Some students at Ashland University invest their time and energy outside of class in various sports, clubs, and activities. Others would rather invest their time in research.

Even in her final semester before graduation, senior Wendy Dria spends upwards of 10 hours in the lab weekly. Dria is a biology student, and has been working on her research for the past two years.

She is researching circadian rhythms in bread mold, and will be presenting her findings at the second annual College of Arts and Sciences Undergraduate Research and Creative Activities Symposium March 30. She is only one of 65 students taking part in the 53 events scheduled during the all-day event.

The primary change from last year’s symposium is that the College of Arts and Sciences professors voted to cancel classes in lieu of the symposium.

This will not only allow the event to run all day without conflicting with classes, but it should also be able to draw larger audiences than last year.

Dria did a 15-minute presentation at the symposium last year, but will only be presenting a poster this year. The poster will show data that was collected through her observation and experimentation. Dria has identified a number of proteins whose levels go through different levels at particular times each day.

Her research is a continuation of assistant biology professor Andrew Greene’s doctorate dissertation research, and she has been able to independently verify things that Greene found in his studies.

For the past two years, Dria has averaged about nine hours in the lab per week. She also spent 10 weeks in the lab on campus this past summer.

In overseeing her work, Greene has noticed growth in Dria while she has been doing her research.

“I’ve watched [Dria] mature into an adult capable of contributing to her field,” he said.

Dria’s research is funded by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and Merck. It is a three-year grant, so Dria has been training her replacement in addition to doing research this year.

For Dria, research is a passion. She doesn’t expect that her future will include observing circadian rhythms, but she said, “I wouldn’t mind if it did.”

She has applied for graduate school at Northwestern University. If accepted, she will pursue her Master’s degree in biotechnology.

Dria would like to continue doing research in the future, so she hopes to find an industrial research position.

“Doing research is just what I enjoy doing the most,” she said.