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Research Honors Program

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Procedure for Enrolling in the TAS Research Honors Program

Students intending to participate in the Research Honors Program will speak with research faculty about available research projects in their major area. The placement of a student in the Honors Research Program is subject to the approval and availability of a faculty advisor. The student will apply for acceptance in the Research Honors Program by the end of his/her sophomore or junior year. Students must agree to a minimum 2-semester commitment to conduct research under the supervision of their faculty research advisor and will register in each semester for 1 credit of SRSH 301 (fall semester), SRSH 302 (spring semester) Total: 2 credits/year.

Following approval by the Faculty Mentor, the student will obtain a registration form from the Registrar (to be signed by their Faculty Mentor and the Dean) and a TAS Research Honors Project form from the TAS Dean’s office (also available below), which is to be completed with the Faculty Mentor and signed by the Faculty Mentor and the Dean.

The student will write a preliminary research paper on the proposed research that has been agreed upon with the Faculty Advisor, and this document is to be submitted to the faculty advisor for approval. Near the end of the project (usually toward the end of the spring semester), the student will write a final research paper on the project outcomes that include the following required elements: Abstract, Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, Discussion, and References. The Faculty Advisor will submit the manuscript to the Convening Group for approval.The student will be required to prepare a poster to be presented at the undergraduate research symposium or at an external symposium to be approved by the Convening Group. The student is also expected to make oral an presentation on the research project at either the undergraduate research symposium or an external symposium to be approved by the Convening Group. Students fulfilling all the requirements will, upon recommendation of the Convening Group and approval by the Dean of The School of Theoretical and Applied Science, receive a certificate signifying successful completion of the program and earn the designation of ‘TAS Research Honors’. In addition, all students who have satisfactorily completed the Research Honors Program, and have demonstrated aptitude for research, will be nominated by their faculty advisor and inducted as Associate Members in Sigma Xi.

Students electing to enroll in the Research Honors Program for a second year for a total of 4 semesters will earn a certificate with the designation of ‘TAS Research Honors with Distinction’. Students enrolling for a second year of TAS Research Honors who have completed SRSH 301 and SRSH 302 may register for SRSH 401 (fall semester), SRSH 402 (spring semester) Total: 2 credits/year. The same requirements outlined above for first year TAS Research Honors students will be in effect.

Minimum overall GPA of 3.0 is required to register SRSH 301 or SRSH 401 course.

Click below for a list of faculty and their research interests.

TAS Research Faculty: Research Interests

Professor Stephen Anderson

  • Professor of Engineering Physics
  • Magnetoelastic phenomena
  • Amorphous metals
  • Invention

Professor Stephen Anderson

  • Associate Professor of Chemistry
  • Organometallic synthesis and Homogeneous Catalysis

Professor Paramjeet Bagga

  • Professor of Biology
  • Genomics of Neurological Disorders
  • Bioinformatics of Human Gene Regulation
  • Interactions between cellular proteins and conserved ‘G’-rich sequences

Professor Amanda Beecher

  • Assistant Professor of Mathematics
  • Commutative Algebra
  • Graph Theory
  • Matroid Theory
  • Combinatorics

Professor Caroline Brisson

  • Assistant Professor of Physics
  • Optics/Photonics

Professor Daniela Buna

  • Professor of Physics
  • MRI image processing and image artifacts
  • Modern physics and mathematical physics
  • Visual modalities developed with IDL Logic software
  • Computational physics

Professor Sarah Carberry

  • Assistant Professor of Chemistry
  • Synthesis & characterization of organometallic molecular wires
  • Stoichiometric and catalytic alkyne metathesis
  • Microscale Organic Laboratory Experiments for Science Education

Professor Jay Carreon

  • Assistant Professor of Chemistry
  • Synthesis of Chalcones as Antioxidants
  • Green Chemistry

Professor Lawrence D’Antonio

  • Professor of Mathematics
  • Mathematics of Leonhard Euler
  • History of Islamic mathematics
  • Elliptic curves
  • G-quadruplexes and alternate splicing

Professor Julie Fitzgerald

  • Assistant Professor of Nursing
  • Chronic illness and its impact on family
  • Child Development and Parenting, Cancer Nursing

Professor Scott Frees

  • Associate Professor of Computer Science
  • Human-computer interaction
  • Virtual reality
  • Software engineering
  • Bioinformatics

Professor James Gillespie

  • Assistant Professor of Mathematics
  • Algebraic Topology and Homological Algebra

Professor Maxim Goldberg-Rugalev

  • Professor of Mathematics
  • Applied harmonic analysis

Professor Clyde Johnson

  • Assistant Professor of Environmental Science & Environmental Health
  • Chemical issues in the environment
  • Environmental health
  • Fuel cells

Professor Eric Karlin

  • Professor of Plant Ecology
  • Wetland plant ecology
  • Ecology and taxonomy of Sphagnum (peat moss)
  • Biological conservation

Professor Seung-Sup Kim

  • Associate Professor of Chemistry & Biochemistry
  • Structural and Functional Studies of Macromolecular Complexes: Protein-Protein, Protein-DNA and Multi-Complexes
  • Microbiome and Probiotics

Professor Katarzyna Kowal

  • Associate Professor of Mathematics
  • Algebraic topology
  • Homotopy theory
  • Mathematics education

Professor Donovan McFeron

  • Assistant Professor of Mathematics
  • Complex Differential Geometry
  • Partial Differential Equations

Professor Kenneth McMurdy

  • Assistant Professor of Mathematics
  • Algebraic number theory
  • Elliptic curves
  • Modular forms

Professor Robert Mentore

  • Associate Professor of Chemistry
  • Polymer films for use in biomaterials applications.
  • Using polymers to selectively separate proteins from solution.
  • Development of experiments for undergraduate chemistry lab courses

Professor William Mitchell

  • Professor of Genetics and Biochemistry
  • Molecular biology, biochemistry and physiology of regeneration in the fresh water segmented worm Lumbriculus variegatus
  • Molecular biology, biochemistry and physiology of plants

Professor Joost Monen

  • Assistant Professor of Biology
  • Identification and functional characterization of genes involved in cell division and early embryonic development

Professor Tom Owen

  • Assistant Professor of Microbiology
  • Identification and functional characterization of genes involved in the regulation of bone mass
  • Cell culture models of osteoblast differentiation
  • Impact of environmental pollution on antibiotic resistance in bacteria

Professor Emma Rainforth

  • Associate Professor of Environmental Science/Geology
  • Taxonomy (classification) and nomenclature of fossil footprints from the Late Triassic and Early Jurassic
  • Paleoclimate, biostratigraphy and biogeography of the Newark Supergroup (eastern North America)

Professor Edward Saiff

  • Professor of Biology
  • Evolution of the higher taxa of birds, vertebrate structure, function and evolution

Professor Ash Stuart

  • Assistant Professor of Biochemistry & Bioinformatics
  • Protein Structure, Modeling and Design

Professor Sandra Suarez

  • Assistant Professor of Biology
  • Genetics as a tool for understanding animal behavior
  • Animal behavior: reproductive behavior and mating systems
  • Population genetics in New World Primates
  • Neotropical ecology and field methods
  • Sustainable development, land-use planning and conservation

Professor Eric Wiener

  • Associate Professor of Environmental Science
  • Impacts of invasive herbivores, tree diseases and severe storms on temperate forest ecology
  • Tropical forest succession, restoration ecology and sustainable use by small landholders (primary focus on Amazon basin)
  • Avian ecology
  • Restoration ecology
  • Sustainable landscaping, plant care and permaculture

Professor Yan Xu

  • Assistant Professor of Biology
  • Maximizing the production, quality, and use of food and medicinal plants
  • Plant growth under abiotic and biotic stress conditions
  • Eco-friendly plant growth regulators/hormones
  • Anti-fungal and anti-bacterial effects of herbs
  • Shelf life of fresh produce
  • Culinary art and nutrition
  • The faculty advisor may allow a Research Honors student to enroll for 2 credits in the second semester of research (for a maximum of 3 credits/year).
  • Oral presentation at a symposium is considered to be essential. Under extenuating circumstances a waiver of this requirement may be recommended by the faculty advisor for approval by the convening group.

Contact Information

Loraine T. Tan, PhD
Assistant Professor of Chemistry
Director, TAS Research Honors Program
Email: ltan@ramapo.edu