Tuscaloosa – Seven students who attend the University of Alabama have been named to USA Today's All Academic Team. For the fifth time in six years, Alabama led the nation in the number of students selected.
UA senior Renee Rivas made the first team. Its members receive $2,500 along with a feature in USA Today.
Rivas was a co-author on a paper published last month in the National Academy of Sciences. The lab team found genes that could protect against Parkinson's disease, a neurological disorder affecting about 1 million Americans. Rivas independently created an effective strategy to screen the genes during research.
UA has a first-team selection, three second-team selections and three third-team selections. Yale University had the second-most selections with five students. UAB had a selection with a member of the third team.
About 500 students from the across the nation were nominated for this year's academic team.
(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)