Beckman Scholars program helps junior choose career

Beckman
Scholars program helps junior choose career
…………………………………………………………………

BY LIA UNRAU
Rice News Staff

Growing up on a cattle ranch near Lexington, Texas, Rice
junior Andrew Woodward learned about everything from vaccinating
cattle to why his father planted legumes to increase the
amount of nitrogen in the soil.

When he was
in high school, Woodward spent weekends working the ranch
and held jobs ranging from growing watermelons to scooping
ice cream.

Now, as a Rice
biochemistry major, Woodward has found what he hopes to
make his career — teaching and researching plant genetics.

As a Beckman
Scholar, Woodward has had the chance to dig into research
and find out if it’s what he really wants. For more
than a year, he has been conducting research in how certain
plant hormones are regulated, and he will continue his projects
through this summer.

Working under
the guidance of Bonnie Bartel, assistant professor of biochemistry
and cell biology, Woodward is investigating genetic regulation
of auxins, a class of plant hormones, using Arabidopsis,
a member of the mustard family.

“I see
doing research as more of a privilege than a job,”
Woodward said of his research. “It’s a great experience
to work for Dr. Bartel. She treats her undergraduate students
as if they are graduate students who don’t have as
much time.”

Woodward’s
projects involve genetically mutated plants that are abnormal
in the way the root curls and waves. The plants were originally
identified as being supersensitive to auxin, a hormone responsible
for root branching and growth. The auxin-supersensitive
plants have more lateral roots, and the roots are shorter
and bushier than those of normal plants. Woodward currently
is genetically mapping the mutation responsible for this
behavior and studying other roles of auxins, such as how
they are involved with the response to gravity and light.
In another, more hypothesis-driven research project, he
is removing a gene believed to be involved in the mechanism
that regulates auxin and observing what happens in the plants.

Woodward works
closely with a graduate student in designing and interpreting
his experiments, but his research is independent and he
controls the pace, Bartel said.

“A good
thing about undergraduate research,” Bartel said, “is
it lets students know whether they like doing the research.
It’s really valuable to get research experience before
going to graduate school. Andy knows what he’s signing
up for.”

In addition to
funding for an extended time, allowing in-depth research,
another benefit of being a Beckman Scholar is having a travel
budget, which has allowed Woodward to attend and present
research at the International Conference on Arabidopsis
Research.

He attended the
meeting last summer, and he will go again this June, when
he will present his own research poster and abstract.

Also this summer,
Woodward will join about 60 other Beckman Scholars from
across the United States in presenting their research findings
at the annual Beckman Scholars Symposium. Woodward received
a special invitation to give a formal talk about his research
at the conference, one of only eight invited to do so.

“Andy’s
doing serious research, presenting it at scientific meetings,
and he gets to see what other people’s research looks
like. That’s pretty unusual,” Bartel said.

Woodward is
the third Beckman Scholar at Rice. In 1999, the Beckman
Foundation selected Rice as one of only 16 colleges and
universities nationwide to participate in the 1999-2000
Beckman Scholars Program.

Funded by the
Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation, the highly competitive
scholars program provides funding — nearly $15,000
per undergraduate student — for two full-time summer
research sessions and for part-time research during one
academic year. The
research is centered in chemistry, biochemistry, the biological
and medical sciences or some combination of these subjects.

James Kinsey,
the D.R. Bullard-Welch Professor of Science, is the Beckman
program director at Rice.

According to
the Beckman Foundation, the program’s goal is to promote
“sustained, in-depth, faculty-mentored undergraduate
laboratory research experiences for a group of the nation’s
most talented chemistry and biological sciences undergraduates.”

Said Bartel,
“If students get into the lab and realize that research
is fun, they will see they are in a position to have a job
they like. It’s a privileged position — you get
to do something you enjoy.

“I’d
like to help people figure out whether that’s true
for them or not,” she said.

Woodward knows.
Teaching has run in his family for generations. His mother
and grandparents were teachers, and although he still makes
weekend trips home to manage the family ranch, Woodward
knows where he wants to be after graduate school —
doing research in the lab and engaging students in class.