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Undergraduate researcher Kevin Keys will present his work in Washington, D.C., during a national conference aimed at promoting federal and state support for student research.

By La Monica Everett-Haynes, University Communications
April 10, 2008

University of Arizona sophomore Kevin Keys is bound for Washington, D.C., later this month to present in the higly competitive 2008 Posters on the Hill, a conference put on by the Council on Undergraduate Research. He is the only student from Arizona chosen to present his research during the conference, which is designed to inform policymakers about the need for continued and, in some areas, increased funding for science education.

"I never thought I would be doing something like this," said Keys, a double major in mathematics and linguistics who has also been accepted into the Minority Access to Research Careers program, which will fund his research for the next two years.

Nearly 80 students have been invited to attend the Capitol Hill event on April 29 and 30. While there, students will share their research projects with senators, state representatives and their staffs, and also to federal government officials and foundation employees.

“We are always eager to have students present their work nationally,” said Carol Bender, director of the UA’s Undergraduate Biology Research Program, which engages students, like Keys, in various research projects around the world.

"We are excited that a University of Arizona student has been selected,” she added.

“Presenting experimental results is a critical part of the research process. Students who present their work nationally not only make others aware of what they have learned, which contributes to the general fund of scientific knowledge,” she said, “but they also draw attention to the excellent environment for undergraduate researchers that exists on The University of Arizona campus.”

Undergraduate research is a key aspect of the educational experience offered at the UA for students in a wide range of disciplines.

In the College of Science, 65 percent of the undergraduates are working with faculty on research projects. The UA’s Honors College, the McNair Achievement Program and the Arizona Space Grant Program also offer research opportunities to undergraduates.

Keys' research draws on his seemingly unrelated academic interests: the study of numbers and the study of language.

"He certainly has a broad mind and he's an active student," said Joseph Watkins, an associate mathematics professor and one of Keys' advisers.

"He has a highly engaging personality," Watkins said, adding that Keys is "not afraid to talk to Congress."

Keys, who hopes to one day earn a Fulbright Fellowship and whose research has been funded by the National Institutes of Health, is currently involved in BIO5 Institute member Michael Hammer’s laboratory. Hammer is also an associate professor of anthropology and an associate research scientist in ecology and evolutionary biology.

In the lab, Keys has been analyzing small-scale populations and communities and trying to determine the correlation between language and genetics.

His work builds upon a body of research studying mitochondrial DNA and mutations in parts of the DNA – in this case the microsatellites – to determine the history of specific communities or groups of people.

“It’s something you’re holding with your hands, something you’re studying on the computer. It’s kind of exciting,” he added. “Even though you’re dealing with PCRs (polymerase chain reactions) you never know what is going to happen.”

The laboratory Keys is working in is tracing the genetic history of Austronesian peoples who have lived on islands in eastern Indonesia. Working with anthropologists, the lab is also looking at the linguistic history of that population.

Their origins have been traced back to Taiwan but by tracking the linguistic history – focusing on specific words and comparing them with proto-Austronesian words – the lab is attempting to figure out reasons why the Austronesians came to populate the region so widely.

Using the Swadesh list – a list of meanings common to all languages – Keys says he is reconstructing a language tree. Essentially, Keys is using computer systems and mathematical equations to follow the meanings Austronesians used in their language.

In doing so, Keys is helping to trace the migration of a group of people in a UA laboratory that infuses math, linguistics, genetics research and anthropology.

One finding so far is that the island of Sumba, where the Wunga village is located, has "some degree" of Austronesian ancestry. Keys also said the area around the village is likely where Austronesian migrants arrived and, from there, populated the rest of the island.

The people who have lived on the island have long believed that the Austronesians were their ancestors. "We find that with the Sumba island, there is a positive correlation between language and genes,” Keys said, adding that "science has demonstrated what these people have been saying.”