Ferentz Undergrad Research Fellows present at Spring Undergraduate Research Festival

Monday, April 13, 2015

Four of the six 2014-2015 winners of the John and Elsie Mae Ferentz Undergraduate Fellowships for Research presented their original, faculty-mentored research at the Spring Undergraduate Research Festival (SURF) on Thursday, April 9, 2015. In all, SURF comprised more than 130 undergraduate researchers from throughout the University of Iowa. SURF is coordinated by the Iowa Center for Research by Undergraduates, which is part of the Honors Program.

The fellowships were made possible by a gift to the University of Iowa Foundation from Kirk and Mary Ferentz in honor of Kirk’s parents. The awards are given to provide support and encouragement to undergraduate students who conduct research under the guidance of a tenured or tenure-track faculty member in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (CLAS). To be eligible, students must participate in or complete an honors research project, a guided independent-study project, a capstone course, or the Bachelor of Fine Arts degree during the semester of the award.

CLAS Dean Chaden Djalali said the Ferentz Fellowships reflect the outstanding scholarship that gives the UI and CLAS a unique reputation for fostering student success. "Studying the liberal arts and sciences in a major research university offers extraordinary opportunities for students to work alongside faculty who are national and international leaders in their disciplines, and to contribute their own original work to the body of research," Djalali said. "On behalf of the students and faculty of the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences, I offer my deepest thanks to the Ferentzes for their generosity and vision."

Following are the 2014-2015 Ferentz Fellows who presented at SURF (Fellow Jake Dillard was not present) and their research abstracts:

Lisa FasoneLisa Fasone, Algonquin, Illinois (Major: Human Physiology; Mentor: Melissa Bates, Health & Human Physiology). Feasibility of treating the narrowing of the branch pulmonary artery with a proposed stent method. Branch pulmonary artery stenosis (BPAS) is the narrowing of the major blood vessel, which transports blood from the heart to the lungs. It is a common consequence of the repair of congenital heart disease in infants. A stent, or a small tube, may be placed within the branch pulmonary artery to expand the diameter and relieve the narrowing. However, this intervention is temporary, as these patients will eventually outgrow the stent. Currently, there is no evidence-based treatment recommendation for the care of the children that eventually outgrow a branch pulmonary artery stent. The purpose of our study was to investigate the feasibility of a proposed method of treatment on a pig model. The timeline of treatment in the pigs, following this proposed method, was as follows: 1) surgical creation of 4 mm left pulmonary artery stenosis at age 2-3 weeks 2) stenting of stenosis with 5-7 mm bare metal stent at age 6-7 weeks 3) expansion of stent to 12 mm at age 3 months and 4) fracturing of stent and re-stenting with expandable stent at age 4 months. We evaluated the impact of this treatment scheme on heart and pulmonary artery growth and physiology and found that stenting does not impact total heart and right ventricular growth and stenting does not promote growth of the left pulmonary artery distal to the stenosis.

Irina gassIrina Gass, Deerfield, Illinois (Major: Dance; Mentor: Rebekah Kowal, Dance). Globalizing Jewish-American Dance: The “New” Israeli Identity. My research explores the workings of contemporary Israeli dance with respect to religious and political intent, by taking a close look at Ohad Naharin’s Batsheva Dance Company and its history. Naharin’s work is intriguing because it is perceived as containing controversial religious material. Interestingly, Naharin claims to have no such intent. This is possible by the theory of phenomenology, which states that the body reacts to its environment instantly without any filter from the mind. The environment that Naharin interacts with is one saturated with unstable, but strong, influences, and they permeate through his work. Since Israel became a state, Zionism has heavily shaped Israeli culture. Because the politics of creating a state trumped the original religious agenda for Israel, an American structure dominated Israeli culture. The U.S. sent over American choreographers to Israeli companies, such as Batsheva, to build a cultural foundation, leaving little room for artistic license and independence. However, the strong religious movement still lingered. A state designed for a religious purpose now had a purely political aim, and this mix of intentions generated ambiguous content in the arts. I aim to navigate this instability of Zionism and how it has affected Israeli dance today.

Colton JensenColton Jensen, Waukee, Iowa (Major: Chemistry; Mentor: Lou Messerle, Chemistry). Synthesis of Novel Dimolybdenum Complexes. Reported dimolybdenum (Mo2) complexes, stabilized by chemical bonding to another molecule called a ligand, in mid- and low oxidation states are rare and difficult, time consuming, and expensive to synthesize. A new synthetic sequence for dimolybdenum compounds would allow for further exploration of their reactivity and utility. The paddlewheel compound Mo2(hpp)4 (hpp is a bridging ligand) has a unique, symmetrical structure with a Mo-Mo quadruple bond and potential ability to function as a reducing agent in organic reactions. We have developed a new synthesis that reduces high oxidation state mono-molybdenum complexes to a novel, probable dimolybdenum precursor, which we are attempting to convert to Mo2(hpp)4. An easier synthesis will allow further study of Mo2(hpp)4.

Jaswinder SinghJassi Singh, West Des Moines, Iowa. (Major: Health & Human Physiology; Mentor: Mercedes Bern-Klug). Can an economic theory (Prospect Theory) build our understanding of medical decision making in the nursing home setting? The purpose of this literature review was to understand how others have used Prospect Theory in the health setting, in particular with frail older adults, so that we can position our current findings within the context of the literature. By utilizing PubMed, using keywords (Prospect Theory, Health, Population aged 60+) and dates ranging from 1979 to 2014, I was able to identify 14 journal articles that relate to our current research project. The 14 articles can be grouped into the following categories: framing effects, reference point, and loss aversion. The literature review highlighted gaps in current knowledge and suggested further investigations. The next step in this project is to apply the results from this literature review to our study of decision making under risk in the nursing home setting, based on our data collected from family members of nursing home residents with cancer.


The University of Iowa College of Liberal Arts and Sciences offers about 70 majors across the humanities; fine, performing and literary arts; natural and mathematical sciences; social and behavioral sciences; and communication disciplines. About 15,000 undergraduate and nearly 2,000 graduate students study each year in the college’s 37 departments, led by faculty at the forefront of teaching and research in their disciplines. The college teaches all Iowa undergraduates through the college's general education program, CLAS CORE. About 80 percent of all Iowa undergraduates begin their academic journey in CLAS. The college confers about 60 percent of the university's bachelor's degrees each academic year.