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Daniel Lab Recommendation

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Spencer Lawrence Howell
Spencer Lawrence Howell

Thomas Daniel, a professor and chair of the biology department, writes a letter of recommendation for Spencer Howell. Daniel notes that he is reluctant to take on high school students in his lab due to the training required and safety concerns, but was impressed with Spencer's maturity and independence. Spencer was assigned to gather preliminary data on visual-motor control in moths using a robotic flower, which required learning various lab skills. Spencer rose to the challenges and his work contributed significantly to a paper being presented at an upcoming conference, with Spencer receiving a co-author credit.

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Department of Thomas Daniel, Chair Komen Biology Professor University of Washington Seattle WA 98195-1800 danielt@u.washington.edu http://faculty.washington.edu/danielt Recommendation for Mr. Spencer Howell To Whom It May Concern: I am writing to express my strongest support for Mr. Spencer Howell. Spencer was one of three high school students I have had in my lab. To put this letter in a bit of perspective, I should point out that I am normally a bit reluctant to take on such young scientists because it takes an incredible amount of training time, some considerable safety concerns, and the challenges of integrating them in a lab quite full of advanced graduate students and postdocs. That said, on my first meeting with him, Spencer impressed me as someone with incredible maturity, independence, poise, and self assuredness. Those qualities are rare in graduate applicants, let alone teenagers. On the basis of a couple of meetings, I happily welcomed Spencer into my lab. Our research is aimed at understanding neuromuscular integration in movement control using insects as mode! systems. Spencer was assigned the task of gathering preliminary data on visual-motor control in moth flight using a robotic controlled flower! This required learning how to program a 3 axis robot, learning how to use a digital video camera and image analysis for motion tracking, learning how to construct portions of the robot, raise moths, make solutions, work with others in the lab. In every aspect Spencer rose to the challenge, accomplishing every task set out. The work he did contributed so significantly that Spencer is a co-author on an abstract for the upcoming international meetings of the Society of Integrative and Comparative Biology! That paper is a result of a collaboration among faculty, graduate students and undergraduates. It focuses on how visual systems may limit motion tracking of moving animals and humans. Spencer's contribution was to gather the data that showed how low light conditions modulate visual motion tracking capabilities.
Daniel Lab Recommendation

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Daniel Lab Recommendation

  • 1. Department of Thomas Daniel, Chair Komen Biology Professor University of Washington Seattle WA 98195-1800 danielt@u.washington.edu http://faculty.washington.edu/danielt Recommendation for Mr. Spencer Howell To Whom It May Concern: I am writing to express my strongest support for Mr. Spencer Howell. Spencer was one of three high school students I have had in my lab. To put this letter in a bit of perspective, I should point out that I am normally a bit reluctant to take on such young scientists because it takes an incredible amount of training time, some considerable safety concerns, and the challenges of integrating them in a lab quite full of advanced graduate students and postdocs. That said, on my first meeting with him, Spencer impressed me as someone with incredible maturity, independence, poise, and self assuredness. Those qualities are rare in graduate applicants, let alone teenagers. On the basis of a couple of meetings, I happily welcomed Spencer into my lab. Our research is aimed at understanding neuromuscular integration in movement control using insects as mode! systems. Spencer was assigned the task of gathering preliminary data on visual-motor control in moth flight using a robotic controlled flower! This required learning how to program a 3 axis robot, learning how to use a digital video camera and image analysis for motion tracking, learning how to construct portions of the robot, raise moths, make solutions, work with others in the lab. In every aspect Spencer rose to the challenge, accomplishing every task set out. The work he did contributed so significantly that Spencer is a co-author on an abstract for the upcoming international meetings of the Society of Integrative and Comparative Biology! That paper is a result of a collaboration among faculty, graduate students and undergraduates. It focuses on how visual systems may limit motion tracking of moving animals and humans. Spencer's contribution was to gather the data that showed how low light conditions modulate visual motion tracking capabilities.