Penn Undergraduate Research Mentoring Program Project Descriptions Summer 2018. Please read this before proceeding to project listings! Application and instructions are here: http://www.upenn.edu/curf/research/grants/purm Unless otherwise noted, current 1st year students and sophomores may apply for any listed project. Students are encouraged to learn more about faculty interests by reviewing faculty webpages and recent publications to determine your interest level in particular projects. You never know where you might find a project that interests you! While projects are listed by primary department, many of them are interdisciplinary in nature. We suggest that you use keyword searches in this document to identify additional projects that would be of interest to you. Students should NOT contact faculty about their projects until contacted for an interview or the PURM selection process has been completed. Return to top of document Table of Contents Arts and Sciences ..................................................................................... 5 ANTHROPOLOGY ............................................................................................................................... 5 BIOLOGICAL BASIS OF BEHAVIOR .............................................................................................. 7 BIOLOGY ............................................................................................................................................... 8 CHEMISTRY........................................................................................................................................ 16 CLASSICAL STUDIES ....................................................................................................................... 20 EARTH AND ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE ................................................................................ 21 ECONOMICS ....................................................................................................................................... 25 ENGLISH .............................................................................................................................................. 26 HISTORY .............................................................................................................................................. 32 HISTORY & SOCIOLOGY OF SCIENCE ....................................................................................... 34 LINGUISTICS ...................................................................................................................................... 34 MUSIC ................................................................................................................................................... 39 NEAR EASTERN LANGUAGES AND CIVILIZATIONS ............................................................. 40 PHILOSOPHY, POLITICS AND ECONOMICS ............................................................................. 41 PHYSICS ............................................................................................................................................... 42 POLITICAL SCIENCE ....................................................................................................................... 49 PSYCHOLOGY .................................................................................................................................... 56 RELIGIOUS STUDIES ....................................................................................................................... 64 ROMANCE LANGUAGES ................................................................................................................. 65 RUSSIAN AND EAST EUROPEAN STUDIES ................................................................................ 66 SOCIOLOGY........................................................................................................................................ 68 Dental Medicine ..................................................................................... 69 ANATOMY AND CELL BIOLOGY.................................................................................................. 69 ORAL MEDICINE ............................................................................................................................... 69 PATHOLOGY ...................................................................................................................................... 70 PERIODONTICS ................................................................................................................................. 71 Design ...................................................................................................... 73 ARCHITECTURE................................................................................................................................ 73 CITY PLANNING ................................................................................................................................ 76 Return to top of document 2 Return to top of document Education ................................................................................................ 78 LITERACY, CULTURE, AND INTERNATIONAL EDUCATION .............................................. 78 TEACHING, LEARNING, & LEADERSHIP ................................................................................... 81 Engineering and Applied Sciences ....................................................... 84 BIOENGINEERING ............................................................................................................................ 84 CHEMICAL AND BIOMOLECULAR ENGINEERING ................................................................ 89 COMPUTER AND INFORMATION SCIENCE .............................................................................. 89 ELECTRICAL & SYSTEMS ENGINEERING ................................................................................ 93 MATERIALS SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING .............................................................................. 97 MECHANICAL ENGINEERING AND APPLIED MECHANICS .............................................. 101 Law ........................................................................................................ 104 Medicine ............................................................................................... 106 ANESTHESIOLOGY AND CRITICAL CARE .............................................................................. 106 BIOCHEMISTRY & BIOPHYSICS ................................................................................................ 111 BIOSTATISTICS, EPIDEMIOLOGY AND INFORMATICS ...................................................... 113 CANCER BIOLOGY ......................................................................................................................... 117 CARDIOVASCULAR MEDICINE .................................................................................................. 119 CELL AND DEVELOPMENTAL BIOLOGY ................................................................................ 123 DERMATOLOGY.............................................................................................................................. 123 EMERGENCY MEDICINE .............................................................................................................. 125 FAMILY & COMMUNITY HEALTH ............................................................................................ 127 GENETICS ......................................................................................................................................... 128 MEDICAL ETHICS AND HEALTH POLICY ............................................................................... 133 MEDICINE ......................................................................................................................................... 137 MICROBIOLOGY ............................................................................................................................. 145 NEUROLOGY .................................................................................................................................... 146 NEUROSCIENCE .............................................................................................................................. 157 NEUROSURGERY ............................................................................................................................ 162 OBSTETRICS AND GYNECOLOGY ............................................................................................. 163 OPHTHALMOLOGY ........................................................................................................................ 164 ORTHOPAEDIC SURGERY ........................................................................................................... 167 Return to top of document 3 Return to top of document OTORHINOLARYNGOLOGY ........................................................................................................ 172 PATHOLOGY .................................................................................................................................... 174 PEDIATRICS...................................................................................................................................... 176 PHARMACOLOGY .......................................................................................................................... 191 PHYSICAL