Admissions

Lake Forest, Ill. - Michael Fiske '10 received a 2009-2010 Parkinson's Disease Foundation (PDF) undergraduate research grant for $3,000, to support his current senior thesis research and communication.

“He is the most independent student I have mentored to date,” says Associate Professor of Biology Shubhik DebBurman. “He wrote the grant application completely on his own.”

Fiske will use the money to support his travel to a Gordon Research Conference and another national conference in the fall and for his senior thesis.

This is the third time since 2004 that PDF has given a national undergraduate grant to a Lake Forest College student. Isaac Holmes '05 first received it in 2004, and his research was published in Journal of Molecular Neuroscience in 2006. Holmes is in the fourth year of his MD degree at Rush Medical College. Lokesh Kukreja '08 received it in 2007, and his research was published in multiple journals: Journal of Molecular Neuroscience in 2006, American Journal of Undergraduate Research in 2008, and the last chapter of his thesis is in review for the Journal of Young Investigators. Kukreja is in his second year of the IGP in Biological Sciences PhD program at Northwestern University.

Fiske has also been invited to present his work, and some done in collaboration with Ray Choi '09 and Alexandra Ayala '09, at the prestigious Gordon Research Conference (GRC) this summer from June 28-July 3 at Proctor Academy in Andover, New Hampshire. Fiske will travel alone, and he will likely be the only undergraduate presenting at this selective, biannual conference that reports on significant new and unpublished works on the topic of "Stress Proteins in Growth, Development, and Disease.”

This is the second time GRC has invited a Lake Forest College undergraduate to present senior thesis research. In 2007, Michael White '07 was the only undergraduate to present his work in Oxford (UK), and he is now pursuing his MD degree at SUNY-Buffalo.

Fiske and White are also co-authors in two manuscripts (each is first author in one of them) being prepared this summer for peer review to a major journal.

Fiske will apply to PhD programs in molecular neuroscience this fall.

Lake Forest College is a national liberal arts institution located 30 miles north of downtown Chicago. The College has 1,400 students representing 45 states and 69 countries.

# # #
Contact: Will Pittinos '06
847-735-6011
pittinos@lakeforest.edu