Two University High School student researchers recently did something that takes many scientists years to achieve: they got published.Evan Vesper, a senior at University High School, spent last summer surrounded by mouse bones. Alongside Joseph M. Wallace, an associate professor at IUPUI, Vesper researched the effects that two storage methods — freezing wrapped in saline-soaked gauze and refrigerating soaked in ethanol — have on the mechanical properties of mouse tibiae. This research was done through IUPUI’s Project STEM, and Evan completed the research and developed a poster over the summer. This fall, Evan took his work a step further, and through his Research Scholars project at University High School, he wrote a scientific article that will be published in Bone this April. His piece is titled “Even with rehydration, preservation in ethanol influences the mechanical properties of bone and how bone responds to experimental manipulation.”
Dimitri Georgakopoulos, a 2016 graduate of University High School and current freshman at Kenyon College, also did extensive research through University High School’s Research Scholars program. He examined the makeup of voting coalitions in tightly split decisions of the U.S. Supreme Court and the Indiana Supreme Court. His research contributed to an article published in the Fall 2016 issue of Judicature. It was titled, “A surprising look at coalitions within the supreme courts of the United States and Indiana.”