by Monique Champeau ’08

As spring semester comes to a close and students prepare for the summer, most plan to get as far from the classroom as possible.

But a handful of Bethel students and faculty members are preparing for a summer of intensive academic study. Chosen by a group of faculty who have won the Faculty Excellence Award for Scholarship, this year’s Edgren Scholars—teams of students and faculty—will use the summer months to make significant headway on proposed research projects in their fields.

“At Bethel, our commitment to excellence in the classroom makes it difficult for faculty to sustain a scholarly agenda during the academic year. Only in the summer do we have the opportunity to focus our attention on research,” said Brian Turnquist, professor and department chair in the math and computer science department.

Two Bethel juniors, Nick VenOsdel and Lindsay Caine, will partner with Professor of Biology Teresa DeGolier to perform cardiac research on frogs. “It is amazing to watch a frog’s heart beat for hours after being removed from the body!” said Nick VenOsdel. Caine and DeGolier will study the interaction between cardiac drugs and common foods, such as graprefruit juice, and VanOsdel and DeGolier will examine the impact of blue cohosh on heart rate and “receptor antagonists” that can be used to lessen its impact on the heart.

“I have always been intrigued by the way our bodies can interact with the natural world, and the fact that it offers us treatments that rival prescription drugs…it’s just one example of how organized and systematic life is,” said VenOsdel.

Professor of Nursing Marjorie Schaffer and junior nursing major Laura Tierschel will be developing an informational “toolkit” for families making decisions about end-of-life medical care. They will work on defining options and discussions surrounding emotional, physical, and spiritual support for patients and their families. This is part of a larger project designed to develop good practices for working with the elderly in assisted living facilities.

Assistant Professor of Physics Chad Hoyt and sophomore physics major Andy Rheingans will continue Hoyt’s 2007 project of constructing a “rubidium magneto-optical trap” with ultra-high vacuum chamber and high-current electromagnet integrated into a switching circuit. The “MOT” will cool atoms to near absolute zero for study. Hoyt and Rheingans will likely publish their construction process and other findings along the way, as well as provide the physics department with a valuable new apparatus.

Professor of Computer Science Brian Turnquist and junior computer science major Ryan Flannery will continue Turnquist’s long-standing work on signal processing of neurological research data. The brand new algorithm developed by the team this summer will, for the first time ever, allow electrical pain signals to be studied after an experiment has concluded. Turnquist hopes to present the findings in Germany this summer and at Johns Hopkins University in the fall.

Dean Rich Sherry says the Edgren Scholars program “is part of building a culture of student and faculty research that challenges strong students to consider future graduate education.”