Mendham HS grad, Rutgers TE Matt Flanagan a science research scholar

• Matt Flanagan was one of 61 students at Rutgers participating in the Aresty Summer Science Program
• Flanagan studied the weight loss that occurs in space flight due to hind limb disuse
• Flanagan was initially motivated to pursue the research after meeting Eric LeGrand
• Flanagan has had a strong showing in Rutgers training camp after redshirting last season

PISCATAWAY – Matt Flanagan skipped Rutgers' football practice last Friday and head coach Kyle Flood couldn't have sounded prouder. For a program boastful of its academics, he had as good an excuse note as any.

Flanagan was one of just 61 students – and the only football player – participating in the Aresty Summer Science Program, which is described on the school's official website as an "intensive, full-time, on-campus research experience" for Rutgers-New Brunswick rising sophomores.

While the rest of the team's tight ends were catching passes, Flanagan was presenting the findings of 10 weeks of research on a mouse model of the bone loss that occurs in space flight to a symposium of professors and deans. Then it was back to the full-time demands – film study, conditioning, etc. – of a college athlete.

"Not a lot of sleep," Flanagan joked about his balancing act. "No, seriously, you have 24 hours in the day and it's how you bide your time. With the academic support staff here, it's been really easy to be able to manage my time and be able to pursue this really prestigious degree and get after it on the field, too."

The Mendham High School graduate, a preferred walk-on who red-shirted as a true freshman, had a similar opportunity at Northwestern and was looking into playing at Columbia or Pennsylvania.

But the lure of the Aresty program, which counts Carl Kirschner, the chairman of the university's Academic Oversight Committee for Athletics and two-time former Rutgers interim athletics director, as a founding member, and staying close to home made it an easy decision for Flanagan.

"I originally got involved through Dean Kirschner," Flanagan said. "He said the Aresty program is something that is always looking for bright young scientists to get involved in. It's a really select program. It was an honor to be chosen and a great experience."

Flanagan's ultimate goal is to be admitted to the School of Environmental and Biological Sciences to major in biotechnology. After taking biology, calculus and physics in the spring semester, his fall courseload includes basic statistics and research, chemistry and more physics.

"He is one of the best students I have had in 35 years," said Dr. Patricia Buckendahl, who was Flanagan's faculty mentor on the project. "He is highly motivated. He is clearly very intelligent. He is able to think outside the box and he is willing to dig for answers that he doesn't know. I think these are the kind of characteristics that will help him succeed on the field as well as in the lab."

As part of the Summer Science Program, students learn the process of research through working side-by-side in the laboratory and by participating in library workshops, seminars, trips to local research laboratories in industry and medicine, and social events.

"His motivation initially was that he had met and gotten to know (former Rutgers football player) Eric LeGrand and realized the potential loss of bone in a paralyzed individual, which somewhat closely parallels space flight," Buckendahl said. "From the day that he started in the lab, he picked up all of the procedures within minutes."

Buckendahl has long studied the bone protein called osteocalcin, which directly correlated to this mouse model because it decreases during space flight.

"She took me under her wing and she was teaching me everything," Flanagan said. "I credit everything I've done to her. She's taught me an incredible amount."

Flanagan also appears to be learning at a rapid pace on the football field.

With backup Nick Arcidiacono sidelined by injury, Flanagan has made the most of increased training camp reps behind All-American candidate Tyler Kroft under tight ends coach Anthony Campanile.

"I think I've come a long way since last year and this spring," he said. "It's been a good preseason. Working with Coach Camp every day, he really gets the best out of you. I'm a firm believer that what he teaches is going to help you so I'm just following what he says."

The 6-foot-6, 230-pound former All Daily Record First-Team selection was one of three tight ends – and the only one not on scholarship – in Rutgers' 2013 recruiting class, though Taylor Marini since has transferred. Three more – Logan Lister, George Behr and Charles Scarff – joined the mix this season.

No worries, says Flanagan.

"I'm a pretty competitive guy," Flanagan said. "I grew up with three brothers. Competition is something I grew up with and I embrace."

Flood said Flanagan is "doing a really nice job" and is "a very talented person in the classroom and on the football field."

But when it comes to explaining his research?

Joked Flood, "It's a little above my pay grade to try to explain that."

Staff Writer Ryan Dunleavy: rdunleav@gannett.com