The arc of inquiry

When four undergraduate students at Lewis & Clark began a process of rigorous scientific inquiry with their professors, they scarcely imagined their collaboration would lead to a cover article in a prestigious scientific journal. The fact that it did demonstrates Lewis & Clark’s ability to provide experiences rarely available for students pursuing their bachelor’s degree.

The May 2006 issue of the Journal of Neurobiology features an article coauthored by a research team that includes four Lewis & Clark College alumni: Leah Honigman ’04, Wilmon Grant ’03, Sarah Kate Gessford ’02, and Alexis Hansen ’04. The journal’s cover features an image—acquired by Gessford during her undergraduate honors thesis studies of a protein implicated in learning and memory formation.

“It is somewhat unusual for work derived from an undergraduate thesis to make it to the cover of a journal,” says Janis Lochner, Dr. Robert B. Pamplin Jr. Professor of Science and principal investigator for the project, which included Bethe Scalettar, professor of physics, as coauthor. “What’s most exciting is that student learning is directly linked to the dynamic process of acquiring new scientific insights.”