UIC UNDERGRADS RECEIVE NEUROSCIENCE FELLOWSHIPS

The University of Illinois at Chicago's Laboratory of Integrative Neuroscience recently announced fellowships for three undergraduate students for research projects to be conducted during the spring and summer sessions.

Funded by the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, the fellowship program was begun last year by Christopher Comer, biology professor and director of the Laboratory of Integrative Neuroscience.

"This is a wonderful opportunity," said Comer. "These undergraduates will be working with highly interactive faculty, postdoctoral and graduate students in exciting new interdisciplinary fields."

The fellowships are chosen from a field of highly qualified applicants and allow talented undergraduates to participate in research with faculty from any of the participating departments including biological sciences, psychology or philosophy.

The students are:

• Shripal Bahvsar, class of 2001, who will conduct research in the psychology department
• Mark Craig, class of 2001, who will conduct research in the philosophy department
• Manisha Patel, class of 2001, who will conduct research in biological sciences

The Laboratory of Integrative Neuroscience, one of the first of its kind in the nation, brings together faculty, postdoctoral associates and students from the departments of biological science, philosophy, psychology and others to engage in research and scholarship on bioethics, sensory systems, sensorimotor integration and other neuroscience-related topics.

"One cannot be a responsible philosopher," says Professor Marya Schectman, who helped Comer and others create the Laboratory of Integrative Neuroscience's unique interdisciplinary approach, "without a knowledge of neuroscience and understanding what the mind's relation is to the body. [For years] we were hungry for contact with people in the neurosciences."

With 25,000 students, the University of Illinois at Chicago is the largest and most diverse university in the Chicago area. UIC is home to the largest medical school in the United States and is one of only 88 national Research I universities. Located just west of Chicago's Loop, UIC is a vital part of the educational, technological and cultural fabric of the area.

-UIC-