More on graduating class speaker Caruso, and Merkel’s support


We’ve told you already about graduating senior Lauren Caruso of Sun Prairie, whose achievements as a summa cum laude graduate in Spanish and Human Biology (health sciences emphasis) have earned her an invitation to speak at December commencement this Saturday at the Weidner Center. Well, there’s more. What we should have noted earlier is the nature of one of her undergraduate research projects. (This project, incidentally, is described incompletely in the printed program to be distributed to grads and guests Saturday.) Her research contributions involved “The effects of echinacea on neutrophil function,” under the supervision of Prof. Brian J. Merkel of Human Biology. Merkel is the faculty member who nominated Caruso for the “Graduating Class Speaker” honor. For the full profile on Caruso.