Junior Bio Major Honored with Plant Biology Research Fellowship

On June 1, The American Society of Plant Biologists (ASPB) announced Arthur Romanchuk (Clifton) as one of  the 13 recipients of its sixth annual ASPB Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) program. Romanchuk is a rising junior biology major at The College of New Jersey. He was sponsored by ASPB member Janet Morrison, associate professor of biology at the College.

This $3,000 fellowship will permit Romanchuk to devote full-time effort to a lab project for a 10-week period this summer. The award also includes $500 for lab supplies, a free membership in ASPB, and travel grant assistance for Romanchuk to attend the 2007 ASPB Plant Biology Meeting in Chicago. With this undergraduate fellowship opportunity, ASPB offers students experiences to help them consider pursuing advanced degrees and careers in plant biology.

Romanchuk's project is titled, Variation Among Native and Non-native Broomsedge, Andropogon virginicus L: Populations in Disease, Physiology, and Growth. After receiving the fellowship, Romanchuk said, "I am very happy to be selected as part of the SURF program this year. This is very exciting for me because I can finally devote myself to full-time research and learn what it is really like to be a biologist. I am certain that this would not be possible without the exceptional guidance of my mentor, Dr. Janet Morrison. I have always been interested in biology and especially interactions between different, but closely associated, organisms. I can't wait to begin my work this summer, and I hope that it will aid my development as a person as well as a scientist."

The ASPB SURF program was co-chaired by ASPB members Mark Brodl, Trinity University and Jonathan Monroe,James Madison  University. It was agreed that this was a difficult year to choose recipients from the many outstanding projects presented. A complete description of the SURF program and the project descriptions can be viewed at the ASPB website:
  http://www.aspb.org/education/undergrad.cfm . The next SURF announcement will be posted on the ASPB web site: www.aspb.org . ASPB, headquartered in Rockville, Maryland, was founded in 1924 as the American Society of Plant Physiologists. This professional society has a membership of nearly 6,000 plant scientists from the United States and more than 50 other nations. ASPB publishes two of the most widely cited plant science journals in the world: The Plant Cell and Plant Physiology.