Thanks to Dr. Patrice Hamel's dedication to international education, three OSU students will each spend three months in Norway completing mentored research in a host lab. 

Kayla Hudson (major: Medical Laboratory Science), Grace Gutierrez (major: Forest Ecosystem Science) and Aneira Watkins (major: Zoology) will be doing research at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) in Trondheim, Norway over the months of Summer and Fall 2023. This is a new initiative under the TRONDBUSS program, a US-Norway bilateral educational program housed in our department and led by Dr. Hamel since 2013. Kayla will investigate the function of cilia in moving the extracellular fluid of the brain (cerebrospinal fluid) in a zebrafish model (Dr. Jurisch-Yaksi), Grace Gutierrez will research mycorrhizal communities and nurse plants in near artic montane ecosystems (Dr. Martjin Vandegehuchte) and Aneira Watkins will research on cell death  and cell-to-cell communication in the plant model Arabidopsis thaliana (Dr. Daniela Sueldo). Funding from DIKU (Norwegian Agency for International Cooperation and Quality Enhancement in Higher Education) provide financial support to the students. Other funding at OSU comes from the Sustainability Institute (Grace) and Undergraduate Student government (Grace and Kayla). Grace and Kayla have reached Norway and are sharing their experience of the outdoors and Aneira will join mid-August!

Financial support comes from a grant awarded to the TRONDBUSS program by DIKU (Norwegian agency for international cooperation and quality enhancement in higher education) which includes a subsidy to cover the in-country cost of living. The students will be enrolled at NTNU as international students and in MolGen 5797. 

The department is so proud that Patrice picked Molecular Genetics as the home for this unique initiative!