ACTSI Funded Undergraduate Wins HHMI Award

RETCD/SURE funded student and Emory undergraduate, Sara Raiser won first prize at the 2009 University of Florida and Morehouse College Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) Celebration of Undergraduate Creativity in the Arts and Sciences on January 11. Nominated by Pat Marsteller, director of the Emory Center for Science Education and HHMI initiatives, the Center for Science Education sponsored the attendance of four Emory students to the HHMI event at UF. At the heart of the competition was the definition of Creativity - the process of applied imagination that results in the formation of something tangible (having actual form and substance), new and valuable. Overall, there were more than 150 entries spanning the arts and sciences and more than 120 students participated in the competition. A total of twelve (5 science and 7 arts) awards were selected. Raiser was one of the 2009 Howard Hughes Medical Institute Science for Life Undergraduate Creativity Award winners for the sciences. She will use the award and the co-support of UH and Emory's HHMI to present her work in a high-impact manner. Read more about Raiser's project, entitled An Evaluation of Vitamin D and its Role in the Reduction of Blood Pressure.