Five of the six 2014-2015 winners of the John and Elsie Mae Ferentz Undergraduate Fellowships for Research presented their original, faculty-mentored research at the Spring Undergraduate Research Festival (SURF) on Thursday, April 9, 2015. In all, SURF comprised more than 130 undergraduate researchers from throughout the University of Iowa. SURF is coordinated by the Iowa Center for Research by Undergraduates, which is part of the Honors Program.

The fellowships were made possible by a gift to the University of Iowa Foundation from Kirk and Mary Ferentz in honor of Kirk’s parents. The awards are given to provide support and encouragement to undergraduate students who conduct research under the guidance of a tenured or tenure-track faculty member in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (CLAS). To be eligible, students must participate in or complete an honors research project, a guided independent-study project, a capstone course, or the Bachelor of Fine Arts degree during the semester of the award.

Following are the 2014-2015 Ferentz Fellows who presented at SURF (Fellow Jake Dillard was not present) and their research abstracts:

Lisa Fasone, Algonquin, Illinois (Major: Human Physiology; Mentor: Melissa Bates, Health & Human Physiology). "Feasibility of treating the narrowing of the branch pulmonary artery with a proposed stent method."

Irina Gass, Deerfield, Illinois (Major: Dance; Mentor: Rebekah Kowal, Dance). "Globalizing Jewish-American Dance: The “New” Israeli Identity." 

Colton Jensen, Waukee, Iowa (Major: Chemistry; Mentor: Lou Messerle, Chemistry). "Synthesis of Novel Dimolybdenum Complexes." 

Jassi Singh, West Des Moines, Iowa. (Major: Health & Human Physiology; Mentor: Mercedes Bern-Klug). "Can an economic theory (Prospect Theory) build our understanding of medical decision making in the nursing home setting?"

Kasra Zarei, Coralville, Iowa (Major: Biochemistry, Biomedical Engineering; Mentors: Michael Abramoff, Ophthalmology, Electrical and Computer Engineering, and Todd Scheetz, Biomedical Engineering). "Assessing Nerve Cell Death in Three Rodent Models of Glaucoma."

More information on the presentations is available here.