Faces of SRAP: Sarah Fanning and Virgil Morrison

Although they’re still getting all of the details of their project worked out, Sarah Fanning and Virgil Morrison both enjoy what they’re doing in the Botany department, and they love collecting ecological data.

“We went out to the field last week to measure trees,” says Sarah Fanning, a senior from Colorado. “That was really fun.”

From left to right:
Virgil Morrison, Dr. Brent Ewers, Sarah Fanning

“I’ve learned a lot in the lab, but I definitely like to be outside,” says Virgil, a recent high school graduate from Riverton, WY.

Sarah and Virgil are working in Dr. Brent Ewers Botany lab this summer, studying the effects of pine beetles for their Summer Research Apprentice Program research project.

Sarah and Virgil have different passions, but both of them greatly enjoy science.

Sarah enjoys Paleontology, and plans to make a career out of it.

“I’ve never done Botany before, I’ve never worked with anything that hasn’t been dead for 50 million years,” she says. “I’m excited to see how living things are right now, in their purest form instead of their fossilized form.”

Like Sarah, Virgil enjoys science, specifically Biology.

“I like seeing and learning about what’s going on where I go,” he says. “I just really enjoy it, I have a really good teacher, so that made it fun for me.”

Both Sarah and Virgil look forward to a summer filled with research and exciting new opportunities.

SRAP is a six-week, intensive research program for high school students. It is based at the University of Wyoming and is sponsored by Wyoming EPSCoR. To learn more about the program, click here, or search "SRAP" in the archives.

By Robin Rasmussen

Photo by Robert Waggener