A Letter from the UROP Student Editorial Board

Journal Advisors

Sharon V. Salinger Dean, Division of Undergraduate Education	Said M. Shokair Director, UROP
UROP Faculty Advisory Board Professor Sally S. Dickerson Professor Samuel L. Gilmore Professor Diana N. Krause Professor John C. LaRue Professor Richard H. Lathrop Professor Hartmut Luecke Professor Jane O. Newman Professor James S. Nowick Professor James W. Penrod	UROP Student Editorial Board Julia Damron Christina Diep Sandy Liu Aram Modrek Shaudee Parvinjah Sourav Rov Travis Thompson
UROP Journal Assistants Megan Nowell Kaufman, Publications & Web Assistant Jerry McMillan, Journal & Symposium Student Advisor Henry Yan, Computer Programmer and Analyst

~ Letter from the UROP Student Editorial Board ~

The Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP) at UC Irvine provides an unusual opportunity for undergraduate students to make significant research contributions, and The UCI Undergraduate Research Journal displays the outstanding results of this research from the past years. By undergraduates and for undergraduates, this journal represents the best in faculty-mentored undergraduate research. As members of the Student Editorial Board, we worked to select and edit the following papers from among many excellent submissions. The articles in this journal were published because we identified them as exceptional examples of creative inquiry that communicate their significance and findings to a multidisciplinary audience. The editorial process not only resulted in the Journal but also in reflection on our own research methods and potential journal submissions. We hope that the papers we selected will similarly inspire you to reflect on your research and writing, on the role of undergraduate research in the university system, and on the future of the various disciplines explored in this volume of the Journal.