Silvana Martini

College of Agriculture and Applied Sciences

Nutrition, Dietetics and Food Sciences

Dr. Silvana Martini, Associate Professor in the Department of Nutrition, Dietetics, and Food Sciences, has always welcomed the participation of undergraduate students in her laboratory. Dr. Martini’s research program has actively incorporated undergraduate students from different disciplines (food science, nutrition, computer science, biology) in several laboratory activities. She trained a total of 10 undergraduate students since 2006, 10 since 2008 (last 3 years) and 4 of them are currently working in the lab. Students working in the Martini lab are in charge of a specific project and are responsible for data collection, interpretation and presentation of the results obtained. Data collected by the students are used for federal grants submissions and for publishing papers in scientific journals. Dr. Martini also encourages students to present their results in regional and international conferences in poster and/or oral presentations. In the last 3 years undergraduate students in Dr. Martini’s laboratory co-authored 5 papers in peer-reviewed journals and participated in 10 poster and oral presentations in regional and international meetings. Three of Dr. Martini’s undergraduate students were granted URCO grants from the VP of Research office, two of them in the last 3 years. Dr. Martini’s mentoring philosophy is to provide undergraduate research opportunities to our students to develop common sense and independent thinking skills. This experience allows students to find practical applications of the basic concepts they learn during their years in the program.