Michael League is trying to get to the root of an environmental problem. Working with marine biology Prof. John Gallagher, League is researching Phragmites australis, a highly invasive marsh reed that has taken over about one-third of Delaware's tidal wetlands. League, AS 2003, has worked with Gallagher on a series of research projects involving the rapidly spreading plant.

"Some of our research looks at how the plant grows and at how management officials have been controlling it by spraying and burning the upper growth," League says. "But, our preliminary experiments indicate ... that the deeper-growing rhizomes [structures similar to roots] are more efficient at producing shoots. This suggests that past control treatments have not been as effective in terminating the newest or deepest rhizome buds."

Gallagher and League also are examining whether some stands of Phragmites are more invasive than others, particularly whether there is a difference between native and non-native stands.

Gallagher is a faculty member in the Graduate College of Marine Studies, and he says League and other undergraduate research assistants benefit his work. A biological sciences education major, League spent the summer of 2001 as both a UD Science and Engineering Scholar and a summer intern through the Research Experience for Undergraduates program of the National Science Foundation. Last summer, he was a researcher with the Delaware Water Resources Center, part of the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources. In all those programs, he worked with Gallagher on related projects.

"He's been an excellent student to work with," Gallagher says. "The Undergraduate Research Program gives ambitious students like him a chance to get a real head start on graduate school."

As for League, he says that his extensive undergraduate experience has both inspired and prepared him for what he hopes will be a career as a researcher. Building on his work so far, he has enrolled in the College of Marine Studies for graduate school and expects to earn his master's degree in a little more than a year.

"The Undergraduate Research Program is what has made all these opportunities possible," he says. "One of the real strengths of the program is working with someone like Dr. Gallagher, who's not only doing real, cutting-edge research but also is willing to teach students how to do it."

The one-on-one relationship has another benefit as well, says League, who is considering a career teaching at the college level. "Doing this research has given me a firsthand look at a college professor and researcher's life--what he does on a daily basis--and that's been extremely helpful to me."