• While all Laidlaw Scholars will be presenting their research at the Columbia Undergraduate Research Symposium in the fall, what are the more immediate expectations that you have for your research? Are you writing a paper? Will your research be part of a larger scientific study? Do you hope to produce an annotated bibliography that you reflect on down the line? Is your research now the first phase of a project you’ll continue to work on throughout the year, and/or next summer? Now that we are nearing the one month mark of the program, please write about your expectations for your research.

I will be writing a paper that discusses my role within a larger scientific study. By analyzing grants and projects within the NSF, I have been able to derive data that will be used to further knowledge on the impact of administrative terminations on bioethics. During the beginning of summer, I was able to work on developing an annotated bibliography that I hope will continue to grow throughout future semesters as I continue to develop more knowledge on the subject and as I potentially continue to work with my current PI. I expect that my research will be published at some point and I am hoping that I can take the knowledge that I have gained to create a leadership in action project that will help me develop skills and understanding that will benefit me as a future physician.

• Why does your research matter? Explain the significance of the question you are investigating, and why you are interested in it.

My research is important because it is a novel approach to how administrative funding cuts have affected the way our nation treats bioethics, a topic that is imperative towards pursuing fair and collaborative research. Although the NIH has received most of the media's focus throughout the last year, the NSF has yet to gain a lot of attention, meaning a lot of the projects that were terminated have not been brought to light. By analyzing historical, terminated, and active grants funded by the NSF, I will be deriving new knowledge on how bioethical research as a whole has been affected throughout the course of this administration.