Dean Meredith Lee 

This edition of The UCI Undergraduate Research Journal is dedicated to two outstanding individuals. Chancellor Ralph J. Cicerone and Dean Meredith Lee have actively supported faculty-mentored undergraduate research and creative activities at UCI for many years, helping to build UCI undergraduate education to the level of national recognition it holds today. During the Summer of 2005, both will be moving on to other endeavors. Chancellor Cicerone has been elected President of the National Academy of Sciences, one of the nation’s oldest and most prestigious scientific societies. Dean Lee will retire, although remaining active in exploring her academic interests. We will miss them both, and it is in memory of their past friendship and support, and with best wishes for their futures, that we dedicate Volume VII of The UCI Undergraduate Research Journal to Chancellor Cicerone and Dean Lee.