A University Fellowship has led Julia W. Palmateer '07 into senior honors theses in both of her majors, psychology and mathematics. Palmateer, a Canton, NY, resident who graduated from the Berkshire School in Sheffield, MA, and is a member of the women's lacrosse and ice hockey teams, was awarded one of the coveted fellowships for the summer of her junior year, to conduct psychology research. Her topic was "Dynamic Assessment of Rodent Configural Learning."

"Doing research over the summer allowed me to get much more involved than would be possible during the school year," she says. "By doing original research, I learned a lot about the research process and the obstacles that are often encountered along the way. My advisors were very supportive and helped me through the entire process, but also allowed me to work independently and struggle with problems on my own."

She is continuing to work with her faculty mentor in psychology, William DeCoteau, as well as Associate Professor of Biology Joseph Erlichman, whose specialty is neuroscience. "We are using a rodent model to study panic and anxiety," Palmateer says.  "The first part of the study was done by past seniors and we will complete the study by testing more animals, doing some drug manipulations and publishing a final paper."

Palmateer is also a mathematics major, with a minor in statistics. Working with Professor of Mathematics, Statistics and Computer Science Robin H. Lock, the Jack and Sylvia Burry Chair in Statistics, Palmateer is "comparing various methods and models that are used to rank and rate college hockey teams. I will first have to gain an understanding of all of the models, and then will simulate many seasons worth of games in order to compare the ability of the models' at identifying the best team," she explains.