Ami Ahern-Rindell

Ami Ahern-Rindell National CUR Award

June 21, 2019

Biology professor Ami Ahern-Rindell has been awarded the Council on Undergraduate Research Biology Division Mentor Award (Advanced Career), a national award which honors biology mentors for their long-term efforts in supervising undergraduate research students.

The award committee recognized Ahern-Rindell’s extraordinary accomplishments and dedication to engaging undergraduate students in the creation of new biological knowledge. She has mentored more than 100 student collaborators during her 27-year career, resulting in a large, academically sound body of senior and honors theses, presentations at research conferences, and peer-reviewed publications with student co-authors. She was an early developer of student-centered, inquiry-based approaches in the teaching lab and classroom, with NSF-funded initiatives to her credit as early as 1994. As a result of many years of service on the Council on Undergraduate Research, Ahern-Rindell also made significant contributions to the national growth of undergraduate research. Student evaluations and recommendations demonstrate that she has thoughtfully created a highly effective mentoring process that focuses on the whole person.

For more information contact the biology department at x7123 or bio@up.edu.

Outstanding Educator Award for Jacquie Van Hoomissen

February 2, 2018

Biology professor Jacquie Van Hoomissen has been selected as the Oregon Academy of Sciences (OAS) Outstanding Educator in Higher Education for 2018. She was cited for her “considerable contributions to life science education at the University of Portland.” She will be presented with the award on Saturday, March 3, at a ceremony at George Fox University.

For more information contact Ami Ahern-Rindell, biology, at ahernrin@up.edu.

Ahern-Ridnell Chosen for National Undergraduate Research Project

October 6, 2017

Ami Ahern-Rindell, biology, has been chosen after a national competitive search to serve as a biology consultant on a four-year National Science Foundation (NSF) grant to the Council on Undergraduate Research (CUR). The grant is part of the NSF Improving Undergraduate STEM Education (IUSE) Program and is called the “CUR Transformations Project.”

The overarching goal of this project is to work intensively with 12 institutions and 24 departments over a sustained period to conduct fundamental research on student, faculty, departmental, and disciplinary influences on the process of integrating and scaffolding undergraduate research experiences throughout the curriculum. The grant will also allow institutional participants to pursue departmental and school/college-wide transformations in student learning and learning environments.

The sustainability of these changes will be further enhanced by assisting institutions to integrate research-based curricula into student and faculty cultures and reward systems, and by developing expanded undergraduate research assessments, including the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) and the Faculty Survey of Student Engagement (FSSE) instruments.

For more information contact Ahern-Rindell at ahernrin@up.edu.

Student Research Stresses Real Discovery, Knowledge

December 11, 2015

Students in all sections of Ami Ahern-Rindell’s Genetics Lab course presented a Research Poster Symposium on Tuesday, December 8. Posters were presented to fellow students guests including University president Rev. Mark L. Poorman, C.S.C.; Tom Greene, provost; CAS dean Michael Andrews, acting assistant provost Lauretta Frederking, and Dan McGinty, director of the Dundon-Berchtold Institute.

The lab course was designed for students to conduct hypothesis-driven research that serves as part of Ahern-Rindell’s scholarly work on an animal model of GM1-Gangliosidosis, a fatal genetic disorder. Students are engaged in creating new knowledge and learning science by doing science, rather than conducting experiments for which the outcome is already known. The benefits of undergraduate research are made available to more students by incorporating it into the classroom curriculum.

Ahern-Rindell received funding for this approach in 1998 from the National Science Foundation and recently contributed a chapter on the design of her Genetics Lab course in a book titled Inquiry-Based Learning for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) Programs: A Conceptual and Practical Resource for Educators.

For more information contact Ahern-Rindell at 7137 or ahernrin@up.edu.

Undergraduate Research Supported Across Campus

May 4, 2015

Faculty members from a variety of University of Portland programs made it possible for student research collaborators to attend the National Conference on Undergraduate Research (NCUR) on April 16-18 at Eastern Washington University in Cheney, Wash. It was a one-of-a-kind event for students to present their research, scholarship, and creative activities in all disciplines, according to Ami Ahern-Rindell, biology, who also serves as on the CUR executive board as secretary, and as the book review editor for the CUR Quarterly.

The Council on Undergraduate Research partners with an institution each year to organize NCUR and offer the conference venue to undergraduates across the country. This year UP students who presented at NCUR had the support of faculty from the College of Arts and Sciences (biology, environmental sciences, and mathematics) and the Shiley School of Engineering in preparing their presentations. Students’ expenses were supported in part by the Office of the Provost, deans from Engineering and the College of Arts and Sciences, and the newly formed Undergraduate Research Club.

For more information, contact Ahern-Rindell at ahernrin@up.edu.

UP Student Wins Peterson Award in Science Education

June 30, 2014

University of Portland senior Alexandra Quackenbush was awarded the Rita W. Peterson Award in Science Education from the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) during its recent Pacific Division conference. Quakenbush also received second place in her division for her project and presentation. Quackenbush, a biology and mathematics double major and member of the University’s Honors Program, worked on her project with biology professor Ami Ahern-Rindell. The project, “Ethics Tutorial for Students Engaging in Undergraduate Biological Research,” was completed as part of the University’s Dundon-Berchtold Fellowships.

For the project, Quackenbush surveyed junior and senior students in biology labs by posing behavior scenarios. The pair found that students had gaps in their understanding of ethical situations, especially in the areas of data management, authorship, and experimental design.

The Rita W. Peterson Award in Science Education, was established in 2002 to honor an outstanding student presentation in an area of science education research.

The Dundon-Berchtold Fund for Moral Development and Applied Ethics was established by University of Portland regent Amy Dundon-Berchtold and her husband Jim Berchtold ’63. The fund is designed to ensure that the University meets its “aspirations both to form the moral character of its students and to conduct sustained ethical reflection in applied aspects of business, science, engineering, education, health care, and the arts. The fund includes Dundon-Berchtold Fellowships, which started in 2013 and provide for students and faculty mentors to study contemporary ethical issues related to their own academic disciplines as well as the many vocations and professions supported by the University’s educational mission.

For more information contact Dan McGinty, provost’s office, at 7105 or mcgintyd@up.edu.

Dr. Ahern-Rindell and Ms. Leffler Go To Washington

May 12, 2014

Ami Ahern-Rindell, biology, accompanied 2014 biology graduate Kylie Leffler to Washington, DC, to participate in “Posters on the Hill,” a highly selective competition sponsored by the Council on Undergraduate Research. They traveled to the competition from April 27-30. The collaborative research conducted by Leffler and Ahern-Rindell, who served as her research mentor, was outlined in a poster entitled “Sequence Analysis of Exons 13 and 14 of the PPBG gene from Normal and GM1-Gangliosidosis Affected Sheep.” Kylie and Ahern-Rindell also arranged meetings with Senator Ron Wyden and Representative Earl Blumenauer to impress upon them the importance of funding for undergraduate research. They had an opportunity to attend a panel discussion conducted by presidential staff members in the White House. For more information contact Ahern-Rindell at ahernrin@up.edu.

Council On Undergraduate Research Membership Benefits

April 28, 2014

The University of Portland is an enhanced institutional member of the Council on Undergraduate Research (CUR), according to Ami Ahern-Rindell, biology. One benefit of membership is that all members of the campus community are eligible to become members of CUR and take advantage of reduced rates for upcoming workshops, which include Proposal Writing Institute, Beginning a Research Program in the Natural Sciences at a Predominantly Undergraduate Institution, and Creative Inquiry in the Arts and Humanities (details below).

Registration for the upcoming CUR Conference 2014, “Creating the Citizens of Tomorrow: Undergraduate Research for All,” is currently underway. The conference will be held June 28-July 1, 2014, in Washington, D.C., and will highlight cross-disciplinary connections and collaborations among higher education, government agencies, and non-profit organizations. The overall goals of the conference are to encourage broad participation in undergraduate research and to make visible its benefits to students, faculty, colleges and universities, and communities. To register and for more information go to http://www.cur.org/events/2014_cur_conference/.

Upcoming CUR workshops include:

Proposal Writing Institute, July 17-21, 2014, University of South Alabama, Mobile, Ala. Application Deadline: Wednesday, May 21, 2014. This Institute will bring together faculty and administrators interested in preparing proposals for submission to external funding agencies. The four-day institute will consist of one-on-one work with a mentor, writing, small group discussions, and critiquing of proposals.
Creative Inquiry in the Arts and Humanities Institute, November 7-9, 2014, University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee. Application Deadline: September 19, 2014. The Institute will assist teams of 3-5 faculty and administrators in developing transformative opportunities for Undergraduate Research, Scholarship, and Creativity (URSC) in the arts and humanities. Participants will create customized plans for their own institutions to enhance URSC in the arts and humanities; learn about successful models of URSC developed by and for scholars in the arts and humanities; address challenges to student engagement in URSC, such as the need for language skills or other specialized training before beginning scholarly work; and much more.
Beginning a Research Program in the Natural Sciences at a Predominantly Undergraduate Institution Institute, November 2014. Starting a successful research program and doing scholarly work at a predominantly undergraduate institution pose unique challenges for a beginning faculty member. A goal of the institute is to give individual pre-tenured faculty members the opportunity to learn from and discuss with experienced faculty how to establish and manage a research program with undergraduates. While at the institute, participants will also prepare plans for starting and/or advancing their individual research programs at their respective campuses.

For more information, contact MeLisa Zackery at mzackery@cur.org. Those who are interested in signing up to be a member of CUR through UP’s enhanced institutional membership can contact Lindsay Currie at lcurrie@cur.org.