Students to work with scientists during annual STARS program

Academically talented high school juniors and seniors will get a chance this summer to research everything from plant responses to environmental stress, to a protein important for nervous system differentiation and cancer, during the 2012 STARS program at the University of Missouri–St. Louis.

STARS stands for Students and Teachers as Research Scientists. The program pairs students with top research mentors from UMSL, the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center, Saint Louis University, Washington University in St. Louis and the Solae Company.

This year’s program will run June 11 through July 20 at UMSL. Besides conducting research and presenting papers, students will be introduced to information and skills needed for applications to colleges and universities, attend lectures by leading scientists from the St. Louis community, and enjoy social events such as bowling, a movie, an ice cream social, the St. Louis Symphony and a St. Louis Cardinals game.

For six weeks, anthropologists, biologists, chemists, computer scientists, earth and planetary scientists, engineers, medical researchers, psychologists and public health experts from the five institutions will take on student apprentices in laboratories and direct students in research projects.  It introduces both rising high school juniors and seniors to the various aspects of the scientific enterprise as practiced by successful scientists in academic, private and corporate research institutions.

The program is funded partially through LMI Aerospace/D3 Technologies, the Office of the Chancellor at UMSL, Saint Louis University, Washington University, Green Foundation and Solae.

Participants in the 2012 program include 82 students from 33 high schools in the St. Louis metro area, as well as California, Florida, Illinois, Iowa and Greece.

STARS will wrap up its six week program with a ceremony at 3 p.m. July 20 in the J.C. Penney Building/Conference Center at UMSL. The event is free and open to the public.

The students for the 2012 STARS program in the Ladue-Frontenac Patch are:

John Burroughs School:  Corina Marie Minden-Birkenmaier, Bradley Ilsoo Riew, Tejasvi Subramanian, Katherine Irene Taylor, Taiyi Hua

Ladue Horton Watkins High School: Enze Chen, Chloe Lee An, Rui Chen, Toby Zhu

Mary Institute and St. Louis Country Day School: Isa Maria Mulvihill, Christina Adams Rouse, Preethi  Umashanker, Luman Zhang, Alexandra Elizabeth Donovan, Kristin Taylor Geczi, John Barratt Finlay

Villa Duchesne Oak Hill: Sophie Boyer Flotron, Morgan Elizabeth Link, Meghan Mary Grojean, Kristen L. Buehne

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