Michelle C. Knapp
Harvard University
Cambridge, MA
Dear Members of the National Science Foundation,
I am writing to thank you for your support of the National Museum of Natural History’s Research Training Program, in which I took part this year. It has been an invaluable learning experience for me and I am grateful for the opportunity to participate.
My advisor, Dr. Alfred L. Gardner, and I looked at the soft mouth parts of bats this summer and described various structures within the buccal cavity, then mapped them onto various bat phylogenies. As these structures have never before been studied, I was given the opportunity to conduct completely new research on a group of organisms that have long been an interest of mine. Furthermore, since these structures have not been studied before, I will be able to carry what I have learned this summer back to school with me and to continue this research there.
Thank you again for providing funding for the Research Training Program. This fall, I will return to school as a junior with a greater understanding of research and a greater love for mammalogy, reaffirmed in my goal of obtaining a Ph.D. and conducting research. Please continue to support this program and to have an impact on the lives of future researchers.
Sincerely,
Michelle C. Knapp
Research Training Program, 2002