CURCE Summer Stipend Offers Pay for Student Researchers

Two young women stand, both with hands clasped in front of them, in front of series of windows
Michaela Kirwan, left, and Sandra Weidmann are both doing research on campus this summer, supported by the CURCE Summer Stipend Program. (Photo by Patrick Dodson)

ALBANY, N.Y. (June 17, 2021) — Six students are getting paid for their research work this summer, thanks to funding from CURCE, the Center for Undergraduate Research and Creative Engagement.

CURCE’s pilot Summer Stipend Program provides $2,000 over eight weeks for student researchers who might otherwise have to take another paying summer job.

For senior Sandra Wiedmann, the stipend means she can spend the summer working with Assistant Professor Jeremy Feldblyum of Chemistry, researching polymer films and their ability to sense specific gas molecules – applications important in healthcare, forensics and semi-conductor manufacturing.

Weidman, a chemistry major, took a polymer class with Feldblyum but had never worked with him in the lab. Now she is designing, synthesizing and testing new polymers for specific characteristics that would make them conductive and easily manufacturable.

“Without the CURCE stipend, I would have had very little time for research,” she said. “The stipend enables me to dedicate four full-time days a week to scientific discovery.”

Michaela Kirwan is using her stipend to work with Professor Lofti Sayahi, professor and chair of Languages, Literature and Culture, to study Spanish language documents and videos on the New York State of Health website to determine their efficacy in providing necessary information to the reader. Their project also examines lexicon and structure variations in the language, as well as which variations are used most frequently. Kirwin, a senior with a double major in Biology and Spanish, said her research will form the basis of her Honors thesis.

“I have always been interested in researching more into how language may or may not affect a person in healthcare,” she said, adding that the CURCE stipend is “an amazing added bonus.”

Both Kirwin and Weidmann are working on campus. The other four stipend recipients are working remotely with their faculty researchers.

Stavan Thakkar, a senior who is doing a dual degree program with UAlbany’s School of Business and the Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies (NMIMS) in his hometown of Mumbai, India, is using his summer research as part of his thesis. He is working remotely with Professor Rita Biswas, studying how consolidation in the pharmaceutical industry affects the availability of drugs.

Thakkar spent last academic year in India, attending UAlbany classes remotely because of the pandemic. “Dr. Biswas was the person in charge of the partnership agreements (between NMIMS and UAlbany) so I have worked with her before. and she was the one who pitched this opportunity to me,” Thakkar said. “I was actively looking for internships in my field but since I had to spend the summer in India, internships were hard to come by.”

A total of 25 students submitted applications for CURCE summer stipends from six of UAlbany’s nine schools and colleges. Of the applicants, about a third were first-generation college students, 60 percent were from underrepresented minorities, and 60 percent are receiving New York TAP awards, which are tuition grants for income eligible students.

Other recipients of the CURCE research stipend are:

  • Ethan Gerber, an Environmental & Sustainable Engineering major, who is doing research with Assistant Professor Md. Aynul Bari on the COVID-19 pandemic’s impact on air quality in the United States.
  • Kelly Nagel, a physics major, who is working with Associate Professor Vivek Jain on reconstructing the incident neutrino energy on DUNE.
  • Kayleigh Ross, an art history major, doing research in biological anthropology with Professor Lawrence Schell.