Research

Ever been first in line?
Probably. Either way, it's a pretty nice feeling, no matter what that line may be for. Now imagine seeing something for the first time, something that no other human being has ever seen. Or uncovering a new scientific idea, an innovation in business, or a groundbreaking sociological theory.

Very heady stuff.

At F&M, it happens in the form of the remarkable opportunities for research you'll have from day one. You'll have the chance to work elbow-to-elbow with professors who deliver brilliant lectures by day, and who are your intellectual partners in research morning, noon, and night.

Consider this:

• Opportunities for research will be there for you beginning in your freshman year
• The faculty and facilities for conducting research are dedicated to you
• In the past five years, F&M faculty have earned 76 research grants and $6 million in funding from the world's leading organizations
• Research grants have been awarded to F&M faculty from such organizations as the American Chemical Society, NASA, the Jet Propulsion Lab, the National Institutes of Health, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the European Union, among others
• In the past five years, F&M has received more than $2 million in major grants sponsoring student/faculty research from nearly a dozen national foundations
• Every summer, between 70 and 80 students work individually with faculty on collaborative research projects through F&M's Hackman Scholars Program
• Student/faculty research projects are funded by the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute Research Grant, in addition to internal sources of funding
• F&M students present original research at several national conferences each year, in addition to sharing authorship on faculty research

What's on your mind?
Here are some recent projects—both broad and esoteric—that current F&M students are exploring through funded research in the Hackman Scholars and John Marshall Scholars programs:

Hackman Scholarship Research Projects:

• "Central Regulation of the Peripheral Vision System"
• "Re-examining Women's Wealth in Classical Athens"
• "Conway's Thrackle Conjecture"
• "Social Influences on the Development of Communication"
• "The Impact of Diversity on White Students' Racial Attitudes"
• " Analogical Reasoning Abilities in Young Children"
• "A Study of the Mail-Order Bride Industry in the U.S."
• "Quantum Trajectories"
• "Anthropometric History of 19th Century Europe"
• "Alternative Publishing Voices of the Harlem Renaissance"
• "Vagueness and the Rationality of Consistency"

John Marshall Scholarship Research Projects:

• "Artistic Study of Artist Georgia O"Keefe" (research in Mexico)
• "A Comparative Look at Respective Techniques Used to Train Dolphins and Primates" (research in Bermuda)
• "The Integration of Alternative and Complementary Medicine Into the Medical Practices of Lancaster County"
• "A Comparative Field Study of Musical Comedy in New York and London: Artistry and Culture" (research in New York and London)
• "Take Me Out to the Ballgame: The Modern Baseball Stadium as a Site for National Subgroup Identity"
• "Sacred Space in the Greek Orthodox Church" (research in Greece)
• "Short Skirts, Tall Shoes: An Independent Study/Exhibit on Outrageous Female Fashions in Japan" (research in Japan)
• "Medical Pluralism: A Study of Japanese Traditional Medicine in Contemporary Japan" (research in Japan)
• "Political Consciousness of Peasants in Rural West Bengal" (research in India)
• "Conservation of Hawksbill Sea Turtles: Volunteer Dynamics and Local Attitudes" (research in Barbados)
• "Dueling Daishis: A Study of Two Sects of Esoteric Buddhism" (research in Japan)
• "Developing Models of Circumstellar Disks Around Solar Type Stars and Planetary Detection"
• "The Influence of Architecture and Place in the Works of Jane Austen" (research in England)
• "A Study of Prenatal and Postnatal SIDs Risk Factors" (research at Columbia University"s Medical School)