Kevin is a Biology major who will graduate in 2019. The major focus of his work is to explore issues at the interface between development and human disease, with a view towards identifying novel points of therapeutic intervention. He works in Dr. Charles Bieberich's lab on the ongoing question of homeobox gene function in mouse development intersected with human prostate cancer with the discovery of the mouse Nkx3.1 gene.

How did you find you mentor? I work with Dr. Charles Bieberich in the Biological Sciences department. I originally came to hear of his research through searches for researching professors in cancer biology at UMBC. I then emailed him and checked by his office persistently until I was able to schedule a time to meet with him.I began researching in cancer biology during a biophysics high school summer internship at the National Institutes of Standards and Technology in radiation dosimetry. I was enthralled by cancer research ever since and knew after meeting Dr. Bieberich that his research in prostate cancer would be a perfect fit for me.

Is this your first independent research? This is my second independent research project with the first being my radiation dosimetry project at the National Institute of Standards and Technology.

How much time do you put into it? I spend about 15 hours an academic week in the laboratory with a 35-hour week during academic breaks and vacations.

How did you hear about the Undergraduate Research Award (URA) program? I heard about the Undergraduate Research Award from my mentors in the Honors College. I am currently preparing my application for the 2018-19 award.

What has been the hardest part about your research? The hardest part of conducting my research is that since I work with mice, I must be available at any given hour during the day to check on the mice and handle any circumstances that may arise from working within a murine model. It becomes difficult at times to manage working in the laboratory and working on schoolwork.

What was the most unexpected thing? The most unexpected thing to occur from working in Dr. Bieberich’s prostate cancer laboratory is that after two years of working in the laboratory, I would be working on proposing a dietary study that involves the surprising link between prostate cancer, diabetes, and obesity. I never thought that diabetes could actually decrease prostate cancer risk.

How does your research relate to your work in other classes? My work in the laboratory relates to many of the laboratory procedures that I learned about in BIOL141, BIOL302, and BIOL303. My newest research in the effects of diet on prostate cancer relate to my Honors College seminar on the science of obesity.

What else are you involved in on campus? I am Treasurer of the Honors College Council, a Red Cross Volunteer, and Student Brand Ambassador for Kaplan Test Prep.

What is your advice to other students about getting involved in research? My advice to other student about getting involved research is to never be too shy to approach a mentor about their research. Mentors are busy and may seem cold at first, but they genuinely do want to teach students about research and inspire students to become involved in research.

What are your career goals? My career goal is to become a professor in cancer biology researching the effects of macromolecule receptors and microtubule stabilizing proteins on cancer progression.

Want to be featured as a Researcher of the Week?
Email aprilh@umbc.edu

Last week on Wednesday, November 8th, the Women’s Center held our final roundtable discussion of our fall series. The theme: Women in Writing. Panelists, moderator, and participants generated a fascinating discussion on the valuation of women as writers, artists, and creators in greater society. Although much of the criticism that was voiced made for a bleak outlook, our panelists passed on enlightening advice for all artists struggling to make a life with their work.

The roundtable began with the moderator (in this case, myself!) presenting some statistics to ground the conversation. Student staff members had done research to discover the representation of women as both content makers and content matter. Some highlights in these statistics include that women have made gains in more bylines from 2011 to 2014, but they still don’t make up even half of the men’s bylines; half of the National Book Award recipients from 2000 to 2014 have been by men and about men; and similarly, more than half of the Pulitzer Prize recipients from 2000 to 2015 have been by men and about men. In adding an intersectional lens to this data, we also find that women’s publications (when they actually happen) are dominated by white women–women of color, as you may have guessed, make up only a small fraction of the women published in both Poetry and The New Yorker. Check out VIDA for even more numbers on this topic.

Panelists (from left to right): Johanna Alonso, Missy Smith, and Tanya Olson

These numbers stressed the need for this conversation, and our panelists delivered many times over. Tanya Olson (poet and faculty in the English Department), Missy Smith AKA QueenEarth (singer/songwriter and coordinator in the Women’s Center), and Johanna Alonso (writer and UMBC student) started strong in their introductions teasing out themes that we would continue unraveling throughout the panel discussion. Some of the major points from the discussion included:

• There is a double standard in today’s literary canon. Women are constantly reading about men and books by men, but men reading books about women/by women is not emphasized in the same way. Johanna brought up, for example, that despite the Hunger Games series popularity, many men in her life refused to read the books because the main character was female (and written by a woman).
• The wealthy heterosexual white male gatekeeper has the power to set mainstream agendas. Many of the panelists agreed that the mainstream art society was a typically masculine space defined by male gatekeepers. When we have those gatekeepers in the form of editors, publishers, producers, etc. they control the agenda, which more often than not does not place value with marginalized creators and their content.
• Despite the harsh landscape, progress is being made. Both Tanya and Missy spoke to the idea that there is plenty in the world that motivates them to continue what they do, and that comes in the form of the other folks like them–people of color, LGBTQ folks, etc.–who are being published, performing, and making careers for themselves. This visibility, to both Tanya and Missy, is crucial not only for them, but for all of the other writers and artists who aspire to grow in their fields. Missy specifically noted that she writes music and performs to empower others to do the same.
• You must value you yourself. In order to do this work, you must value yourself. You must continue to believe in your work and the process of honing your craft. This is the driving factor for all of our panelists. Sparked by a question in the crowd about the devaluation of spoken word poetry versus musicians as art, Missy brought up that you have to stick up for yourself. If, for example, you are the only poet in a lineup of musicians, you need to ask to get the same payout as the musicians, because your art is worth that much.
• The reality is that you are not alone. Although it can feel lonely and exhausting to be one of the only “different” people (women of color, LGBTQ people, immigrants, etc.) in your field, you are not alone. Tanya made this point and noted, as well, that even though it may feel isolating, there is a path for everyone–you just have to find it. For her, this meant finding the person who was one step ahead of her, and looking to them as a model and/or a mentor. Johanna noted that her ambivalence transitioned to enthusiasm in a writing class when she found that she was not the only person writing stories about queer people. Just so, when we find the people who make space for us, we need to take it and make more space for all those who follow.

This rich conversation made clear that although there are many barriers that make women writers and artists journeys more difficult, these also create the richness and depth in their stories. The struggle, in some ways, necessitates the story/song/play/etc. in our world, and that success in writing is the sustained progress we make as we take up space and demand equity in the valuation of our art.

In final words of advice, Johanna encouraged us to venture into the nether regions of the Twitter-verse for obscure literary magazines and to read from those sources. Finding art in the most un-obvious places is a way to constantly learn more. Tanya again noted that mentorship can be key, and to find the person who you want to be–and start there. Finally, Missy took us home: “Failure is stopping. We have to keep moving and focusing on the long-game. It’s okay to be different–in fact it’s better

Further reading:

• Women Write About Family, Men Write About War
• The Most Intersectional VIDA Count Yet Paints A Troubling Picture
• Do Women Get to Write with Authority?
• We Need Diverse Books: Why Diversity Matters for Everyone
• UMBC’s The Retriever review of Women in Writing event

Kourtney Rutkowski is majoring in Mechanical Engineering with a minor in Psychology. She will graduate with her B.S. in May, 2018, and in 2019 she will complete her M.S. as part of the accelerated B.S./M.S. program in Mechanical Engineering. She is also a member of the Honors College, a CWIT Scholar, a Grand Challenges Scholar, and a member of Tau Beta Pi. She is currently conducting research at the Universidade do Porto in Portugal, as the first UMBC student to study in the UMBC/Porto exchange program.

What are your research interests? I am interested in materials, composites, and additive manufacturing with metals and thermoplastics. This research is applicable for many industries, including the aeronautical, energy, defense, and automotive industries.

Describe your project: My current research project is determining a manufacturing strategy for the production of metal/polymer composite sheets. Currently, I am looking at which types of surface treatments are needed to best adhere the polymer, a thermoplastic prepreg, to sheet metal. The conditions in which the prepreg is applied and cured must also be tested, and material characterization will be performed to determine which process would be optimal for production purposes. The reason that this is important is that polymer/metal composite such as these are low in weight but are high enough in strength to replace heavier materials, especially in the transportation industries to improve safety and fuel economy. When I return from Porto, I will join the research team in Dr. Marcus Zupan’s lab, focusing on the development of tools and methodologies for qualifying additively manufactured parts. This research is in collaboration with JHUAPL and PAX River, and can improve the additive manufacturing technologies and part quality.

Who are your mentors and why did you choose them? I work withProfessors Abel Santos and António Torres Marques at the Universidade do Porto. Professor Abel teaches the Global Engineering class on the Porto side, allowing me to meet him from when I took the class in the Fall 2016 semester at UMBC. Professor Torres Marques was introduced to me by Dr. Zupan and is my main research advisor in Porto. Their dedication to the process, helping me get prepared to come to Porto, and helping with the bureaucracy once I arrived has been invaluable. They also introduced me to their labs and graduate students, and have been very helpful in regards to questions involving my research project.

How did you become interested in this project? As an avid outdoorswoman, I’m passionate about finding solutions for the conservation and preservation of our natural resources and mitigating for and adapting to climate change. This led to an interest in renewable energy sources, and using my skills as an engineer to solve problems related to making renewables for more efficient and economical manufacturing.  Through the Global Engineering course, I learned about different international cultures and made some good friends. I also studied abroad in Germany in January and took a course in renewable energy sources in Kassel, Germany. I wanted to study abroad in Porto and open the gate as the first student in the UMBC/Porto collaboration. I worked with Dr. Zupan and Dr. Moreira to complete an application to the Mobile 2+ Erasmus scholarship and was awarded a living stipend, airfare, health insurance, access to cultural events, and opportunities to interact with students from around the world, as well as the engineering faculty from U.Porto.

What has been the most unexpected thing about your experience abroad? I love my time here in Portugal but I have definitely had some mishaps! My second week in Porto a homeless woman stole my jacket at a café, and I still see her wearing it around the downtown area. My first time traveling outside of Porto, I got on the wrong train coming back from Lisbon and got kicked off at a train station in the middle of nowhere because I didn’t have enough cash to pay to the fare. Most recently, I had my mom send me some winter clothes which got held up in the Portuguese customs for a month, but luckily my flatmate lent me some for my travels further North.

What has been the most rewarding part? One of the best things was finally meeting my friends in person were from Porto and I had met through the UMBC Global Engineering course. In that course, students from around the world work in teams on theoretical solutions for global issues. Students interact via Skype and WhatsApp, and for some students, like myself, there were some strong friendships formed across the ocean. Meeting those friends who I had made, as well as making new friends here who are from across the world, has allowed me to learn about a variety of cultures and open my mind more and more every day. Even better, day by day I find myself feeling like a local here in Porto, and know that it will always be a second home for me.

What will you do next with your research? I’m hoping to bring back what I’m learning to Dr. Zupan’s lab and use my experiences as a basis to start my thesis research, which I hope to publish. I will present on my Porto experience and the research I conducted there at URCAD, in April.

What is your advice to other students about getting involved in research? Be flexible and open minded. Don’t be afraid to take risks- say yes to things and take opportunities as they come. Ask for help- make connections and friends wherever you go. Don’t get locked into graduation dates. Studying abroad won’t take any extra time- you can combine it with Master’s work or do it over the summer or winter, so it won’t take time out of your academic schedule, even in a major with successive classes like engineering!  If for some reason it does take extra time, the experience to go abroad is more valuable than graduating in four years. Money is not an issue- there are so many ways to get it paid for and Portugal is really cheap in terms of the cost of living.  My rent is 250 euros a month and includes utilities!  No one looks back and regrets studying abroad and says, “I’m glad I didn’t do that so that I could graduate on time.”

What else are you involved in on campus? Besides the scholar’s programs and honors organizations that I am involved in, I am also involved with numerous other things on campus. I am an Undergraduate Teaching Fellow for the Mechanical Engineering department, which besides simply teaching the students, has also allowed me to meet and mentor the students in the years below me. I also try to work through my scholar’s program, CWIT to be a role model for the young women in engineering who are in the cohorts after me. I volunteer with an organization that holds its state competition here at UMBC named First Lego League (FLL). FLL is STEM competition for elementary and middle school students that helps to introduce them to topics such as engineering, and seeing the passion and intelligence of these students continuously encourages me in the promotion of STEM and fills me with hope for the next generation of engineers. Last but not least, I am a member of UMBC Cru and the UMBC Rock Climbing Club.

Career goals? After completing my M.S., I plan on obtaining a Ph.D. in environmental engineering. I hope to use my education to pursue a career that can create renewable energy solutions to help the environment, and people, in a large-scale way. After a while in industry, I plan on following the path of some of my mentors and becoming a college professor.

Want to know more about research abroad in Porto and other countries? Contact Dr. April Householder at aprilh@umbc.edu

•     Master of Library & Information Science degree (or equivalent ALA accredited degree)
•     Demonstrated ability and interest in providing dynamic library instruction and contributing to a team-based information literacy program
•     Demonstrated ability and interest in the areas of library public services and outreach
•     Demonstrated high-quality written and verbal communication
•     Ability to work effectively independently or as part of a team
•     Ability to initiate and lead projects to completion
•     Interest and/or experience working with diverse populations, particularly students
•     Undergraduate or advanced degree in a humanities discipline preferred
•     Reference experience in an academic library setting preferred
•     Direct teaching or library instruction experience preferred

Want to make Critical Social Justice even better?

Please take a few moments to fill out the following survey about Critical Social Justice: Rise.