President George Rupp, right, with Ani Aydin, BC'01, at the recent SURF Symposium.

Ben Lorr, CC '01, left, looking for blue monkeys in the forest of Kenya with Simon Mbugua, a graduate of the University of Nairobi's zoology department.

When Angela Barranco, CC'02, decided to spend her summer doing research in genetics and developmental biology, she never dreamed that after only a few months she would be teaching other people in the lab about her discoveries.

"I worked on C. elegans, a worm, to learn how one particular gene turns on in embryonic development," she said, leaning forward excitedly. "No one else in my lab had looked at how this gene worked in worms before; so, when my results came back--and were really interesting--I got to present the work to everyone."

While that might be a typical experience for a graduate student, it is unusual for students to complete independent research after just finishing their first year as an undergraduate. But Columbia's Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowships (SURF) program, which held its research symposium last month, provides exactly that opportunity.

Started in 1982, the program gives students interested in the biological sciences a chance to try life in the laboratory for 10 weeks. Students can apply for the program and undergo interviews with professors to decide who will be the best fit in which lab, both on the Morningside campus and the Health Sciences campus. During the summer, students meet in small groups as well as one-on-one with their lead researcher to discuss their progress. At the end of the program, each student writes up the results of their research in the format of a scientific article, and in the spring, they present their work at the symposium, which serves to both develop their communication skills and to advertise the program to the next group of students.

"About half of our applicants are biology majors, and the rest are majoring in diverse fields -- religion, art history, English lit -- but are taking the pre-medical curriculum and interested in biomedical research," said Judith Gibber, a lecturer in the department of biological sciences, who oversees the program. "Some just want to get inside a lab to see if they really want to pursue it as a career--some find they love it, some find they don't. But almost everyone has an amazing journey."

Some travel farther than others. Ben Lorr, CC'01, spent his summer in Kenya with Anthropology Professor Marina Cords, studying the individual signal calls of blue monkeys.

"It was truly a life altering experience," said Lorr, an earth and environmental studies major. "Every aspect of the project taught me more about myself--and about scientific research--than any class or textbook could ever manage. In my opinion, SURF and this project of Professor Cords are the pinnacle of what an undergraduate education can be. I accomplished things on all different levels: from scientific through spiritual. It really showed both the limitations and exciting possibilities of scientific field research."

In the past few years, there have been between 50 and 70 SURF students every summer. However, due to funding constraints, the program may have to scale back to 15 or 20 students in upcoming summers.

All first-year, sophomore and junior students who are interested in an intensive biology research experience are welcome to apply. More information and application procedures can be found at http://www.columbia.edu/cu/biology/ug/surf/.