Lima Reporter

The Ohio State University at Lima issued the following announcement on April 28.

At a casual glance at the 2022 Undergraduate Research Forum, sophomores Isabella Torsell and Waseq Mohammed had very different research experiences at Ohio State Lima.

Mohammed has focused on a population genetics study of blue-green wasp parasitoids and Torsell looked at whether the political leanings of students would predict COVID-19 attitudes and compliance.

While their topics are radically different, the students and their experiences have many similarities.

Both plan to practice medicine as a career and were clear that undergraduate research was an important piece of their academic experiences. Mohammed knew that he wanted to be part of Dr. Robin Bagley’s biology lab after his first class with her.

“Research is something I imagined myself doing but I first wanted to make sure that I actually found it interesting,” Mohammed said. “The best way to get that is to jump in headfirst and get that exposure. That’s why I wanted to join the lab as soon as I started going here.”

Torsell’s interest was piqued in the psychology area with Dr. Joe Green.

“One of the main reasons I came to Ohio State Lima was because I know you can do research,” Torsell said. “Dr. Green's research stuck out to me, what he was doing. I just jumped on with him and it was really fun. I learned a lot. It was a great experience.”

Both started where others had left off and built upon the research. Torsell worked with a partner who had started the study the year before. The two plan to work together to publish their findings.

“Shivani Bhatt created the study last year and then she graduated so I picked it up and expanded the sample size,” Torsell said. “It is fun to see the end result and how it improved. It’s also nice to not have to start from scratch. It’s really cool to see how it grew from last year.”

Mohammed also built on previous work and samples to study his own topic. He is excited that the work he has done with parasitic wasps will someday be the leaping off point for another undergraduate researcher.

“All the information I have looked at and the way I organized my spreadsheets with all my specimens could be of use to someone else down the line,” he said. “Yes, we may not be partners, but it is work that could help them too.”

The students are already moving forward with plans to continue their research for the next academic year. Torsell is deciding on a topic and Mohammed is picking locations for new sampling and looking forward to adding to the number of insects he has looked at. His count is currently 951.

“I'm very excited,” Mohammed said. “Because I keep seeing a distinct difference in coloration, our hypothesis is that maybe they are not just one species, they are multiple species that have specialized.”

Original source can be found here.