Pitt Students Capture Prestigious National Science Foundation Research Grants

PITTSBURGH—In June, graduate students from across the United States representing all scientific disciplines as well as engineering, embarked on educational journeys to East Asia and Australia. Pitt graduate students Brian Brubaker,

Urvi Parikh, and Michelle Pribbernow were among the 150 students who received research grants from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to participate in the 2004 East Asia and Pacific Summer Institutes (EAPSI) program.

"This is the largest contingent of U.S. graduate student participants in the program's 14-year history," said Larry Weber, program manager of EAPSI. "These research experiences abroad offer exciting discovery opportunities for talented American science and engineering graduate students, and the program will enable them to have the skills necessary to operate in a competitive international research arena and global marketplace."

Brubaker, of Bluffton, Ohio, received the Bachelor of Arts degree in psychology from Goshen College, Goshen, Ind., in 1995. He earned the Master of Arts degree in linguistics and an East Asian Studies Graduate Certificate at Pitt in 2003 and is pursuing the Ph.D. degree in linguistics at Pitt. This summer, Brubaker is examining a potential shift in language attitudes in Taiwan given recent changes in language policy. He is investigating claims made by several linguists linking a 'Taiwanized' form of Mandarin with an emerging Taiwanese identity. Brubaker hopes that his research can contribute to more reliable language attitude studies conducted in a Chinese-speaking context, as well as an examination of the possible relationship between current language practices and an emerging consolidated identity in Taiwan.

Parikh, who completed the Bachelor of Arts degree in biochemistry and molecular biology at the Pennsylvania State University in 1998, is pursuing the Ph.D. degree in infectious diseases and microbiology in Pitt's Graduate School of Public Health. At the AIDS Research Center at the National Institute of Infectious Diseases in Tokyo, Parikh is investigating how drug resistance varies in different subtypes of HIV-1. Subtype B virus generally affects individuals in North America and Europe,

while other subtypes are more prevalent in Asia. Presently, the same drug therapy is used for all subtypes of HIV-1. Parikh hopes to determine whether mutations in HIV-1 that cause drug resistance in the subtype B virus have a similar effect in clinical samples from Japan.

Pribbernow grew up in South Bend, Ind., and received the Bachelor of Arts degree in anthropology at the University of Notre Dame in 2001. Pribbernow's NSF research experience will provide the data for her M.A. thesis, an ethnographic examination of Japanese ideas of gender and identity displayed by musicians and fans of a category of Japanese popular music known as J-Rock. She is pursuing the Master of Arts degree in anthropology.

The primary goals of EAPSI are to introduce students to science and engineering in the context of a foreign research laboratory and to initiate professional relationships that will better enable participants to collaborate with foreign counterparts. Each EAPSI awardee receives an international round-trip air ticket and a stipend of $3,000. Sponsoring organizations in East Asia and Pacific countries support students' local living expenses. The summer institute lasts approximately eight weeks and is administered and managed by NSF through its Office of International Science and Engineering. The National Institutes of Health cosponsors the summer institute in Japan.

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