gull Predation on Algal Communities in
Intertidal Habitats of the Isles of Shoals, Maine
O’Keefe will study the effects of Great Black-Backed Gulls on intertidal
ecosystems. Specifically, he will investigate how gull predation on the crab
Cancer borealis may cause a significant top-down trophic cascade,
influencing the structure and dynamics in intertidal algal communities. Sponsor:
Jon Witman
- Min Jung Park, a junior from Los Angeles
A Gene in Action: Uncovering the Role of the p27 Gene in Fighting
Disease
Min Jung Park will work on two different mouse strains with hepatitis to examine
the role of the p27 gene in response to hepatitis. Uncovering the mechanism of
the gene’s involvement in immune responses can lead to a better
understanding of the human immune system’s response to injury. Sponsor:
Steven Moss
- David Shean, a junior from Derwood, Md.
Glaciers and Ancient Climates on Mars: Implications for Future
Exploration
Shean will investigate features on Mars that appear to be the result of glacial
processes in the recent geologic past and possibly the present. The implications
of this research range from documenting evidence for Martian climate change to
selecting suitable landing sites for future human and robotic exploration of
Mars. Sponsor: James W. Head III
- Sara Tedeschi, a junior from Livingston, N.J.
Sexual Histories: Tracing the Origins of the Current United States STD
Partner Notification System
Tedeschi will research past and present policies of partner notification for
sexually transmitted diseases, focusing particularly on syphilis. She will draw
conclusions about how the current debates over partner notification began and
project the future of this practice based on its historical context. Sponsor:
Melissa Clark
- Geoffrey Tison, a junior from Santa Ana, Calif.
A Socio-Contextual Evaluation of Barriers and Enablers to Condom Use in
Jingjiang City, China
Tison’s project will consist of a focused assessment of social, cultural
and contextual barriers to condom use/compliance in the Jiangsu Province of
China. Sponsor: Steven McGarvey
- Kartik Venkatesh, a freshman from Dayton, Ohio
Indian-American Festival Documentation
Venkatesh will assemble annotated compilations of Sanskrit rituals and imagery
associated with particular Indian festivals by conducting onsite fieldwork both
domestically and in India. These compilations will contain a thorough
grammatical analysis, comprehensive English translations and accurate
cross-cultural contextual explanations. Sponsor: Peter Scharf
- Tom Wooldrige, a junior from Tupelo, Miss.
Software Verification: Making Elegance Practical
Model checking is a computationally intensive technique used to determine
whether a property is satisfied by a finite state machine. Building on his
previous research, Wooldrige will be investigating intuitive notations for
specifying such properties. He believes that these notations will provide for a
more efficient form of model checking. Sponsor: Shriram Krishnamurthi
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