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Most Universities reserve research opportunities for graduate students. Rejecting this tradition, the Schmid College of Science challenges students, both undergraduate and graduate, to become members of their intellectual communities by engaging in collaborative research with faculty mentors. Below are just a few examples of the many research projects taking place in Schmid College.
Be sure to also read about our student research opportunities and research teams, as well as take a look at our faculty publications.
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Limpet Wrasslin with the Wright Lab
In Dr. Bill Wright's lab, students venture out to nearby coasts to observe the territorial habits of the Lottia gigantea, or limpet. The shy, but ferocious snails only move when the sun is down and can only be examined when the tide is just right. Given the conditions, Wright and his collaborators can witness some of the most lethal territorial behavior in the animal kingdom. Their goal is to study limpet tenacity: How well do limpets hold on to the rock when they are in the middle of dangerous territorial encounters.
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Positive Psychology Through student insights and research, Dr. Shari Kuchenbecker and her collaborators explore the many ways that psychology can improve the quality of daily life. Their combined studies look at ways to increase feelings of life satisfaction, overall happiness, and contributing factors to better futures for all. Popularly called Positive Psychology, they uncover the scientific foundations for increasing multicultural affirmation, supporting personal growth through facing challenges with empathy, and the reciprocal value of helping others. This is just to name a few of the recent studies presented at the Western Psychological Association and American Psychological Association.
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The Loon Project: Territoriality of Common Loons
Since 1993, Dr. Walter Piper has studied how loons gain and defend territories in a study population in northern Wisconsin. His research requires nocturnal capture, marking of loons with colored leg bands for individual identification, and extensive field observation of loons. Recently, he has found that: 1) within a breeding pair, males are the ones that decide where the nest goes, 2) only males gain useful familiarity with a territory as a consequence of choosing the nestsite, and 3) the fatal battles that are a distinctive feature of male contests for territory ownership likely occur because a territorial male accumulates so much crucial information about his territory.
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Environmental Geochemistry Lab Combining laboratory studies, field sampling, and research at X-ray synchrotron facilities, members of the Environmental Geochemistry Lab at Chapman University conduct independent research on current environmental problems involving heavy metals in natural settings.
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Pomegranates and Pancreatic Cancer Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is a devastating disease in which the overall five year survival rate is approximately 3-5%. The diagnosis of pancreatic cancer is usually established at an advanced stage when the majority of patients are not candidates for surgery. Survival is usually limited to patients who had surgery at an early stage of the disease. Non-surgical treatment for pancreatic cancer is generally ineffective due to the resistance of pancreatic cancer cells to chemotherapy and the tumor’s ability to metastasize. Therefore, the understanding of the molecular alterations that occur in this disease will lead to designing better chemopreventive agents as well as therapies.
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